Shuff's General Chat Thread ... #73 - Talk about anything and everything...  

Over the last few months of owning a Mercedes, the most interesting aspect was seeing the perceptions of others to the car, or more specifically the brand. Comments such as "rich" or that I have "made it in life"

from friends/family is quite funny to hear. The other car that I has was not bad but just when it happens to have a three pointed star on the front, it all changes. People escorting you to free spots close to the entrance is great though

Finally on the last legs of our legal case for the partner, depending how it swings we may end up moving to Tasmania and enjoying the relaxing life for a few years before i'll get bored and want something to do.

le sigh, legal cases always take years........

i imagine it'd be hard for you both to move on/forward whilst you're still going through the process

lots of nice windy roads should keep you busy @ Tasmania for a while.......

ACTION MOVIE ALERT. I have seriously had enough of Fast and Furious franchise.




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Jay Leno Gets Behind The Wheel Of A 20,000 HP Monster - Jay Leno’s Garage
Jay Leno's Garage

Published on Dec 5, 2016
87 feet long, 182 tons and 20,000 horsepower. Jay Leno drives the Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) on Jay Leno’s Garage Wednesday at 10p ET/PT on CNBC!

I LOOOOVE FF. They just get better. Each one more absurd than the last, and that's what I'm there for.
Slav, what exactly DID you buy...?

Speaking of which...

If I had somewhere to put it I'd have left an offer on his windscreen then and there.

Spoken like someone who's never driven one.

There's no car I miss more.

You wound me.

Pirate Bay to be blocked in Australia, Federal Court rules

The Federal Court has ordered internet companies to block five copyright-infringing websites, including torrent website The Pirate Bay.

Internet companies now have 15 business days to implement the blocks.

The Federal Court has allowed internet service providers (ISPs) to choose the method of blocking.

It could be DNS blocking, blocking IP addresses, URL blocking or any other technical methods which are mutually agreed to by ISPs and rights holders.

It is the first time the site-blocking laws have been used successfully in Australia, and is a win for copyright holders who have long wanted to see the end of the website.

The Federal Court handed down its judgement this afternoon, also ordering that ISPs block similar bittorrent websites Torrentz, TorrentHound, IsoHunt and streaming service SolarMovie.

The applicants Foxtel and Village Roadshow filed their case in the Federal Court in February.

Foxtel applied to have The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, TorrentHound, and IsoHunt blocked. Village Roadshow wanted SolarMovie to be made inaccessible in Australia.

Telstra, Optus, TPG and M2 were the major respondents.

While the two rights holders got what they wanted in a block, the Federal Court has not ordered what's known as a "rolling injunction".

That would have allowed new websites to be added without court approval or oversight.

Instead, Foxtel or Village Roadshow will have to file and serve a new affidavit outlining the new website's domain name or IP address.

Kickass Torrents case still before courts

It has been a long, exhaustive legal process which included a multi-day hearing where ISPs and rights holders argued over costs and legal oversight.

The judgement on Foxtel and Village Roadshow's case, means that only the music industry's case to have Kickass Torrents blocked remains active.

The operators of The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, TorrentHound, IsoHunt and SolarMovie were not represented, and did not appear at the Federal Court hearing.

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Rental acquired. Will do for a year or so until I work out what the hell I'm going to do here and build a house.

Also some furniture would be nice.

Islamic State recruiter's wife LOSES police brutality claim and is hit with $100,000 in court costs - after she refused to remove her burqa in court or stand for 'anyone but Allah'

Moutia Elzahed has lost her lawsuit against police over alleged brutality
She claimed police assaulted her in a 2014 counter terrorism raid in Sydney
Ms Elzahed refused to remove her veil to give evidence in court
She also refused to stand for the judge because of her Muslim faith
By Rachel Eddie For Daily Mail Australia
PUBLISHED: 14:17 +11:00, 15 December 2016 | UPDATED: 22:59 +11:00, 15 December 2016

The wife of an Islamic State recruiter who refused to remove her burqa in court has lost a brutality complaint against counter terrorism police and is facing a legal bill of up to $100,000.

Moutia Elzahed accused police of assaulting her during an early morning counter-terrorism raid at her southwest Sydney home in September 2014.

District Judge Audrey Balla threw out all six brutality claims on Thursday morning.

