A Small Island in the South China Seas

I find myself in Hong Kong for 6 months. It was an unexpected business opportunity, which arrived(as these things tend to do) all of 5 days after I collected the GS, which now sits in a Sussex garage.

So there will be little to report on the buying/driving/riding front, not helped by the fact that Blogger has decided that I must now be capable of reading Chinese, as the log-in page is now in Han characters and the 'log-in' button's whereabouts a total mystery.

However, I shall endeavour to share my thoughts of the place over the coming weeks.

After 4 weeks here I'm missing my two sons, the rolling downs and beaches of West Sussex, and driving - in that order. Its a crowded island, and parking is at an expensive premium, so there is little point in buying a car so six months. Public transport, and taxis are also cheap, and drinking something of a way of life.

However, so is conspicuous consumption. Hong Kongers like the latest and greatest in up-market Western branded merchandise - designer stores are on every street corner, and the roads are full of expensive imported motors. I've seen, plenty of premium saloons and SUV's; Maserati is big here, Cayennes are two a penny, and the Panamera is clearly selling well.

I've also seen lots of great 911s on the road, often in groups - clubs are another big local thing. I've spotted a few early IB's, a smattering of 964s, and 993's are more frequently sighted. There are lots and lots of 996/997s, and of those Cabs are probably the most common variant. Most cars here, including sportscars are have auto transmissions, either because of the traffic conditions, or because driving standards are poor.

Speed limits are low (50 - 80kph mostly), and speed camera's frequent, but pretty regularly I hear the bark of a Ferrari engine echoing between the buildings at weekends.

SS7

Rider Tek

Although the guys at BMW Bahnstormer did their best to sell me the brand's matching clothing, I found myself with an aversion to looking like catalogue man (or even Charlie and Ewan).

So last weekend I went to see my good friends at Grand Prix Legends to sort out some riding gear for the bike.

My requirements were pretty simple, I was looking for a 2 piece textile suit that would keep me both warm & dry but would also give good protection should I find myself sliding down the road.

In the 'old' days, leathers were the the only choice for safety, but at the cost of letting the water in. Soggy crotches weren't my fondest biking memory! Textile suits were around and would keep the weather out, but generally weren't as good as decent cowhide for protection, especially against the road surfaces. Abrasive tarmac vs sliding rider only ends one way, and as an instructor once reminded me "In hospital they clean gravel rash with a scrubbing brush".

In the 15 years or so since I last bought any gear, there have been a lot of development in this area. The best textile suits now combine the best in water, wind and cold proofing, with protection from impact and abrasion better than traditional leather. Armour is part of the equation, and protective back armour is de rigour.

Rukka make some of the best gear out there, although you do have to pay Rolls-Royce prices, up to £1500 for their top of the range suits. I was prepared to pay the cost of some of their more democratic equipment, until the GPL team pointed me at Halvarsson's range.

Made in Finland by people who know a thing or two about the cold, its lovely stuff, with a bunch of high technology fabrics and linings, and each one seems to come with its own tag. Its getting a good reputation even though there's not a whole lot of distribution in the UK. Better still, its much cheaper than Rukka's gear, so much so that the GPL people told me they're happy to have it in Rukka stockist as it makes it look great value!

I ended up snaffling up a 'Phanter' jackey and 'Zen' trousers (both having lost something in translation), to accompany the beautiful Racer gloves I bought the week before.

Alas, events overtook me, and I now find myself 6,000 miles from the bike and the English weather. More posts to come, it will be 6 months before I get back to the GS, but there's plenty to blog on about here in Hong Kong!

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Old CAR

Sitting around SS7 towers are boxes containing every issue of CAR magazine from about 1978, when I at last had the funds to indulge regularly, to 2006, when I decided enough was enough and started chucking the latest issues away.

I picked one out more or less at random this morning as I was waiting for a call, and spent a couple of minutes flicking through it.

The 70's and 80's were CAR magazines' heyday. Nothing else on the market offered its combination of high quality (and honest!) writing, innovative photography & design, industry insight and access to the best and fastest motors in the world. CAR became the standard by which all others were measured, and I would always look forward to the monthly publication day.

April 1988 featured yet another fast but chronically underdeveloped de Tomaso era Maserati, the 'new' BMW E34 5-series, vs it's rivals, the Lancia Integrale & Ford Sierra Cosworth ('Europe's Great Supercar Bargains'), and the latest Suzuki bikes amongst others.

Two things struck me looking through the old mag.

First was that the quality of the journalistic line-up was epic; great writers all. Yet sadly I couldn't help being saddened by how few of them are still around.

Since 1988 we've lost the great George Bishop, the irrepressible old car guy Ronald Barker, the inimitable LJK Setright, Phil Llewellin and the so talented Russell Bulgin.

Of the rest, Gavin Green, then editor, is still involved with CAR 21 years on, Georg Kacher will last for ever, and Steve Cropley & Andrew Frankl still write columns.

The second thing that I noticed was how damned expensive cars were 21 years ago! The 'bargain' Sierra Sapphire Cosworth was £19,000, had 200bhp and ran to 143 mph. By contrast, the current Focus RS costs only £6.5k more and pushes out a storming 300bhp and 165mph.

The 'new' 5 series in 525i form was also £19,000 and offered 170bhp, compared to its nearest current equivalent, the £29,000, 190bhp 523i.

In 1988 a basic Porsche 911(Carrera 3.2) was £37k, the same as a 944 turbo. That compares pretty well to the current 911 at just over £60k, although £37k can still buy you an entry level Boxster.

