Iron Chef

You're not in Japan any more either, correct? I know a lot more than most, because I bother to get the information from the experts rather than trusting the panic merchants in the mainstream media who will always choose drama and hype over facts and reality. I've just booked a holiday for my whole family to go to Japan in July, got some great deals on flights. Copy and paste, for your benefit: "Traces of plutonium are not uncommon in soil because they were deposited worldwide during the atmospheric nuclear testing era," said a statement on the website of the International Atomic Energy Agency. "However, the isotopic composition of the plutonium found at f*kushima Daiichi suggests the material came from the reactor site, according to Tepco officials. Still, the quantity of plutonium found does not exceed background levels tracked by Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology over the past 30 years."

It's a complete load of crap, for starters - the radioactive iodine that was released into the air has a half life of 8 days, so all of it has turned into plain old dust particles by now. Secondly, countries love using natural disasters to leverage better deals on products and services from other countries. What is happening now is that, in a panic reaction to governments feeding them BS about the possibility of radioactive containers (let's use South Korea as an example), demand for containers ex-Japan will plummet, and the select few who know that the whole radiation drama is a crock of shit will bring in as many containers as they can at rock bottom rates. I got a call from a shipping company today saying their shipping rates to Australia had dropped too! Only by a bit, granted, but enough to show that the shipping companies are nervous about the flow-on effects of a non-existent problem. Have a look at what happened to the price of iron ore after the GFC and how much China continued to buy as another example. Have a read of these and any of the earlier nuke-related articles for a more balanced view on what actually happened. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/29/tv_news_goes_hollywood/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/25/f*kushima_scaremongering_debunk/

If you understand the politics of shipping, you'll understand why I find that scenario so funny...it's a neat way of getting cheaper shipping...

No the default wing position is down, the special key sequence for high speed runs stops it raising automatically above a certain speed (to reduce drag). There are two reasons why that wing would be up - the first is that the owner had flicked the switch to keep it permanently in the up position (wanker, entirely believable because he bought an open top Bugatti), the other is that he was travelling very fast when he hit that 'gate'. I suspect we're reading the version of events that was given to the insurance company

It's not the drivetrain that's the problem it's the electrics, particularly if water has got into the computer. One soaking of salt water won't instantly make it rusty, and unless it has been crashed, the chassis will still be straight enough to pass through compliance. In an ideal world, I'd like to think that anyone considering it will buy the car cheap, take it home, pull it all apart, clean everything out, rewire it THEN sell it. The reality is that there will be some who bring them in, give them a detail, put them on the lot, then rely on extended warranties to sort out any electrical gremlins the customers have after they buy them...

The car is in Park, yeah?

*facepalm* 1. You're right it wasn't a grade 5A, it was a grade 4.5A with 30,750km on it. I've attached the auction sheet so anyone else in here well-versed in Japanese can see what my agent had to work with. As you will see, there was certainly no indication that the car had been stolen and re-registered, aside from the cryptic numbers where the chassis number would normally be. The car was advertised on a dealer's website in Sydney - he was the one who said he had complied such cars before, and he was the one who offered my agent $10K below what it owed. In the end, my agent elected to send it back through auction. The car sat on the website long after it had been sold. The only reason I insisted on keeping the money there was because I knew you were going to get slammed on the exchange rate! I put a limit order in with the exchange company to limit the losses to what they were - less than 1% of the money you sent over initially. When the exchange rate jumped and the limit order was filled, it came back to you the next day! How did we fail to see the white paint over the chassis number?! It was my agent who took the photo of it to show you what happened in the first place!! When he realised what had happened, he chose to put it back through auction, taking a huge loss on it. I don't see how he was trying to deceive you in any way at all. As for looking for another car, you didn't have to PROMISE anything! You said you were prepared to do that, so we kept looking! In fact, you were still sending cars through that you wanted my agent to bid on AFTER your money had been refunded to Australia, and he bought another vehicle in good faith that you were still looking! It wasn't until AFTER the invoice arrived for the second GT-R (about 5 mins after, to be precise) that you said you were no looking. Like I said, I can completely understand why you wouldn't want that amount of money sitting overseas, which is why my agent sent it back! No...to chip in for telling my agent to buy a car, then pulling out of the deal after he'd bought the car for you, leaving him with losses totalling a whole lot more than that. How did YOU discover it was stolen?! My agent had been working the auction over 10 years at the time and even he hadn't seen that scenario before. What he said was that he would wait until the car arrived in Kobe to sort out why it didn't have the chassis number on the auction sheet. I fail to see how this was either the agent's fault or mine, but nevertheless we copped it on the chin and rectified it. Either way you were not "penalised" for the purchase of this vehicle at all - your $770 broker's fee went back to Japan as part (and a very small part) payment for the losses accrued on the SECOND GT-R that you had my agent purchase after your money had been returned to Australia.

Bugger, my plan is foiled....lol

Oh I know a few businesses who've been specifically asking for them! I just wrote a column telling people what to be on the lookout for...

