It's been a love-hate relationship (mostly love) ever since. But one thing's for sure, everything you've read about the Elise is true – it's a seriosuly fun car to drive. The car came with some odd-sized aftermarket wheels. So we swapped them for a genuine set of lightweight Club Racer wheels from a Series 3 Elise. We also added a fibre front lip, a GT4 wing and carbon fibre side scoops. More updates on this 860 kg track car-for-the-road soon.

The post I Bought One: Lotus Elise 1.8 (M) appeared first on Burnpavement.

Mention Australia as a holiday destination and cities like Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Gold Coast would immediately come to mind. However, flying to such Australian cities from Singapore would take a significant amount of travel time; a flight to Sydney takes more than eight hours, Melbourne just slightly more than eight hours, to Perth more than five hours and lastly to Gold Coast would mean spending eight and a quarter hours on the plane.

The post BP Road Trippin’ – Good Day, Darwin! appeared first on Burnpavement.

But the minimal usage just meant that the car was sitting in the carpark unused, and not out there bring smiles to its driver like it should be. So if you’ve been looking for an MX-5, let’s get in touch. I’m looking for someone who will take good care of her.

More info at this ad link

Car has since been sold. – Updated 04/10/2010

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The result of that is a pedal-to-the-metal style of driving which I’ve naturally adopted. Which has been rather expensive. I’ve also noticed that the front tyres were unevenly worn, so more cash spent to strap on a brand new set of Duro Performa HP1s. These are Taiwan-made tyres (I can here the boos already), but I promise you they are bang for the buck. The soft compound has ensured I stay safe even in my moments of spirited driving, but the wear rate is proportionately high and some noise is evident at the 1-1.2k rpm mark.

Will update more soon.

The post Project VW R32 | Driving It appeared first on Burnpavement.

But can you blame me? I mean, just look at it, it’s absolutely gorgeous. In this unique shade of purple, clad in a well-balanced mix-and-match dress-up kit and huge 19" wheels, its a pretty thing. It looked even better after the RSR springs were fitted, that really slammed the car good.

The drive needed some getting used to though. The high revving engine meant that I had to adopt a heavy foot to get the car anywhere near fast. The handling though great, never quite felt special. But once in the hot zone, there’s much fun to be had in this grippy coupe. If you can afford the gas.

Being a strict four-seater had its obvious limitations, and the unique ‘suicide doors’ posed a problem when the car was parked between two cars side-by-side. Co-ordination of which doors opened and closed first was essential to facilitate the getting in and out of a fully loaded car.

Then there was the sound. Take it from me, rotary engines in their naturally aspirated form, don’t sound great. In fact, all the way from 1,000rpm to 9,000rpm, the car just makes a monotonous drone. It gets raspy at the higher rev range, but it’s still far from inspiring. Not the best demo car for our Borla® systems then…

So, will I miss it? No, not really. But not because it isn’t a great car. It just isn’t my type. My new ride however, has got me charmed from day one, and it isn’t even half as good looking…

The post End of term | Mazda RX-8 appeared first on Burnpavement.

So the R32 it was – a 5-door hot hatch with a 3.2-litre V6 pushing 250bhp and 320Nm of torque. Yummy.

Let’s just make this official, Volkswagens are great cars, but they’re over-priced. Finding a good deal for the R32 was proving to be rather difficult. I was entertaining thoughts of giving up when I came across a unit that was asking for a price in the ‘GTi region’. I viewed the car, gave a reasonable offer and the rest is history.

This is the car below…

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Turning out of Playground @ Big Splash last month, I slowed down at the exit to check for oncoming cars on the main road, right at the corner of the walkway were three fine young females – probably waiting for a cab – eyes totally glued on the car (no, not me, just the car). As I drove off, windows down and sunroof open, I heard one of them yell "Nice car!". If I was single and knew how to execute a smokin’ 180 degree power drift, I would have picked up all three of them and (Ahem!) … sent them home.

"…right at the corner of the walkway were three fine young females…
…eyes totally glued on the car."

Well, I’m not single and I don’t know how to do a smokin 180 degree turn, so I was left knowing I had a ‘nice car’. Which was, and still is enough. But there’s more to love about this car. It handles very neutrally for a RWD, and once you get used to the high revving unit, it really sings. Sure, there’s no spine-in-your-seat acceleration, but what it lacks in pure power, it makes up for smooth, progressive drivability.

Sad thing is, I might have to let it go soon, Burnpavement.com needs a load-lugger now that we’re going into motion graphics and video – our equipment load is pretty massive.

Maybe it’s time SJN6173C found a single, drift-crazy owner who can execute 180 degree turns.

The post Growing fonder… appeared first on Burnpavement.

With looks this good and a 235 bhp rotary engine under that sexy violet bonnet, my expectations were naturally raised.

One of the first few things to hit me though, was the soul-less sound of the engine. I felt like I was driving a vacuum cleaner. If not for the Fujitsubo exhaust, the car would have sounded quite sad. But at the same time, I really appreciated its silky smooth revs – nothing revs like a rotary engine, nothing! It’s quite surreal actually, you feel no strain from the engine. All the way from 0 to 9,000 rpm, the engine willingly spins and the revs climb with increased vigor. 

The post GR8T Expectations… appeared first on Burnpavement.

I started to get lazy, and everytime leaves and twigs landed on back of the canvas surrounds, I’d just drive off and hope that the wind velocity will do its job in blowing them off.

Many of you are surely smarter than me, so you’d know that it doesn’t happen that way, instead the leaves fall through the frame rail and clog up the drain holes. And after a heavy downpour, or worse – a car wash of my own doing – I ended up with water in my door rocker panels. Which resulted in a very audible sloshing everytime I braked or took a corner. The zen-like sound of running water never felt so out of place.

Well, lesson learnt and problem fixed after I sent the Miata in for a full service and change of timing-belts. Along with that, a new set of speakers, fog lamps, and a chrome style bar!

The post Built-in ‘swimming pool’ in the Miata appeared first on Burnpavement.

I must admit, I was never really fond of the RX-8. It is clearly more of a looker than a performer. While I certainly admire it from a conceptual standpoint – rotary engine, rear-wheel drive, 4-seater coupé/sedan with suicide doors and possessing a shape like no other – it still didn’t win my heart entirely…

At least not untll I saw this gorgeous and immaculate ‘Ribena Berry’.

Resprayed from black to this Merlot shade, it’s adorned with a Autoexe SE-03 front bumper, Ings side skirts and Chargespeed rear bumper. Wrapped in Toyo T1-Rs, the 6-spoked 19" 2-piece Buddy Club P1 Racing IIs complement the car with light-weight efficiency and style. Engine is left pretty much untouched except for the highly-rated Racing Beat REVi intake and a set of ROV-friendly Fujitsubo exhausts – which will make way for the Borla® system soon.

It is also fully maintained by Mazda Motor with every last service logged, stamped and signed. More about the car soon…

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