However, should you have wanted to buy a Sport Edition 911 turbo with your city bonus , it would set you back £99,000. List price of a 2009 997 turbo? £99,000.......

By way of contrast I took at look at house prices. The average price of a UK house in 1988 was £45,000, or a quarter of current values.

Perhaps we don't have it so bad!

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Karter

Its half term this week, and I'm spending time with the two boys, SS7 jnr (aged 11) and SS3.5 (aged 6). On Monday we spent the day at the tank museum in Bovingdon, on Wednesday we travelled the Salterns Way on bikes, and today I took them on the 200 mile round trip to Buckmore Park for a day's karting.

Buckmore run arrive and drive days for youngsters during the school holidays and at half terms. Its well organised and run professionally, with quality safety gear, slick management, and offers children the chance to drive real karts on an outdoor track.

SS3.5 got his first chance to try a kart today; a mixed success. A generally sensible and coordinated 6 year old, he found the karts to be no more than electric buggies limited to a brisk walking pace, and probably more suitable to 4 year olds. In fact, after 15 minutes of slow speed circulation of a simple oval circuit, he announced it was "Really boring Daddy".

No such worries for his elder brother, who was with the 8-11's in 120cc, 20mph petrol engined karts on a more extensive circuit. I've taken him before, and his experience showed - he was smooth, committed and fast. In fact amongst the rather variable dodgem standards of the other youngsters in his group it was like watching a shark swimming with minnows. He gets a real buzz out of it, and next year he'll run with the 12-16 year old in some pretty serious 40mph machines.

Naturally he'd like to be the next Louis Button, but as I keep telling him; there are 16,000 UK competition licence holders, and less than 20 full time professional British racing driver's.

Enjoy it by all means, but realise that motorsport is an expensive hobby, not a career path.

SS7

Two wheels good

I can finally confirm my long awaited return to biking, when I collected a 2 year old, low mileage BMW R1200GS from those nice people at Bahnstormer in Alton today.

I tried a big BWW earlier in the year, and fell for the combination of practicality, performance and clever engineering, so was really just looking for the right bike to come along (and approval from the FD). Its s shame its the end, not the beginning of the summer, but carpe diem and all that...

One big change since the last time I owned a bike (1996) is the amount of tech. involved. The BWM has shaft drive, ABS, fuel injection, catalytic converters, alarm and immobiliser, traction control, trip computer, and aftermarket music and comms system and a tyre pressure monitoring system.

I've probably left something off the list - but thankfully as an approved dealer bike it also comes with a warranty should any of the tech. decide not to cooperate.

The weather was incredible; nearly 19 degrees at the dealer, so by the time the admin, customer briefing etc etc. was finished, I was surrounded by miles of warm, dry Hampshire tarmac.

Determined to take it easy, I did for the first oh, 2 miles. After that a loping 70mph seemed a natural pace, overtaking slower traffic as if I’d never been away from bikes, and leaning comfortably through the bends. The only rusty bit was slow speed riding but later on I even was able to get a little filtering practise as the A27 jammed up.

The route from Alton is a peachy combination of lightly trafficked A and B road, and apart from a section under trees along the downs, was all open and fast. A great way to get back to biking.

After a bite to eat, I later dropped in at Goodwood who were running an Octane track day. They get a better class of boy racer at their events, I counted 4 race XK’s, a real looking Jaguar C type, Cut 7 (the famous racing E-type), a very genuine looking D, and the Ford France GT40 and a rapid little Datsun 120Y.....

Great day.

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Goofback

I've a soft spot for the mk3 Golf (and modded VW's generally but we all have our quirks) so I wanted to share this with you here .

Its a mk3 Golf with a rear mounted aircooled engine, brought to you by those funny blokes at Type 3 Detectives.

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Honda's dead-end sportsters

I noticed that during the summer there was coverage of the Honda S2000’s demise after 10 years of production.

I tried one at the Chobham test track a year or so ago; if any car ever came within a sliver of greatness this was it; lovely low scuttle, sublime great change and that paradigm of an engine red-lined at 9000rpm.

But at the same time you couldn’t help noticing the dated interior design, with mid 90’s UJM switchgear, a non-adjustable steering wheel and marginal cockpit room.

I found myself wondering why Honda hadn’t developed the car from launch, beyond a little fiddling with the suspension settings and a long-stroke motor for the ‘Merkins.

But this isn’t unusual for Honda, their history is littered with sportsters that were allowed to wither on the vine bereft of investment, before being quietly escorted from the premises without so much as a ‘Thanks for the memories”.

Looking at the sportsters, there’s clearly little in the way of product strategy, or even a consensus underpinining the nature of the sporty side of the range – odd in a company very like Ferrari or Porsche, created by a charismatic enthusiast for all things fast and fun.

You’ve got front engined sportsers with and without hard tops, front wheel drive two seaters, middies with either 600cc or 3000cc, coupes and roadsters, all sorely lacking a place in any long term view.

Its not as if Honda don’t know how to do it; the motorcycle division’s Fireblade has now run in 7 generations for 17 years, each one true to the light/manoeuvrable philosophy, yet each an improvement on the predecessor.

The Civic is another example; now in its 8th iteration in 35 years.

There was some mutterings about a ‘new’ NSX last year, but the concept hawked around the shows turned out to be a front engined behemoth, powered by a V10 engine, as far way from the jewel like original as it was possible to get.

Such a lost opportunity.


SS7