Dolls N Shine Rockabilly Sideshow

After following the upcoming show on facebook, it felt that the 29th of July would never arive and with what seemed like a lifetime, the Dolls n Shine Rockabilly Side Show finally came around, with miserable weather all week it didnt look too good, though sunday came and the sun showed us whats up, and a good thing too!  Such a quality show was on, we didnt get as many shots as we would have liked but hey you get that on the bog jobs, we'll deffinatly stay in the loop for the next show, which im told will be in a bigger location and if this weekend was anything to go by, we all have alot to look forward to.

Click the jump on the sidebar for pics.

Dont forget polling for bretts drifter closes this friday!

- Willie

MDTC time attack

Over the weekend we headed out to a driver training centre in Marulan to check out a time attack comp they were running, things started out pretty interesting as neither of us had heard of or knew how to get to the track and once we got there we found out we had our dates mixed up.  Though it wasnt a total loss as we got to chatting with the owner and his crew.  A day later we headed up to see the real action unfold.

The BMW's were quite well represented, with majority sporting semi slicks

This early model swift was throwing down some pretty impressive numbers, quite the competitive entry level track car, it was even sporting rear leafs and a side pipe!

 

  This XR Falcon was quite the sleeper, the fog lights were removed and you could just sneak a peak at the larger-than-factory oil cooler.  Being quite a heavy car, especially for this tight track, the owner opted for a set of lightweight enkei racing wheels, complete with full slicks, though it had a little trouble getting them to warm up on the cold track.

  The poor 200 had its work cut out for it against the onslaught of beemers.

 This M3 was blindingly fast, taking no time to towel up the opposition.

Stay tuned as in the next few months as plans are currently being drawn up to organise a Bad News Panda track/skid pan day, so keep checking our facebook page for updates.

Polling also closes on the 4th of August for bretts new car, so if you dont want him to get a 180, get your friends to vote, maybe for the silvia, the poor S13 isnt getting much love.

- Willie

Honour thy modder...

Fatlace.  Speedhunters.  Nissansilvia.

If you’re perusing this blog then no doubt you’re familiar with these names.  These monoliths dedicated to our most beloved obsession.  Personally, Speedhunters is the first blog I trawl when I turn on my computer, and generally the last as well.  I’m also a regular on NS, if your building a Nissan then there’s no doubt you could build a complete car from the used classifieds alone!

 But are all these international blogs and forums helping the scene or hurting it?

I still remember the day fatlace was registered in my favourites, I was trolling the s14 picture forum on NS and there, sitting in all its glory was a slammed, kitted matte grey zenki S14.  At first glance it looks like regular garden variety primer but upon further inspection it turned out as ‘battleship grey’.  This played quite a part in the colour I ended up painting my 200.  Though with the Fatlace influx came the Hellaflush movement.  In the states they have no laws that govern how high your car must be while rolling, so that we poor sods in Aus are saturated with all these images of super slammed imports and sedans that we could never replicate without some handy air tanks in the boot.  Noooo, 100mm at the lowest point for us, well unless you want to keep your rego anyway. 

On the other side of the coin however, where would we be without the inspiration found abroad?  Anyone remember ‘that 240’ from speedhunters?  Without any images from Wekfest, Hellaflush or Gatebil events clogging up my hard drive I’d hardly be the worldly automotive guru that I so clearly am.  So with our scene being so saturated with all these standout rides across the world, what does it take for us to be surprised?  If you go out to any local show, you can be guaranteed that there will be rides there that took 100+ hours to build that dude spent in his garage with his welder in hand or some kids pride and joy, who probably started an apprenticeship just to fund the custom paint for his fist car.  But because we’ve seen that particular car with wider wheels/ lower stance/ crazy paint we just dismiss it.  Sucks. 

So I think when it comes down to it we just need to get out more and really appreciate the story and effort that was put into them.  Get a back story and if you get a chance, congratulate the guy who took the time and had the guts and vision to build something that he or she can be proud of.  Who cares if it’s not your cup of tea, if you’re involved with the scene in any way, shape or form, you can appreciate what hard work looks like.

See you at the track!

-Willie

Ps, voting for bretts drifter is still on at our FB, so check it out!

BDL sound off

Come and sus out the sound comp over at BDL in fyshwick on Sunday, a few of the crew here at BadNewsPanda will go along and check out the proceedings so come and say hi.

See you there

Willie