A couple of weeks ago it seemed like just another slow day at the office until we received a phone call from our friends at Shell Australia. Last time we got one of these calls, we were invited to check out Shell’s role with the Ferrari Formula 1 team at the Melbourne Grand Prix.
Our quick phone conversation became a blur and I had to wait for an email to hit our inbox before it really sank in… “Hi guys we’re releasing a new formula of the V Power fuel and would like you to come to Sydney and experience it first hand behind the wheel of a Ferrari on the coast of NSW!”
Needless to say, we said yes without even having to think about it and jumped on a plane to Sydney!

After a quick flight from Melbourne, I arrived to the familiar faces of Matyas from Downshift and Luke from Full Boost. We checked into our rooms at the hotel and found something for dinner before calling it an early night.

I spent most of the night editing some more WTAC content to the soothing sounds of the nearby waves crashing into the sand that came in through the open door.

Like a kid on Christmas morning, I sprung out of bed bright and early and dashed down to the lobby to find these gorgeous bright red Ferrari’s awaiting us.

Was this real life? I had to pinch myself as I took in all the incredible details of the 458 Italia.

Every inch of this car was simply a masterpiece. Not a single bolt was the way it was simply because ‘that would do’, no every bolt was carefully selected and crafted to make this car every boys’ dream.

The interior was all about precision and excitement. All the controls were placed in the center of the steering wheel akin to its’ F1 brother. This is definitely a ‘drivers’ car!

Everywhere I looked I found the name or horse imprinted around the car… the engine, boot, seats and side steps. They’re very proud of their creations and it’s easy to see why after only just a short drive!

A few metres away was the other star of the show, another bright red thoroughbred, only this one had a folding metal roof. It was of course a California!

Next to the 458 this is a much bigger car with the hulking long bonnet housing Ferrari’s first front mounted V8. It was also one of the first to use direct injection technology, which we soon learned that the new V-Power fuel had been specially formulated with this tech in mind.

The California is just as striking as the 458, with beautiful round taillights streaming up into the body and four exhaust tips poking out through the rear bumper.

Further down the driveway was the now older brother, a beautiful F430 Spider. Despite the age of the car compared to its successors, we were actually pretty excited to drive it!
It wasn’t time for our drive yet though, so we headed indoors to hear about the new fuel.

Inside we were greeted by Dr Alex Cantlay, one of the Senior Scientists from Shell. Over the last 10 years Alex has been developing and improving fuels for Shell in the UK and is now based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

After a slideshow covering the new generation of V Power fuel, we were treated to a first hand demonstration of the benefits the new formula provides over inferior fuels.

Dr Alex Cantlay showed us two valves, one had a build up of fuel and the other almost perfectly clean. When set alight with a flame or the combustion inside the engine the dirty valve stays alight for a lot longer.
When tuning and running a high performance engine a short and controlled flame is much more desirable and helps increase responsiveness.
Aside from the higher octane we’ve come to love from V Power, the new formula contains powerful detergents that help keep the engine components clean. There has also been a vast improvement over the old formula thanks to 25% more friction modifiers, these play a vital role in helping to lubricate the pistons as they travel, helping to improve the response of the engine.
After just 60 days of use the new V Power can make improvements to nearly any engine!

After our time with Dr Cantlay it was time to sign our lives away for our scenic drive with the three bright red Ferraris out front, reading our disclaimer forms my heart sank…
“You must be at least 30 years of age to drive”.
With the air quickly escaping my lungs my shoulders fell back into my seat… it hit me! I wasn’t going to be able to drive these gorgeous exotic sports cars.

After fighting back the tears, Matyas agreed to be my driver for the day (he got twice the seat time of anyone else that day!).
He also agreed to not have any fun in any way, shape of form whilst driving that day.

Not 10 meters down the road, I learned that Matyas cannot be trusted! And with every press of the accelerator, he was quickly grinning like school boy in a candy shop!

Soon the sadness faded as I became aware of my surroundings… I was sitting shotgun in an amazing piece of machinery blasting along the beautiful NSW coastline on a Monday morning!!

The drive consisted of nearly every type of road imaginable, tight and twisting mountain roads, motorways, coastal roads and even the odd residential neighborhood street.

Our pace car for the day was an Alfa Romeo Giulietta and we all agreed it was a rather striking little hatch back!

