Shuzoku RED SUNS HQ

Life waiting at the fast lane....

2011-12-30T22:52:00.001+08:00

A certain famous figure once quote... "Life is racing. Anything before or after is just waiting"

How that turn out to be quite true... unfortunately, if you're not a filthy rich capitalist or a superstar you'll find out that your life will turn out be a lot of waiting....

Ever since Old Kate has made the kiss of death at the touge side wall, we've been slowly trying to rebuild her.... its taking quite some time since I need the dough and I want to fix her right the first time now...

So what have our life as an adrenaline junkie turn out to be while all this waiting... we find another channel to feel that rush xD

I went for bungie jumping ^^

and having new toys at home :D
Of course being a severe A junkie, me and Hanz have to get our shot from somewhere extreme....

We're getting our shots from half the wheels now, since my 4 wheels are still in the work shed and Hanz's just simply became obsolete :P
But my bike being abit older than Hanz R1, I had to send it for some maintenance and tuning before trying my luck with her :P

Stripping the new baby and making sure everything is clean and top notch....

Prepping her for her dyno test...

Tuning at work... we were able to squeze 149 WHP with 100 Nm of twist... I think that is enough for little me :P


Having our first 2 wheel trip... the trip is not all rosy and adventurist as I was expecting... it was more of crushed testicles, smelly pits, can't feel my fingers and hip turned into smithereens xD

So now we're just trying out different stuff in our life and cars has taken a back seat... but I still dream of the day I can attack the touge with my trusty Old Kate again, so here is a vid of old compilations I did out of boredom... :P

And a picture of in my opinion possible the best R33 GTR in Malaysia which I happen to stumble upon :D

I always have a soft spot for R33 GTRs... since they are the first car that got me hooked, its more like a sentiment for first love :P

Hopefully this blog won't be as dead as it was in the past couple of month, I hope in the near future Kate will see daylight again... and then we can start rocking the touge streets again^^

From the other side of the moon...

2011-10-29T11:51:00.000+08:00

Yeah this is another really late post, coz my internet connection around the kingdom of heaven here is just so slow... So I do apologize for this belated report :P

Anyway, it is no longer a news about our recent crash at the touge, but I'll try to re-iterate the events from my experience... And try to retrace the events that culminated with that crash....

And besides, I have nothing better to do :P

This rivalry between Keisuke and Hanz probably started from a year ago, before we can dispose Hanz at the touge without breaking a sweat... But with his immense talent, I noticed how fast he was learning and then we were caught in a race against time to prep Kate for the coming storm...

At the time, Kate was a rickety old rusting bucket, her chassis would buckle, twist and roll under the load we exert on her at the touge, so trying to control her at the limit was becoming a handful...

With Hanz Neo commanding a 200kg weight advantage against us, with his tricked out Neo and RE-01 rubber, the odds was stacked against us...

And then the inevitable happened, Keisuke was ignominously and thoroughly beaten at our home course >.<

The uphill section was not much different since Kate still had around 40-50hp advantage against Hanz Neo, but the downhill became a slaughter fest... Hanz has taken his first scalp :P

He was mulling the idea of battling me next and his domination of Tekali touge would be complete, but luckily for me, Kate's mending period was over.... From now on was performance enhancement, we were finally starting from ground zero after 3 long years of ownership :P

The first issue we addressed was the banana chassis, we immediately slap in a 10 point roll cage and the result became immediately obvious...

The chassis maladies was no longer a problem, but I know to go against Hanz Neo we would need more than a strenghten chassis, we would need the rubber shoes to match the level of grip he have in command at the touge, no more cheap-o 2nd hand tires... we were pulling off all the stops!

But then tragedy struck, Keisuke crashed at Tekali.... Luckily no one was hurt, but Keisuke emerged from the incident a shattered man.... His self confidence reached a new nadir point.... And we were back to mending Kate again...

