Engine of a Mini Seven racing Mini
Photo: Copyright © 2009 Eelke Blok

Headwork

It's a bit late to report, but last sunday, the overhauled cylinder head as created by Joost went back on the white Cooper. In the end, valve seats went in for all four inlet valves, because the other valves were not properly cut either (was just not as apparent as with the one valve). Joost also performed some magic on the flowing of the head, and reckons the head should already make a good difference.

... hello Checkmate

This post is a few days overdue, but I have been busy working and... driving my new car.

As I have reported before, the Mini2 was due for delivery on the 2nd of january. End of last week I did receive a slightly troubling email which said that the lease company received a change for the date and the car was now going to be delivered in the second week of the new year. A quick phone call to the dealer told me that the appointment still stood, and that they had no idea where that idea came from.

Goodbye 307 ...

In may of this year, when I started my new job, I drove a Chili Red new Mini for a few weeks. Although it was a Mini, that was about all it had going for it. So, I asked for and got the chance to order my very own Mini. Exit CR Mini, enter metallic black Peugeot 307, which I had to drive until my own Mini would arrive. You can read about everything related to that CR Mini and everything concerning the ordering of my own Mini2 under the category New Mini.

It's getting close now

It has again been a long time since I last reported about the Mini2 situation. I am happy to say I now have an appointment to pick up the car. 2nd of january is gonna be the day I will be replacing the Peugeot 307 I have been driving ever since I handed over the red Cooper to a colleague, and I will be driving my brand new Mini Cooper Checkmate. So, less than a month to go! For a spec, see the last post I made about the subject (linked above).

Race Experience

It's been some months since I left webMethods. At my last day, my ex-colleagues gave me a voucher for participating in the Michael Bleekemolen Race Experience; a whole, motorsport-packed day at the Zandvoor Circuit, where you drive all kinds of vehicles including a Porsche 911. Last sunday finally was the big day.

To cut a long story short, this was the best going-away present ever. For the long story, have a look at the pictures.

Spam 2

Apparantly, I was too optimistic in the comment to the first post about spam. Spam has continued to trickle in daily, although it does seem levels have come down.

It seems BBblog doesn't make it impoossible to enter comments when comments are turned off for a post, because I do see comments coming in for posts that have them turned off. They even usually don't require approval, which is actually quite odd.

Tomtom 5 - Final Word

Well, end to another story. Last week I received a phone call from Tomtom support. They had a solution to my problem. They needed me to send them my PDA and GPS receiver, on which they would then install some software that would allow me to use the GPS receiver.

As it happens, I bought another GPS receiver only a week earlier, so I was less then excited about this offer, and declined because I need my PDA daily.