It was hard to notice anything else on the road thanks to the amazing symphony of noises coming form the back of our 458.
Matyas backed it into first, then hammered through the gears utilising all 560 horses in the boot yelling “YESSS, OVER NINE THOUSAND!!!”

During our drive we pulled into a Shell service station for a quick refuel and car swap, the faces from all the Monday morning commuters was priceless.
You could see each person trying to work out what each of these six young men smiling from ear to ear holding the keys to these exquisite beauties did for a day job.

We hit the road again heading back into the hills.

We eventually came to a stop next to a field of horses and a mind blowing view through the nearby valley and coastline.

This was certainly the highpoint of our day, three beautiful cars, the peace and quiet of a country road and some roadside refreshments. This is certainly the life!

Next we jumped in the F430, it was rough in comparison to its’ younger siblings but we enjoyed it!

The sound from every shift of the gears was pure ecstasy to our ears!!

Everywhere I looked I was reminded of the theater and excitement that is driving a Ferrari! With vents everywhere, hand stitching on all the leather and of course those sounds and vibrations!!

Our friends looked like they were enjoying the Cali nearly as much as we did!

Our last stop for the day was right next to the water on our way back into town.

This made for some of our favourite shots of the day.

After our final stop we headed home to the hotel for one of the best lunches I have ever had!

To finish off our perfect day, Shell had booked out the local Seabreeze restaurant where we ate some truly amazing food! I couldn’t choose which dessert to get so I got all four!

I would like to thank Shell Australia for another incredible opportunity and an amazing day!
If you would like to enjoy some new V Power fuel for free then enter Shell’s photo competition.
Simply tweet a picture of your car with the hashtag ‘#ShellVPower’ and @Shell_Australia between the 4th of November and the 8th of December.
Shell will be choosing ten winners a week to receive a $100 Coles Express gift card!
Thanks for reading,
Gwyn.

A few weeks ago we received an email from Toyota Australia asking us to get in contact with them as soon as possible and of course without hesitation we hit the reply button. Soon we found ourselves on the phone with Blake who was kind enough to offer us one hell of an invitation…
Toyota’s latest sports car was having its’ first birthday and so to mark the occasion, a group of Australian motoring journalists were all invited to revisit what made them all fall in love with the 86 just twelve months ago.
Like any birthday celebration there was plenty of amazing food, tonnes of games and of course family. Tetsuya Tada was flown in from Japan to join in on the festivities. Tada San is arguably the father of this astonishing little sports coupe and it was certainly an amazing opportunity to gain some insight as to what went into creating such a fun car.


Flashing forward to the big event, it wasn’t until I was waiting to board my flight that the excitement was actually starting to kick in.

After a short flight from Melbourne to Canberra and a quick drive to our hotel, I met up with the other lucky journalists (including a few familiar faces like Matyas from Downshift and Ryan from The Lowdown). After all the formalities, we jumped on a bus to make our way to a very special dinner.
It was almost too good to be true, but yes, Toyota had found a restaurant in Canberra named ‘eightsix’ and booked it out for the event!

Later we learned that the name for the restaurant was inspired by an old term used in New York to describe a runout item on a menu.

I spent most of the evening speaking with Tony Cramb and Mike Green from Toyota. Tony had recently spent two years working in America for Toyota’s subsidiary, Scion.  Now back in Australia, Tony works as the Director of Sales and Marketing.  He has gained an understanding of generation Y and the importance of online social media in his time working for Scion and found out how to make it work to their advantage.  They have adopted a similar marketing approach to the 86 here in Australia, which might have something to do with our invite. Big thumbs up Toyota!

Soon the food begun leaving the kitchen and arriving at the table! We were treated to an amazing range of dishes, hand picked by the restaurant’s owner Sean, each more delicious than the last.
Our pick had to be the slow roasted lamb shoulder!

The guest of honour, Tada San, was more than happy to cross off the last dish and sign the blackboard marking the end of our evening. We all headed to back to the hotel and parted ways for a good nights sleep to ensure we were ready for the day of action ahead.

After an early wake up and a substantial breakfast, we hit the road and made our way out to the driver training facility not far from the airport. Here we found a whole heap of 86’s sitting, waiting for our planned activities.