I don't have a problem mentioning his name on the forums - it was me. This was over three years ago now, I'm curious as to why you would bother to bring it up now, but anyway, just to prove there are two sides to every story... Andy was very specific with his requirements for a car, and the one that we ended up purchasing out of Kyushu at the time was a Grade 5A VS2 with something like 30,000km on the clock. Despite its excellent grading, my agent still insisted it come to Kobe to be physically checked over by him before going on a boat. By the time it had arrived, Andy had already paid the invoice for it and had noticed the anomalies in the chassis number (we had also spotted it, but couldn't verify what the problem was till my agent was in front of the car). When we checked it out we found it had been stolen and recovered at some stage, and the chassis number had been removed. Having done some ringing around, we found a number of workshops who had dealt with this issue before, many of whom simply assigned a new chassis number and were still happily able to comply it in Australia. One later even offered to buy the car off us (at a $10K loss). I was not prepared to take that risk, and either was my agent, so we sent it back through auction, and took a very hard hit on it. Andy, still keen to find another GT-R at this stage, and kept looking but requested that his money be returned to Australia. I gave him the option of leaving it there (given that he was still looking for a car) but could happily understand why he may not feel comfortable leaving so much money in someone else's account, although also warned that movements in the exchange rate may cost him money. This it did, but about $400 in total (not thousands), not bad considering it was $46K that was moved back and forth. My agent in Japan, still stinging from the burn on the first car, was keen to find Andy a car, and took on the job of finding it personally, catching bullet trains from Osaka to Tokyo to check the cars himself, speaking to Andy directly from Japan to make sure he was happy with the car he finally found him. Having given my agent the go-ahead over the phone, my agent bought him a second very-low-km high grade VS2 at auction, and with me having locked in the 4.5ish million yen to send his money to Japan, Andy then decided instead to stop looking for a car AFTER my agent had purchased a second GT-R in Japan! Not only this, he asked me for his $770 broker's fee back! (note: not the $990 suggested) The losses that were incurred in Japan as a result (copy and paste from the invoice I got from Japan): 1/ Physical loss of car purchase price to sale price at auction : 450,000 2/ Physical loss of GST (5%) : 22,500 3/ All transportation charges : 155,000 4/ Auction purchase fees and selling fees : 87,000 5/ bullet train expenses : 81,000 6/ Hotel fees : 36,000 7/ Storage fees : 48,000 Total : 879,500 Japanese Yen This was at a time when it was 95yen to the dollar, so I had to wear nearly $9000 worth of expenses, which I asked Andy to chip in for, seeing it had been his decision to pull out after the car had been purchased. I never heard from him again, and I spent the next 6 months paying virtually all the spare money I earned to Japan to cover the loss. I likewise, kept quiet about the whole matter, at a time when I really didn't want to do so. I sucked it up and learnt my lesson. I'm disappointed that you've chosen to bring this up so long after the fact, Andy, but I'm not going to have you posting a skewed version of events without replying to it.

Like most cars, the GT-R only gets taily around there if you back off. If your 1:18 is hand timed BS, then feel free to strap a transponder to it and beat us both in the Time Attack....let's see who wimps out now... Adam's done a fair few more laps around there than I have, tyres make a big difference in these situations, as does weight (or lack of). That's an awesome time, but my only target is to beat Luke, not set track records Hahaha indeed! Are you guys bringing cars out for it? If not, enter NOW. By that theory I shouldn't have thrown him the keys to my Evo when I first got it either... Luke knows me well enough to know that that 1) I can steer reasonably well, 2) I'm never gonna drive so stupid that I'm gonna bend it (I'm a dad, I want to come home to my kids at the end of the day) and 3) if I break something and it's my fault, I'll pay for it. Dreamin' Love your work!

I have one as a daily, great car! Mine will shortly be for sale, if you're after a black manual...Mr Eps knows the story...

My hypothesis - apart from a few extra water-damaged cars coming through auction, auction prices and the exchange rate will all pretty much stay the same.

lol harsh but fair - the problem with tracking the N1 is that the red mist will descend and I'll end up breaking something that can never be replaced Given that should know the limits of his car far better than I do, there's no reason why he shouldn't be able to kick my arse....theoretically....

Wait till I finally get the supercharger on

I'm actually a bit shocked that you guys have dumped Luke like a hot potato here lol If it's got RS-Rs, I better make sure I go first...haha

Oh boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, no taking the wind out of my sails with your defeatist talk!

IF I owned that car, I'd be getting that pic blown up (pardon the pun) and framed, once I'd got over the initial shock of course...

If I get that time, I will buy you a beer at Mallala pub too!

I like your optimism For reference, Luke did a 1:21.64 before he fitted the new brakes, so I'm guessing we'll both go sub 1:20...well I will at least, because I'm the only one game enough to stand it on it's nose at the end of the back straight lol

PS - free Iron Chef cap for the person who picks the closest time to the winning one (mine).

74 or 84kg, can't remember which, but weight is situated fairly low in the chassis

I'll be there, I suppose...

Nope - must be done on the same day, so conditions aren't a factor.

I said it was encouraged, not condoned