MarioGTR

Ok, I have read all of what you had to say, and ignoring the wanker contingent, I understand that some of you are pissed off - and possibly rightly so. I have explained why things happened, so I won't re-itterate that here again. We all do this because we want the best out of our cars. Some of you probably have no idea just what it takes to get a car, especially a 4WD car, to get into the 9's. It is hard work - very hard - for all concerned. I admit, I was pissed off - if we had the track for ourselves, we would have had the driers out and stuff, but I made the call earlier (only later to realise that the rain was moving in again) but I stuck by my word and told the guys we would limit ourselves to a single run per hour - to give everyone else a chance. I thought I was reasonable on this - maybe from someone else's perspective it doesn't seem that way. The point was I heard "some Skylines club" (that's all I was told, I didn't know it was SAU) was coming down, so I thought it would be slack of me to say no to them. The big guy (Big Jim) was upset because someone earlier in the day had gone in, been all nice, asked to take photos, I said it was OK with me, as long as he didn't take photos of the drivers side of the engine bay. He said "no worries". He then proceeded, when we walked away, to stick his camera into the engine bay, under the plenum, to get a shot of the coolant lines... then ran off. We chased and caught him - and I still have the pricks camera. He was lucky he was left intact. Big Jim, who took it hard that he had let the team down by allowing the guy through, was upset with himself and wouldn't let anyone else in. That is why many people were asked to leave - I have no idea who the guy was, but we couldn't risk someone else trying the same ploy. Some of you don't realise just what it cost to get the development of the car to this stage - I don't ever talk about the money aspect of it, it is just what it costs - but I can tell you that its not just about money spent, it is more about how the cooling system itself caused so many problems (not just technical, some Japanese companies are still not talking to each other - there is much to the story of its development) - that I had to promise them that no one would ever be able to copy it. Some people couldn't respect that - and as a result, we stopped anyone else from coming in. So try to look at it from our point of view: We sat by and watched other people race, when we should have been running - but I said we would not run more than once an hour, and we stuck to that - even when we heard rain was coming, we still sat there. So, I feel sorry for those people who feel hard done by - you probably had no idea of what was going on, but we had reasons for doing things the way that we did. On the trip back we decided we will fabricate some form of carbon shield that covers the "no go" areas on the car, so we can leave it out for people to take whatever shots they want - but we didn't want to do this earlier as we never expected there to be other people there on either day. I hope at least some of you can understand where we are coming from now. That's all I'll say about this subject. Mario.

JAG, We booked the track way before the test and tune - therefore it was OUR track for the day - to do with as we pleased. If some dumb shits on this forum can't understand that, it isn't my problem - if such a situation arises ever again, I just won't hesitate to say "No, screw 'em - we had it booked first". As for all the smartasses on this forum, your 'support' won't be missed - I am not here to please bogans and dole bludgers (you know who you are...) Mario.

Both cars are the same crew. CRD runs both cars - only the drivers are different. We are all the same team. We could have locked the gates and turned people away - but it wouldn't have been the right thing to do for the track owners, so we bit the bullet and said we'd work around it. Like with everything, we now have typical dickheads on forums whinging and sprouting their bullshit with no knowledge of the facts. The most amusing thing is that when I was asked if I objected, one of the reasons we allowed the test and tune to go ahead was that Russell told me that some Skylines club was coming down. In future (thanks to comments made by the likes of Sniffy) - I'll make sure that I never bother again. Mario.

1/. You were all there (at the track) because I let you. We had booked the track months in advance for the whole weekend - it turns out that it was double booked, we were asked by Russell if we'd mind a test and tune running on Sunday as he didn't want to disappoint so many people. I said "no problem" - as long as we can run when we need to. 2/. Some smartass came in earlier in the day and started to snap photos whilst the engine bay was open - directly of what he was asked not to take - the cooling system. He is lucky he left with his head intact - because of him, everyone else was told to keep away. A plain case of one dickhead that we were nice to ruined it all for everyone. 3/. We were pissed off. It was going to rain, but we thought we would limit our runs to give other people a chance - so don't tell me we are assholes because we had forsaken our track time for most of you. And you wonder why the hell you get treated like you do? I will never allow the car to run when others are at the track - end of story. Mario.

Hello peoples, Just a note to say that, finally, this afternoon we got the new server up and running. There might be a few issues until the DNS name servers take hold of the new address, but it is back, movies and all. My thanks to Simon from performanceforums.com for organising the new server setup for me. All news on the car is in the latest update. We intend to race this coming weekend... Mario. www.exvitermini.com

I think that after the Richard Wilkins interview, the ABC decided to cut most of the footage. They obvioiusly didn't want to get another "this will breed comtempt for the road rules and promote street racing" media circus started, so it was probably for the best in the end. We have out own footage, though. You'll see it in the near future. Mario.

To answer a few questions: Paul Walker actually owns his own white R34-GTR VspecII and three Bitsamissing EVO-VIII's. He is very into drifting, so much so that there is a 240SX (S14 to us guys, but with a KA24) in the works which is getting an RB26DETT transplant. I must admit, he was very cool - he stayed in the pub with myself, Paul, David and Damon for over an hour and a half - missing two flights down to Melbourne to do Rove... He loves his GTR, and we promised not to disclose certain aspects of what we discussed, but let's say that his attitude to rice is directly inline with most of yours and mine... As for Richard Wilkins - the guy was a tosser - after doing the interview, he asked us "if we raced them" to which Paul Brell said "Yeah, on the harbour bridge and we use old ladies as witches hats..." The guy obviously wanted an angle that "modified cars are bad, mmm kay" which is why I think on the second day we lost the more, how shall I say it, "showy" cars and just stuck to the R34-GTR's. Mario.

Hello people, Earlier this week, myself and a few others were asked to provide some R34-GTR's for Paul Walker to do interviews with. Quite a few interviews were done around Sydney, I'm not really sure how many in total, but I do know that a show called "The Fat" which airs on ABC (Channel 2) in Sydney on Friday the 16th of May, at 8:00pm will show one of the interviews. It was done at the SCG and you should get to see Paul Walker and WARIO do a full on launch - right out in front of the entrance to the stadium. Should make for good viewing. Mario.

GTR-700's best 60' time thus far is 1.35 - we have no idea what it is really capable of, as we haven't as yet used the two-step or any form of launch or traction control. Also, on the next time out, we will be putting drag radials onto GTR-700. In drag racing, the extra grip afforded by slicks reduces your MPH quite a bit - so I want to see how we compare to the likes of VeilSide, et all, on drag radial tyres. BTW: My congratulations to John and Kier on their times this weekend, I hope that one day soon we'll be able to race on the same track - that'd be a sight! Mario.

I have an idea: You need more power. 0 to 100km/h in 1.34 seconds using 26" x 8.5" slicks. Mario.

John, I currently have 2x HKS GT-3240, 2x VS GT-3542, 2x HKS T51R-SPL available for sale at the right price... I also have 2x HKS T51R-KAI, but for some reason, they're not for sale... Mario.