Monday, August 30, 2010

Testing the Old Lady

wahahahha... I guess this is old news already :P
But the Old Lady is out of the hospital for a while when I had my short leave last month^^

So we had a couple of days to test her out and list out anything wrong with her for our mech Hau to mend, and it just coincide with my short days off so we had to try her out^^

First thing I notice about the Old Lady is her striking new look o.O
She's gone down the path of bling bling drug dealers wheels :P

With flat black paint that was supposed to be temporary it seems to fit her new personality quite good xD

And when I mean new personality, she is a totally different lady from the old humble lady we once flirted with :P
With her new heart implant and an extremely loud waste gate, it sounded like she have 2 different personality, with the waste gate screaming when the rev counter started playing around 5000 revs/min she screams like a banshee right out of hell!!! ^^

And not to mention her new found power... a short tap of full throttle send her rear end kick out like a Brahma Bull just suddenly burst into life^^
Obviously we have to start tinkering with precise throttle control after this ;)

So I was having the time of my life... I was waiting for this moment to drive the Old Lady for almost half a year^^ and I spent all my free time just doing that^^

I finished off almost RM140 of fuel those couple of days T.T

(We hooked up with Hanz, the man with the mutated arms with his cool new Neo CPS^^ to test out the FC at the streets of KL)

But she really came alive when the moon is up in the twilight... before my short leave is over I just have to test her at our old hunting ground... our home course Bangi Touge^^

So we met up with Bib and off we went in midnight to that tarmac heaven, waited for some time at the MINT corner for the traffic to clear up a bit and then I was off for my first run^^

As I was still acclimatizing myself with her new potential I barely pushed her for my first run... and also mainly out of fear o.O with so much power under the hood its just scary to press the throttle... I was driving like a sissy around the touge :P

But on my return run I was starting to get the hang of handling her, despite the fact that her speedometer was dead (the cable snap just after Keisuke picked her up from the workshop :P) which makes the power steering feels completely lifeless, nonetheless I was starting to barely get the grasp of the Art of dancing around the Touge ;)

But then at the MINT corner I just lost it :P went in with quite a lot of reservation, but on the way out I just spun xD

Everything happened so fast I didnt even notice I lost her before the spin >.< but probably thats mainly due to the problem with the power steering but after 6 months hiatus from the Touge I have gotten extremely rusty as well :P

Below is the vids that Keisuke was able to capture in my humiliating moment xD but what happens next frighten us, it seems since the engine is operating at higher temperature than before the normal radiator hose is just not cut out to handle the coolant... she was spitting coolant all over the place after the spin... and we had to wait for the engine to cool down before we can start addressing her cooling problem :P

In the end, our night ends at 3 o'clock with the Old Lady badly wounded and have to drag her back to the workshop :P

So now we have changed all the hoses using Spako Silicone hose, and she is still getting more bling bling treatment from Hau xD

I guess I'll have to prepare myself a new set of Touge specific wheels... 18" feels rather strange :P its bling bling but doesnt quite have the same feeling as our previous 16"... I guess the max for performance for the FC is just 17"... 18" just feels too big :P

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Reminiscence

Yeah finally the Old Lady is resurrected, although there is still some more work to be done before she is 100% complete but at least she is out of the shed and into the moon light ^^

Somehow I feel that we have reached a crossroad here in her history, a new chapter is unfolding for her... so thus a preview back to the memories of the adventures and trials of our 3 years ownership of the Old Lady...