Key to this was getting some killer airfares – I needed to book 4 legs at least, either in a single booking or a cluster of bookings linked together by myself.
In the end I settled on using AirAsia and making a booking with my choice of service level, carry-on luggage only to KL, 20kg Return luggage, a seat in the Quiet Zone of my choice and so on. Total spent including all fees – AUD425. The problem is this flight left from Sydney meaning either two 3 hour drives from Canberra or a linking flight.
Turning to Virgin Australia and lining up matching flight times put me a further AUD247.70 down but I now had dates of travel locked in.
Its all getting very real now
With flights locked in on the cheapest virtually non-refundable, non-changeable fares this trip was going to happen. I’d previously sketched out a rough budget while looking at airfares and now it was getting tight…
Description
Estimate
Flights (SYD – KUL)
$ 368.00
Flights (CBR – SYD)
$ 240.00
Accomodation
$ 650.00
Travel Insurance
$ 90.00
F1 Ticket
$ 250.00
Totals:
$ 1,598.00
OK in reality the budget crept a bit when I added in the base cost of the AirAsia flights and the real (no discount) internal flights. But at this point I was still allowing myself a generous 3 star accommodation budget and a pretty good range of ticket options for the F1.
Working a bit backwards I contacted our usual travel insurer for a quote – it came back a bit higher than expected, but not much, and a chunk of the increase was selecting the “no excess” option. Always worthwhile when travelling and while my Credit Card offers complimentary insurance a dedicated policy is always much more generous.
Time to get serious and book some more stuff, with the flights already over budget I was hoping to downgrade costs a bit, so hitting the Sepang Circuit website I started the arduous choice of selecting my F1 tickets.
Sepang Circuit ticket prices are some of the better prices – and buying direct from the circuit online cut out some of the costs that other ticket sellers impose including mandatory postage of tickets. Not to mention it’s not like the racetrack is a fraudulent operator!
In the end I’ve settled for a covered grandstand on the back straight – it was basically the best combination of allocated seat – I’ve grabbed one right on the railing so should have a great clear view. It was cheap, at a smidge over AUD195 for the three days.
There is a bonus with booking through Sepang Circuit – that is the inclusion of tickets to the post-race party (Calvin Harris in 2014) and other things.
So now I had flights, insurance, and an F1 ticket and nowhere to sleep!
You know the feeling you get when there’s a task you should do but really don’t want to do because there’s something more unpleasant in the way?
I’ve got that feeling these days thanks to a spare (cheap) set of wheels lined up in the garage.
The problem is they’re dirty, the kind of dirty that doesn’t come off with detergents or All Purpose Cleaners, the kind of dirty that comes off in your hand and not in the wash. The kind of dirty you hope your daughter will never be.
Inner barrel of the SP20 alloys.
So what better opportunity to get some of the “off the shelf” wheel cleaners and have a go at comparing them. The best bit was these wheels need refinishing so any damage done wasn’t going to upset me.
The Test Subjects
I’ve seen on forums talk of IronX and similar – decontamination chemicals that turn purple as they work – and when I read that Bowdens Own “Wheely Clean” did the same I was keen to try it. My other contender, from the UK was Autoglyms “Custom Wheel Cleaner”.
Both claim to not damage wheels or paintwork, both claim to strip away contamination, both claim to make the job easy.
Bowdens Own and Autoglym wheel cleaners ready to do battle.
The two products were bought from local resellers at/around their respective RRPs. They’re both just under AUD20 so neither is a “budget buy”.
The Test
The easy bit – tape up a wheel into three sections, one for each brand and one “before” section. Use each product according to instructions, compare before and after. The best result wins.
LEFT: Autoglym, RIGHT: Bowdens Own
As the picture shows the Bowdens Own Wheely Clean has delivered a better result, neither product breaks down grease and tar effectively so a further cleaning process would be needed to deliver the best possible results.
I believe the two products are quite evenly matched, however the Bowdens Own product instructions specify more agitation and soak time than the Autoglym. Naturally this will contribute to a better outcome.
The Bowdens own product does turn purple, and while neither has the greatest scent the Bowdens really does get “on the nose”. If I was a betting person I’d be thinking Peroxide (as in hair bleach) is the key ingredient – maybe an experiment is in order.
After the initial comparison I re-cleaned the entire wheel with Bowdens Own – again I doubt the results would be significantly different had I used the Autoglym – but the second clean was worth the effort.
Really Clean: After a second application of Bowdens Own Wheely Clean
Recommendation
I have no doubt that every home detailer needs to have a product like these in their kit. The speed of the result and the overall ease of use lift them head and shoulders above scrubbing with with old-school soap products.
