Thursday, January 6, 2011

Great Brisbane Drives - Queen Mary Falls

Drop into the spring creek cafe when you get out there!

http://www.springcreekcottages.com.au/



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Great Brisbane Drives - Mt Tamborine


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Tuesday, January 4, 2011

The Secret - thinking really hard is getting nowhere.

With $0 in the account its not looking good..  Looks like i'm going to be stuck with a Subaru 1600!

Subaru WRX / STI Commercials

Get More Gs- 



What do you do when a bird craps on your Car? 



My Favorite:


The Making Of - Pure performance. 


Aussie ad. Rockn beats. 

Monday, January 3, 2011

My Test drive of the 2011 WRX

Let me first get this out of the way... I don't review cars for a living.  My test drive is just that...
I picked up the WRX from City Subaru in Newstead Brisbane on a rainy afternoon straight after work.. After getting the paperwork out the way I was handed the keys to a black 2011 WRX and soon on my way.

It had been a long time since I'd driven a manual transmission and needless to say I was a little rusty.. The only problem I did have was the hill-hold feature, I didn't trust it.. in peak hour traffic in the rain and the $2000 insurance excess in the back of my mind I was nervous...  very nervous.   At the first stop with a slight incline I went old-school... applying the handbrake to hold the car for that 1/2 second it takes to get your foot off the brake and onto the gas...  it was a weird sensation.. soon as I applied the handbrake I could feel the brake peddle lift...  anyway I managed to stall it and got blasted by the angry cab driver behind me for not moving away in .002 of a second..  I was just happy he didn't accidentally ram me up the ass.

I wasn't enjoying this one bit. I was thinking of the drive i'd had in the Liberty Sportwagon just a few days earlier, which was also in peak traffic and thinking how much more comfortable I was pottering around in it I was.

When the roads are wet in Brisbane something magical happens, everyone drives double their normal speed and leaves half the distance between the cars infront of them..  it aways results in traffic chaos.  After a long drive home, yes thats right home... ( City Subaru were kind enough for me to take it overnight..  ) we had dinner, got the kids to sleep and thats when the fun began..

Stick the key in the ignition and you get a little dance from the needles.... pretty... Crank it over and you get that unmistakable boxer four engine sound.  At idle its burble is strong enough, just letting you know that you have 195kw at your command however when you are cruising along at highway speeds the sound is intrusive... for the uninitiated its going to be a problem.. I know that its sound of the turbo boxer engine and I like it.  But not everyone will, particularly on longer trips.

As it was still raining so the traction control stayed on. I headed out to some more open roads and was feeling much more relaxed with the car as the traffic had cleared.

The levels of grip this thing has is astonishing,  acceleration is brutal once the tach is over 4500rpm. The best way to describe this car is Jekyll and Hyde..  keep the revs under 4000 and you have a seemingly normal car under your control...  but let that right foot go to the floor you'd better be ready for it...   Not to worry tho.. Subaru's AWD system and computer wiz keep everything in check; even when pushed hard in the wet.

One thing that I really liked was the dials for the Air-con system, Its really easy to use. The Liberty/Outback in comparison feels like you need a stylus (like a PDA from the late 90s) to operate it.


I haven't stopped smiling yet.

Thanks again to City Subaru

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