Yet again another Rolling Road day, but this time at Auto-Tune in Ballymena. Auto-Tune moved premises recently, albeit just around the corner – but now their unit has a bit more space for parking – great for days like this. To find out more about Auto-Tune and what they offer, check out their website :: Auto-Tune :: http://www.auto-tune.co.uk/
I spent the majority of the day here watching the cars come and go on the rollers. The final number of cars that ran was just shy of 50!
As well as enjoying the cars that turned up I had a great chance to catch up with old faces, and get a chance to meet a lot of great like minded enthusiasts! I really enjoyed catching up with Mark from Mad Tuning, and Thomas from TM Auto Specialist, even though it was only brief chats!
So, a great first event for 2013 for me – let hopes more outings like this are to follow! Big thanks to Colin and Mark for organising the day!
Now for a selection of pictures of what was on offer today:
Now and again I find a forum thread that steals a lot of my time and attention – this **Best of…RS** thread on the French site Clio RS Concept is one of those threads.
It’s a compilation of all the best Renault Sport pictures the French can find – and my word it’s brilliant!
Some of my favourites:
Enjoy!
I stumbled accross BackFromLeave on Facebook recently. Rob Shaw is behind it – he’s a Motorsports and Automotive Photographer working in Japan.
The main reason I’m mentioning Rob and his site is because of the article he posted on his blog.
It’s pictures from the 2013 HKS Premium Day – This event just blew me away, and if I could choose one car gathering/track event to attend ever, it might have been this… A serious level of machinery in attendance!
I love this picture of Rob’s:
View the full article here: 2013 HKS Premium Day
And the best bit is, this is only part 1!
All new parts fitted and MOT passed at the start of December, still going great. Weird how I’ve had this car for 2 and a half years and it still pleases me!
Gave it a wash and a once over with Werkstat Acrylic Jett, should keep it protected for a month or so…
Also been keeping track of the MPG. I’ve used the Road Trip LE app for the iPhone over 2,483 miles, when ran on BP Ultimate (97ron)
The app shows 36.25 MPG:
while the computer in the Clio reads 38.9 MPG:
That’s a difference of 2.65 MPG… Though not as far off as many would believe on the Clio forums. Not a bad MPG for a chirpy 2.0 engine!
Also a little pic of all the needles and lights on, and a 160 mph reading 
The weather forecasters turned out to be telling the truth – snow has hit Northern Ireland… This afternoon at work it was like a blizzard outside with the snow flying horizontally – nice view from the 7th floor balcony:
And after a somewhat easy commute home on the train, I was greeted by a miserable looking Clio. It just looked like it had been attacked by a lashing of snow foam:
But seeing as the car park was empty, it was sitting prime for a spot of handbrake testing – which brought a smile and a chuckle to my cold self!
Hard to beat a good early morning ride out round Craigavon Lakes to start the weekend!
