Spongeinside's gallery

Today I bring you.. A small, funny, odd yet very cool and awesome to drive car, the Automaz AZ-1 (/Mazda AZ-1):

No editing on any of them (accept the [c]Spongeinside obviously)

Hope you'll enjoy them!


Bern - Marktgasse








The reflection in the mirror on #6 looks all messed up.. Don't know what went wrong :ouch: And with #7 and #8 I couldn't choose which I liked better, foreground focus of background focus, I like them both :D

And the final 4:
Top Gear Test Track






Going to do some editing to #1, so stay tuned for that :D

Thanks for taking the time to look at my pictures!

Oh, if you were wondering, stock setup, except racing airfilter, new ecu, sport soft tires and new rims and 'body kit' from GT-auto.
 
Another set from me :D Some editing was done on these to give them a warmer color :)

Again a Mazda, bit more powerfull than the last one but just as fun to drive! Did a lot of A-spec racing and some online races to scrape together the money for this beauty :drool: (Cr.5.260.000 :scared:) and it left me broke afterward :P (like my last girlfriend.... j/k)

Hope you'll like'm! :D








She was worth every Cr. I spend on it :sly:
 
I'm on a roll this week :sly:

Story time :crazy:

Not too long after I bought the AZ-1 I felt it needed some minor upgrades to make it handle just a bit better, on the stock comfort tires it had a very unpredictable over steer.. So I decided to hit the garage and get some tuning parts. I didn't want to spend too much on it, because I was saving up for a 787b :) So I decided to only get tuning parts 'that I would be able to install if I had to do it myself in real life'. So the only parts I bought were sport tires on new rims, a racing air filter and a new ecu (and threw on a bodykit and wing). With these parts the pp and horsepower didn't improver much, but handling was improved and I wanted to keep it close to stock.

Anyway....

It was late in the evening when I left the garage and it was already pitch dark! But I just had to take it for a test drive. So here's a selection of 15 pictures of the 38 I took!


















I really like the reflective red line on the rims :D And in some pictures you can see the brake disks glow as well! I always thought people photoshopped that in, but GT5 does the glowing brakes itself :D

Only minor editing was done.. removed the GT logo and added text on the bottom right corner, nothing more.
 
Thanks :D It's the first time I did night shots.. pretty hard to get the shot right when you can't see where you're pointing the camera at :P (partly because of my crappy crt style tv).
 
Hey man,

Nice gallery, I like the odd mix of cars, they are the ones with character!

Keep it up!
 
Thanks :D I have a 'fetish' for the more odd (sometimes rare) cars :)

Here's a few from today, again the AZ-1 but in it's new color! Orange! At first I wasn't sure about the color, but after these pictures I'm lovin' it!
(I love orange in general, but wasn't sure about this particular shade of orange)










Thanks for having a look!
 
Another very original choice of car (i think trhat's the first time i see a set with this one :lol:)

And anyway that's a good set, especially pics 2 & 5 👍
 
Thanks! :D
At first I wasn't sure about #5, but it's starting to grow on me :) #2 and #3 are my personal favorites and I really like how the light reflects on the orane metallic paint in #1 and #4 :)

Oh and I really love panning mode 2 :drool:
 
So Kei cars are small , 'zippy' and fun, but on the other side of the spectrum we have something totally different, not so small, not as 'zippy' but fun nonetheless!

I present you, the Plymouth Superbird!
Big as a school bus, cornering ability of a.. well.. slightly smaller school bus, but once you get the hang of it, a blast to drive! :D

I came across this beauty a while back, used it once and although I liked it's looks, driving it was hell, so it sat in my garage for a few weeks collecting virtual dust. But tonight I thought, why not tune it up a bit? So after some searching I found a setup here on the forums (sorry can't remember from who it came:nervous:) and applied it to this beast! Now it's actually decent to drive....... after some getting used to.

For it's first test drive with the new setup, I let it loose on the Nordschleife, yeah I know, not the best track to drive such a beast for the first time, but don't worry, I know what I'm doing, I'm a professional idiot:dopey:

The first lap wasn't too bad actually, I tried to keep it calm and relaxed, not pushing it too hard and just played it save. The second lap I started pushing it and it wasn't pretty, it could take a lot, but once you made a tiny mistake and start to loose control, this thing just gets a mind of it's own and you'll be scraping along the barriers facing the wrong way for hundreds of feet :ouch:

So this car needs some more practice to get a clean lap out of it, but I think it's doable...

