Ooh la la.. Cabronita

mmm? nice set

2012 and it’s the age of hot rod guitars. With an overabundance of electric guitar parts anything can be created, from a replica Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster with any pickups imaginable to a smelly old relic replicated in carefully placed dings. They call it aging, I call it fake.

Micros**t does it again.

In case you're wondering why the images aren't opening in a 'lightbox' as they should, Microsoft has jumped ahead of Java with their release of IE9 and until Java catches up IE9 won't display images in Bloggers lightbox. If you're surfing with Firefox or any decent browser then lightbox does work. Well, it could be worse if you have a Mac?

Guess who?

Nice night for racin'

No surprises here. Winning his umpteenth title at the Knoxville Nats was none other than Donny Schatz. No one has won more sprintcar races in the past six years. Not bad going for the pedaler from Fargo, North Dakota.
Best of the Aussies was Ian Madsen bringing the #55 home in eighteenth place in the A-main. Brooke only made it to twelfth in the B-main. Still, he left a few big names in his wake.. as usual.

Triple 8's COTF

Quick, pass the bucket..

Here is a sneak peak at the Triple Eight 'Car of the Future'. I don't suppose Eddie Van Halen had anything to do with the paint design? I prefer the Mad Max look myself.

I've finally tracked him down

The lightly sponsored 14T

As I mentioned a few posts back.. I couldn't find our Brooke Tattnel anywhere listed on the US sprintcar web sites. Well he definately isn't with the WOO's this season. I was talking with a speedway friend who tells me he can be found in Knoxville this week taking part at the famed Knoxville Nationals. For country fans, no, that's not the the Nashville Knoxnals. Early in the week Brooke showed up in the 100 plus entry 360 Nationals. The field was split over two nights of qualifying and heat races. Brooke drew a Friday night straw so he had the oppertunity of seeing how the first fifty went on the Thursday night. This may have been only the 360's but there were certainly some heavy hitters there like Shane Stewart (the eventual winner), Danny Lasoski, Jason Myers and Jeff Swindell. Brooke took the A main win on his qualifying night in the lucky 14T placing him out of eight of the A main for the Friday night final. Brooke was to loose a few positions to eventualy finish twelveth behind a regular visitor to these shores, arch rival Jason Johnson who had put in a blinder after starting out of twenty.
So off to the transporter and bolt in the 410 for the big one on Saturday night.

Mercedes Benz.. snubbers?

Yeah.. I can really see Lowndsey behind the wheel of this mother.

Guess what? Mercedes won't be one of Skaifies 'car(s) of the future' to be introduced gradually into the V8 Supercar series starting next season. Good, so Hyundai are still in there with a chance.
Read all about this snubbery here on SpeedCafe.com

Roll your own.. fingerboard

Hand rolled they call it.

So it was out with the old Victorinox and get rolling. Well not quite,  the single sided safety razor blade ended up my weapon of choice. That, some steel wool, a couple of files, one of those black foam sanding blocks and a little lemon oil. First point of call was Google and the 2ube to get a feel for the method used in rolling your own fingerboard.

Racing.. what racing?

F1 are now on holidays, probably hanging out at the Lympics. Sebastian is showing his true self as a bit of a sore looser. Red Bull are still getting away with their chassis mods. Mark is either winning or loosing. Alfonso is wringing the neck of the prancing horsey and managing to keep the others at arms length and holding on to the top spot of the championship. Over in the V8's my Indycar hero Jack Villeneuve has been taking a hammering filling in for injured Murph. Jack actually made a pass yesterday at QR only to turn himself around. These cars are beasts to handle, they must be if a double F1 and Indycar champ can't get a handle on it. Great to see Lowndesy get a good start and follow it through to a win. Nat and the kids, Levi and Chilli will be over the moon. Team-mate Jamie Wincup who stated alongside Craigie on Saturday's race forgot which was the gas pedal and dropped back a handful of places but scrambled back a few spots to hang onto his championship lead. Nascar, I haven't been tracking our Marcos but he is up there with the big guys now so no doubt pocketing a few bickies along the way. The real racing (sprintcars) is in hiatus for winter here and I know Tatnell is racing in the US but I haven't found him there yet or where he's racing. One of the Madsen boys is doing okay with the World Of Outlaws but I bet he is still beaten regularly by the wiley old Steve Kinser, the Fangio of the sprinters. For now, just plant it.

New Guitar Day or as 'they' say.. NGD

Click on image for big art.

I did it, lashed out the full 300 bucks and pulled the trigger on a glorious Aria Frontier 615 in Ivory. After some scrapin' and chippin' it is playin' pretty good and doesn't sound half bad either.