Ippoippo

Ahhh, nostalgia. 10 years ago now (well, 10 years this October), when I was a complete petrol head, just left university, and still loved to play games on my PC… Grand Prix Legends arrived!

None of this arcade-y type racing game, this was a proper hard-core simulator, and I would be playing for a good number of years after it came out (it was patched a fair bit with improved grpahics etc etc).

Of course, since then, I’ve been to Japan, gone ‘green’, got married (so less spare time too geek around)…

However the world of simulations moves on, and I saw this recently on YouTube.

How cool is that (well, maybe not the gloves )…
Hmm, what’s the Carbon footprint of doing that for real versus the electricity usage of running it on a computer.
Most of these games are on PC still, however we now have a iMac as well as the MacBookPro. The iMac is Yuko’s machine (and TV machine). But that machine also has a Windows partition on it so we can run some Japanese software that isn’t available on the Mac. Hmmm, Windows partition… Windows car games.

Well, this one was a bit of a shock!

Now, have they done this because they know Kimi is off to Ferrari in 2007, when Shumacher retires at the end of 2006?

I wonder how JPM fits into all this. Sure, if Kimi is off to Ferrari, then you’d think JPM would be safe… but then you’ve got Hamilton snapping at his heals.
I remember watching Hamilton as a 12 year old kid, when they used to show Karting on British TV on a Saturday lunchtime. The lad was a genius behind the wheel in those days. At that age, Schumacher was his hero, and like his hero was a master in the wet, and had a rather ruthless streak!

Talking of cars, I found this great Honda site (used to be a Integra Type-R owner). Some of the history stuff on it is pretty cool.

Warning: Broken Record alert.
Of course, it’s a shame all this motorsport and car stuff is going to be going down the plughole in the next 10 years with oil supplies getting tight.

Miss what you may ask?

Last year, I went to Tokyo Auto-Salon, which I wrote about nearly a year ago now (wow, I’ve been writing this crap on this site for about a year!!??).

The only problem is that I have to go to the UK this year for some training in the Bath Office, from 9th January to 13th January. That means I’m flying back to Japan on the 14th, to arrive on the 15th. Somehow, I don’t think I’m going to feel like going straight from Narita Airsport, over to Makuhari Messe Hall, before heading home.

Damn

I was really looking to seeing some stuff like…

…. Yes Yuko dear, I mean looking forward to seeing the cars! Not the ladies in the “less than sufficient for a freezing winter” clothing.

Cool ‘car‘!!

For some reason, reminds me of a pre-WW2 Mercedes Grand Prix car (the grill on the front of the car).

Also, realised that this weekend, I’m going to be missing this event, and not get to see some PS3 action!
Typical, you have a cool event, just down the road (well, railway line) in Chiba, and I’m fricking kilometers away in Osaka. Osaka better be as good as people have been telling me it is with this tasty food they keep going on about.
Ahhh, 15 minutes until I’m leaving the office. Walk over to the station. Meet Yuko. Buy some food and beer to consume on the 新幹線 (’Shinkansen’, or Bullet Train as us Westerners like to call it).