And it seems the misfortune happened both ways, Hanz also had a road accident... Rolled his Neo and totaled it to kingdom come....

So for both of us, we were back at the drawing board :P

For us, since Kate had to go through a thorough overhaul, we also decided to give her a massive upgrade... Hanz was not far behind the idea as well, he bought a new Neo CPS and had it undergo the same mods as his previous Neo and more, with the Neo CPS being a better baseline model its potential at the touge became leap and bound better than before...

For Kate, it took us almost a year to have her in running condition and having her suspension properly set up, with a pair of semi slicks up front we were able to harness her new 300hp heart with confidence^^

Her handling became so crisp she was like a big go-kart, shakedowns after shakedowns she was finally ready for an assault at Tekali :)

Unfortunately there was one more event that have a hand on what happened that night, our track day at Kg Gajah....

During that exciting day, our semi slicks expired and out of deperation we had to change it with a cheap Korean tires... It was the widest tires we could find there to fit our extra large wheels :P

Those Korean tires have just enough grip on the street, but when subjected to the rigours of the winding touge the tires were wanting at best :(

Kate became sluggish and slow to respond to any minute steering adjustment, compounding the problem was that the tires would easily lock up under heavy braking, especially the front left tyre... With a bent wheel well, remnant from the last crash.... the suspension geometry became awkward, the front left tire has less grip than the right and would easily lock up....

And when the front left lock up, Kate's handling would just be unresponsive... I had my worries about them tires but my pocket was not really in a position to changed the tires immediately, we had to make do with what we had...

That night was our last hurrah, before I return back to my working world we would flirt one more time with danger at our favourite hole ^^

We first had a solo run each, and it seems that our average speed around the course has increased tremendously that we were both scared out of our wits with each of our runs...

Then we met up with Hanz and he was also shaking for some touge action so off we sped off for our 2nd round of touge ecstasy...

The first battle was me against Hanz, but due to the initial uphill section the power difference was too much that the battle was over just after the first corner >.<

So we divided the course into uphill and downhill section... I waited for Hanz at the peak and once he was back at my heels we sped off for the downhill battle ^^

The night was cold and damp, the grip level was very low... It was so bad that during my downhill battle with Hanz the left front tire locked up on several occasions... Seeing how bad the situation was I decided not to explore my upper limit but just keep Hanz at bay, he was holding on admirebly... A stubborn defiance against the much more powerful Kate...

Only becoz of Hanz driving skill he was able to salvage some challenge in the Neo, once the downhill run was over his heart rate was pumping furiously with adrenaline...

The next round Keisuke took the wheel and off we went for the return leg...

The uphill battle was a no brainer, and for the downhill... Since the return run comprises more high speed corners Hanz werent able to make up the grounds, even though he pushed right to the edge, his efforts was just too little to make any difference... Only with a sudden fog blanketing the touge near the finish line that Keisuke had to slow down which alowed Hanz to catch up..

But that night everyone was pushing periliously close to the edge, and with Hanz proposing to Keisuke that the next battle will be their rematch Keisuke was all fired up, his long awaited rematch....

Since it is no longer fair to run the whole course they decided to only do the downhill leg.... So slowly they climbed to the peak for the starting line and once they reached it Keisuke burst into the night!

Initially he was holding his cool... Then when the course becomes tighter Keisuke tried to up his pace, I noticed his line was becoming messy and then reaching that fateful left hander Keisuke locked the front left wheel... As we were going through the corner Keisuke was taking longer than expected to unlock his wheel.... He has just jumped over the limit of his car control, Kate was no longer in his command.... That must have been the longest few seconds in my entire life... Everything was becoming slow motion up to the point that I thought Keisuke may have been able to save the situation, I thought he had shed enough speed to avert the incoming catastrophy... But that sense of slowness was just an illusion... Kate hit the ditch barrier at such force that send the rock barriers over her nose o.O

She nose dive into the mountain and did not stop for another 5 metres plummeting her head at the mountain side....

