GM sponsored an event that came through town last week called Auto Show In Motion. They basically brought their entire line of cars to a huge parking lot and let people drive through a cone course. I saw they were going to have Corvettes there, so I had to go. When my girlfiend and I arrived we were shuffled through a tent where we watched a "don't do any stupid stuff or we'll kick you out" video. They had us sign a release waiver and we were on our way. I noticed the line for the Corvettes was about an hour long, plus I had to "qualify" in a sedan or luxury car. The first car I drove was a Cadillac CTS. I took it relatively easy since the video was pretty vague about what kind of driving would get you booted. The CTS was pretty quick and handled the turns reasonably well for it's weight and suspension setup.

We headed over to the Corvette / SSR area to find that the Corvette line was an hour long. I decided to hop in an SSR instead. That thing is ugly as hell, but it was pretty quick. My girlfriend wanted to ride in the Hummer H2, but again we had to qualify in a regular SUV. I drove the Escalade ESV, which was not impressive. The Hummer course was fun with some bumps simulating rocky terrain, a 20ft tall steep grade hill and an off camber hill. The H2 handled the terrain with aplomb, which is to be expected considering it's price.

Back over to the Corvette line. This time around the line was much shorter, so I was able to drive a Z06 with a manual transmission. I pretty much ripped up the course in the Z06. I've driven a stock C5 before, and the Z06 was clearly a superior car. The acceleration was great, the handling crisp and, all things considered, the ride was pretty forgiving. This was the only car I drove that day where I couldn't wipe the smile off my face after exiting the vehicle.

We had a little time left before the event closed, so we went over to the sedan area where they had a bunch of new GTOs waiting. The manual transmission line was too long, so I had to settle for an automatic. To sum it up, the GTO is yet another GM styling nightmare that happens to perform well.

All in all, the event was a lot of fun and I hope they come through again next year. I just checked the Auto Show In Motion website, and they are going to be in Denver, CO Aug 12 - 15 and San Francisco, CA Aug 26 - 29. Oh, and if you live in Hawaii, they will be in Oahu Jul 30 - Aug 1. If any of you folks are close to one of these locations, I highly recommend going. FYI, you have to be at least 21 to drive, but all ages are welcome.

Kerr

Hey all,

Dadthewheel sent me a link to a whole ton of GT4 car pics. I thought I'd share it with you all, so here it is. Be forewarned that as I went through all the cars I found probably 100 duplicates. Nevertheless, assuming this is a valid representation, there will be a great variety of cars to choose from in GT4.

Here are some of my favorites:
Honda NSX-R Concept LM Race Car
Honda HSC - The 37th Tokyo Motor Show Concept Car '03
Honda Takata Dome NSX (JGTC) '03
Nissan Fairlady Z Version S(6MT) '02
Nissan 240ZG '71
Nissan R89C '89
Nissan Xanavi NISMO GT-R(JGTC) '03
Nissan Skyline Coupe G350GT '03 - This is my next car
CUSCO SUBARU ADVAN IMPREZA(JGTC) '03
BMW Concept M5 '04
BMW M3 GTR Race Car '01
BMW V12 LMR #15 '99
Ford GT '05 - I crapped my pants when I saw this one!
Audi RS6 '02
Alfa Romeo 155 V6 TI '93
Chevrolet Corvette Convertible '54 - Can't wait to drive this one.
Ginetta G4 '61
Lancia STRATOS Rally Car '77
Mercedes-Benz 300SL Coupe '54 - My old landlord had one of these.
Sauber Mercedes-Benz C9 '99
PlayStation Pescarolo C60 LMP Judd # 18 '04
Saleen S7 '02
Castrol Toms Supra(JGTC) '01
ESSO Ultraflo Supra(JGTC) '01
WOODONE Toms Supra(JGTC) '03 - Yeah I know, I like Supras!
Toyota SOARER 430SCV '01 - The SC430 in the U.S.
Toyota Celica SS-II Tuning Car(ZZT231) '03
ASL ARTA Garaiya(JGTC) '03 - See a JGTC theme here?
DOME ZERO '78
Nissan Fairlady Z Z-tune (Z33) '03
Cadilla CIEN '02
Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454 '70 - I know this will make you muscle car guys happy.
Chevrolet Corvette Convertible '54
Chevrolet Corvette Stingray L46 350 '69
Chevrolet SSR '03 - Ugly as hell, but I drove one the other day. More on that in another post.
Ford GT40 Race Car '69
Plymouth Cuda 440 Six Pack '71
Pontia Tempest Le Mans GTO '64
Pontiac Vibe GT '02 - Just kidding.
Auti TT Abt Touring Car '02
Mercedes-Benz CLK Rennsport Tourenwagen '00 - The CLK Touring Car was one of my faves in GT3.
BMW 320i Touring Car '03
BMW McLaren F1 GTR '97 - This one has to be badass.
Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG '02
Volkswagen 1500 Karmann Ghia Coupe '68 - One of my neighbors had a beautiful black convertible.
Volkswagen W12 '01
Pescalero Courage C60/PEUGOT #17 '03
Jaguar S-TYPE R

Kerr

Hey folks,

Namco is coming out with a new street racing game in August called SRS: Street Racing Syndicate. Their PR company e-mailed me to see if I'd like to review the game in exchange for placement here on gtvault. In the near future you'll notice a little Flash movie on the right margin which links to the official site. I know that the street racing genre is quite different than the racing sim genre, but I just got done playing Need For Speed Underground and had a blast doing it... even though it only took five days! SRS looks to be as good if not better than NFSU, so needless to say I'm anxiously awaiting a copy of the game.

I will post a review as soon I have the chance to put it through the ringer. In the meantime, back to upgrading gtvault for the release of GT4!

