yellowlightman

One of the other forums I frequent went down late last week, so between that and Macross World going down it made for a boring weekend. Wasn't so bad then that my computer took a dump on itself, I guess. Glad MW is back, and even happier to hear there'll be updates to the main site soon! (main site? what main site? )

Now screwed!... We all will be... It's cute, but .wmv sucks. The official site (http://www.sequentialpictures.com/moviestarwarsepisode3.html) has QT versions.

Loaded fine for me. Appears to be scans and wallpapers from the newest Robotech comic books, which are none to popular 'round these parts.

Looks like gymkhana, a precurser to autocross. Very cool stuff.

The quote button is your friend.

Someone will pop up to replace them in no timem so it almost borders on irrelevant. China has long wanted to crack down on piracy in HK, but it doesn't seem to be doing much good because I still see just as much pirated stuff as I've always did. Would be interesting to hear from one of the guys on here living in HK right now.

I see so many people who drive 318s and think they are really somethin, at the same time I look at the dash of a vette and I see gawdy swoopy plastic that actually moves if I grab ahold of it. None of that in the M series. As far as performance to the dollar, NOW the Vette may be superior, but it does have a takcy factor that will never be seen in Europe. I won't deny the Corvette doesn't have a lot of a plastic and some definately tacky design issues, but really in a car like that I'm a lot more concerned with the performance and driveability as a car. It's a car meant to be driven, not looked at on a show room. As for European quality, remember there are lots of shitty European cars that make even Pontiac look quality. Fiat? Skoda? Rover?

While I'm all for hating on sub-par American cars, the Corvette is most definately not in that category. All reports I've heard is that the new base model C6 is comporable to a C5 Z06 in terms of performance and handling, which means it's a fantastic car. Just because it doesn't come with pretentious European snobbery doesn't mean it isn't a great car. The C6 Z06 on ther other hand... is very literally a supercar. Actually, scratch that it isn't, because it's affordable. It will be the best performance car value for the money, and it will embaress a lot of exotics.

I'm a combination rally fan/Mazda geek so the GTX isn't hard to spot. I've got a posted of Rod Millen's 4WD RX-7 waiting to up on my wall. That sucks. Seems to me that one of the biggest problem with getting into rallying (least in the States) is that there are so few decent options for affordable AWD rally cars, there's of course the whole WRX/LanEvo but those cost quite a bit. So what does that leave? Toyota Celica GT4 (bit overpriced, from what I hear), Mazda GTX (pretty rare), Audi Quattro (rare again), DSM (probably the most common, but with reliability I'd pass). A couple friends and I have been talking about putting together a 2WD rally project car, but that's more of a pipe dream right now. A little ironic because we have some awesome roads up here. Just makes me wish we were in Europe where rallying is so much more widespread. Only type of racing that's really common around hear is drag racing and dirt oval racing, although the SCCA San Francisco region runs some strong auto-x and track events. With the popularity of the WRX and LanEvo I was surprised rallying didn't take off more than it did. Might have something to do with American's getting confused driving on dirt when it's not on an oval track. Hopefully without the SCCA bureacracy rallying will have a second chance. Autocross and track events are readily available to me in my area, but rallying is what I really want to do and it's kind of a pain that it's so hard to get into.

Sweet car, is that a GTX? Shame about the SCCA ProRally program getting cancelled, but hopefully it'll create the opportunity for rallying to really take off in the States. I'd really like to get involved in soem sort of amateur rallying, but my area (Northern California) is pretty much devoid of any sort of activity short of the occasional rally-cross.

Hah, funny you mention that. I saw an orange Elise in La Jolla last weekend. I really don't see it becoming a "must have" car for the wealthy trophy wife sect. Too little standard equipment, too rough of a ride. For that money there's a lot of other options from the Porsche, BMW, Benz sect that I think people would be more interested in.

The key here being that it's RWD, mid-engined and designed expressively as a track car. The CRX is a sporty grocery cart. Just because a CRX can have a similar power-to-weight ration, doesn't mean it's going to handle, drive or perform the same.

I think the lack of ammenities will keep it out of the same girl-car realm as V6 Mustang convertibles and Celicas. The Elise is a very bare-bones car, the roof has to be folded back by hand and will leak under heavy raining conditions. Not to mention, I don't think they're making an automatic version. Looks aside, it is first a foremost a performance car made for people who like to track their cars. I think the price (around $50,000) will keep most non-enthusiasts away because at that price you could get a Porsche Boxter.

I did... Back on page 1 Damn, I was afraid of that! After 8 shots last night, I guess I overlooked the details. What does everyone think of the new Lotus Elise? I'm mixed on the looks, but I love the fundamental idea of it, a truly track-worthy street car. All reports I've heard is that it's insanely fun to drive. Got a friend who's thinking about buying one, so hopefully she will and I can snag a run or two with it.

Porsches? And no one's mentioned the 959?

It doesn't really storywise... when the whole Artmic debacle happened, Sonoda was unable secure the Riding Bean license. So he took Rally and completely change her and gave her a new storyline, new partner, new background. He slowly put Bean back into the picture, and I would guess somehow was able to gain all rights to his character. Pretty sure that's why he's called Bean Bandit in the manga...

Haha, no way. I race with him in the San Francisco Region Solo II events, need to ask for a ride with him one of these days. He has an awesome car.

2002s rock! Got any pics fo your collection? A racing friend of mine has a sweet 2002:

From what I've heard using the RWD mode on the Skylines is a popular thing to do. Makes it easier to dyno (not a whole lot of AWD dynos out there, and they tend to be considerably more expensive), as well as making it easier to drift and control on the track. Kind of like how a lot of racers prefer to race without ABS on their cars, makes it more complicated to control but allows for more control.

Anti-semtic jokes. Classy.

I figured I'd post some pictures from my trip to Japan this summer. Gorgeous color, I think thats an R33? Goofy looking RX-7 nearby that Skyline. Lancia HF Integrale, one of the greatest rally cars of all time. Awesome performance in a relatively pedestrian looking package. Took this picture on my last night in Japan, in the red light district of Ikebukuro shortly after my friend almost got us into a fight with a yakuza (seriously). A Toyota Soarer (Lexus LS430 here in the States) made completely out of legos, the monekys are from Sony's Ape Escape series. This was taken at a large Toyota showroom in Ikebukuro. Gorgeous S5 RX-7, in the back lot of a Mazda dealership. I was walking home one morning (early, around 5am) and started poking around some of the car dealerships nearby my apartment. Also in there area were a Suzuki/Alfa Romeo dealership, a Mercedes, a Honda and a custom bike shop. A goofy little Corolla Levin taken one day in front of my apartment. Guessing from the hood scoop it has the 4AGZE super charged engine.

I'm 35 years old and own seven different Ferrari Enzo's in seven different colors (all custom). Their license plates are "MONDAY," "TUESDAY," "WEDNESDAY," "THURSDAY," "FRIDAY," "SATURDAY," AND "SUNDAY." If you thinking something like "hey! those license plates have too many letters on them, lemme just tell you that I'm so FILTHY RICH I get extra-special license plates with as many letters on them as I want. Most of my time is spent travelling in my personal harrier between my penthouse suite in New York and my palace in the middle east, the latter of which is filled with concubines. AGE IS IRRRELEVANT

You get a cookie. Glad to see you've finally admitted defeat and given yourself over to petty insults. First of all, you're calling me a kid when you can't even properly punctuate your sentences? Not to mention the high school level insult you threw at me back there after I presented you with solid facts? You just proved yourself to be the immature one, bravo for that.

Dunno man, looks like this one is just out for a leasurely Sunday drive: