The Greatest Partial Weekend possibly Ever, Pt 3.

[IBrake4Rainbows]

Apologies to Whiteballz for completely strapping off the name, but the awesomeness of it was worthy of a thread on it's own.

Well, these are the stories and images of the most recent Australian UCP gathering - starring Myself, Cyco, BlueSupra, Whiteballz and MotorSportNerd, amongst other hangers - on.

The saturday night started badly for Blue and Myself, used to clear, concise street and city planning, heading into central sydney late on a saturday night was akin to bashing our heads on a brick wall. after 1 too many wrong turns - and negotiating one way streets , we arrived at our destination.

After a quick hotel room move (Blue was not keen on me being the Big Spoon, it would seem) we settled in, after opening our hotel window we were treated to an impromptu show by a couple in a 6th floor hotel room. I'll leave this up to the Photo and the imagination.

After finishing with that we wandered down to the local Irish pub - One which Whiteballz, MoSpoNerd and Cyco, along with Ben, Brendon and 'Ballz other half Sarah had already frequented, and proceeded to talk crap, laugh our asses off and get hammered.

the rest of the night is a blur - however i have been informed that there was bull humping by one of my cohorts....i'm looking at you, blue.

Following a hazy morning we wandered down to Darling harbour and through the doors of the 2007 Australian International Motor Show, where vehicles were Plentiful and fine women working behind the stand were there if you knew where to look - Kudos to the Mercedes Stand, Mitsubishi (who always puts on a fine show) and Suzuki - for their choice of female attire.

Standout vehicles for myself at least were the Commodore Sportwagon,
the New HSV Maloo, the Maserati GranTurismo, Skoda Octavia (a real surprise package -a very nice car) and the New Mitsubishi Lancer - again a real surprise considering the pricetag.

Overall a wonderful time had by all - with the exception of the two people across the road who still have no idea we have images of them which will not go away.....

RIGHT! photo time - feel free to add to this collection when you are ready, dudes & dudettes.

1: the New Mondeo XR5 - a particular favourite of our Baldest cohort.
2: a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder - Hiding.
3: In ur Humvee, Readin mah magazine.
4: the HSV Maloo
5: HSV Maloo wheel detail
6: The Mazda3 MPS Turbo - a car built by the Mazda Australia Skunkworks. Supposedly it's being "touted" for production. based on the shows response, they'd have to.

[IBrake4Rainbows]

Next set.

1: Unfortunate sign placement.
2: Simon - we're not quite sure what he's reaching for.
3: Simon again - helping Nissan with their display
4: Spot the Douchebag.
5: Would you let this man near your children?
6: THAT photo. This has a warning label on it. do not click. seriously. don't.

[motorsportnerd]

Cyco and I went on the Saturday and met up with the other guys on Saturday evening.
My day was a little interrupted by a break in at the office which saw my boss ask me to go sort out the meeting of the police, security and locksmith.... Ah, well, that's life.
Still spent a good four to five hours at the show.

Everyone on the Australian forum knows that I'm a Ford and Mazda fanboy - so the Mondeo and Australian unveiling of the Mazda6 were the highlights for me.

However, a few other points:
1. The new Lancer is good looking in the flesh, extremely good value for money and by all accounts from the early reports a contender for best small-medium sedan on the market. A class act and a dead cert for "Most improved car of the Year" tag. Many will have read my comments absolutely slamming the previous generation Lancer as one of the worst cars I've ever driven. This one is one that I'd actually consider owning. The Lancer will be a short-price favourite for Wheels Car of the Year award.
2. We spent some time looking over both the Holden Epica and Hyundai Sonata in detail. Yes - I know, two boring cars. However, Sonata quality really is impressive, its great value for money and anyone who buys an Epica over a Sonata needs their head read, or is a worse Holden fanboy than I am a Ford one.
3. If anyone gets the chance to go to the show with Cyco, take the opportunity. He'll get you into stands (ie: Bentley and Lamborghini) that you otherwise wouldn't get into. I may even take up the invitation to take the Gallardo for a drive some time....though 60km/h in Sydney's rutted one-way inner city streets is no place to really get a feel. Pity the invitation isn't for an Eastern Creek drive day.

A couple of photos - not of very high quality.

1 & 2. Chrylser 300C Limosine with gullwing doors. Yes - I wasn't imagining it. And a quick warning - car was vomit inducing and I think these pictures could probably be used to encourage small children to eat their veges (quick - eat those veges before I show you the picture of the awful car again....).
3 & 4. Skoda Yeti - was it the ugliest car on display or in this case is ugly endearing? I'd almost have to say the later....
5. Mazda6. I'm almost in love.... Not sure about the colour and works better as a hatch.
6. Holden Commodore Sportswagon - yes I agree, it was the best looking car on show. Holden, just make sure you don't put it on sale with steel wheels on the base model - they won't work. Maybe I'll drop the Ford fanboyism and buy one of these in three years time when the lease on the Fairmont runs out.