Ms Elzahed, whose husband Hamdi Alqudsi is a convicted Islamic State recruiter, had refused to take off her burqa to give evidence over the six-day hearing.

Ms Elzahed, who was the lead plaintiff, said police tried to pull the blankets off her when they entered her bedroom to raid the Revesby home she shared with Alqudsi and her two teenage sons at 4.30 in the morning.

She alleged she was punched in the ear, eye and head, called a 'b****', handcuffed in an aggressive manner, screamed at, and humiliated.

Both Australian Federal Police and NSW Police refuted her accusations.

Judge Balla ruled in favour of police in part because Ms Elzahed would not directly give evidence because she refused to take off her burqa.

'Ms Elzahed is a religious Muslim and she refused to give evidence in open court with her face uncovered. She also refused to give evidence from a remote room with her face uncovered (so that she could choose not to see who was watching her give evidence) with the court room closed so that only lawyers involved in the proceedings would be in the court room,' Judge Balla said in her judgement.

'I refused to permit her to give evidence with her face covered. Accordingly there is no direct evidence from Ms Elzahed.'

Ms Elzahed insisted she would only show her face if the other men in the room looked away.

Judge Balla argued she would have difficulty hearing evidence because the veil would mask her 'demeanour'.

Alqudsi and her son Hamza George, 17, gave evidence as to what Ms Elzahed had told them, but Judge Balla ruled their accounts were 'hearsay'.

Alqudsi gave evidence his wife's face was red the morning of the raid. But on cross-examination, he agreed she had been wearing a niqab and only her eyes were visible at the time.

Ms Elzahed was alone in her bedroom when police entered, meaning there were no witnesses to the alleged brutality - other than herself and police.

The claims of brutality brought forward by her sons Hamzah and Abdulla George, 16, were also dismissed.

One son claimed to have been 'pushed down on the floor with violence' and and handcuffed 'in an aggressive manner injuring his arms and wrists.'

The other son alleged he was slammed on a cupboard and still has marks on his stomach.

When asked for a reason, Ms Elzahed's barrister Clive Evatt said: 'She's a Muslim, your honour, a strict Muslim and according to my instructions she won't stand for anyone except Allah which I'm not particularly happy with, Your Honour'

Ms Elzahed could be charged under new NSW legislation for disrespectful behaviour in court after refusing to stand for Judge Balla

'He was also pushed on the floor in a violent manner and handcuffed,' the son had alleged.

The family may now have to fork out legal costs of up to $100,000, Daily Telegraph reported.

Ms Elzahed could be charged under new NSW legislation for disrespectful behaviour in court after refusing to stand for Judge Balla.

When asked why, Ms Elzahed's barrister Clive Evatt said: 'She's a Muslim, Your Honour, a strict Muslim and according to my instructions she won't stand for anyone except Allah which I'm not particularly happy with, Your Honour'.

The offence went into force on September 1 and carries a maximum penalty of up to 14 days in prison or a fine of up to $1,100 if a person is found guilty.

Alqudsi is serving a six to eight year sentence for recruiting seven men to fight with terrorist organisations including Islamic State in Syria.

when you see these opel Mantas, kadetts and asconas you see where the Toranas and Gemini come from

Why Men Wake Up With Erections

Speaking of which...

If I had somewhere to put it I'd have left an offer on his windscreen then and there.

PAC Performance Unveils Vicious Triple Rotor At PRI

When we caught wind of a raucous triple rotor being debuted for the first time in the USA, and visible to prying eyes for the first time we had to corner the creators for the inside scoop. At PRI 2016 in the Turbosmart booth, we met Rocky Rehayem of PAC Performance and had a look at his monster rotary powerplant.

“So many firsts, I’ve been in business for 25 years, PAC Performance in Australia – we build rotary engines. Drag racing is our form of motorsport to show off our product and the rest is history,” Rehayem introduced himself.

PAC performance may be known for their drag racing campaign but they pride themselves on their in-house craftsmanship and competence with the whole spread of rotary applications.

“We build 10-15 cars a year, and we service and maintain anywhere from 7-15 cars per race event. We do drag racing as our major motorsport but also we do some road racing, rally, drift stuff and the street car scene,” Rehayem continued.