Once she stopped my first thought was to get out of the car in case she caught fire, once Keisuke was out as well we knew everyone was ok....

But no matter how much I tried to show Keisuke that the crash no big deal, I can see it in his eyes a fire has just went out...

For me coming to the touge, we are mentally prepared that we will likely have an accident,becoz the nature of motorsport is dangerous in its own right...

Combine it with public road, the hazards are unimaginable... Luckily we were the only casualty that night, no one else was involved.... Taka and Jasril from touge G helped us secure a tow truck and riding with Hanz we towed her to our mechanic shop for that long lonely night....

Kate has once again passed her zenith.... We have to go through the phase of mending her, but for me the hardest would be to mend Keisuke's broken spirit...
And that night even Hanz Neo suffered.... Hanz pushed his Neo so hard that we found out his fuel hose burst.... o.O
Luckily his engine did not catch fire....

The vid below was a compulation of our touge action that night, its just the second part becoz the vid for the first part got corrupted and I was too lazy to fix it :P

http://youtu.be/keTd1-rPWRo

Not again....

2011-10-05T22:26:00.005+08:00

Well, I suppose it's no new news that we've, i mean specifically I, had again crashed our good old lady Kate... :-(

And from the looks of things, it'll probably take some time before Old Kate would be up and running again...

Why and how did it occur? Unlike my previous misadventure, this time I'll try to reiterate what happened that fateful night, so that we all might take stock of this rather unfortunate event, that hopefully, we will grow the wiser out of all this sadness...

It began, as always, rather slowly... Ryousuke had been making a lot of pretty lonely touge runs while I was getting myself lost at Miri and Brunei over the weekend. The excitement of Bukit Putus was still thick in the air. I was craving for one last hurrah with Ryousuke, before he would venture out into the world again. So thus, such was how fertile the ground was that led to the culmination of the excitement that burst into flames.

I came back from work as always, excited like a lost puppy that has just found its owner. To add to the fuel, that evening I had a rather agreeable run in the monster GTR of my greatly respected boss. My spirit was high. I was gearing for an all night party with Old Kate at our favourite dancing floor.

Ryousuke and I thus went out, not looking for a crowd, just wanted Hanz as company. Hanz is always an agreeable company, and besides, I missed him. Haven't seen him for so long. Unfortunately Hanz couldn't make it at that time. So it was just us two.

It rained that evening, so the Touge was a little damp. But things were clearing up, and so we made our run. An initial sweep, and it was a-go. It was a really dark night, with the clouds covering the moon, the only guiding light was Old Kate's rather unreliable headlights. But it's not a situation we haven't faced before. And so we took the plunge, and Ryousuke blasted through the touge.

It scared the heck out of me. I was so scared, that when I drove, i was paralysed by fear, and could hardly hustle Old Kate through the touge at any dramatic pace. The shot of adrenaline wasn't enough to overcome the fear, and at the end of my run, my neck hurts from all the paralysing fear rather than any great lateral Gs.

We had enough, I couldn't bear another run riding shotgun with Ryousuke, nor was he willing to go another run with me (despite running more slowly than him, about 2 seconds off... yup, we timed our run that night). And so we went off, almost calling it a night. As we were heading back, we discussed each others different driving style, Ryousuke being very aggressive, holding tightly to Kate's rein, not giving Kate any space to go adrift. While I was more subtle, letting Kate wander off a bit at the exits, and only holding on when Kate was going a bit too astray. Ryousuke's driving was on the point of violent and precise, while mine was like on rails, and seemingly gliding around. I took Ryousuke's comments in mind, thinking I may need to be more assertive with Kate.

But the night was just starting for Hanz, and he invited us for a drink at some luxurious hole in KL. We came, had a few chat, a few drinks, met up with some great folks (even a professional driver from Singapore O.O) and watched two of the most desirable cars drive away, an Audi R8 and a brand new GTR. Things were looking good.