Anyway, enough talking, let's look at her! :drool:




When I came across it, I knew I just had to have it, such an iconic muscle car is worth every credit, too bad it's not a premium car :(
 
Last edited:
I had a need for speed today.. So after some tweaking to make it more manageable for my average skill level :) (50% power and maximal ballast) I did some runs on several tracks and only just managed to keep it under control.. I really wish there was a way to tone it down just a bit more so I'll actually be a decent car to race with...

Anyway.. (I talk to much do I..)
Here's some shots of my run on Circuit de la Sarthe :D








I really like the detail on the rear in #6 and #7 :D Although I was hoping the fan would be spinning as well but it's not a animated or moving part on the car model, so I guess I'd have to 'photoshop' that in myself...
 
Some amazing deep of field in some of your last shots. I especially love the second shots on both the plymouth and the RedBull sets :)
 
I'm back with another unusual car, the Honda Element :) I came across it in the UCD and it's looks caught my eye, plus it came in orange, that's always good thing! I think I don't have any other cars of it's kind in my garage, so I just had to have it! :D

I first took it out at Eiger Nordwand, and it was painfully slow, I almost started to regret buying it... But then I thought, let's throw some money at it and see what I can make of it :) So I guess it has about 3x as much as the car is worth on tuning parts on it :ouch: But I must say, it did the trick! the car is pretty fast (haven't tweaked the setup much, so there's more in it still) and it feels pretty stable as well! So it was picture time! I took it out on the Nordschleife and it was great! Probably the first time ever I went around I guess 98% clean on the very first lap, wasn't the fastest lap as I was pretty careful but, still faster than other laps I've done that were 'full out'.

Anyway, again too much talk.. so let's get to the pictures! Slightly edited, warmer tone but nothing else. Enjoy!













The rear wing may seem 'overkill' but it actually did provide some needed extra grip on the rear wheels :) It's a shame this car is only fwd and not 4wd as it's looks might suggest. I think this car has a lot of potential when tuned right :)
 
Love the element, but the wing may be a bit much (at least in the photos).

I also shot an orange honda at "the Nurb"this morning! Now I need to edit and post.

I like the second and the last shots. Make sure to mind your shadows, this color really pops in the sun, but gets really dark in the shadows.

Good work!
 
Love the element, but the wing may be a bit much (at least in the photos).

I also shot an orange honda at "the Nurb"this morning! Now I need to edit and post.

I like the second and the last shots. Make sure to mind your shadows, this color really pops in the sun, but gets really dark in the shadows.

Good work!
Thanks :D The wing does look a bit too much in pictures, but does help the car handle a lot better :) I usually try to only take pictures of the sunny side on the car, but sometimes that just doesn't work or look good, but I do really love how the orange looks in the sun!

I was watching your first photos and man, you have improved a lot! Good job.
Thanks! I've started to use panning mode 2 more then I did in the beginning :) Really makes a world of difference! And I'm taking more time to set up a shot and try different settings to make the best of it :) At first I wasn't really changing any setting, just clicked away.. :)
 
This car is uggly, but your shots are nice ;) :lol:
Seriously, you've used some very original angles and, once more, you often make pics with a great depth of field. Good job.
 
Thanks guys, your kind words are kindly appreciated :D

Today I bing along something pretty cool.. it's green, it's mean, it turns on a dime and it's pretty quick too! The Daihatsu Copen Active Top '02 aka 'The Pocket Rocket' :mischievous:

Ok ok.. it's not that fast, but man is it fun! :D This tiny car is really a joy to race, it's decently quick, I'm running it with only minor mods, non of the irreversible ones, stock gearbox, sport suspension pretty much all others except turbo (I somehow really dislike turbo's..) and it's on sport soft tires :)

The car is more at home on the smaller and more twisty tracks, but stands it's own on the Nordschleife too! It may not keep up speed wise, but it's awesome through the corners.

Anyway, as this car is really most in it's element on smaller twisty tracks, I took it out at Eiger Nordwand for it's shakedown and here's a small selection of the pictures I made!









And of course no Eiger Nordwand photoset is complete without a jump picture!

For #8 I paused the replay just after the tunnel and had to walk all the way to the start/finish to take the shot.. man that was a long walk.. but worth it in my opinion! There are a few more shots like it on my Flickr :)

This car should be raced a lot more online! :cool:
 
I first did a few warming up laps on the Nürburgring (short) GP track before I felt confident enough to release this beast on the Nordschleife and did a 9:00,450 on the first lap, could have pushed it harder, but I was more worried on getting it around without the time being invalid :)

Anyway, a lot can be said about this car, but pictures speak a thousand words...

















It's hard to imagine how big this car is, it may have the engine of a tank, it's just about as big or maybe even bigger than a tank!
 
8595834392_a24437194e_n.jpg
my favourite :)
 
Back