Computer Gaming Part 2

PSP
Now completed Resistance Retribution. Took longer than I expected but a great game nonetheless. I also completed playing Rock Band Unplugged, but yet to finish the endless gig (41 tracks!).

PC
I've been playing Plants vs Zombies for a while now too. Absolutely love it! It's so addictive.

I have completed a full round and on the harder levels for the second round. Finished all the mini-games and puzzles. There are just two survival modes remaining and I can get the Gold trophy... which means there's really nothing left in the game at that point. I just have the night and roof survivals to get past which will unlock the survival endless.

PS3
I've also started playing the following:
Tomb Raider Underworld
Fuel

XBOX 360
Project Gotham Racing 4

Wii
Playing just family games... nothing worth mentioning just yet ;)

Back again soon.

Computer Gaming

So I've taken a bit of a sabbatical with the Kart racing due to lack of funds, however I'm still playing many computer games. Be them PSP, PS3, PC, Wii... I'll play them all if they have a decent enough gameplay about them.

So I'm just finishing off Resistance Retribution on the PSP.
I'll list each game as I complete them... not sure how interesting this might be... we'll see ;)

Colin McRae MBE 1968-2007

For me, this man was an absolute inspiration. I have followed his career, seen every 'McCrash' and revelled in his commitment to the motorsport world. I've always loved rallying. My father was rallying in times of the past and I became extremely passionate about the sport. It didn't take long to realise the true skill of these drivers above all 4-wheeled motorsports and just how talented rally drivers are. I'd have loved to see the like of Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Ari Vatenan all in the same Race of Champions events.

Colin McRae will very sadly be missed by many and my thoughts and condolences go out to his wife and daughter. Being a father myself, I can't imagine their suffering with such young taken away from this earth too. My thoughts and prayers are with all the families and friends involved.

Colin McRae, Johnny McRae, Graeme Duncan and Ben Porcelli - Rest in Peace.

3rd Maintenance Window

Well, it didn't quite happen as well as I'd hoped.

I had to look after Phoebe (my youngest daughter) and try to fix the kart whilst she sat on my lap!
Anyway, I did manage to find the seat bolts and exhaust springs in the main toolbox. So I fit the springs to the exhaust straight away.

I then proceeded to fit the gear linkage. This turned out to be an absolute pig to fit. The opening on the linkage that fits the spline on the engine was extremely tight fitting. So if you fit the linkage in the wrong place, it was extremely difficult to get back off the spline to move to a different angle. It was all to do with the gear changer behind the steering wheel being in exactly the right spot to change up and down gears without the linkage banging against the engine or exhaust pipe. It eventually took about 45 minutes to get just this part on the engine.

Then I fit the spacers in the front engine mount and managed to secure the engine to the engine mounting brackets.

So, the list is getting shorter even though I added one item to the list:

• Change the circlip on the engine sprocket to the newer circlip!
• Gear Linkage
• Sprocket alignment (axle / engine)
• Washers in to space front engine mount
• Get the chain on (maybe move the engine towards the rear of the kart for more armroom?)
• Engine mounts securely tightened
• Find the exhaust springs and two seat bolts
• Fit the seat
• Gearbox oil

RC Racing

I've just recently seen some RC Racing that looks extremely good fun. I don't think it will get me slim again like I intend to get from the karting, but it does look good:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5341030578936929408&q=rc+racing

- On the plans with the kart, I'm gonna be tackling this again this weekend. As a reminder, I need to do the following:

• Gear Linkage
• Sprocket alignment (axle / engine)
• Washers in to space front engine mount
• Get the chain on (maybe move the engine towards the rear of the kart for more armroom?)
• Engine mounts securely tightened
• Find the exhaust springs and two seat bolts
• Fit the seat
• Gearbox oil

Then I really want to test the engine and gearbox!!!!!!

Some more video links

I was browsing the web and found more video footage of different karting events and locations:


Official Site for the Motors TV UK Karting Challenge - Sadly no Gearbox Karts!
http://www.kartingtv.tv/


South Wales Karting Centre in Llandow were the chosen location for two rounds of the Motors TV UK Karting Challenge. Some good person uploaded the televised series here:
http://one.revver.com/watch/213673

Another couple of interesting links are found here showing something they've labelled as Karting Drift - Looks a little eratic if you ask me! :)
http://one.revver.com/watch/210334

and his Best of 2005 video. It captures the speeds of these little karts pretty well though:
http://one.revver.com/watch/210415

and a Best of 2006:
http://one.revver.com/watch/210791

2nd Maintenance Window

So we're nearly there - again. Garry came over from Swindon and my dad travelled over from Stroud to hopefully finish the re-build and get to a track to test.

Previously in the week, I tried to find somewhere local to test the kart. The circuits at both Little Rissington (http://www.rissykartclub.com/) and Dunkeswell (http://www.dunkeswell.com/) or also now known as Mansell Raceway (http://www.mansell-raceway.com/) were not available for testing. I also tried calling Wroughton Airfield, South Wales Karting Centre (Llandow), Kemble Airfield, West Country Karting (in Bristol), Hullavington and many others to see if they had any availability or use of their runways / circuits. The only people that had any option for use was Llandow and Kemble. Kemble Airfield were very helpful, but sadly their whole disused runway was being used for a Mazda Promotion so that wasn't a possibility and Llandow needed 5 gearbox karts on the circuit for a 'session'. Llandow were also available for an hour on the bank holiday Monday morning.

A couple of niggles appeared with a circlip on the engine sprocket spline (we couldn't find the circlip pliers anywhere!), two seating pins on the exhaust bracket and the clutch cable fitting. Garry continued putting some of the bits back together like the clutch cable whilst my dad and I visited Mac (who helped with the trailer build too by the way) to see if he had a vice or heavy duty hacksaw to take the welded pins off. It just so happened, Mac was in, and he had a grindstone in the garage! Result. Back of the net. Two seating pins removed!

On the way back we purchased (I still owe my dad monies for several items including these now - don't worry I haven't forgotten!) some exhaust repair paste to buffer the small indentations created by the grindstone and seat the gasket on and also several washers to space the bolts from the engine bracket. We returned to the house and found Garry in mid flow with the clutch cable as it was still presenting a few problems. I continued attaching the ignition box etc along with the engine socket (this was when we found out that the circlip pliers weren't available), so my dad whisked off back to the shop to get some circlip pliers.

Unfortunately, we found that we couldn't test the motor for a couple of reasons. 1 - We ran out of time, and 2 - we couldn't find the gear linkage. Without the gear linkage we wouldn't be able to knock the kart into gear and therefore not be able to bump start the motor. However, we'd got most things completed so it was another satisfying day.

All that remained was the gear linkage, aligning the sprockets (engine and axle), putting the chain on, the washers and spacing for the engine bracket, the permanent fixing of the engine (once the chain is on correctly) and replacing the seat. Then just adding the gearbox oil and replacing the fuel mix in the tank would complete the re-build.

So onto Maintenance Window number 3 and hopefully get to that circuit for testing!!!