With Hanz around, we were pumped up for another go at the Touge. Mostly because now we can ride shotgun in Hanz's superbly stable Neo, and not the terrifying Kate.

When we got there, Ryousuke led the run uphill. Kate having so much power at tap, blasted away from Hanz's view. Such was the difference now. Even with all the skills and talent Hanz could muster, it could not bridge the power gap Kate now commands.

When we reached the downhill point, Ryousuke slowed down and waited for Hanz. And that was the start of one of the most greatest and dramatic downhill duel run I have ever witnessed. Ryousuke gave it all, locking the left wheels occasionally. But Hanz gave some more. He would deftly oversteer his Neo in the turns, adjusting its trajectory, and slammed the throttle until the exit.

Ryousuke was able to get away, but not by a really great margin. Such was Hanz's superb knife edge skills.

At the end of the run, Ryousuke and Hanz both complained how slippery the touge was. Hanz said he had never felt his Neo 'floating' like that. Partly because of the immense speed he was taking the corners, and partly maybe because the road was actually slippery. But still, that didn't stopped us anyway.

We switched drivers. I took the helm of Kate and Ryousuke rode shotgun with Hanz. As usual, the uphill run was a walk in the park. Hanz simply cannot catch up, for the simple fact that Kate's massive power gave it unrivaled exit speeds. As I went, Ryousuke's comments lingered, and I tried to be a little more aggressive with Kate.

I waited for Hanz at the downhill, and once he arrived, sped off. Since the downhill of the return run is basically a high speed course, Hanz also couldn't keep up simply because of Kate's pedal to the metal power. But nearing the end, as the course turns tighter, a very heavy fog slumped over the touge which forced me to slow down so much, that Hanz caught up.

Regardless, I wasn't as fast as Ryousuke, but it was tacitly clear, Hanz could not keep up on the downhill return run. Despite Hanz being faster on the tighter turns, the fact that the earlier high speed portion gave so much of an advantage, the tight sections was too late and too few to give Hanz much advantage over us. That observation also lingered at the back of my mind.

Then, while contemplating to call it a night, i don't remember who came up with the idea, but we decided to have a rematch of my ignominious defeat at Hanz's Neo a long while back. Since it is unfair to incorporate the uphill run, we decided just to fight it off at the downhill section.

We then slowly climbed to the peak. I was afraid, afraid of losing control. Losing control of Kate, losing control of myself, all mixed up to swell and swerve in my stomach. The road was getting damp, the night was cold, surface temperature was dropping, and many thoughts lingering in the background. Despite it all, we took the plunge, not knowing that we won't be surfacing again that night.

At first it was going great. I didn't want to gamble on the entry, braked pretty early and heavily, took the turns gingerly, and maximise Kate's superior accelerating ability on the exits. Hanz was falling behind, very slowly.

I realized Hanz dropping behind, but as the course turns tighter, Hanz was holding his ground, and even sometimes making up the distance. I felt I needed to extend the gap, if I want to survive Hanz's slaughter at the very tight last portion of the downhill course, and those lingering thoughts came to fore.

Hanz took everything he got to keep up, going at the very knife-edge of limits, and sometimes went over it. A total of 3 times actually. But in all 3 times, he was able to keep things together, and continue the fight. Thank God nothing ever happened to him. God smiles generously on Hanz, and his skills make sure those smiles didn't go to waste.

As for myself, I tried to up the ante. I tried to push the entry a bit more, squeeze the exit that bit of fraction faster. But the increase speed was scrambling my on-rail, gliding rhythm. It was messing with my lines. I couldn't place Kate where I wanted her before the turn catches us. Each successive corner forced me to be more forceful on Kate, each time breaking my rhythm.

And the eventful corner came up. It was a long right hander, that turns tighter, then a slight left and right kink, and another long left hander that exits quite tightly. I messed up on the first long right hander, took another line that made me exit the turn faster, but not able to properly set Kate up for the coming left and right kink. The left and right was a mess, and before I could gather Kate up, the long left hander came.

