November 2010
Tuesday 30th November 2010
I've spent a couple of hours so far playing Gran Tourismo 5, and I must say I'm very impressed with the speed and performance of the PS3. The one I bought is the 320GB version, which gives it plenty of space to store all the files that are unzipped during game play. Thats my only critism really, that the blue ray disk has so much data on it, you can wait for what feels like an eternity as the PS3 writes data to the hard drive for the first time. But once the data is prepared, and the race begins, the realism is quite mind blowing. Bearing in mind that I'm only watching it through a CRT TV, which runs at 576i resolution at best. And the issue there is that the on screen writing can be very difficult to read. An LCD TV is on my shopping list for when the sales start. I fancy a Sony 1080p 37EX503 but I'm waiting for the prices to come down first.
Graphics aside, the game play itself is very realistic. The car's turn quickly, and respond to braking quite well, but there is no lift off oversteer that I can provoke (probably because I am playing it at Beginners level) But there's always the handbrake to pull the rear end round to provoke a slide. I'm progressing quite well in career mode, and have so far unlocked the karting and Nascar experience. But frustratingly I cant access the gokart level, as I dont own a gokart. And this frustration is carried through in career mode. Having won the first three challenges, I find I cannot play any of the others on beginners level, as I dont own the right car, nor does it hint in Garage mode, as to which car I need to play those levels. I need to do some more exploring of the menus to work out quite how I progress, but for the time being, arcade mode lets you drive almost any vehicle at any track, and this is another great way to enjoy the gaming experience provided by the PS3.
Friday 26th November 2010
With the cold winter nights drawing in, I've ordered a PS3 and a copy of GT5 from Amazon to keep myself active. Its the 320GB version, and the last racing sim I played on was the F1 2010 at Trax, which looked incredible, so if the graphics on GT5 live up to expectations, I should soon be mastering The Ring etc.
I've been playing around with the design of the website. I've moved the menus over to the right hand side of the page, and introduced a latest blog links section at the top. A search box is also at the top of the navigation window, so hopefully the site should be a little easier to explore now.
Monday 22nd November 2010
Altiss has TiG welded the four holes in the sensor housing today. I'll refit the housing and check for water leaks.
Tuesday 16th November 2010
Congratulations to the Racing Green Endurance team. They finished their 26,000KM journey down the Pan American highway today.
Shame the news is dominated by a young couples engagement.
Other news: I've received a DVD crammed full of digital pictures that Fast Ford didn't use from the Shelsley photoshoot, and I'll make these available over the coming weeks. And I'm dropping the water temperature sensor housing off at Altiss this Friday for TiG'ing.
Tuesday 9th November 2010
Monday 8th November 2010
Drained and removed the radiator and all the hoses last night. The sensor housing on the end of the cylinder head, has sprung a leak, so I'm going to have Altiss TiG weld the unused holes up. I'm presently cleaning the engine, gearbox, and all the bits at the front of the engine. The car was simply covered in a fine grit/dust from the trip to Bruntingthorpe. Even the jubilee clips complain about being adjusted. The joys of following the photographers car for several laps of the tatty concrete runway.
Some nice person (aka lowlife scum) decided to scrape the front wing on the Subaru last week, whilst parked in Wells town centre, so I'm trying to get some quotes to have the damage repaired. Just what I needed.
Apparently Fast Ford magazine is out today, for subscribers, and the Fiesta made the front cover, and is featured inside. I've not seen the magazine yet, but hopefully will do in the next few days. [Hint: Neil, can I have a copy or two please 8-)]
Tuesday 2nd November 2010
The Subaru is now far happier since the clutch and flywheel were replaced yesterday. There is no trace of the dreaded clutch judder so far. Fingers crossed thats the end of the problems with the car.