The downside is cost, I’ve gone on to use these products in conjunction with my regular detailing and would say that 12 wheels is about the maximum you can expect to clean per bottle. I’d recommend using a wheel cleaner like these to break down heavy buildups of brake dust and and contamination, but for weekly washes I think you’ll find greater value in using a good set of cleaning tools and normal detergents.
For my money I’ll be sticking with Bowdens Own – their wheel cleaner product works and it’s a great opportunity to support an Australian business that is bringing good products to market.
I’ve never been to an F1 race before and despite being in Malaysia at the same time as the 2012 race I never quite made it down to Sepang Circuit to have a look. This year I’m making a dedicated trip, on a budget.
The Budget:
The budget was “open” to interpretation as I’m always a sucker for toxic option syndrome, but to meet all the initial costs upfront from cash reserves and limit myself from up-speccing accommodation etc I elected to cap fixed costs of airfares, accommodation and F1 ticket at AUD1500.
Planning:
I started out in January with a very simple plan, book some fares on the worlds best low-cost carrier and use the dates of the cheapest fares to determine the duration of the trip. I wanted some time on the ground to visit some attractions as well as relax and generally “have a break”.
Canberra is not an international travel hub so my flight costs had to get blown out by the duopoly that is the Australian domestic airline industry.
F1 tickets for Malaysia are cheap, there’s no other way to put it and this was the most flexible part of my budget, I could spend next to nothing for a walking paddock pass or extend into Grandstand seats from around AUD100.
Accommodation was going to be part of the make-or-break equation, I knew spending AUD100-AUD150 a night would deliver a good room in a international hotel chain, but it would also significantly dent my meagre budget. Thankfully Kuala Lumpur has a myriad of options and really the trick was seeing how much was left after the airlines took their share.
So the plan was:
1. Book flights to Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) – ensure domestic flights could be matched up and book those too.
2. Lock in F1 ticket booking.
3. Decide on any side-trips, book Kuala Lumpur accommodation.
4. Do stuff I forgot to do first… (Like Travel Insurance)
I’ve never been an outstandingly patient person but sometimes when there’s money involved it easy to wait.
Back in early 2012 prior to our epic Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore trip we bought a Panasonic Lumix FT3 – the rationale was simple, it was small, rugged, waterproof and reviewed very well. It usurped our Canon cameras at the time thanks to size and both the Canons were getting old.
I’d also harboured the idea of buying a Super Zoom compact as well, setting my heart on a Nikon S9200 – a model barely released – and ultimately it just wasn’t available during our trip at a price I was prepared to pay.
The FT3 has travelled with us, we’ve lost the original battery and the two no-brand ones are getting a bit tired, it’s got scratches and scrapes from falls but it just keeps on going. It’s spent 6 weeks in Vanuatu, snorkelling and trekking, finally the humidity taking a toll and the camera suffering condensation internally, but a few days in the sun have that all cleared up once more.
So now with the Malaysian F1 looming and my budget trip planned I was revisiting the idea of a new camera. There’s nothing wrong with the old FT3 – except the super tough brief meant Zoom was sacrificed and for F1 where the action is a little further away Zoom would be good.
Enter the search for a new Super Zoom compact. Again size was an important factor, and immediately I looked into the Nikon and Canon offerings, The Nikon S9500 or Canon SX280HS immediately sprang to mind but after reading a few reviews I was forcing myself into a bigger choice, there are quite a few good compact super zooms out on the market, but my own budget (No more than AUD300) meant that I’d need to be doing some bargain shopping to get what I wanted.
Since the advent of digital cameras there’s been a yearly new-model cycle – when I was looking for the S9200 I was looking to buy at the start of a model cycle, but this time with my availability lesson learnt I was going to buy an End-of-Model runout.
So off the the various retailers I went, knowing the basic specs and models meant I was really just trying to identify the camera that felt nice in the hand and fitted the budget.
Panasonic Lumix TZ-40
In the end it was another Panasonic – the Lumix DMC-FZ40 that fitted the best. Not only had it consistently reviewed well but it also felt nice in the hand. The familiar user interface helped push it over the line.
I paid AUD293 compared to the RRP of AUD399 (saving over 25%), got all the features I wanted and have it ready to travel. There were a couple more surprises in this – firstly I bought from a Bricks’n’Mortar retailer during a “sale”, secondly online discount resellers simply were not price competitive. In fact if you took into account the risks of getting non-Australian stock, which may or may not have the Panasonic International Warranty that we get here then buying online was at least 10% more expensive!