[motorsportnerd]

1. Ford Mondeo XR5 Turbo - yes, I love it. Yes, I'm probably one of the few. Would I buy it over a same price Falcon XR6? Probably. But not new. Would buy a used/demonstrator version in a few years. I suspect resale, or lack thereof, will be an issue for the Mondeo.
2. Volvo C30 T5. Apparantly I'm the target market (30s, male, single). I'd certainly consider it over the Golf GTi, as its far more individual in its styling and design. Thumbs up from me.
3. Holden Commodore VE SS ute - the city slicker's sports/muscle car of choice. Its amazing how many city dwellers buy a two-door ute in prefence to a 2-door coupe. Its also always amazed me how many women buy this supposedly very macho car. Then again, one would have to spend considerabley more on a 2-door coupe to get even close to the performance levels of the SS (thinking nearly $20K more on a Nissan 350Z to get similar performance).
4. Toyota Aurion TRD. This is the car that Neal Bates intends to use to contest the Targa Tasmania in the production class next year. Basically stock standard, but with semi-slick tyres, roll cage, Motec instruments and lowered a little. Still has the standard 240kW, 3.5 litre supercharged V6 and six-speed auto. Apparantly Toyota is considering an assault on the Bathurst 12 hour production race with this (or a very similar spec) car as well. Worth noting that for a car that is so derided on various internet forums and supposedly not appealing to enthusiasts, that there were huge crowds around the production versions of the TRD. I had to wait in line for a chance to look inside.
5. Skoda Octavia V-RS. Wish this car had come to Australia years ago. Stand out value and quality at $29,990 and up (this one was $37,990 for the sports spec). If you want a mid-sized car with a Euro badge, don't need a Volkswagen badge but want the same basic car and wish to avoid the Ford badge (the only other mid-sized Euro under $40K), then the Octavia is the way to go. Looking forward to the new Octavia arriving in Australia when it is released.
6. Renault Megane F1 R26. Motor magazine rates this as the best FWD performance car on the market. Who am I to argue? Its what Renault does best - very fast, extreme hot hatches.

[motorsportnerd]

1. Mitsubishi Lancer VXR. See my comments above.
2. Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.
3 & 4. Lexus IS-F
5. Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera
6. Lotus 2-Eleven.

That's about all of my photos worth putting up. Hopefully the others will have some more to post.

[mclaren_crazy]

I knew that I had seen the tail lights from that Mondeo before, and after thinking for a couple of seconds I realised that Maserati has begun to steal things from the Ford parts bin. The lights are the exact same, just flipped upside down.

[john14]

Has Simon been taking steroids for many years or is he naturally that big?

[Blue Supra]

I am naturally a tank yes.

In explanation... i was found a giant metal statue of a bull (think prancing red bull logo) and proceeded to... errr... how shall we say... "ride' it. Pics are probably needed. Many MANY beers were consumed and being the unsupervised delinquints we are many hilarious things ensued.

Also, i am reaching through a fence to get a photo of summin and that bloody 4WD was HEAVY! Seriously i thought i was going to drop it

Awesome weekend guys! have to do it all again soon!

[whiteballz]

I need a .3GP converter, so I can share the bull rooting video with everyone on UCP..

I've lost my data cable, so unfortuantely i cant grab my photos of the weekend from the camera just yet. But I'm going down the the local PC store to buy a spare, so this afternoon you will have some nice big juicy images.

In other news, this weekend past was entirely brilliant, and the irish pub was a great place to infuse various brews with your blood. I'm glad for the fact ireland was winning against ukrane when we were there

[Blue Supra]

it was SCOTLAND against Ukraine, and we decided to cheer whenever the Scots scored as everyone else was and we may have appeared to have been Ukraine supporters if we didnt cheer

Many a nice car to admire out the window too.

[whiteballz]

ah right, it was scotland. my bad. and your right on the many nice cars on george street too.

[whiteballz]

straight from the camera, resized and posted.

Schmexy rexy
2008-WRC mockup.jpg

BMX CS concept
BMWCS.jpg

Bad signwriting
Captiva Dies.jpg

The New evo's only good side
evo10.jpg

lightweight champ
lotus exiege.jpg

New maloo ute - sexy
Maloo.jpg

[whiteballz]

How ben and brendon had to sleep saturday night
brendon+ben.jpg

Lambo
gallardo.jpg

Lambo
Gallardo2.jpg

Lambo
gallardo3.jpg

Lambo
gallardospyder.jpg

Lambo
gallardoSuperLeggera.jpg

Thats all, Not many photos from me this year. was having more fun checking out cars rather than taking photos of them.

If you want the full sized images PM me and ill send you whichever ones you want.

[Blue Supra]

i dl mine, nothing too spesh, ill put some up when i get home though.

[IBrake4Rainbows]

Notice how Brendon is clutching a pillow - like his puppy......

ditto w/ the 3.gp footage Whiteballz, it is so much awesome.