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Easter Egg Hunt Winners
Thanks to everyone who took part in our Easter Egg hunt. we had a massive entry, far more than we expected, but sadly there can be only five winners, which have been drawn at random from the successful contenders.
The lucky winners are:-
1. Wayne Begley ( NSW )
2. Graham Westgrath (NSW )
3. Nancy McAlary ( QLD )
4. Dave Moulding ( VIC )
5. Ross Rosso ( QLD )
A brand new TomTom ‘Live” sat/nav will be winging its way to each of the winners.
Thanks again for your terrific support, but if your name is not among the lucky winners, there’s a chance to get your revenge here
New Car That Does 560mph for $499 Here!
Quite a story, eh? This is the world of remote control hobby cars. One of the leading brands has just announced a new remote controlled car that actually does a real 70mph for a sale price of $499US. Size for size that translates to 560mph. See it in action here
This is a market that we are not too familiar with, so we did a little more research. It seems that 70mph is not quite so impressive as the world record is an amazing real, (not simulated) 161mph, but this is a specially made car that cost the owner more than $4000
Apparently they had to hire a fully-fledged drag strip to test the model car and ratify the world record.
Now that’s enthusiasm for you.
There is, of course, a flourishing remote control car hobby group in Australia. Does anyone know the Australian speed record?
What's in a Number – $13.6m??
There was a time when ‘personalised plates’ meant two letters, usually your initials, followed by three or four numbers-usually your birthdate…and they were free!
How things change. Next there was a small registration fee, but the plate was yours for life, then a wider range of letters and numbers could be specified and then there were annual fees.
Now there is a huge range of choices which vary from state to state…and a huge range of fees charged by each State Roads Authority.
The best deals seem to come out of the smaller states, where in Tasmania and South Australia, for example, a once only fee can secure a wide choice of personalised plates. In the bigger states, however, they are optimising their income with an ever widening range of choices and an even wider range of pricing.
Then, of course, there is the ‘second hand’ and ‘precious plates’ market. The highest prices ever reached for an Australian plate reputably runs into hundreds of thousands of dollars for number ‘888’ (unconfirmed reports also say the NSW plate no ‘6’ has also sold for a price approaching $1m), but that pales into insignificance when compared to the World record price.
This plate sold three years ago in Abu Dhabi to a local businessman for an unbelievable $13.6m!
Now let’s return to earth and see what’s around us.
Our next door neighbour for a number of years carried the rather strange number plate PUMP FE on her Nissan. She managed the local gym. Weird, meaningless? Well, not really, when we finally worked out that “fe’ is the chemical symbol for iron.
Even more obscure was a local Toyota Corolla with the number plate, TIH5HO ,which puzzled us for ages. Until one day we saw the car- and the plate, in our rear view mirror. Then it dawned on us. The State Roads Authorities won’t permit offensive or rude plates, so it wasn’t long before they woke up and withdrew consent for this clever number. We notice, however, that some states will still permit this configuration to be purchased, which is a surprise (if you can’t work out why, have a look at the mirror image).
These are just two of the clever plates on the road, others include RU NXT (on a hearse), or RUNVS (on a Porsche). The last one we saw simply said ‘SORRY’. As it happened the car was in front of us in a traffic jam. Well, it wasn’t their fault, so what were they sorry for??
There are, of course, many more clever and funny number plates around. If you’ve seen one that is clever, or funny, let us know. Also what do you think about personalised plates? For sure they make money for the Government, but do they just satisfy an ego crave, or do they serve another role? We want to hear from you so leave a reply below.
Footnote:- If you are interested in personalised plates here is the link for your state:-
When Is An Ad Not An AD?
Volkswagen is up in arms over a bogus TV ad that has gone viral on the internet.
Here is the ad that purports to be a genuine ad that is going to air in Ireland and the UK.
Whilst it is quite clever, and in the genre of VW advertising, it is far too provocative and racially offensive to pass all the regulationary codes.
In fact it was produced by a creative commercial TV outfit who speculatively presented it to Volkswagen’s advertising agency. They, of course, rejected it as highly inappropriate. But somehow it got onto the internet under the guise of an official VW ad, and has gone viral.
According to the VW PR people, they are extremely annoyed and have commenced legal action against the perpetrators. Still, to the average person, us included, when you get the email it seems authentic….so, how do you find out it isn’t? Well, we simply Googled the titles to find out it was a con, but most people wouldn’t.
We reckon this is a dangerous trendsetter, but how can you overcome it?
Level 2, 9 Help Street