Automobile acrobatics

According to statistics, new drivers are most likely to have an accident in the first two years of their motoring lives. Also according to statistics, men are more likely than women to have serious or spectacular accidents. Woo for me because I’ve just become a statistic and got both!

I clipped some ice yesterday which sent the car skidding, flipping it twice and landing in a field the correct way up. Thanks to Toyota’s engineers, I was able to walk away, injury free from the images at the bottom.

The car is a write-off and I’m just waiting for the insurance company to get back to me with how much they’ll offer. Looking at the options, I’m probably gonna move into another Toyota, a Corolla this time, in either T3 or T-Sport spec. Both can be had for less than £4000 each and I won’t always be working for Volkswagen, thus negating the benefits of a company vehicle.

Please drive carefully this winter.

Justice is a dish best served at room temperature

Today was the first day back at work after a long, deserved break of 11 days.  Sharing all our Christmas and new year war stories, my colleagues reminded me of something that happened to me on Boxing day.

What has become a Yu family tradition, my family (immediate and extended) all meet up on Boxing day for yam cha (lunch consisting of dim sum, or dumplings).  It’s a nightmare trying to find somewhere to park thanks to all the bargain hunters, but I’d managed to spy a potential space via a lady walking to her car.  We made eye contact and acknowledged that I’d take her place once she left.  Her space was located just opposite the ramp leading to the next level and a girl in a Peugeot just arrived on the scene, making eye contact with me and ready to pounce on my space.  Sadly, she had a prime entrance due to the car having to reverse out of the space, and duly nabbed my precious.  Now, most people would be majorly pissed at this point, with thoughts of kicking wing mirrors in, and keying up paintwork, but the girl in her haste, drove into the space too quickly and ended up crashing into the barrier!  I couldn’t help but laugh, the people in the carpark too.  The lady who just left the space kindly donated the remainder of her ticket to me, and tutted at the girl for stealing my space, but had a chuckle with me about the situation.

If you’re looking for proof that karma exists, then look no further because it’s made a believer out of me.  Though I’m not gonna go on some crusade like Earl in My Name is Earl, I’ll just be less of an asshole in certain situations

It’s Friday night…

and I’m shopping for car insurance – man, I’ve hit rock bottom.

I got my renewal quote from Marks & Spencers and the thieving bastards want £1245 this year!  They wanted just shy of £1300 last year and that’s bearing in mind that I was a new driver and my car is cheaper this year with depreciation in mind.  Anywho, I’ve had a look-see on confused.com and the best price I’ve found is with the Halifax for £654.  I’m also not doing what I did last year where I paid for the entire lot in one lump sum which left me £1300 out of pocket; instead, I’m going to make one larger initial payment and then pay £50 or so each month.

Totally unrelated but I picked up Ninja Gaiden 2 after work.  Traded a couple of games in against it, used student discount (shhhh…), and redeemed a few quid off my GAME reward card which netted me the game for £15.49 which is rather princely don’t you think?  GAME also had some promo offer whilst stocks last, which gets you some unique costumes for Ryu in the game.  As nice as they look, they’re a bit busy and distracts a bit too much from the action on screen.

Image is everything

It’s funny how one’s image can affect relationships with others. Take myself as an example; at work, I’m usually well dressed and groomed and convey a certain sense of professionalism about myself. I was talking to the girls on service reception today and they love my Bumblebee keyring attached to my keys, which I had to hand over for its MOT (which it passed). I decided to tell them that I have an Autobots tattoo on me which they were absolutely shocked by, more so that I had a tattoo rather than it being a geek one.

I also chose to tell them that I had several piercings once upon a time and showed them all the holes and scars. Ever since I’d let them become privy to that knowledge, they’ve started to become a lot closer to me now that they know I’m not so clean-cut as I make myself out to be.

Now I just need to finally get this half-sleeve tattoo sorted out for my right arm, which has been in planning for about 5-6 years now.

Andy hits the capital

Decided to pay a visit to our fair city of London on Saturday for some retail therapy and just some all round good old fashioned fun.  I was originally going to get the train but when I was quoted a minimum travel time of 3 hours, I thought I’d much rather be driving considering the price of a ticket is equivalent to a full tank of petrol (of which I still have 1/3 left).  The drive itself was rather nice and as you get closer to London, the skyline gets more impressive (my first drive through London you see) which put a smile on my face.  Got to Tammy’s for about 10:15am and there was plenty of parking!  I may consider just driving to London again if I ever need to be there at the weekend.