“We fabricate, we wire, build the engines, do all the machining etc. The majority of our work is on early model Mazdas – Rx3s, RX2s, R100s, RX7s all that stuff. We’ve got two dynos, we use Mainline DynoLog and have a four-wheel-drive tire dyno for up to 2,000 horsepower, and a 2,500 horsepower hub dyno.”

Development of these temperamental powerplants started nearly 30 years ago for PAC Performance. In traditional experimental hot-rodder fashion, they began modifying and found the weakest link in the chain, again, and again.

“We’ve been pushing these engines since 1991 and exploring all the avenues. With the factory Mazda cast iron plates we reached a level where we couldn’t push them anymore. Being cast iron they became obsolete,” Rehayem explained.

“Mazda stopped making the center plates 6-7 years ago, so in order to keep racing the 3-rotor engine we had to find an alternative. We started machining our own, this was done in conjunction with the guys at Turbosmart – we sat down and made all the drawings, plans and started making these plates. It took us about three or four years to get them to a point where they were sellable.”

With the cast iron plates sorted out and in production trim, the weakest link moved to the front and rear plates that capped off the Wankel design. In all this exhaustive R&D, PAC has engineered a product with a shining track record.

“Once we had a strong center plate the front and rear became the issue. We developed a front and rear plate and have been testing them since 2006. We haven’t lost a single plate in racing ever. Every plate we’ve ever made is still in use because they can be repaired, welded and reground,” Rehayem boasted.

On the horizon, PAC has some lofty power goals, and to achieve them, stock internals are not going to cut it. Rehayem hinted at the future saying;

“We use all stock internals, as we started to outgrow the power potential of engine components we began fabricating. Now we make our own cranks and our own billet plates. Next thing on the agenda is probably going to be rotors and rotor housings.”

The engine we had our eyes on powers the PAC Performance Mazda6 SP, the company’s latest car has been campaigning since 2012 and holds a shocking best ET of 6.263 at 223 mph to its name.

“At the moment this engine makes about 650 horsepower per rotor, and we can do that quite reliably. The plan is to try and make 700 horsepower per rotor, and we’re doing that still with stock stationary gears and rotors. This engine makes 950 lb-ft of torque, and between 1,900 and 2,000 horsepower depending what boost we’re running, and we rev it to about 11,000 rpm,” Rehayem detailed.

“We use a 100 mm throttle body blade and we’re using a Garrett 98 mm Gen II turbocharger running about 45-50 pounds of boost. We run an external dry sump, an Enderle fuel pump and 18 fuel injectors (it’s on alcohol).”

To manage all that boost Rehayem and Turbosmart have teamed up to test a new blow-off valve that we expect to revolutionize turbocharger drag racing.

“We’ve been doing testing with a Turbosmart blow-off valve, this late-model valve does two things; one, when you get off the throttle it lets all the boost pressure out so we don’t spin the turbo backwards. Two, when it’s on the two-step and we want to get our boost pressure ready for launch, it will open up just enough to maintain the boost we want for launch. We keep our turbo speed right up there, and as soon as you let go of the clutch the turbo is spooled up,” he explained.

Engine management and electronics are an important part to the success of this exotic package. A Weber IDA isn’t anywhere in sight of this tuned up Mazda.

“We use a home-grown product; a Microtech LT32 for our engine management, with 32 injector drivers so we can drive the injector with proper peak and hold. Additionally, every racecar we do at our place uses MoTec data acquisition,” Rehayem emphasized.

Reliability is undeniably the first question that comes to mind of engine enthusiasts when it comes to high-strung rotaries, but Rehayem and PAC Performance live their mantra;

“Our motto is; we’ve got to first finish to finish first. The last thing I want to be doing is replacing engines, and I know these things have a real bad reputation. As PAC Performance, we pride ourselves on the reliability of this engine and we work damn hard to make sure it’s reliable,” he assured.

“At 1,800 horsepower the engine is fairly reliable, we can do a whole weekend of racing and torture it the whole weekend. It comes down to good tuning, good engineering practices and basic stuff you’d do with a normal piston engine. If you get that right, these things are reliable.”

Rotaries have a cult following, one largely perpetuated by the Australian contingent of enthusiasts. They may have a gotten a bad reputation over the years, but maybe we need to look down under for a little inspiration.