September 2020

This year has been eventful to day the least. After the lockdown restrictions were eased in South Africa, I returned to the office with expectations that the scourge of COVID would be a boon to the laboratory and mortuary industry, but it was not to be. After faltering for several months; the company ceased operation mid September.

I had a job offer from March, which was delayed until “after COVID”, after that was rescinded I fell into a depression. It was exacerbated by the boredom; and because of the depression, I was unable to do anything to keep myself busy. I would spend days half reading Reddit, HackerNews, and blogs, with Netflix or YouTube drowning out the silence.

October 2020

Midway through October, the depression seemed to lessen - I don’t know why. I had kept up an exercise regime throughout this time. So I know it wasn’t “just exercise”, but I do acknowledge that sometimes the only thing that got me out of bed in the morning was the habit I had entrenched by exercising before work. Whatever it was, I am thankful because there were moments where things got pretty dark.

By the end of October I had got a freelance design job, designing an exhaust manifold for a 1994 Audi S4 Quattro which the owner wanted to boost to 3 bar. He wanted a billet manifold. Standard turbo manifolds are branch type, which are small pipe segments welded into complex shapes, channelling the exhaust gasses from the engine block into the turbo. A billet manifold has the branches machined from a solid steel billet, this shortens those branches dramatically and allows for a much thicker wall thickness, which in turn allows higher temperatures and higher pressures.

Audi S4 Quattro AAN Billet Turbo Manifold

November 2020

During the research for this job I reached out to a friend who owns and runs a machining and car tuning shop; he provided some guidance and said he had some other design work he needed done which I found out later also included a billet exhaust manifold for a Nissan GTR Skyline engine he wanted to push to over 1000hp at the wheels.

So I am busy with that.

Nissan GTR RB26 Billet Turbo Manifold

I am doing a whole lot better. Two months ago, I don’t think I could’ve convinced myself to write this post. But here it is.