Kerr

I just bought a pair of Diesel jeans online and received them in the mail today. A tag came attached to them that says the following:

"This garment has been treated in order to give particular aspect and characteristics to the fabric all the finishing operation have been performed manually. We learn by experience the impossibility to guarantee the homogeneity of this treatment on fabric, and this is a merit of the article. As in this way every style is different from the other one. For this reason aspect's variations between one garments and the others are absolutely normal. These finishing operations can vary by use and time. For this reason it is possible that the garments loses some of its initial aspect after few washing. We advise you to wash the garment separately and not to expose it at the sunlight"

Now, you'd figure a company that charges and arm and a leg for their product could afford to hire a decent translator, but evidently they spend that budget on 'all the finishing operation have been performed manually'.

EDIT: Updated images I had the opportunity to take a drive in my friend's 2003 BMW M3 convertible the other day. In a word - it's amazing. Any car that can reach 110mph by the end of a standard highway onramp is fast in my book. Anyway, I will post more about the experience later. I just wanted to get these pics I snapped up on the site.

Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
Photo 4

Kerr

EA Sports has just released a new boxing game for the PS2 called Fight Night 2004. I've not yet had the opportunity to play it, however it looks to be a killer game judging by the screenshots and videos. From the EA Sports website:

Get ready for the fight of your life as EA SPORTS™ returns to the world of boxing with EA SPORTS FIGHT NIGHT 2004. Built from the ground up to deliver all the drama and pageantry of a heavyweight title bout, EA SPORTS FIGHT NIGHT 2004 is the most authentic boxing experience to date, sporting a dramatic new-school attitude, a dynamic new cinematic approach, and revolutionary boxing gameplay.

Take a look at the Fight Night 2004 page here on the vault for some cool screenshots and videos.

Kerr

I recently received a request from an individual to let all the tuners here know about an organization called Major League Gaming. MLG is a professional gaming organization that holds tournaments in various cities throughout the US. The interesting part is that one of the games they feature is GT3.

The next tournament will be held in Dallas, TX on April 17-18 2004. Take a look at this link for registration details.

Kerr

EDIT:

I received the pics my friend took with his camera phone in my e-mail today. For those interested, here they are:

Shot 1
Shot 2
Shot 3

I know this is OT, but last night I saw what has to be the best tribute band evet. I'm a music junkie. I grew up playing tons of instruments and even though I haven't played much in recent years I am addicted to music in general. My aunt started me out listening to Pink Floyd at ten years old when she took me on a road trip and gave me my first dose of PF in the form of Dark Side Of The Moon. Ever since then, PF has held a special place in my heart. I purchased their entire back catalog and download every show I can get my hands on over at sharingthegroove.org. BTW, if you enjoy live music then I highly suggest you head on over to the groove.

Anyway, there are a lot of PF tribute bands out there, but The Australian Pink Floyd Show is probably the most famous of them all. I heard they were coming to my hometown and read a bit about them. I found out they played at David Gilmour's 50th birthday party, so I figured they must be good. I ended up getting tickets the day the show was on sale. The tickets I purchased were on the floor but they were labeled General Admission so I figured it would be a free for all for seating. To my surprise, when I got to the show and handed my ticket to the ticket taker, she said that we could sit anywhere in the first two rows! I ended up sitting in the very middle of the second row with a badass view of everything.

The band played two sets, with the first set being a full recreation of DSOTM. If I were to pop the CD in my player right now, it wouldn't sound any better than these guys did. Far and away the best moment of the DSOTM set was the female solo during The Great Gig In the Sky. This woman's voice was a dead ringer for the original recording. It was so intense that everyone in the crowd was literally mesmerized... or maybe they were just really high! On top of that the light show was top notch. No lasers, but they had a circular projection screen a la The Division Bell tour with some great visuals.

For the second set the band played a mixture of PF's hits from all different eras with the notable absence of any Syd Barrett material. if I remember correctly, the set list was:

Astronomy Domine
Sorrow
Fletcher Memorial Home
Keep Talking
One of these Days
Another Brick in the Wall (Pt 2)
Run like Hell

The band then left the stage but of course there was an encore coming. Thank god, because I would've felt short changed without hearing the two encore songs: Comfortably Numb and Wish You Were Here.

I must say it was an awesome show, and I've been to a lot of concerts over the years. The buddy I went with took some pics with his camera phone, so I'm waiting for him to send them to me. I will post them here when I receive them. I highly recommend that even the most moderate PF fan go see The Australian Pink Floyd Show if they have a tour stop in your area.

Kerr

EDIT: Updated images Each year a custom car show named World of Wheels comes through my hometown. I go every year but and I was about to change my mind because 30% of the cars I saw this year were there last year. That was, until I saw a couple very rare Porsches while going through the show. Here are pics of some of the more interesting cars.

Porsche 911 Slant Nose - as far as I could tell this was not an aftermarket job, but you can't tell for sure unless you can get under the hood
Hot Rod
Stang
Loooow
Flames
Screamin' Eagle
Porsche 356A Speedster - This looked like a '55 to me. Excellent condition. Definitely my favorite of the show.

Kerr

I just wanted to say thanks to all who have donated their hard earned dollars towards the upkeep of gtvault. I have had a lot of very generous donations come in lately, and thought I would thank everyone publicly in addition to the e-mails I've sent. Those of you who donated know who you are, however for those that don't know about it I have a Donating Members link under the Navigation tab. This page serves as a permanent record of all the generous members we have in the gtvault community. Thanks again for your donations, it is very much appreciated.

I know that GT4 is a long way off, but I am already working on major inprovements to the site. I can't go into specifics, but rest assured that gtvault will be ready for the release of GT4 with all the features you're used to plus a number of new ones.