RobiNZ Personal Blog

Vale Murray Walker OBE

Although best known for his iconic race commentary I'll also remember Murray's tales of his day job, advertising/marketing, outside of motorsport as well. His autobiography is well worth a read. I was privileged to be at the 2001 Melbourne kick-off to his farewell year, although he remained active long after that official 'retirement', and see his joy in response to deafening applause and a standing ovation from the entire crowd in the pre-race parade of drivers. There is no better way to remember him than a recap of this podcast from April 2019: F1: Beyond The Grid 1000th race special... Read more →

Racing to stop, a dangerous overtake in the Halsey/Jellicoe St shared pedestrian zone

Some drivers have little regard for the safety of others, judging by this incident last weekend. I was cycling, at approx. the 30km/h limit, along Halsey Street with a considerate car following me. As we approached Jellicoe Street a Mercedes overtook both the following car & me crossing the double yellow line just before a blind 90° corner. This was in the low-speed pedestrian zone by an entry to the America's Cup village on the final Prada Cup race day (Jan 30th). Seems they were racing to find a parking space. I slowed as I passed, with a W.T.F.?, but... Read more →

No Abarth parking?

A colleague was booking airport parking (not on airport) and it seems you can't park an Abarth! Odd given some equally rare, and far more exotic, marques are listed! This, wrong, option is available... Read more →

Reserved for the manual Fiat Bravo

How to get valet park number one at the Airport? The valet part is courtesy of a work travel booking. Park No 01 because they didn't want to drive a manual far or reverse it! Read more →

Simply the best Citroën 2CV advertisement

Remember seeing this in Car Magazine sometime in the early 80s, brilliant. Read more →

The real Car magazine is back!

I really appreciated Car (magazine U.K.) making their digital copies available to non-digital subscribers while the presses where shut down due to COVID-19. Car Magazine (Android) But after a few months reading it, sort of, on the phone* I was so happy to see this arrive in the mail today: Car Magazine print edition * They only offer Android & iOS digital issues so having a Microsoft Surface Book tablet about the size of the print edition Car didn't help. Read more →

Austin Maxi Vs Fiat 128, no contest

Love this driventowrite.com series comparing the design and life of the Austin Maxi and Fiat 128. Although they were not direct competitors (the 128 is more 1100 sized) the similarities, of both cars and design history, are remarkable. 128 v. Maxi Part 1 : Last Tango of the Titans 128 vs Maxi Part 2 : Function over Form 128 vs Maxi Part 3 : Spring Song 128 vs Maxi Part 4: The Racehorse and the Donkey Continuing our meditation on the Austin Maxi and Fiat 128 Every Day Is Judgement Day. If you drive a front wheel drive car today... Read more →

Really Jeep?

Because Fiat/Abarth is FCA, I am on the mailing list for Jeep. Have to wonder if this image does anything positive for the brand? Lets fuck up a mountain? Read more →

My Fiat Bravo 155 HGT the HubNut star!

Back in mid-January 2020 Ian (HubNut) Seabrook took my 2001 Fiat Bravo 155HGT for a drive. I'm glad to see the verdict was favourable, even though his drive was hampered by an intermittent sensor problem causing it to feel flat on acceleration. Ian must be stronger than me. He pulled the bonnet release lever out of its pivot, never seen do that before, but clipped back in now! Since this was filmed the air conditioning condenser has been repaired so it's even cooler now. The wobbly throttle sensor was being sorted when the COVID-19 virus lock down closed NZ. I... Read more →

The Pencil and the Battery Electric Vehicle

Had a chance, and interesting, coincidence today in my podcast playlist. Pocket Casts has my favourite podcasts set to auto-download and add themselves to ‘Play next’. Two episodes were ready to play when I left for the morning commute. The power of graphite; in pencils First up a new season of The Boring Talks* kicked off with ‘Pencils’: Brian Mackenwells on why we should all appreciate the pencil. Part of it (~0:05:00 onwards) told how a limited source of pure graphite (needed for pencils) in the 16-18th century made the British Cumberland graphite deposit a strategic asset. From its discovery... Read more →