Hanz in the meanwhile, was falling behind, my increase pace pressured him to push it further. And the 3 incidents came, and he was finally about to give up, thinking after that long left hander, I would leave him too far back to make up the distance, and so resigned to take it easy afterwards.

I came upon the left hander, braked Kate a little early, trying to scrub off all those excess speed Kate was carrying. Her left front tyre locked up, that achille's heel of Kate. That messed up left wheel well, that also messed up the suspension's geometry. All that adds up to a very sluggish left turn and very easy to lock up left wheel.

Her left wheel locked up, I eases off the brakes, but the wheel was still locked. The left wheel lock up was so bad, that we need to almost, if not entirely, lift off the brakes to cure it. Ryousuke was able to cure this by his highly refined cadence braking technique. I on the other hand, had emphasized threshold braking too greatly that I neglected practicing any other techniques.

I lifted off a bit more, the wheel still remained locked up. The corner was turning in, and the ditch and mountain side was coming at a more alarming rate. We still had quite a long way to go, so I didn't really panic and thought I could remedy the situation. Release the lock and turn Kate in, so I thought.

Again I lifted off a bit more, but the wheel remained locked up. The ditch and mountain side was now too close for comfort. Out of sheer instinct, I began to try to turn Kate in by turning the wheel. Thus shaving more traction from the tyres, making it more harder to unlock the wheels.

I lifted off a bit more and the wheel was still locked up. Kate wouldn't turn, I was suffering from a very bad case of understeer, the kind Ryousuke suffered at Kg. Gajah. It was getting too late to save the situation. I bailed out from the race, saving Kate was more important than continuing the race.

I straightened out, and dig in the brakes, trying to scrub off as much speed as possible. Trying to stop before we hit the fast looming mountain side. At the least, trying to minimize the damage should Kate nose dive into the ditch or the mountain side.

Now both tyres locked up and it was too late to try to save the situation. Instead of trying to cure the lock, I instinctively dig in the brakes even further, making saving the dire situation now impossible.

The ditch came up, Kate smashed through the low stone wall bordering the ditch, flying the stones up and over Kate. Kate was going too fast and flew over the ditch, nose dived into the mountain side, and became lodged in the dew ridden soil of the mountain side.

It was all in slow-mo, and I could hardly believe it when it happened. The misery of it all was then upon us, I had failed. I failed to properly gauge my ability and Kate's capability, I failed to quickly remedy the locked wheel, and finally failed to save the situation all together.

The fact that the air was damp, the surface temperature was low, giving quite low traction to Kate, using cheap korean wheels upfront, not having actually familiarized myself with Kate's braking limits, was no excuse for my catastrophic failure. It was a simple matter of lapse of concentration, a re-emerging self-damaging confidence, a burning desire to win, an insatiable lust to redeem one's pride and a disregard for safety, all culminated in the great disaster that has finally fallen again upon our weary shoulders.

Kate was again the victim of my incompetence. Kate, and Ryousuke's wallet. Though I am now more financially empowered, but I cannot dream of mustering the financial power to again bring Kate to her feet. I have failed catastrophically. I cannot even own up to my mistake, I cannot even at the very least muster all my financial ability to fix Kate, as I have a family, and they have their rights over me. I wanted to start a saving, and give my lovely wife the things she deserve, the things that I up till now could not give her. And to my little bundle of joy, how i wish I could lavishly spend upon thee. But now, I am tied up. My debts are unpaid, and now, even more have come to lay claim. Just as I was about to claw myself up from the depth of poverty, now I am plunged even deeper into it. All these facts lay heavy on me and I cannot but reflect, reflect and reflect again. My personal safety was never my concern, but the aftermath, the emotional and financial aftermath, can break one's spirit.

There was a time,
When the world was at my feet...

