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Staff Emeritus
- 3,438
- Melbourne
- Fett_up
- totallyfettup
I thought I'd share a little story with you all. As luck would have it, I entered a competition a few weeks back which I promptly forgot as I assumed I would never actually win. So it was a bit of a shock last week when I received a call from the company running the competition telling me that I had won. This news put me in a bit of a frenzy as the prize was in Melbourne and I live in Sydney. Not so terrible in itself, but flights had to be arranged asap and I had to franticly call Grandparents to make sure that I have babysitters for my two little girls.
So in case the title hasn't already given an indication of what the prize was, Ken Block was in Melbourne last weekend performing in his Gymkhana World Tour and I won a ride with him in his now very well known Fiesta at the show.
The week seemed to drag forever as I counted down the days until Saturday. My wife accompanied me on the trip and we had to get up very early in the morning for our flight from Sydney to Melbourne on Saturday morning, due to my incredible cheapness.
This lovely photo was taken around 4:30am depicting a very bleary eyed me having the first of what was going to be many heavily caffeinated beverages.
We landed in Melbourne about 3 hours prior to the show, so we took the opportunity to head into the city and grab some breakfast. Our intention was to get to St Kilda, but it turns out, Melbournians are a little scared of putting up legible signage prior to an exit on their fancy motorway that they like to lord over us Sydnysider when the subject of traffic and road planning comes up in conversation. So we got a little lost and decided on a friendly little café in chappel St, South Yarra. I only found out later that we where only 5 minutes from our original destination.
By the time we finished eating we decided it was time to head out to Calder Park where the event was held. This we managed to find with little effort. Now we only had to contend with dim witted security guards that sent us in the wrong direction when we were looking for the registration office so I could sign my life away on an indemnity form.
After having to talk to numerous event staff, we finally got to the registration office and then onto the VIP area. As monster was hosting the event, there was no shortage of energy drinks to help keep me awake long enough to climb into Ken Blocks car.
It was sunny however we had to contend with some gale force winds. A lot of the out door furniture in the VIP area kept getting blown over, keeping staff busy. My wife put up with not only me but the strong winds as well with little to no complaint.
We got to get up and close to all the stunt cars and their drivers. Some of the other stunt drivers included V8SC drivers Nathan Pretty & Alex Davidson, Bike stunt man Matt Mingay and a bunch of others, who's names currently elude me.
The gymkhana finally got under way. The crowd responded really well to the show and in particular to when Ken made his grand entrance.
At this point I had lost count as to what number this bit of caffeine intake was.
I finally got the call to head over to have my ride with Ken. A few VIP guests had also got the privilege to go along for a ride with him. I patiently wait as seven others had their turn before me. The mechanics would go over the car with a fine tooth comb after every run to make sure the car was running without issue. Tyre change occurred after the first four and so I figured, when it comes to my turn, he'll have hot but fairly worn rubbers. I had to put on a racing suit that was clearly 3 sizes too small. As I'm waiting for the final run to conclude before my turn commences, I see the fiesta shoot past the turn off and come to a dramatic halt in the middle of the track. Both Ken and his ride along passenger get out and the mechanics start running over and jacking up the car. Turns out Ken had hit the wall a little on his last run and broke the steering arm. At this point dread fills me as I'm starting to think that I've missed out. Luckily the two Scandinavian looking twins that are mechanics from his WRC team jack the car up and replace the broken components. The car is up and running in a matter of minutes.
I clambered into the fiesta. There is very little room and my 98kg's are jammed in so tight that there is little chance of any movement from me even prior to being buckled in.
Then we take off for what turns out to be the most adrenalin filled 3 minutes of my life. The acceleration was phenomenal. I haven't felt a roller-coaster come close to the g-force that the Fiesta subjected me to at take off. To be honest I had the intention of keep an eye on the instrument cluster to get some sort of idea on revs and speed but once he took off, I was only looking out the windows as we hurtled down the straight of Calder park to where the barrels are set up. I had seen Ken do the same circuit a few times, the drifting and doughnuts around the barrels an forklifts look to be done at a reasonable pace, but from inside the car, you really get the sense of the speed at which the car is truly traversing around these objects. It felt damn fast. There was a gropro in the car pointed at me and when I spoke to the guys from FPV racing team later on, they said they where watching my run and I had a stupid grin on my face the entire time.
So once the day was all over, my wife and I decided we'll take another trip to St Kilda (more successfully this time) for dinner as the flight back to Sydney was a late one on account of my tight fisted ways.
Here is a little video footage of the event filmed by Speedcafe. It gives you a bit of an idea of the circuit and event itself.
LIFE V SIMULATION
Finally, how does a real gymkhana run with Ken Block stack up against Dirt 3? We take for granted that we will never get the same sensation from a video game compared with real driving and it hold truer here than with any other racing I have experienced in the past. I tend to play this game with the in car view as I use a racing rig, however I find that I can always think ahead to what my next target will be in the gymkhana portion of the game. In Ken's car, my brain was left so far behind that I was struggling to comprehend how someone can actually pilot a car at this speed, let along sideways. I guess the driver will always have a different level of focus to someone sitting in the passenger seat. The final verdict comes as no shock, the two feel nothing a like. That's not to say it's bad (I actually really like Dirt 3), it's just vastly different.
