Kato ''Powerslide Portrait'' for avatar

Well Guys, today I decided to have a go at doing a picture of Kato for my avatar here.
First problem is that I don't have anyone to take the shot for me when I'm sliding Kato and I don't really want to let my friends try sliding the car whilst I take it.
Originally I did want to do a high speed 100mph drift but the car comes out way too blurred and on a very high shutter speed it looks stationary including the wheels.
So today after a lot of fiddling around with an IR trigger for the camera I finally managed to get the car pin sharp powersliding out of a corner, but with a bit of spin in the wheels.
It's not perfect but I did do the shoot on my own today. Idealy the camera should be panned with the car but as I say I was on my own playing instead. Anyway here is Katos avatar portrait, now all I have to do is figure out how to insert it here.
All the best, Bell
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Looks awesome!

 

Looks nice Bell! Looks great in its surrounding and I do like the yellow tinted flashing lights. Also without plates they look the best! We do not have these nice small elegant plates like they do in Italy So you did this with the self timer? Brillant!

 

Hi MvT, I actually used a light beam trigger, the upside being that you get an in focus controlled shot every time. The downside however is that it only takes one shot at a time, and due to space restrictions I couldn't actually do a nice smooth power slide. This meant that I had only about 20 feet to get the tail out on full lock and back again before coming to a complete stop. Not easy. I did loose it once though. I'll post the video of that later ha ha. Actually I have a little trick I do in an event like that to save the situation, it works really well and you can see me do it on the video when I post it here. Also I have some other video from when I first got the car and was testing it's recoverability, I'll post that too.
Regards Bell

 

Beautiful Shot Bell ! Well done you!
Now you can shrink it to use as your avatar.

CHEERS
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Oh man that is awesome!

 

Nice.

 

Great shot, Bell. I love the paint work - - and the little skinny Euro black bumpers (trim) !!
All tastefully done, mate.

Cheers,

Hank

 

I should fly to England and offer to take the picture for you.

 

More smoke!

 

Ha ha many thanks Gents, glad you liked it. Yes Srephwed I wanted more smoke but it was a bit windy and it seemed to blow away.
Anyway, I thought you might like to see some old video footage I took when I first got the car.
The object of the exercise here was to test the ballance of the car and how it behaved when pushed beyond limits.
I did find that although the limited travel steering lock hindered really lurid tail out antics, the rack was nice and fast with strong centering giving very good feel and quick lock to lock response. As compared to Lotus the limited lock does mean that you can over do it and run out of steering as seen in the video, however this is only when pushed to extremes. Weight transfer and inercia is fairly good for a mid engined Italian car, the feel is nice on the limit and it is very progressive. In the video the car is being thrown in to the bend and power applied agressively, this is partly due to the lack of testing space and also I wanted to feel the car at it's worst.
Grip in the dry is not hugely high by modern standards and in the wet one has to be a little cautious but feel is good and I think and the rear roll bars work very well, I like the set up too.
In the dry even with 4 people you can really play hard and it's very indulging and fun in the corners.
Anyway my first days owning and testing the car here in the wet and dry gave me a lot of confidence in it.
I must find an airfield and do some nice 100mph slides and film those.
So enough waffle, here is some video from those early tests, note how controlled the car is when brakes are applied hard when I overcook it, nice and predictable.
Regards Bell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XP55CsePTY&feature=youtu.be

 

Thanks Bell! Great video and comments! Need to get my damn frame welded and get back on the road...(-*

 

So, news today that Jeremy Clarkson of TOP GEAR UK is suspended, so who's going to replace him?
Been thinking about it and I think............Chris Evans! He's into cars, he's a great presenter who needs a shot in the arm on primetime, he's the right age to get on well with the other two and he knows how to work an audience....also he already works for the BBC.
Place your bets!
Regards Bell Bloke

 

Living in the US all I get is old youtube top gears. Still very enjoyable. Sorry but in my opinion he can not be replaced. He made the show. Just ask the Stig.

 

Oh I agree BUT if they have their backs to the wall and had to replace JC then Chris Evans is a logical choice I feel.
Mind you, nobody outside the UK has even heard of Chris Evans ha ha.

 

Tough situation for BBC, but you can't keep punching people's face so it is the logical step for the BBC. For Jeremy... well I think he doesn't care less he can take the show in a different form and name onto the Internet starting his own business and the whole world will follow him. The next show will be "Anger management" Wonder who his guest will be!

 

Have you considered doing the job yourself? You've already proven you can get an exotic car sideways for the camera.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Ha ha Cooool ;-)
Hey Andrew, if I had a 6 lane runway I'd do it at a 3 figure speeds no problem ha ha.
Seriouslythough I am trying to get access to a runway to do some 100mph slides on camera.
Back in the 90s I used to practice in the Lotus and Countach on an airfield but now they are all secured, such a pity as it was a great way to get to know your car.
It makes you realise what cars are really good and what ones are really bad. the Countach is really bad....the Lotus, amazing....the old Ferrari promising and a lot of fun.
All the best Bell ;-)