Sure all the 2014 generation Super Compacts have taken a bigger step forward, the lenses are now pushing out towards 30x (from the ~20x of the 2012-2013 generations) but are they that much better? The replacement for the TZ-40 is the TZ-60 – with a launch RRP of an eye watering AUD549 is a great camera I’m sure but I doubt it’s over AUD250 better! The price difference is roughly half my ticket costs!
The 2011 Lumix DMC-FT3 with the 2013 Lumix DMC-TZ40
So what’s it like?
Well I wouldn’t go as far as saying I love it, I’ll save that for the day when I am truly blown away by a camera, but for the most part the reviews are honest.
The Panasonic Lumix TZ-40 does everything well, just like all the other “numbers driven” super-zooms there’s flaws with the premise and the performance, but there’s a lot of camera in a tiny price.
Unlike a lot of reviewers I must have a steady hand technique as I’m able to use the full zoom to capture distant scenes, it’s not the easiest I admit, the same amount of zoom on the 300D is easier to shoot with thanks to the bulk of the camera providing stable grip points, but using a mini-tripod or adapting a GoPro grenade grip would work really well.
The iPhone app is a little clunky but for tripod mounted shots, it’s workable. It would be good if later versions of the App saved the images into their own Camera Roll rather than blending with the rest of the photos in the iPhone.
A 3-shot tiled image made by the Panasonic Image App.
The composite picture above shows some of the zoom capabilities, all shots taken from the same point, letting the iA mode do it’s own thing.
Naturally I’ve only taken a few pics so far, and the real test starts in two weeks when I hit Malaysia.
5:11am and the cheerful melodies of the alarm that woke me are a distant memory. My feet hit the floor and it’s time to get a move on. Looking out the window reveals the smattering of rain that’s fallen and the latest forecast looks more like I’ll become a human lightning rod.
The 229km drive out to Temora from south Canberra takes about 3 hours to do at a leisurely pace, stopping for breakfast, comfort and naturally avoiding the attention of the NSW Police force. Yes we’ve all driven further faster, but these days having a license and money in my pockets is more favourable.
After rummaging around throwing my untouched for 3 years camera gear back into the bag, stopping for fuel and generally getting myself conscious by 6:30am I was cruising. There’s the obligatory stop for breakfast at the Yass/Hume Highway Service Centre for one of McDonalds fine breakfasts around an hour later. I had a bit of a walk around, you know the classic “Stop Revive Survive” mantra while savouring the coffee from the same fine establishment. Then it’s back on the road.
It’s just short of 9:30am as I cruise up Tom Moon Ave in Temora. The gates to the carpark are open and there’s a few cars sitting forlornly in the rain. It’s still another 30 or so minutes before we can enter the museum so I sit back and play with the trip computer.
The GT220 was never bought for hyper-miler performance, but it has proven to be very economical in comparison to my last 4 cars. In fact its fuel consumption is on-par with the 2002 RenaultSport Clio, ironically adding considerably more size to the car and a turbocharger to the “same” 2L F4R base engine results in no change to overall consumption. This is a great example of just how much silent evolution happens in the auto industry. I’ve carrying around 400kg more weight, added more performance (50hp additional thanks to the turbo) and yet use the same amount of fuel!
The numbers are good but not stellar, but with the light rain and water on the road plus the rather undulating terrain I’m not about to complain. The outward journey consumed about a quarter tank with a measured 229.2km travelled. This was spot-on the Google Maps estimate of distance and the same as predicted by the Tom Tom Carminat system in the GT220. More encouraging was the “Range” calculation showing an even 500km Distance to Empty. Take away some of the more adverse conditions and I probably could bank on an easy 750km touring range. This is an important consideration for future day-trips!
Finally the clock flashes up 10am and my fellow carpark lurkers and I spill from our rain sodden vehicles, gather our camera equipment and proceed into the Gift Shop/Entrance of the Museum. $20 changes hands, I get my pass-out stamp and the days program of flying.
The Museum is broadly made up of 4 areas of interest; The Gift Shop and Information centre where displays covering both the aircraft and RAAF history are intermingled with museum restoration information, a “observation deck” that overlooks the main maintenance hanger so you can see aircraft being maintained (as opposed to the non-accessible restoration hangers), the main Museum Hanger where aircraft are displayed when not being flown, and finally the open-air benches and seating where the hard-stand, runway and flying can be observed from. None of these areas are huge, so with the crowd diminished but he rain I’m able to move around freely and attempt to reacquaint myself with my old Canon 300D.
CAC WrrawayGoPro Mounts!T28D Trojan
CA-27 Sabre
By now it’s clear the weather is going to get the best of the day. There will be flying but there’s eagle eyes poised over the weather radar and flights will be low-level and low-speed to minimise aircraft damage.
