driving

New tyres

For the last few month I was thinking about buying new tyres for my car. The old ones were getting slimmer and thinner every day. Considering my driving manners which envolve lots of speeding, driving on old tyres became dangerous. This is how my old tyres looked:

Without waiting any further for the worst to happen, I went to the tyre care today and bought four new tyres. This is how my new tyres look:

I’ve tried them a bit driving around the town and I do like them a lot. I can feel the difference driving as slow as 30 km/h. High speed testing will follow shortly.

The new tyres are roughly of the same class as my old ones. I used to drive on Flamingo. The new ones are Runway. They are priced the same – 60 CYP a piece. They are guaranteed to withstand the speeds of up to 210 km/h, which is about the maximum my car can produce. The traction and temperature measurements are at their maximums, but I’ll have to do so reading on that subject as I felt rather uneducated when I talked to the tyre master today. If you have any good recourses about tyres bookmarked, let me know via comments.

I’ll be passing the garage about every 10,000 kilometers to change tyres back to front and vice versa. The procedure will be free of charge.

Anyway, while at it, I suggest you check your tyres and see if you need the replacement. It’s better to change those a bit earlier than forget and cry in pity later…

Get your passes for Cyprus Rally this year

Although passes for Cyprus Rally were sold every year, some people didn’t understand why they would need one. Spectator areas are usually big enough to fit anyone and Service Park does not provide enough entertainment for the masses to go. This year is differen though. WRC.com reports in this news item:

The organisers of this year’s Cyprus Rally have unveiled a dedicated fan facility at one of the most popular spots on the event in a bid to avoid the crowd-congestion problems which forced the second run through the stage to be cancelled last year. The Kelephos Bridge area on Saturday’s SS8 and SS11 will now be pass-only.

The Kelephos Bridge section is one of several watersplashes on the Mediterranean island event, as the cars pass through a ford on the Diarizos River. Facilities at the new pass-only spectator area will feature up-to-date results, live stage commentary and merchandising stands. Tickets for the area must be purchased in advance and will come on a first-come, first-served basis.

UAZ in Japan

UAZ is selling cars in Japan.

Luckily I can save this in multiple categories, otherwise it would have gone into Humor without any hesitation. You see, UAZ is one of those monster Soviet factories producing cars. Actually, cars is too much of a word for those products. Cans is more like it. After some thinking I can find only one reason for selling those cans in Japan – export/import of metals. Last time I saw one, UAZ looked like it was done from the military tank armor. There’s surely some value in that.

Subaru team at Chesters bar

Sometimes I wish there was some more information in emails I get. Here is one I received today:

Get the most of “Cyprus Rally 2005” at Chesters
On April 22nd & May 7th take the chance to experience the thrill of driving the SUBARU IMPREZA WRX.
Meet the SUBARU team at Chesters on May 15th.

Chesters Bar website doesn’t have any additional information either.

Driving in Spain

I accidentally found this page, which provides a lot of information about driving in Spain. Rules, laws, and tips are all there. The article is written with British audience in mind, which is nice, since everything said is easily applied on to Cypriot audience.

I am amazed at how strict some laws in Spain and EU are. I guess these will be coming soon to Cyprus too. On one hand I do support expensive fines and license removals for traffic rules’ offenders. On the other hand, I am an often offender myself and I will surely suffer from a draconian system.