i’ve started playing Gran Turismo 4 again recently, a game which i’ve been stuck at 93.1% completion for some time now. i can’t advance past this point because i’m terrible at it and because 6.9% of the game remains unvanquished, there are several prize cars that i have yet to unlock.

enter Beka’s cousin here in Los Angeles who also owns GT4 and, perhaps more importantly, one of those cheating programs for the PlayStation 2. via the cheating device, he has successfully unlocked every single car in the game and has them all stashed away in his in-game garage. since GT4 allows trading between garages, all i had to do was access his save file from mine and then simply buy the cars i didn’t have. some two million in-game dollars later, my collection is complete but my life remains as empty as ever.

just kidding. it’s emptier. Merry Christmas.

OMG HSV

(video copyright Mach V Motorsports)


this is a video of my friend Nhan’s 2009 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG strapped to a dyno and being given the beans. and yes, this particular C63 has been chipped which is a bit like duct taping gasoline bombs to a small tactical nuclear warhead.

anyway, here are his dyno test results (blue is before tuning, red is after)





and in case you couldn’t read the horsepower/torque figures:

the owner of this monstrosity took my parking space once while i was dropping Beka off at work in the morning. i remember parking my car elsewhere and walking the three blocks home only to see this ketchup-colored mid ’70s Plymouth Duster grinning at me from around the corner, acting all smug because it managed to nick my space during my car’s 8 minute absence.

parking space theft aside, the Duster doesn’t strike me as a particularly brilliant looking car. it’s not as handsome as the Plymouth Barracuda it replaced or as sleek as the Ford Maverick it competed against. instead, it’s sort of clumsy looking with awkward kinks in the body work and a rear overhang that would scare small children. couple it together with those lemon juicer hubcaps and you have a recipe for an oversized car with vaguely unsettling looks.

oh well, at least the owner had the decency not to get a green one.