That was something new I learnt, historic aircraft aren’t flown in the rain because the impact of water against the surfaces strips the paint! The weather remains closed in, but the museum crew continue to ready aircraft while the small crowd rotate through the hangers and the open areas.
One young fan keeps watch on the Lockheed Hudson
There’s plenty of time to take photos of todays demonstration aircraft between the rain squalls. The Supermarine Spitfire Mk8, CAC Boomerang and Lockheed Hudson are prepped and fuelled in front of us.
At last there’s a break in the weather and the CAC Boomerang takes to the air. Shortly after the Boomerang returns the Spitfire takes off and gives us a unique demonstration of low-speed flying. Normally (on a clear day) the Spitfire is flown more in line with its reputation for speed and agility, so in a way this is a refreshing change. A break follows while the weather clears enough for the Hudson to take-off. 5 minutes becomes 15 which becomes 30 but eventually the rain breaks and the Hudson is up.
While the 300D and I struggled to get our groove back the iPhones video ability did allow me to capture the engine starts quite clearly. Once in the air the 300mm telephoto was brought into play, the now 10 year old 300D was never going to cope well in the weather and my lack of recent experience didn’t make things better. While I fumbling with settings I’d occasionally get a good short and ruin 20 others by forgetting to switch those same settings back!
By 2pm the flying was over and the aircraft moved to the maintenance/engineering hangar for us all to get up close. A bit more wandering around and finally it was time to make another pass through the giftshop before heading back to Canberra.
The plan for the return trip was much the same, use the same route, expect it to take 3 hours and generally stay out of trouble. Pulling out of the Museum carpark at 2:30pm and crawling through Temora until hitting the open road I was immediately surprised at the massive increase in traffic. The constant rain had led to a build-up of standing water, the road sections depressed through constant heavy vehicle use were now 20mm deep channels of standing water, the crown of the road and centre of each lane forming the “dry line”.
An insipid version of McDonalds coffee at Yass/Hume Highway Services – why is it that some McCafes still can’t make an average quality coffee? – before the final leg back to fill the tank and see what our real world economy was.
Door to door we covered 458.9km and burned a total of 34.71L of Shell V-Power. My fuel use spreadsheet tells me this equates to 7.56L/100km. The trip computer was showing an average consumption of 8.7L/100km and a Range of 320km. I’m overall happy with that, pushing through water on the road and having a number of quite-low to quite-high speed runs overtaking on undulating terrain was never going to deliver diesel shaming economy.
The following oils have been confirmed to have RN0710 compliance/approval/certification in the Australian market.
There are some oils that are approved in other markets but companies are careful to point out that formulations may vary. As more information is confirmed by Australian importers it will be added.
A little while back on OzRenaultSport I semi-volunteered myself to look at a couple of the local auto parts stores and determine what oils where available off-the-shelf in Australia that clearly met the Renault RN0700 and RN0710 standards.
The Renaultsport vehicles all required the RN0710 standard oils, while the “run of the mill” models can generally use either RN0700 or RN0710. The exception is diesels with the particulate filters, they need RN0720.
This was never meant to be a qualitative exercise, just one that would help owners of these great cars buy an oil of their choosing that didn’t lead to Renault Australia reducing warranty coverage due to “non-approved lubricants”.
Why are we all so keen to use a different oil? It’s not like the Elf products Renault supplies through their dealer network are terrible, they’re definitely up to the task, but they’re also expensive when purchased through dealers and not very widely distributed. This means for most owners we have to source oil for intermediate servicing from the dealer or freight 5L bottles of oil around the countryside. Neither is really cost effective. On the other hand this study of commonly available oils isn’t about finding the cheapest option, it’s about cutting through the maze of labelling (or lack thereof) and letting owners make choices based on their own brand preferences.
To achieve this I’ve created a Google Docs Form that can be used to enter oils into a Docs spreadsheet that I’ll then use to create the “output”.
This diagram represents the basic schematic and several other iterations were generated to take into account variations and modifications to suit other builds.
The Block Diagram shows the basic connection paths used for successful operation. The arrows indicate the primary direction of the control or communication. It is important to consider the Engine & ECU Wiring harness complete with all associated sensors as a complete single unit. While some parts of the Engine & ECU Wiring Harness may need to be adapted to suit your vehicle configuration the overall harness should not be varied greatly. For details of individual sensor wiring refer to the electronic version of the Ford Focus Wiring Diagrams.
The OEM Engine Control Unit is designed to be located within the engine bay and only needs to be mounted with the connectors protected from direct water ingress.
