AUS Zedfest 2010 @ Armidale

Thats what I said! Pics of the winning cars!

 

.. lol .. that poor "moo cow" on the roof ... !!! the chook lost it's head early in the piece ( Strong Arm Leah ripped it's bloody head off in true Aunty Jack style ... lol ...) and it was found legless and headless on a black Zed early on Monday morning, still chuckling ... so, where is Pink Porky Pig ...??? ... oink, oink ....

... yep, Benny and HaylZ ... fun toys for the kids .... !!!!

 

Another Big Blast!!!

Well I'm glad it's over. From spending the last 18 months organising this event it has been very tiring but very fulfilling due to the numerous people that approached me and offered their thanks of appreciation saying it was the best ZedFest yet. Personally I thought it was as good as the previous two because once again it's the people that made the weekend a success. Thank you HaylZ for your ideas and help organising and coordinating the activities, it was very much appreciated

Well I only got my car worthy of a long trip on Thursday afternoon at 5:00pm before I set off for the Gold Coast for the first stop over with K-zed. I was a little nervous since I had not managed to put on any test hours since I had essentially stripped the car to a rolling shell six months ago but all in all it proved AOK I managed to get one coat of wax on the new paint, barely commissioned the new CarPC and gave the interior a quick vacuum with no time for Armorall. There were some bits in the engine bay that I wanted to modify and tidy up but it was either that or miss going to Armidale.

I'll cut straight to the pics since majority of the highlights have been covered. I managed to collect almost 1300 high res pics from different people on Monday morning and AZA's on Sunday. Reason being is I left my camera bag at Nymboida which fortunately my camera was not in it but the charger was so I was sparingly taking pics with my own. The following are a mix of mine and others..........

First stop for the Queenslanders heading to Mexico was the Coaching Station at Nymboida for a lavish luncheon. Apparently Mr Russell Crowe owns this establishment I was informed.













Dino was a bit thirsty but he had to use one straw for the two.





This is what I got when I ordered a Chicken and Bacon Burger!








K-zed preparing for take off






















Cara's Pink Bits[TIS]



This is what 15 years of Z ownership will get you. Love your work Joe:zlove:



And since so many have been messaging me to share pics of my Z in new pyjamas, here it is, old 300 with the new 370

 

On ya Carl, love the pics mate , your engine bay is uber cool.
Mate , my missus likes her picy for a change, normally she would hunt you down for posting it up...lol

Creat to see you again.

Cheers
Patrick

 

I see it... Ya know that the cow is gonna have all future residents of your cabin telling the urban myth of the "Ghostly Bovine" that can be heard lamenting its separation from Pinky-Pig and the far too early demise of it's pal Heady-Penny the Chicken... :rofl:

Heady-Penny the Chicken was rescued, and now resides with my small (but growing!) Zed trophy collection...



:rofl:

Iain..... :zlove:

 

Half the fun is getting there Part 1 of ?

The Route
[LINK TO GOOGLE MAPS]
http://tinyurl.com/y8eb5vh


My journey to Armidale started on Wednesday. With a lazy 1500km or so ahead of me I jumped into my trusty Starlet,

1.3L of raw awesomeness.

My noble steed




I had planned to take it pretty easy on the way up because I had the week off work and was rather looking forward to checking out some of the towns on the way up.

My first stop was Glenrowan. My Son Spencer (7) has recently decided that Ned Kelly is cool. I work at RMIT University in Melbourne and a fair portion of the Old Melbourne Gaol where Ned Kelly was hanged is now part of the RMIT campus. So I pulled into Glenrowan to have a look and there is a huge statue of Ned Kelly, Spencer was stoked when I sent him an SMS with this picture. I also bought both boys a Ned Kelly statuette each.

Ned Kelly Statue in Glenrowan



At Albury which is the VIC/NSW border crossing I quickly stopped in to buy a cradle for my iPhone. Ive been playing with Trapster which PexZed alerted me to. Its an awesome app for driving.


Next stop Holbrook, I dont know why I always stop here other than to wonder why the hell they put a Submarine there, I should probably actually read the signs. The Cafe as you enter the town claims to have the best coffee on the Hume. Its shit. However the Submarine Cafe makes a nice latte and has lemon meringue pie!! I started to amuse myself by sending my family regular SMS pics of where I was at, kinda like a live postcard. The kids really enjoyed it.

HMAS Otway at Holbrook





No matter how many times I drive to Sydney and no mattter how good the weather is on the way up it is ALWAYS raining in Gundagai its freaky. I figured I'd send a postcard of the Dog on the Tuckerbox and get some dinner at the same time.

