Saturday 22 October 2011

Lorne Run(in)

Had been itching for this for a long time. A long drive on the twisties in my new MX-5. With my first car service coming in a few days, this was the last weekend I could do a proper run-in of the MX-5 and get to 1000kms on the odo before given her in for servicing.

The day started early at 8am - needed to goto Crossfit Victoria for a quick workout before I hit the road. By around 10am, I couldn't wait to get out of crossfit class and hit the road. First things first, fired up navigation on my trusty google nexus one and headed to the closest BP fuel station to fill up on some RON 98 petrol.

After filling her up, I got the mood going with a frank sinatra station on Pandora radio and pointed google navigation to Lorne. 150kms is not a lot but already cloudy and with heavy rains predicted, I knew I was headed for some tough bits.


And the tough bits came, heavy blinding rain for quite a few kms while I was on the westgate-princess freeway. Couldn't see a thing, with the downpour as well as the spray coming from all the bigger SUVs passing me by. Strange thoughts passed my mind as this was my first time in a rear wheel drive in crazy wet conditions. Checked to make sure stability control was on! Stuck to 90kmph and kept going in my lane and then it finally cleared up. The road even started to dry up by the time I got to the Geelong Ring road and then I hit the twisties on Angelsea and Great Ocean Road. The MX-5 lapped up everything the roads threw at her without having to slow down anywhere. Its amazing how a front engined rear wheel drive handles on these roads - you won't know it till you drive one. The 50:50 weight ratio, the smooth acceleration and braking and precise handling makes MX5s a joy to drive on the twisties - these are things I had only heard, but here I was cushioned inside of one, experiencing the same while listening to some soothing music from her bose audio system. There is a distinct hum inside the cabin from the engine and tire sounds which cannot be drowned unless the music is very loud. Roll down the windows and the chaos of the wind trying to get in makes you realize how fast you really are going.

Ofcourse,  I knew this was a running-in drive, so at the freeway even at 100kmph was playing with 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th gears to have patches of driving at various rpms between 2k to 5k. But there was some good fun to be had once I hit great ocean road, was always changing gears up and down to keep the revs going all over the place.  Every few minutes, I went down to 3rd or 2nd and spent a few secs all the way up at 5000rpm (way below max revs zone) and saw some real potential in her basic 2L 158BHP 188Nm engine. Felt some g-forces on the spiraling B roads and enjoyed some great views of the waves hitting the beaches. Only had one stop at this beautiful nursery/cafe in anglesea for a hot chocolate and finally reached Lorne at around 1pm. Parked and walked around and took some pics.




Post workout hunger was creeping in, so looked up ratings of the local restaurants on google places and found a highly rated place called Bottle of Milk . The awesome weather and thought of food, ended up having the BOM burger

It was 2pm by the time I relished the awesome burger (skipped my no bread paleo rules this once!). A shot of my baby before we hit the road again

Quick stop-over at Shell in Lorne to get some more RON 98 fuel for the MX-5 and she was doing great at 9L/100km (11kmpL) even with all my antics! The drive back was more fun, maybe I knew the roads now, maybe I knew my MX-5 better now. I hugged as many corners as I could, and when the B roads ended, I felt like turning and going back to Lorne! Aah well I will come back again soon. Was back home before 430pm, in time for some Saturday evening fun with my good friends!
With the 300km drive running in was now done (1006kms on odo)  and I had a great drive in almost perfect weather on the awesome great ocean roads. All in all a great day and I believe now I know why Jeremy Clarkson said this about the MX-5
"The fact is that if you want a sports car, the MX-5 is perfect. Nothing on the road will give you better value. Nothing will give you so much fun. The only reason I’m giving it five stars is because I can’t give it 14."

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