Beer Baron

don't worry big boy. got your bits

yeah they have a special GT block. different to the other RB26 blocks.

Hi mate, glad you enjoy the pics. well most of the stuff I hear about through friends in japan. Laurence (on this forum) has a website which has a calendar of events in japan too. it's in the japan section in the stickys. pit access and grid access was because I was there as media.

floor mats are about a grand which I though was a bit harsh!

yep. got a couple.

nah I was going to buy a new 40D. I think I might do in Jan. I currently have a Canon 400D (only about 10 months old) and a couple of canon lenses. 18-55m and 55-200mm. I really need to switch to a 15-85mm and a 85 or so - 300mm as 200mm is no where near enough range for motorsport shots. I did buy a Canon IXY 10 too as the SLR is too big to take out sometimes. so I guess if anyone is after a cheap 400D in about a months time give me a yell. It's a pretty decent camera for a cheap-ish DSLR and once you get used to using it very easy to use and adjust.

lol, I honestly don't know. I just took some pics so I'd fit in. hehe.

some more old school. This thing was an animal. as was this one... drivers coming back through the pits after a race. This is it. one of the famous cars that was used to test and set times at the nurburgring. still complete with camo, and all the other gear. as soon as they opened the boot there was a massive media scrum. I didn't see what was in there, but i'm fairly sure they were either handing out ichi-man yen notes, or there was a naked, teenage japanese virgin stashed in there. either way it was pretty funny, so I just had to get into the mosh pit for myself. I think that's it for today. tomorrow I will finish off nismo festival, then get onto Tsukuba Time Attack.

yeah it's a yearly thing. beats the hell out of tokyo auto salon i reckon.

yeah I had a look at all this stuff in the flesh in japan. to be honest not much of it did anything for me. except the key ring. I nearly bought one, then remembered I have probably 2 dozen key rings and I only really use 1! I really prefer the all carbon case like the one they had with the Z-tune. now that was nice!

panning shots are tough on cars that are flying down a straight over 1km long Good to see some group A GTRs on the track getting punished. one got pushed to breaking point! got to love being in the pits when a limping GTR comes in. looks like it simply overheated for some reason. trying to capture one of these suckers in frame whilst belting down the straight was like trying to catch a flying with chopsticks. not easy, but not impossible.

love this girl. supaa kawaii desu ne!! oh yeah! she has nice taste in head wear. also, she kept looking over to me on the side whilst she and her little pal were supposed to be looking in the same direction. what can I say? beer baron is a machine. lol she even threw me a sly little wink, which I must say didn't work out well for either of us ok, just one more cause she is so cute. more cars in a min.

ok, more coming.

at it again standing on the grid on the main straight is exhilariting to say the least. for one there are tens of thousands of people in the main stand on one side, and above the pits on the other side. and you can hear the cars tearing around the track on their warm up. but nothing prepares you for when they come in to their grid spots pretty rapidly. it was surreal. now, for some dumb reason I thought the nismo GT car was the first row. you can see in this pic I'm standing just in front of the next grid slot, well I took a few steps forward for the next shots right about now I realise the LM car is coming straight for me, and he's not exactly idleing his way into his slot either. so I had to jump out of the way and get off the track onto the grass before I get mowed down my a nismo LM car (still not a bad way to die). Here it is, the car that tried to kill me for standing smack in the middle of his grid spot. having never had anyone silly enough to allow me onto a live grid before when racers are gridding up I had NFI what I was doing. They make it look easy on F1!

all the best action was in the pits This is a great pic. Love it. Everybody love the ol 32. not much beats a GT car doing a burnout just meters from where you are standing. check out the rear tyres. noice. some of the drivers were kind enough to do nice burnouts and fishies up the pit straight. how's that for a nice line up?!

yeah it looks cool. came out the day after I left japan! d'oh! and yes you can play it on aussie PS3, and yes most likely some or all menus will be in japanese. but it's not hard to figure out what's what. not really a problem

lol, they used my pics with permision and I had the shame chat with a mines man and nikurra-san, and they gave out the list of parts available. so he may have been referring to me, though I think you definitely posted first so maybe they just repeated your info. but if you can get paid for it, put me next in line! beer baron is not too proud to accept charity!

happy to give some advice etc to people wanting to go to japan, but most of the stuff I have been able to do I wouldn't be able to bring others with me. lot's of these opportunities are best handled solo. but none of you guys need me to have a good time in japan. internal wastegate turbos are there as it's the best package for circuit. they can pretty much run whatever they like they aren't limited by factory spec at all. (remember 3.5l V6 in a car that came out with a 2.6 inline...). hardly a single factory part on that RB26. dry sump, GT block, GT crank, GT pistons, GT spec turbos, etc etc.

a taste of what's to come.

more group A goodness. ummmm, yes please! LM car aint to shabby either I reckon! Inside a Super GT GT-500 34 GTR. just amazing cars. They really are the F1 of tin tops. GT500 RB26. The grand daddy of all GTR engines. God I wanted to wheel it away. It's amazing how compact they are with small cam covers, and with dry sump the sump pan under the engine is tiny. making it a much smaller power plant than stock. what can you say about these bad boys? just breathtaking. and sound insane. Ok, that's enough for now. Some more of the heavy hitters after lunch.

some more nismo festival pics. Fuji Speedway media centre. nice place. but like all places in-doors in japanese winter it's about 35% with 0% humidity so your skin dries out in about the time it takes to walk from the door to your desk. plenty of old school nissan goodness there too Group A GTR engine 2 Group A GTRs. 2 of the most famous even. a giant sized pad. used GT 500 disks. $50 a piece. Sunline Racing front pipes. Very, very nice. I was sorely tempted to buy a set. but a bit of a mission to carry around, even with a lift. The yellow hat Z looks pretty cool. having all areas access means you can get right up to the cars even when they are receiving service in the pits, and get shots like these one of the team nismo cars. who wouldn't want to get into that cockpit? I now have one of these bad boys on it's way to me. 19X13 inch forged magnesium GT500 wheel. noice A Zed fans wet dream. dozens of Super Taikyu Cars. They sound awesome too. They actually raced one against a new R35 GTR road car. The R35 absolutely spanked it. Especially when they did a 0-400m test. but the ST car sounded better. The ST cars look like a nice place to be inside too. 1 is shift RPM the 2 is launch RPM. nice. ST engines looked pretty sweet. Sounded very tough too, but not a huge amount of power in them sadly. The endless cars always look super cool. This is the endless ST car next to the endless GT car. nice and easy to spot differences. GT car receiving service. GT Engine

i use a snap on one. had it for years. still going strong. that little stubby one in the case is not so good. you need one with a hose so 1, you can hold it away from hot wheels and brakes and 2, so you can manipulate the gauge into a spot where it's easy to read. I would say buy something really nice. it's one of those things you will keep and use for a long time. the longacre ones are pretty good. i wouldn't hesitate in buying one of them.

PJ Mcf**ker is expanding too, he has a fancy new establishment in shibuya too. i'm sure you can't wait to go there!! lol.

home is sydney for now. got too much good stuff going on here with work, family, friends etc to leave. but the temptation gets stronger every time I go back to japan to just stay there.

well twice a year for the last 3 years actually half a day back in sydney and I'm already pissed off and stressed out. fark, 10mins off the plane and I was appalled at the attitude or some people in this country. no one takes responsibility for anything and most don't even take pride in their work. unlike most japanese people I know and have seen who take great pride in even the most menial of task. anyway, hopefully going through and uploading pics either tonight or tomorrow will cheer me up a bit.