So in case the title hasn't already given an indication of what the prize was, Ken Block was in Melbourne last weekend performing in his Gymkhana World Tour and I won a ride with him in his now very well known Fiesta at the show.
The week seemed to drag forever as I counted down the days until Saturday. My wife accompanied me on the trip and we had to get up very early in the morning for our flight from Sydney to Melbourne on Saturday morning, due to my incredible cheapness.
This lovely photo was taken around 4:30am depicting a very bleary eyed me having the first of what was going to be many heavily caffeinated beverages.
We landed in Melbourne about 3 hours prior to the show, so we took the opportunity to head into the city and grab some breakfast. Our intention was to get to St Kilda, but it turns out, Melbournians are a little scared of putting up legible signage prior to an exit on their fancy motorway that they like to lord over us Sydnysider when the subject of traffic and road planning comes up in conversation. So we got a little lost and decided on a friendly little café in chappel St, South Yarra. I only found out later that we where only 5 minutes from our original destination.
By the time we finished eating we decided it was time to head out to Calder Park where the event was held. This we managed to find with little effort. Now we only had to contend with dim witted security guards that sent us in the wrong direction when we were looking for the registration office so I could sign my life away on an indemnity form.
After having to talk to numerous event staff, we finally got to the registration office and then onto the VIP area. As monster was hosting the event, there was no shortage of energy drinks to help keep me awake long enough to climb into Ken Blocks car.
It was sunny however we had to contend with some gale force winds. A lot of the out door furniture in the VIP area kept getting blown over, keeping staff busy. My wife put up with not only me but the strong winds as well with little to no complaint.
We got to get up and close to all the stunt cars and their drivers. Some of the other stunt drivers included V8SC drivers Nathan Pretty & Alex Davidson, Bike stunt man Matt Mingay and a bunch of others, who's names currently elude me.
The gymkhana finally got under way. The crowd responded really well to the show and in particular to when Ken made his grand entrance.
At this point I had lost count as to what number this bit of caffeine intake was.
I finally got the call to head over to have my ride with Ken. A few VIP guests had also got the privilege to go along for a ride with him. I patiently wait as seven others had their turn before me. The mechanics would go over the car with a fine tooth comb after every run to make sure the car was running without issue. Tyre change occurred after the first four and so I figured, when it comes to my turn, he'll have hot but fairly worn rubbers. I had to put on a racing suit that was clearly 3 sizes too small. As I'm waiting for the final run to conclude before my turn commences, I see the fiesta shoot past the turn off and come to a dramatic halt in the middle of the track. Both Ken and his ride along passenger get out and the mechanics start running over and jacking up the car. Turns out Ken had hit the wall a little on his last run and broke the steering arm. At this point dread fills me as I'm starting to think that I've missed out. Luckily the two Scandinavian looking twins that are mechanics from his WRC team jack the car up and replace the broken components. The car is up and running in a matter of minutes.
I clambered into the fiesta. There is very little room and my 98kg's are jammed in so tight that there is little chance of any movement from me even prior to being buckled in.
Then we take off for what turns out to be the most adrenalin filled 3 minutes of my life. The acceleration was phenomenal. I haven't felt a roller-coaster come close to the g-force that the Fiesta subjected me to at take off. To be honest I had the intention of keep an eye on the instrument cluster to get some sort of idea on revs and speed but once he took off, I was only looking out the windows as we hurtled down the straight of Calder park to where the barrels are set up. I had seen Ken do the same circuit a few times, the drifting and doughnuts around the barrels an forklifts look to be done at a reasonable pace, but from inside the car, you really get the sense of the speed at which the car is truly traversing around these objects. It felt damn fast. There was a gropro in the car pointed at me and when I spoke to the guys from FPV racing team later on, they said they where watching my run and I had a stupid grin on my face the entire time.
So once the day was all over, my wife and I decided we'll take another trip to St Kilda (more successfully this time) for dinner as the flight back to Sydney was a late one on account of my tight fisted ways.
Here is a little video footage of the event filmed by Speedcafe. It gives you a bit of an idea of the circuit and event itself.
LIFE V SIMULATION
Finally, how does a real gymkhana run with Ken Block stack up against Dirt 3? We take for granted that we will never get the same sensation from a video game compared with real driving and it hold truer here than with any other racing I have experienced in the past. I tend to play this game with the in car view as I use a racing rig, however I find that I can always think ahead to what my next target will be in the gymkhana portion of the game. In Ken's car, my brain was left so far behind that I was struggling to comprehend how someone can actually pilot a car at this speed, let along sideways. I guess the driver will always have a different level of focus to someone sitting in the passenger seat. The final verdict comes as no shock, the two feel nothing a like. That's not to say it's bad (I actually really like Dirt 3), it's just vastly different.
It certainly was.
Did you have the same expression on your face as James May when riding next to Ken Block? 