Dog on Tuckerbox 5 Miles from Gundagai



As I was coming back from KFC I saw this guy riding a recumbent bike. It was fully loaded and looked like the guy had been out a while. I stopped for a chat and offered to take a pic of him with the Dog on the Tuckerbox. Hed been on the road for 9.5 weeks and was from Perth, He came across the Nullabor and was stopping in Brisbane. Not a bad effort. When I asked him why he was doing it he said "I just wanted some time to myself so I could think about God".

I got back in the car and left.




I manged to snap a pic of a rainbow as I was coming out of Gundagai



I had planned to stop in Goulburn and I got there about 7:30pm. I had heard there was a big ass Marino sheep there so I grabbed a pic while it was still light.

Big Marino at Goulburn



I found a Motel and checked in. It stunk of carpet deoderiser.. bleh. When I bought the iPhone cradle I didnt realise that the Cig Lighter socket didnt work in the starlet so after I sorted out the motel I remembered seeing a mechanic working on a 4x4. I stopped in and asked if I could borrow some tools and he was happy to help. We chatted a bit about my trip and he said he had just sold a TTZ32 to someone for 9k. I couldnt fix the Cig Lighter in the dark and left for bed.


Thursday
-----------

I left about 9am, today was going to be a short day as I only needed to drive to Angrybears house. Roughly 300km from Goulburn. Once I got into Sydney I decided Id drop in at UAS to try and tie up some unfinished business... Camber Arms anyone ?.

I think I got to Angrybears house about 2:30pm. Now for those that dont know, Angrybear made me an offer I couldnt refuse a few weeks back. Its not every day that you meet people that are so selfless that they are willing to offer you food and accomodation for the night but then go that extra mile and offer me a Twin Turbo Zed to drive the rest of the way to Armidale. I couldnt have been happier.


Barry and Caz you have my eternal gratitude



My Noble Steed version 2




Friday
----------


Friday morning we headed out at sparrows fart, I hate early starts, and I especially hate driving up the M1 in the dark while im half asleep in a car im not used to with 1000000 other people heading north for the break. We quickly caught up with the ACT and Sydney Crew and the convoy begins. Andymac had planned a route via Buckets Way and Thunderbolts Way. By this time I had got used to the Zed again and was having fun. Thunderbolts Way is a very fun road.

Thunderbolts Way




Well its fun if your car is not blue and the drivers name is Haylz

Haylz was stressing out on the UHF radio about her car over heating and she pulled over, given the tight road the convoy had to continue to a lookout. While we waited AndyMac went to her rescue, 20 mins later MNT300 pulls in and is looking more like a locomotive.

Somewhere to Wait



View from Lookout



Puffing Billy





Luke climbed up the cutting on the side of the road and took this pic, we were convinced he was going to break his neck.




Ports and AndyMac got busy trying to sort out the over heating issues. I would have helped Haylz but you know 3's a crowd 90 mins more and it looks like things are under control, the nose comes off to get some extra airflow and we get going.

Driving down Thunderbolts Way again



The only PO PO we saw the whole day. Well the only ones doing their job all the rest were at McDonalds,





The rest of the trip is pretty uneventful and we arrive at Armidale at about 2:30pm.

Let the Zed Fest begin..
-------------------------------
Will post more later

 

Big thanks to Karl and Baz for letting me ride along.
Had a great time and it was great to catch up with a few old faces and many new ones.
It was hard to be there without a Zed but it sure makes me keen to get another Z32
I will put a video together soon and post it ASAP

 

Wow, Karl!!!
No intercoolers? Looks stunning :zlove:

 

Nothing gets past you hey Jono ? :rofl:

 

Not quite Jono, it's now "Chemically Intercooled"

 

So am I

 

Are you taking the piss?

 

It uses a spray of Methanol/water mix management system to cool down the intake charge...

 

Jono- NOS is chemical forced induction, for the record. Metho cools IAT's and also burns .

Air-to-air intercooling is so 1990's

 

And Water Injection is so 1940's Mitch, World War II technology. It's been around forever but the technology to control it has only come to age in recent years.

 

I think Stu was actually giving a compliment Jono that you actually noticed since you wern't at Armidale for me to give you the lowdown.

 

Either that or he was making a joke with r33k regarding being "chemicaly cooled" by alcohol... hence he is "taking the piss"

 

Hi all

Let you know I made it back to Townsville today with no problems
Had a blast in Armidale and want to thank every one. I hope that the next trip in the coming years is just as good or even better. And also thank you Halz and Karl for making this trip possible, here's looking at you Leigh.

 

good to hear that you arrived home safe and sound and trouble free, Leigh ....


4000 kms round trip .... WOW ...!!!

and congrats again on the big golf win ... !!!

 

I know it's old tech, heck there was a water/meth chevvy or something running it back in the 50's too.

My point is that once the reliability of the system is sorted, its the best way to get big power. expecially compared to air-to-air, you can run higher boost, greater advance, etc... its just the risk of it not working that makes it not as common.

Look what nitro/methanol did for drag cars. Shows the benefits of this method.