First up for me was the closed street course where we could experience the 86 on a tight and twisting mountain road. We were handed the keys to two 86’s.  We were then given the opportunity to try an updated model that Tada San had personally organised to have the parts flown in from Japan for Toyota to fit here locally.  The update included a new set of BBS wheels, stickier tyres and upgraded suspension.
Though there were relatively few upgrades, they could not have transformed the car any further from the original! The first one we drove seemed to be much more fun and the suspension was ‘soaking up’ any bit of over steer, allowing the car to straighten up and continue on. The new car became much more of a handful and felt very serious in comparison and a lot less forgiving. Having never driven an 86 before, I was intent on getting a feel for the car and finding my own limits in the process.
After a few fun laps in the current version, I was found myself facing the wrong way in the upgraded 86 not once, but twice!! The car just didn’t seem to respond to my sloppy driving style the same way at all.
A few disappointed looks from the instructors and it was fair to say, I had a chink in my armor.

Things started to look up for me as the next two courses involved getting the car as sideways as possible!!
Australian drifting great, Beau Yates was our instructor for the wet skid pan.

Beau took each of us out for a lap and then sat shotgun while each of us tried our hand sliding the little 86 around the wet course.

Things seemed so slow and peaceful watching on from the sidelines, in stark contrast to the controlled chaos from inside the car. If you’ve ever driven on a wet skid pan before it can be quite hard at first as the car requires little to no power at all to keep sliding so very light burst of acceleration are all that are needed.

Some seemed to have a natural flare for getting sideways but regardless everyone spun, just some more than others!

Then Tada San came by and asked to have a turn. Beau happily jumped into the passenger seat to give the 86’s father a chance to steer.

Tada San was all smiles as he took off. Now I’m not sure what I was expecting but it certainly felt like everyone was hoping (if not expecting) a perfect lap from the man himself and after a few corners it happened…
He spun and there was this sort of sigh as everyone watching on seemed a little disappointed.

After his two spins on his first lap, Tada San had certainly proved himself by completing one of the cleanest laps of the day!

After a few more successful laps, Tada San was met with a round of applause from the crowd as he pulled into the pitlane.
Then we moved onto our third and final round…

A Motorkhana session with instructor Darryl Bush.

The course was simple, clip the yellow flags with the left side of the car and the white flags with the right side of the car… Easy right?!

The huge area meant we could really let loose and enjoy the 86. Ryan was setting a great pace with plenty of tyre smoke and hand brake turns.

Darryl was a great teacher and had us all improving our times significantly over the course of the afternoon!

This was by far the best part of the day! Enjoying the 86’s precise steering and responsive hand brake had me grinning from ear to ear, dying to get out for another session before we called it a day.

Here’s a shot of me chucking the 86 around one of the hairpin flags of the course.

It seems my enthusiasm for the Motorkhana had not gone unnoticed as I was awarded the ‘most improved’ trophy (or a wooden spoon if you will) after my antics on the closed street section in the morning.
Matyas also picked up a trophy for his Motorkhana efforts thanks to a lap time faster than that of Rally champion Neil Bates from the previous day!
Well done Matyas!!
With our day quickly wrapping up, it wasn’t the end of the birthday celebration at all as the party was set to continue back at Toyota HQ in Sydney the very next day!

Dubbed ‘#Festival of the 86’ some 700 people and around 250 cars made the trip down to Toyota HQ.

The event wasn’t limited to just current 86’s, Toyota also chose to celebrate the original AE86 too.

There was also plenty of official merchandise available to remember the special day.

It really was amazing to see such support from Toyota for car enthusiasts during a time where there has been a lot of negative stigma around the scene.  Inviting the local car clubs to join in felt like a step in the right direction.

Tada San also extended his trip to stay and meet local 86 owners and was happy to sit still for 2 hours just signing various things like books, brochures and magazines…

… He even signed some actual car parts for owners!

Beau Yates came along and brought all three of his cars for display!!
It seems he is the perfect ambassador for the 86 with a clean as hell street driven AE86, drift AE86 and his new drift 86 project!

Tada San was very happy to inspect his drift and street AE86’s and spent some time talking with Beau about them all.

This was our first chance to get up and close with Beau’s not so secret weapon.

The new project is gearing towards completion in time for the ADGP series that will be kicking off in early October.
Everywhere you look this car is being finished in amazing detail and will have a host of tricked up parts making it a truly competitive chassis.

