billybunters - from a bmw z4 to a mx5 se

[KevGoat]

I don't get why the bloke drove away.

Seen Wolf Creek?

But yeah, there use to be a time when that wouldn't have happened ... but so much bad stuff happens these days, people would probably first question if it's some sort of setup.

[bruce]

It was either help or leave. He didn't want to help...

[billybunter]

well I suppose if i'd seen that much blood coming out of someone I think I would have bolted too... so he probably did what I would have done.

pretty desolate county here

[billybunter]

NT border and the pace picks up to a 130 kph cruise. first night stop in the territory's Kulgera road house about 25 klm inside the border @ $115 per night with free cont breakfast

[billybunter]

once we crossed into the NT I could legally cruise at the 130 kph speed limit =which I did and was the only one further up the road I ran into the convoys - army trucks -grey nomads and petrol tankers

[billybunter]

once through Alice Springs and heading north to tenant creek you head to the open limit speed section from Alice Springs to pretty close to Wycliffe Wells. in total about 340 klm of open limit drive to conditions driving.
in some areas partly congested by roads users mainly caravaner's and in other sections no-one for miles and miles of flat out open road. visibility extremely good and you can see several klm down the road and either side of the road is clear 50 to 80 metres.
from Alice Springs the first part of the open limits goes through several speed zones from town limit 60 to 80 kph to 110kph and then the famous drive to conditions sign which I did!
first 50 klm of the open limit is a bit rough and bumpy on the black top surface with lots of ripples on the road. I was aware of this from last years trip so just cruised along at 110 kph. by the time your around 50 kl out road conditions are much better and the road surface is really pretty good. plus take into account the mx5 is not the best riding car I've ever been in. my Honda accord rides better for sure and would be better suited here.
about 70 or 80 klm out not a car in sight I sat it on a 160 kph cruise at 4500 revs with 3000 revs in reserve. motor just purred along and you could feel the power coming on so I gave it a little more and ran it up and bit further and sat there for several easy klm.
so without going into too much detail it was interesting

[billybunter]

I purchased a cheap head up display unit off ebay for $60 and found it far better to use to check your speed than looking at your speedo and easier too. didn't take long to get use to and I can see the day when these will be the norm as standard equipment in all new cars/
these are a really good safety feature
photo of it sitting on the dash and it projects a green display of speed on the screen

[billybunter]

barrow creek telegraph station - not much here.

petrol which was suppose to be premium at $1.92 litre. the guy who owns the shop told the wife. the petrol is all the same and it doesn't matter which bowser you buy from -it comes from the same tanker

[KevGoat]

Grey nomads aren't just a nuisance on roads, they're a bloody nuisance on caravan parks!

We recently travelled using caravan parks for the first time in about 8/10 years in our Holden Rodeo 4x2 camper that we purchased last year, and found out the hard way how much it's all changed

They have a pack mentality! Their territory stretches far beyond their allotted site/s. They have an adversity to any sound from others not of their pack yet themselves transmit group sounds equal to Time's Square on New Years. They always move in numbers, are rarely ever seen on their own. Should you happen to pull into a caravan park where they are nesting, and you have the unfortunate circumstance to be within their age range, they will swoop on you like seagulls on hot chips

It is not pleasant .....

[KevGoat]

How readable was the heads up in full sunlight?

[billybunter]

at times in direct sunlight it was a bit hard to see but they said in the instructions it was hard to read with sunglasses on....I had no trouble at all.

devils marbles nt

this time we went to the northern side of the park to photograph some of the rocks at times it appeared it might start to rain as there were small paddles of water about so it hard rained there not long ago. once again we were met by the army boys and their truck battalion moving north towards Darwin.
We must have followed them on and off for a good 1000 klm. either way you look at it this spot is always a very popular tourist hot spot or camp over.

[billybunter]

devils marbles

[bruce]

Avalanche! (in some of those photos)

[billybunter]

I managed the 370 klm run in the open section in 2 hours and 50 minutes and used 36 lites of petrol. not sure what that works out at but some-one will. should be good considering it was running at 130 kph plus

I also used my new cheap git2 action camera for this trip. better I tell you it only cost me about a third of the cost of the go pro 4 silver I had last year. is a far better camera and the video is perfect due t its gyro stabilizer action

so if any of you are chasing a good camera which will give good results don't spent $600 plus on the go pro and spend the $170 on one of these. you can get some-one to hand hold it at high speed and get perfectly clear video and not just a shaky blurry bit of video footage suitable for the garbage bin

so as much as I hate to say it - the much cheaper camera out performed the big gum mainly because of the gyro stabilizer function build it-rock end result solid viewable image and good clear viewing

two photo

one of the camera in question and a print out from my gps watch in the open run section. I don't think I will load up any higher readouts than that I could if I wanted to but I will leave it at that

[NitroDann]

Did you find its performance suitable at the high end?

Thats <10L/100.
At 130+ down the highway, with 300WHP.

Im satisfied with that.