A Monday morning blast down the coast with some mates, RoadsterLife style

Last week we were given a preview of a minter Montego NA8 that had made it’s way down from the north. Here’s the full story …

It all began in 2000 when my first boss took me a for a spin in his red NA through the RNP (Royal National Park). I remember the day even after all these years, I remember the first roadster experience. With the top down and the sun shining through the branches we were cruising without a destination but enjoying the journey.

Fast forward 10 years and after alot of help from my fellow roadster friends the ball started rolling and I was getting a state roads inspection done on a car I hadn’t even seen yet. All things checked out and on a cold & rainy Saturday morning, my mate Kevin and I were onboard a 6AM flight to Brisbane.

After a little set back with bank transfers I was shaking hands with the old owner.  Kevin and I were about to commence our 12 hour trek back to Sydney on the red eye express.

Not knowing what to expect along our journey (and getting a bit lost in the Brisbane CBD) the faithful GPS counted down each kilometre and how far we were from the destination. Numerous pitstops and driver changes to stretch our legs …

(props to Kevin Cheng)

… we had arrived back in Sydney!

So what does roadster life mean? I cannot tell you what it should mean but I can tell you I have experienced generosity, knowledge and help from my fellow roadster community. 

This is my story.

If you have a Roadster story you want to share, click on the submit tab at the top of this page to contribute. In return we’ll send you a limited edition Roadster Life sticker as a way of thanking you for your support.

The state of NSW has five river crossings by car ferry, conveniently linked by a number of great winding B-roads. A group of roadsters and a German did three of the five in one day. More soon …

In Part Three of the ‘Dirty Little Secret’ Saga, the shoes are secured, and the team make their way across the border for the extraction…

With the collection date fast approaching, 48hrs prior to departure some really good news came through: A message from Brian Goodwin of Goodwin Racing USA advising that multiple packages were arriving.

Confession:I did something naughty and I have to fess up. While pondering my wheels dilemma, I toyed around with sending Brian an email to see if I could order the limited-custom-order 14x7+19 RPF1s and asked if I could use his Paypal system to purchase rather than the temperamental-for-Australian-credit-cards online shopping cart through his website. Sadly, Brian advised me that he didn’t have any in stock for immediate delivery. I was disappointed, especially considering the online store did show these wheels as being available.

After discovering that the website store would accept an Amex card, my arrogance got the better of me, so I decided to try and order the wheels. A few days of thumb twiddling and then seeing my amex bill deduct the amount later than week made me think that the order had gone through. Which was a problem.

Being impatient, I had also been looking through yahoo.jp for wheels as a backup plan if the RPF1s weren’t available. As fate would have it, a set of 14x6.5 +14 Watanabes came up. Compulsive buying mentality kicked in, I won the auction and before I knew what I had done a second set of wheels were on their way to me.

With a lack of wheels clearly no longer a problem, we set off to Melbourne in my parent’s X-Trail. The plan was to leave at 2.00am to make Melbourne by the early afternoon. Three friends (Matt, Karl and Will) were to join me and help share the driving, with a fourth (Nath) flying down the following day to meet us and be a fresh driver for the return home.

I took the helm for the first three hours. From there Will took over the drive until breakfast at around 8.00am. After devouring a few McMuffins we were off until a well deserved coffee break at Holbrook, where you will find the “Best Coffee in Hume”.

Matt took the last and final stretch to Melbourne. By 12:30, we were in the northern suburbs of Melbourne taking out some cash at a teller machine, but not for the purchase of a car. This road trip was also an opportunity for Matt to pick up an HKS exhaust for his NC roadster, so a slight detour for parts retrieval was undertaken before completing the main objective of the trip: to pick up Sake, an immaculate NA8 clubman roadster.

Upon viewing the car, it was clear that the journey was well worth it. Sake was 10000% better than I had anticipated, and had to pinch myself. Tiredness and hunger went away as I did a quick test drive of the car with its owner, Lachy.  My first impression of the car was a good one, but the second one not so - It was when I tried to manoeuvre SAKE along a driveway when I realise that no power steering is hard work at slow speed and resulted in a scrape to the Garage Vary front lip. 

Forgetting this slight mishap, the deal was closed, papers signed, money exchanged and the X-Trail was loaded with the spare parts that were also part of the sale. At this time we were joined by Nath and our mazda parts-pusher and Melbourne friend, Dan, to assist us celebrating the occasion – a late lunch in Lygon Street and dinner at Garage Cafe - an eatery focused on the car owner where you can park your car in the venue and eat next to them.

By 10.00pm I was almost ready to sleep standing up, so the five of us retreat to the hotel for another early start. 5.00am would come too soon but driving Sake home would more than compensate a second sleepless night …

Part one of the Dirty Little Secret can be found here 

Part two of the Dirty Little Secret can be found here 

If you have a Roadster story you want to share, click on the submit tab at the top of this page to contribute. In return we’ll send you a limited edition Roadster Life sticker as a way of thanking you for your support.

There is no picture to go with this, because no picture can express the joy of just going to work: Warm sunshine in the onset of winter, crisp skies, winding coast road, top down and the sound track that only can be described as the noise of a WWII Hawker Hurricane. And as I was heading to an important customer meeting, I was getting paid for this enjoyment.

Needles to say, the meeting went as well as the drive. I enjoy this way too much :)

They say a picture tells a thousand words…

The feeling of the top down, a winding road, some friends and the raw feedback of a first generation roadster. A V-Special with the original Nardi wheel and some nice Nakamae bits also make it easy on the eye.

I never grow tired of this image or the feelings it conjures up.

Somewhere around the middle of a perfect weekend of adventure …

Driving up the side of the Great Dividing Range in the pouring rain, top down, chasing and being chased by an NC Roadster, from single lane river crossings to misty mountain twisties, Thunderbolt’s delivered. Driving top-down through a thunderstorm is not pretty … except when the sun comes out 20mins later and creates magic like this.  Thanks to the lovely Sandra for the pic.

Having understood how a car handled on the track, it then allowed me to appreciate winding country roads. The next 12 months saw about 20,000km just doing weekend drives. Most of these were with the MX5 club. The above shot taken on their annual Bathurst / Mt Panorama run.