Monday, April 21, 2008
Springhill Part 2 - Vintage Car Club
The Waitemata Vintage Car Club ran their annual speed event on the airstrip. A standing quarter mile, a flying quarter mile and a slalom around the cones, normally held on the grass but there had been too much rain recently so the tarmac was used. A big range of cars from historic race cars to old saloons and Austin 7 Specials. Thanks to photographer Julie, apart from the first three sent to me by Keith Humphries of the VCC.
The Orchid was going well. The silver car is a Lotus 6, the model before the widely copied 7.
Keith & Di Humpries had a 1928 Lancia. The GeeCeeEss Special was going well but needed a few push starts to get the flathead V8 fired up.
A Cooper historic racer and an early Buckler.
One of several Austin 7 Specials and a V8 Allard.
More Austin 7s.
Alan Woolf's historic race car that ran in Monaco in 2004.
The Orchid was going well. The silver car is a Lotus 6, the model before the widely copied 7.
Keith & Di Humpries had a 1928 Lancia. The GeeCeeEss Special was going well but needed a few push starts to get the flathead V8 fired up.
A Cooper historic racer and an early Buckler.
One of several Austin 7 Specials and a V8 Allard.
More Austin 7s.
Alan Woolf's historic race car that ran in Monaco in 2004.
Springhill weekend - Part 1
The Waitemata branch of the Vintage Car Club held their annual meeting at Springhill, just South of Wellsford. What a stunning property, with a 3/4 mile sealed airstrip and hangers for various executive aircraft. Part 2 will have some shots of the vintage car speed events.
Saturday we had a look around Warkworth, Matakana and Tawharanui Regional Park.
It has a vermin-proof fence and 850 hectares of predator-free regional park with some rare native birds. As well as some stunning white-sand beaches, views and walks.
Saturday we had a look around Warkworth, Matakana and Tawharanui Regional Park.
It has a vermin-proof fence and 850 hectares of predator-free regional park with some rare native birds. As well as some stunning white-sand beaches, views and walks.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Watch the Model A in action
The Sports Car Club have set up a new website that is not hosted on www.binary.co.nz as it has been for several years. Their new site is www.sccnz.co.nz and on their front page is a U-tube video of the February grasskhana, the last event that the Model-A ran in. You can watch the Model A at about the 4 minute mark on the video. The Model A times for the day were just a bit faster than the blue 300HP Fraser.
It was some fun, I must say, and I learnt a lot about what makes them go and how to fix them.
The first time I saw it, with Ken Williams driving in the Domain hillclimb and the day I bought it from Jim Baird.
Racing at Pukekohe in the Classic Trial before I got chased out and entry refunded for driving too slowly, and on its way to the shipping container to the UK last week.
It was some fun, I must say, and I learnt a lot about what makes them go and how to fix them.
The first time I saw it, with Ken Williams driving in the Domain hillclimb and the day I bought it from Jim Baird.
Racing at Pukekohe in the Classic Trial before I got chased out and entry refunded for driving too slowly, and on its way to the shipping container to the UK last week.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
New Davis Weather Station
Our old Weather Monitor II has been taken out for sale on TradeMe and our roof now sports a cabled Davis Vantage Pro2 with WeatherlinkIP. I have been waiting for this WeatherlinkIP to become available and it has now, in 2008. It needs 'always-on' Internet, so you plug in the Ethernet cable into your router, and WeatherlinkIP immediately starts uploading data to its slot at www.weatherlink.com. Then you can immediately view the weather at Manurewa, Auckland.
All I had to do is login and alter some of the descriptions and set to metric. I am still working on getting knots displayed instead of feet and miles per hour, the Americans seem to think if you are metric, then you want km/h for wind, not knowing that that is just for cars.
Here is how it arrived, and the box contents.
Here is the display console and what went onto the TV aerial. The anemometer is supposed to be 4M above the roofline, but this installation is for convenience as the speed can't be accurate with the big trees close by. But think of the carbon credits!
There are some more details of the product here. The WeatherlinkIP can put all of its information on the Internet without a computer being connected to move the data. You can also install, if you wish, the included Weatherlink software and view and store the weather data on your computer at your leisure. The data is found though the LAN (Local Area Network), not through a plug-in USB or serial cable.
All I had to do is login and alter some of the descriptions and set to metric. I am still working on getting knots displayed instead of feet and miles per hour, the Americans seem to think if you are metric, then you want km/h for wind, not knowing that that is just for cars.
Here is how it arrived, and the box contents.
Here is the display console and what went onto the TV aerial. The anemometer is supposed to be 4M above the roofline, but this installation is for convenience as the speed can't be accurate with the big trees close by. But think of the carbon credits!
There are some more details of the product here. The WeatherlinkIP can put all of its information on the Internet without a computer being connected to move the data. You can also install, if you wish, the included Weatherlink software and view and store the weather data on your computer at your leisure. The data is found though the LAN (Local Area Network), not through a plug-in USB or serial cable.