It’s shaping up to be one hell of a car and we cannot wait to see Beau behind the wheel in just over a month!

The boxer engine remains but will be worlds apart from it’s factory delivered specifications, now sporting a massive turbo hanging off the front!

What an amazing way to celebrate what is quickly becoming one of the best Japanese cars of the last decade and with a very low price tag this is an easily obtainable, no frills sports car.
I had personally never driven an 86 before this event and if I bought into and believed all the ‘internet talk’ concerning power and “why didn’t it come with a turbo?” I would certainly be eating my hat now after my time with one.
This car really does not need a turbo from factory and anyone who says otherwise probably hasn’t driven one let alone tried to chuck it around a few corners. Even after all that thanks to Toyota helping the aftermarket parts industry there is literally a tonne of parts readily available for the 86 for those wanting coilovers, turbos and even superchargers!
Here’s to a bright future ahead with Toyota releasing two new sports cars and plenty more updates in the pipeline for the 86.
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.
Additional images courtesy of SB Captures | Simpson Tein and Paul Bradshaw.

Last month the GSS crew headed north to the much sunnier Sydney to enjoy the finer things in life, cars, girls and food. Sydney based crew All Stars had put on another killer show, this time with support from Zen Garage and the giant from the US… Stance Nation!
Situated at Silverwater Park next to the picturesque river, the atmosphere on the day was great but bringing our stall up from Melbourne and getting there was another story!


Having to fit a regular working week around our hobby is difficult to say the least, so when we decided to head up to Sydney for the weekend with the GSS stall it meant the team had to split up. Grant left first thing Saturday morning with a rental car packed to the brim and I went to work until 5pm and then raced over to Melbourne Airport to fly out that night.

Grant arrived ahead of schedule and spent a few hours hunting around Sydney airport and found this abandoned Honda CRX. For those that know me well, you would know that it was hard for me to leave this CRX their ageing away.
We thought it would make the perfect track hack and hope it doesn’t end up as a pile of scrap metal one day.
After a massive meal we headed to bed to get some much needed rest in preparation for a full day of car related shenanigans at the show the next day.

Arriving 8am sharp we were greeted by the All Stars crew and they had already set up the Zen Garage stall – these boys don’t mess about!!
We got to work on setting up our own stall and spent quite some time assembling the marquee, as this was its’ maiden outing and it came with no instructions.

Soon the cars started to roll in and already we noticed the cars were somehow different than what we are used to seeing in Melbourne every week. Not better, not worse… Just different!
We couldn’t put our finger on it but it was exciting checking out every new car that rolled in.

Being a ‘stanced’ themed event it was great to see some more track orientated builds coming through the gates. There were even a few legit drift cars that have seen plenty of track action at Sydney’s motor sport park recently.

After a few hours of stuffing around, the mobile shop was up and running and it was time to go exploring!!
We started across from the stall with one very interesting ride…

This ‘Rat-Rod’ inspired Commodore wagon was a work of art and while it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, the owner had gone to a lot of trouble adding personal touches and flair to nearly every inch of the car.

Something we’ve not come across yet is a modified Mazda 323, well not like this anyway. We were really digging the USDM feel and the leather bonnet bra and hope more people dare to try something like this with cars that aren’t necessarily associated with all the whole fitment/stance craze.

Now this car stole our attention away from the rest of the show for quite some time!

Yep!! Full colour bonnet graphics of Jake and Finn from the Adventure Time cartoon series, this is so damn cool words even begin to express it!!

Another neck breaker at the show was this custom golf cart the All Stars guys had brought along.

Pretty aggressive offset for a golf buggy!!!

Once the paddocks were full it was time for the guys to bust out car limbo, yep, car limbo!
Sergio moved the All Stars S15 in for a trial run first and then the flood gates opened and everyone was trying their luck.

The aim? See how low the bar can go with cars still driving clear beneath it. It seemed smaller roadsters like the MX-5’s and S2000’s were setting the bar the lowest.

Drivers began grabbing extra passengers to weigh their cars down and drop the height an extra inch or two. Some cars were easy to fit in or on…

While others it seemed like they were getting smuggled over a tightly secured border!

This frenzy of the lowest went for nearly an hour while everyone tried to better the previous cars height.