We headed into South Kensington to change a pair of her shoes and then were on our way.  We visited the Japan Centre (which has changed dramatically), Hamleys, the Apple Store (which is now much bigger), Carnaby Street (where I decided to sing “Eye of the tiger” and make a prat of myself), John Lewis for lunch, and Selfridges.  Some arcades were also visited and I got to play Initial D Arcade Stage 4 which is different to say the least.  The drift mechanics have been changed and the FC is now a bit unruly and I should have gone for the FD instead.  I’m looking forward to trying out the simulator version with the FD in Japan, only a few months to go now.

We met up with Gérard for dinner and whiled away a few hours just catching up over icecream.  It was good to see both Tammy and Gérard after so long and it was a rare day of silliness on my part.

The Commercial Vehicles Show

It’s a bizarre old world when you go to these trade shows. You don’t expect to see many people that you know and then you end up trying to talk to all the people you have bumped into along the way. It was a good show all in all, got plenty of sales leads to pass on to the guys back at HQ and met some interesting folks, especially whilst outside for a cigarette (see, smoking really is beneficial).

The highlight for me was being able to sit inside the Toyota Hilux that was used in Top Gear’s polar expedition. It’s a fantastic looking piece of kit but sadly isn’t available to the general public. Photos will be up on Facebook soon.

Totally unrelated but I have just received my totally badass Autobots cufflinks.  You can bet I’ll be rocking them at every opportunity!

Fuel economy

I’ve been mulling over my fuel usage today in my car and I think I’m getting a fairly decent number of miles per gallon. It’ll have been exactly 3 weeks tomorrow since I last filled up with a full tank and I’ve covered around 250 miles in that time. My drive computer tells me that I’m averaging 37mpg with just town driving every day of the week. I could probably get a slightly better rating if I didn’t enjoy smoking cars at lights all the time…

My friend Avi has decided he wants a Ford Fiesta ST. I’ve tried disuading him pointing out that it’s a pretty poor entry in the hot hatch department and that he’d be better off getting a Mark IV Golf, or a Seat Ibiza Cupra if he wants speed thrills. And his comeback? He wants the ST for the racing stripes.

The new Yaris T-Sport

Above is Toyota’s latest hot Yaris and boy is it a beast! It sports a 1.5 litre engine much like mine with a close ratio gearbox to speed up acceleration. Further to this, it also has a turbocharger so it really has some welly once it hits the right number of revs. Total power output is 150bhp compared to mine at 105bhp although it’s 0-60 time is only marginally better at 7.9 seconds. What is impressive is that it now has a limited slip differantial to assist those tight corners so that more power goes to the outer wheel. No idea on pricing yet but it’s certainly not just show and no go.

“Easy left, easy right, over jump, whoa!”

Magic Box has some new images up of Sega Rally Revo and boy am I happy to see that the Celica GT4 is back! For me, this is the definitive car to use in Sega Rally and it was sorely missing from the abismal Sega Rally 2006. It looks like there’s another reason to own a 360 this year it seems!

My automobile

I guess it’s inevitable and this entry was bound to happen sooner or later so it may as well be sooner!

I’ve been slowly working on my Yaris T-Sport and will today be adding an aluminium beesting aerial. When Khang first saw my car, one of the first things he commented on was the extremely long aerial. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was a larger car but it’s only a wee thing so looks horribly out of proportion. One side effect of having such a lengthy aerial is that it’s extremely good at radio reception. “What’s so bad about that?” I hear you ask. Well, due to the difficult to change headunit in the Yaris, I currently use a Belkin FM transmitter for my iPod which plugs into the 12v socket. It’s a great piece of kit which works by using the dead or low power FM stations but because of the long aerial on my car, it only picks up low power stations and rarely any dead ones. With the beesting aerial, it should have a smaller range allowing for a cleaner signal.

My next upgrades will be the alloys. They’re currently 15″Toyota ones which I personally love the look of. Sadly also being Toyota alloys means they suffer from the horrible peeling and corrosion effect. They have never been kerbed so I’m unsure as to why they would peel in the first place. I found a place near Khang who have quoted me £193 for all four wheels which includes stripping, refitting and balancing of them too. This is pretty damn good consdering Halfords charge at least £65 per wheel for the same service of which I’ve seen no examples of their work.

Other plans in the pipeline are replacing the bulbs in the rear lights with LEDs like on the latest BMWs. I’ve seen a Yaris online with this mod and it looks gorgeous because it’s a subtle change. My styling preferences are very much all about enhancing the factory specification despite what Khang proclaims. On Daniel’s suggestion, I should definitely change the suspension because of the age of the car. I’ve been looking at springs and coilovers from Tein which as standard allows the ride height to be dropped. At the sacrifice of ride comfort, I want ride stability because the Yaris is a tall car considering it’s small footprint so it suffers quite badly from bodyroll. I don’t think I need to report to the insurance company that I’ll be changing the suspension since it’s not a visible upgrade and shouldn’t affect anything on their end.

Photos can be found here.