There was a time,When youth played in the gardens of my sleep...

But the world has awaken me,
My youth has deserted me,
Darkness now looms over me,
And this pit now conquers me...

My failings and failures,
My disappointment and blunders,
Let it all pass,
But yet it claws upon my wretched path...

One cannot but reflect...

P.s: I would like to take this opportunity to thank Taka and Jasril from Touge-G for their indispensable help in our time of need as well as Hanz, for everything you've done to help us and stick it out that night. Thanks a million. Only Allah could repay the help and kindness you've all given us that unfortunate night. God bless you all.

Bukit Putus Track Day

2011-10-01T14:54:00.001+08:00

I guess this is old news by now but what the heck =.=

Last weekend Keisuke and I went to our first sanctioned event outside of the tracks xD
Although its no time attack competition but nevertheless it is a sanctioned events held at the confines of the touge organized by Wheelspin Motorsport^^

How much better can it get? no cops to bugger us, no incoming traffic to worry about... but the touge roads all just for us to reach for the sky ;)

The night before the track day I went over and stay overnight at Keisuke's in laws place in Senawang, our plan was to go there early and have fun all day... unfortunately our plan went AWOL :P

We see our first daylight at half past 9 in the morning o.O getting ready and having breakfast eats up the minutes to 10 o'clock :P
We thought we have missed the registration time for the event and we were having doubts as to whether to join them or not... but we figured since we're here... why not give it a shot^^

So after breakfast off we went to Bukit Putus... once we're there our self esteem took another death blow >.<

Track cars and semi pro drivers everywhere o.O

We were starting to think to ourselves... why the heck we came all the way here to get our ass kicked? xD
We quietly hid Kate behind one of the tow trucks and try to blend in with the crowds :P
While trying to blend in we met our friends from Touge G who was there since last night having some midnight BBQ at the peak^^

We were still having doubts as to register ourselves but after some persuasion from Taka (or maybe some encouragements ;) we decided to gung ho... ditch our stupid self esteem and go all guns blazing^^

We registered 2 drivers and as we were filling up the indemnity form they were already about to start the recce >.<
They hurriedly register us and off we went joining the convoy for the recce... behind the last safety car :P

Obviously being among beat up Rally Cars and local enthusiast car... Kate stood up like a sore thumb o.O

She was getting far more attention than any of me and Keisuke was comfortable with :P

After the recce we made it downhill and line up at the start line for our first heat^^
The marshal was quite surprised we didnt bring any helmet with us :P
We completely forgot xD
Having always doing illegal touge runs... never before it cross our mind to have a helmet at the touge :P
But the marshal was being nice and he let us do the first heat even without our helmet :P
So Keisuke was at the wheel and jump off the starting line with all 300 horses spinning the rear wheel^^

It must be a sight to behold, with Keisuke riding her all the way to the rev limiter, popping up flames and crackling with all 300hp, screaming away in an angry banshee scream... it must probably be like witnessing a Group B monster off the line :P

But then again, the road was so slippery due to the previous night rain... slippery and greasy to be exact... we could hardly put the power down and the wheels would just slip.... we can't even properly heat up the tires and were lacking in grip all the way to the top... not to mention it was the first time any of us test our fate there at Bukit Putus so Keisuke wasnt really going all balls out up the hill >.<

But nevertheless we were starting to get the rhythm of the touge, so we headed back down and patiently wait for our next heat... unfortunately when it was our turn the marshal had decided it was too risky to let us run without any safety helmets so they had us turn around from the starting line and get ourselves a couple of helmet before we can continue xD

So we ignominiously turn around and scamper away from the crowd back to Senawang :P
Since it was almost lunch break so we had our lunch at Keisuke's in-laws place and went off to find ourselves a pair of helmets >.<

Luckily we bought a second hand helmet worth RM20 from the local bike shop, although it's not Sirim approve it doesnt matter for us as long as its dirt cheap >.<