While there weren’t any prizes up for grabs, they wanted to try to find a clear winner but in the end we think it was a toss-up between the red MX-5 and this MR2. At one point the MR2 had two girls holding onto the bonnet as the car crawled under the bar with only millimeters to spare!

After all the excitement of the limbo we got back into our tour of all the cars that had entered the show. Sydney crew Acquired Taste had this tasty white Evo we’ve seen so much of online lately.

It’s actually amazing how many cars have ‘E-fame’ these days. Nearly all the flawlessly prepared cars have had pictures shared around the net more than that nasty video of Paris Hilton.

Van’s S15 is always a pleasure to see in the flesh and we loved the placement of this Street-Cover sticker on the rim!

Everywhere we looked there were just more and more cars to look at and it actually got overwhelming with all these quality cars around.

There were even a couple of throwbacks to the show cars of yesteryear with some very big shiny rims on this Lexus and we actually didn’t mind it as it looked pretty neat in person.

Now it seems that Melbourne is the Skyline capital of Australia which must make Sydney the Silvia Capital. I have never seen so many nice S13, S14 and S15’s in one place together before that we lost count!

From this tucking S15…

To this stupidly low S14 hiding in the shadows. There were easily over 20 Silvia’s in attendance!!

Aside from a tonne of Silvia’s there were wheels as far as the eye could see!!

These guys love their wheels! Among a sea of Rays, Works and SSR’s we found a few that stopped us in our tracks. Something you hardly ever see are Lowenhart Xposition’s!
Whack ’em on a black Lexus and you have one very dangerous looking sedan!!

It also seems aside from the usual Japanese affair, there were an incredible amount of German wheels with Sydney siders showing a fondness for all things BBS!!
This particular set of BBS wheels have been completely rebuilt by wheel god Raymond from Raw Works. Check out their site for more info on building your own unique set of wheels!

Continuing on with the BBS theme, this E30 was a thing of beauty. Sitting on the dash was one uber rare BBS/Nardi steering wheel from the 90’s!!

How crazy is this?!!! Yep a decked out wheelie bin full of car audio – it was actually running and pumping some tunes throughout the day for our audio pleasure!

With the huge amount of cars that had squeezed into the show grounds, any cars that didn’t fit inside spilled out into the streets that lead into the park. We happened to spot this mean looking Evo X outside all on its’ lonesome.

One thing we noticed is that all the cars were meticulously clean bar one…

This thing was covered in mud from floor pan to roll bars. It made for an odd sight given it’s surroundings of clean street cars and pricey polished wheels.

The Street Kings S15 was a good looking combo and probably one of the best examples of after market taillights on an S15 we have seen to date.

This tidy Datsun had us studying it for some time and somehow we think that the number plates might not be telling the truth. The menacing looking inter cooler hiding behind the grill seems to tell a different story.

Lowriders!!!!! Yep hidden amongst the sea of euro and Japanese metal were two immaculate American lowriders. This Chevy Impala was absolutely stunning!!!

After walking the entire show we were flabbergasted that there were hardly any Nissan 350/370Z’s! One of the biggest cars in the US scene and there was only one amongst all the other cars there!

As things started to wrap up a flock of photographers made their way to the water to snap away like crazy at a few cars positioned by banks of the river, first up Justin Fox’s perfect R32 GT-R placed against the edge of the water.
Seriously this car is hardly driven and it really shows! It’s flawless!!!

Now when Zen girl Melanie Raimundo started posing with Justin’s GT-R it was sensory overload and I didn’t know what to focus my camera on anymore!

Once the GT-R moved on, Sydney car crew House of Stance positioned their cars and once again like throwing a chip on beach all the ‘protogs’ pounced, hurriedly snapping away before the sun faded completely.

It was easy to understand all the commotion caused with the cars by the water, this is one seriously photogenic spot! Every car looked perfect against the shimmering water. We definitely left with some backdrop envy towards our pals in Sydney.

So after 20+ hours of driving, a flight and some questionable roadside food, the GSS crew got home from one hell of weekend away in Sydney.
We would like to thank all of the All Stars crew for inviting us up, Justin and the gang from Zen Garage and of course all the people in Sydney who made us feel welcome and grabbed some merch from us at our stall. It was great to see a heap of cars already rocking the Gripshiftslide stickers too!!
Until next time Sydney.
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.