Inspiration

Random snap: White Omoris

June 26, 2013

Another trio of classic Omoris, this time in black-on-white with red needles.

Simplicity.

…and if you’re curious to see what they look like when backlit – click here.

A Celica like none other...

Over the weekend of 3rd-4th November a large and varied group of oldschool.co.nz club members made a pilgrimage to Hahei, on the idyllic Coromandel Peninsula, for a meet-and-greet with none other than Rod Millen, famous championship winning driver in various motorsport disciplines and proprietor of the Leadfoot Ranch.

Convoy enroute to the Coromandel, via State Highway 2.

Leaving bright and early from the convening point at Bombay just outside of Auckland, roughly 20 cars (more…)

Just when real-life dramas threaten to overwhelm one’s sensibilities, I happen to stumble across this little gem of inspiration, and feel a surge of renewal once again.

Must. Complete. Squid.

Maximum Low.

I’ve been following zeki‘s Minkara blog for some time and his DR30 sedan is picture-perfect in terms of aesthetics.

This is 'stance' I could definitely live with.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I’m fervently hoping I can pull off a look with squid that’s even half as clean. I don’t have the wide Wats but I do have some Ewings that might do the trick!

Cherry blossoms! So iconic.

Perhaps 2012 will finally be Year of the Squid?

photos courtesy of zeki @ minkara

Continuing the theme of “collect all the ’80s audio gear!” – here is a freshly acquired Lonesome Carboy cassette deck and matching digital tuner being put thru the paces. Pleasantly surprised that the drive motor and belts haven’t completely fallen apart after 27 years.

I can’t find much information about the deck, except that it was apparently a factory upgrade option for the BF Familias and Lasers in Japan for a short time in 1985 before the CDX-P1 compact disc player was introduced, but the tuner is a standard Pioneer off-the-shelf item. This particular one, typically, is locked to Japanese AM/FM frequencies only.

There is a plan in motion for this setup; all shall be revealed in due course.

And it’s all over you, electric blue!

Made a bit of progress on the vintage audio project over the weekend. Took a couple of headunits and amps down to ProTech, opened up the cases, hooked them up to a test rig and tinkered around for a while with help from oldschool.co.nz members slacker.cam and Ned – the end result being that with a bit of judicious (and precise!) modding, it should be a cinch to “hook into” the cassette line-level output with a suitable media player device and still have the headunit control the tone, balance and volume levels.

Next step: figure out how to switch input seamlessly between cassette and line-in without blowing anything up. (Don’t look at me like that; everyone knows cassettes are The Bomb!)

The component cradle mentioned in last month’s update is now installed in squid, with cassette deck and EQ fitted.

It is awesome.

Now where did I put those Black Sabbath tapes?