Once we arrived back at Bukit Putus we were greeted with a host of supercars o.O

A Bosozoku style Toyota Crown? :P

Keisuke doing the 'Redsuns pose'

The crowd just gets bigger >.<
And the beautiful F20 engine AE86 already had an accident and was missing its front bumper... it was a grim premonition for us o.O

If the AE86 could lose control up there at the touge... what are our chances of not facing the same fate? >.<

That thought linger in my mind as I prepared to make my launch.... I have to admit my launch was not a perfect one... although must be very crowd friendly since I made quite a smoke spectacle :P

The first half going uphill I was being cautious, not even going into 3rd gear since I was still assessing the road conditions and getting the rhythm right, but once I was getting my confidence we hit higher gear^^

I was controlling the slides to a minimum trying to extract that extra speed out of the corners... the sound Kate made at the hills must be heard to believe^^
She was popping up flames and screeching the tires to the excitement of the crowd^^
The second half of my run was sheer adrenaline fun^^ we forgot about our inferiority complex and even sometimes bordering on dangerous since this was still my first hot lap up Bukit Putus >.<

But all good things must come to an end and we parked up the peak... once our adrenaline settles down we were split whether to make a huge turn around using the highway or just make the downhill turn when the next stream of participants started arriving... the AE86, some wira rally cars and Daihatsu....

As we saw everyone lining up for the downhill we just decided to join in the crowd :P
But our confidence level was top notch at the time we decided to please the crowds lining up the road going downhill.... once we see a hairpin corner with clear exit we burn the rubber and make a simple power over drift ^^

Heading back down from our heat^^

The next heat Keisuke was at the wheel again, but this time we had made a new friend who is a rally co-driver and driving a 1.3 Daihatsu rally car... which we've decided to make a 2 car run up the hill^^

This was getting exciting... a touge battle with our talent the limit, Keisuke was getting pumped up^^

After being properly beaten at Kg. Gajah last time around this time we're concentrating on keeping our heads cool when the action gets hot... so Keisuke jumps off the starting line with the launch precision that never ceases to amaze me and with so much power difference the battle is probably over just after the starting line >.<

Keisuke made such a healthy lead that he never really saw whats the distance between him and our new friend up the back...
And Keisuke being far more comfortable with Kate than he was in the morning started to drift her through the tight turns....

Seeing how excited the crowd was, Keisuke was getting excited as well... he started drifting at all the corners >.<
Even up to the point where we were sliding outward towards the guard rail but Keisuke would just continue the drift without any worries ^^

It was sheer fun!!! Once we reached the peak his time was somewhat off my time by around 2 seconds probably but he was having so much fun that he commented afterwards "I know its not fast... but I was just riding the crowd"^^

Unfortunately that was our last run of the day... Keisuke made our traditional power over drift around the corners with crowd just to please them one last time^^

Once we're back down... we say our goodbyes and off we went our separate ways... I dropped off Keisuke at Senawang and headed back to KL with a happy grin and satisfaction of a fun filled day at that tight winding Bukit Putus Touge^^

Keisuke did took a video recording of my run up the hill but unfortunately we ran out of memory to record Keisuke's run... and since the camera belongs to his inlaws... we forgot to take the video as well xD
So hopefully we'll get the video in the future ;)

Before I left I had a meeting with the future world champion xD

ps : pictures are courtesy of Taka, Allen Aznan and Mohd Shahjehan Maamin

Kg. Gajah Trackday

2011-09-19T05:48:00.000+08:00

Its been awhile since our last activities... but lately we have been tracking Old Kate more than usual...

At first, Keisuke drove her in anger at Sepang... she has quite a pace now... considering her abnormal shoe size and considerable number of ponies under her hood... with such a high speed track like Sepang power difference would be very much obvious.

