Ben Sale's white 1990 NA6

[Regie]

You can get the barrels in more sensible sizes too. Kevin had a set which have now found their way onto a NA somewhere.

these sick puppies

[bensale]

Very interesting wheels! The offset of the linked ones is insane! I'm with Broady, something a little more sensible than negative offsets though! To be honest the fitment of Alex's 15x8 +6's are just about that perfect balance IMO. Your car looks awesome btw 95er! You should try removing the rear mudflaps though, I think you'd be surprised how much better it will look! =)

I've always liked coloured wheels (ref my bright orange track wheels) so will probably be looking for something which can handle a little colour

Had a big day of driving adventures today, will post some random photos of that soon as well as some new little mods and maybe some more of my car looking all awesome with the SSR's.

[broady]

Did you put a spacer on? As far as I remember the MK1/MK2/MK3 all need a (small) spacer to clear the caliper.

[bensale]

Yep, they need a 6mm spacer on the front. The rears don't need one though (at least not with normal na8 1.8 brakes we have).

What specs where the wheels you had? 14x? It looked hot!

[broady]

14x7 +7. So Alex's are a fair bit more aggressive. May even need a pull on the fronts depending on tyres/camber I reckon.

[bensale]

You might be right. Below is how they sat at the front left with no one in the car. The x7 +7's looked very good, will keep that in mind.

[tobias]

What size tyres are they? If you need a guard roller let me know I bought one for my car and have gotten a fair bit of use out of it

[bensale]

Alex's are 15x8 +6. Hmm, keen on giving the guard rolling a go actually, will chat to you about it at garage cafe =)

[bensale]

So here is another picture two pics of the car with awesome wheels.




When you drive an mx-5 roads like the Hume Highway get particularly boring so on my last trip down from Sydney I decided to do a bit of adventuring. I've always be fascinated by the old Hume Highway, I think the Melbourne to Syndey drive would be so much more interesting if it was broken up by some towns and a few interesting corners, so I tried to find the remnants of this road.

Parts of the road are quite easy to find, starting from the M7 the Camden Valley Way is part of the old road. To continue on the road you take the route over Razorback mountain through Picton, Tahmoor and Bargo. From here you're forced onto the new highway until the exit to Mittagong which allows you to follow the road from Mittagong to Berrima.

From here it was about finding extracts of the road left which aren't really on the map (although I did miss one largish section I found on google maps today). The photos below are from this attempt to find hidden remains of the road, part of which run alongside the new road, others heading off in slightly different directions.



I was very surprised by the number of gates and cattle grids on the road. Some of the gates were left open where others were closed blocking through access on the road. However a few of them were able to be opened.







The other surprise was how sections of road would end for no reason, either barricaded to shop through traffic along the road or just stopping altogether with grass growing over what is left of the road.





My other adventure on the day was a loop up and through some of the Snowey Mountains area. The sections of road both here and on the sections of the Old Hume highway reminded me quite a lot of Putty Road in NSW actually, nice fast flowing corners broken up by shorter twisty sections.





The Mx-5 now has done over 276,000 kms... About 30,000 more than this time last year..! Not that it bothers me much, adventures like this, or deciding to drive to Bathurst from Sydney at 10pm at night are the reason you own an car like an Mx5.

[Bizi]

Ben, you could write a story of your NSW old Hume Hwy detective travels for the NRMA Open Road or for Tourism NSW!

[CheyneX5]

That would have been a lot of fun mate, how much more time did the detour add to your journey home?

[Guran]

That's an excellent story Ben. Reminds me of the classic photo from WHEELS taken over the shoulder of Mel Nichols whilst punting a GTHO down the old Hume at 145mph (233km/hr)! It was perfectly legal at the time, although when they first printed the photo, they edited the position of the speedo needle.

Incidentally, that old 160mph supercar scare is a bit laughable now. These days, there is no shortage of family cars that are limited to 250km/hr (155mph), and plenty more that are much much faster. The introduction of speed limits, seat belts and booze buses had a much more significant impact on the road toll.


Wheels_228_on_the_Hume_1280x998_wallpaper by Guran5, on Flickr

[bensale]

Thanks for the compliments guys =) I think that with more planning and two days to do the trip in you could write up a story which would be worth telling and get some excellent photos (the ones in my write up are just from the iphone with some quick processing). In total this trip took around 12 hours, I can normally do it in around 9.5.

Guran, it was that photo and the magazine stories that I've read about that road that prompted me to search for whats left of it. Almost every trip I do I make at least one detour to explore as it makes a quite tedious drive much more interesting. I'm driving back up again in October so will probably explore the section I found on google maps and another I found on this trip which was going north.

[Bizi]

Ben, in Sydney right now, Ch31, there's a drive of old restored trucks doing an Old Hume run, from Camden and especially Marulan via Gunning to Yass, for the parts they can drive through.


Great pic too, Guran.

[Guran]

Geez Ben, if you want to make a tedious drive more interesting, why not avoid the Hume all together? Up to Corryong, across Kosciusko to Cooma, from Canberra to Goulburn via backroads (Tarago etc), then up to Blue Mountains via Taralga & Oberon. It's a hell of a drive!

BTW, I'll dig out that old WHEELS article and post a scan for your entertainment. Was a great read.