Then as I just came back, the very next day we track her at another track day... this time organized by Team Taugeh 1Malaysia (kinda funny name IMO :P) and its held way up north at Dato' Sagor Track... cheap ol track.. just to our liking^^

Our trip started early in the morning as we don't want to be late for track action xD
And since the rest of the Team Taugeh 1Malaysia was staying overnight at a nearby chalet... going to Kg. Gajah from KL to arrive there early in the morning seems like a herculean task from our perspective o.O

Our morning breakfast :P

But for the first time in our history... our dust off was on time^^ only we had to do an unscheduled stop because we haven't checked the engine oil or any fluid for that matter ever since Keisuke abused her at Sepang last weekend... and because I had such limited time to prepare for the road trip cum track day... I wasnt able to secure any spare tire to bring along as well xD
We were going there with no preparation whatsoever and driven by sheer faith only that nothing would go wrong^^

Luckily I was able to procure a GPS for our trip... or any of our future trip :D so finding the Dato' Sagor track was nothing monumental of an achievement :P

Upon reaching there, we thought we had missed the opening salvo... but despite the fact our starting point was 150km away, we were the first to arrive at the track xD

After waiting for some time the main calvary of the Team Taugeh 1Malaysia arrived... and then it dawned on us... they're a league entirely above us>.<

Toyota MR-S, Honda S2000, Honda FD2R, 350Z, Audi TT, Evo 7...

We were outclassed both in terms of skills and financial might :P

These are serious ball players....

A very beautifully done S2000

Another very clean S2000

This Golf MkV GTI sounds kinda mute compared to the other machines that came along that day :P

A 380hp 4WD Audi TT RS o.O

Not only is it drop dead gorgeous... the interior is fully laced with European leather!!!

Chicks dig European leather :P

A very serious Mazda Miata... obviously the owner is no hairdresser :P

A Tommi Kaira Subaru ver 8 o.O

But believe it or not... this was the unofficial champion of the day o.O

Still... FD2R makes me drool :P

But this is the monster of em all... 450Hp twin turbo monster that makes even our Old Lady Kate seems like a tricycle compared to this behemoth :P

A monster with nostrils!!! xD

Seeing all those heavy machinery was not good for our self esteem... it plummeted past rock bottom... we were suffering so bad from inferiority complex that we felt like hiding our head in the sand like an ostrich xD

But meeting some familiar face cools off our tension a little and next thing we know we were blasting the track^^

Our track day action is too long for me to explain it in words... and neither am I overflowing with any creative juice so I'll just sum it up... our morning session we were suffering from heavy understeer that we had to left foot brake to try to cancel out the understeer... left foot braking with a RWD car!!?? o.O that was definitely a first for me >.<

Then we ran out of petrol and once we made it back to the track again, Keisuke took the wheel... the front tires has probably over grown its heat cycle and literally had no grip... Keisuke would twice just locked the wheels and plow to the colourful cones up ahead :P

As a result the tires were so bad we had to make an emergency leap of faith to find a nearby tire shop to replace our worn out front tires.... with the tires in such a bad state, even returning back to KL would be better in an 18 wheeler than our badass Kate T.T

Fortunately we found a tire shop which sold 245/18" tires... it took us the rest of the morning to get the tire change and by the time we made it back track side it was lunch already... T.T

We were running out of time, with our chores back in KL beckoning at the back of our mind we had to have one last hurrah before heading back... and what a hurrah that was^^

They suddenly decided to organize a touge battle at the track ala "Hot Version"^^

So Keisuke lined up first against the Monster Ganz 350Z and Keisuke cracked when he spun on his leading lap after being pressured from behind by Gan >.<

Next up was my turn to measure myself against the monster... and it turned out I lasted only 3 corners more than Keisuke xD

I braked too late, locked the wheels and plow my self straight into the colourful cone ahead :P

And thus end our battle on a 2-0 note with us getting the lower end :P

It seems we were not accustomed to wheel to wheel racing and being pressured by someone with a far more powerful machine than us :P

Ever since Kate got her power bump we've been having such an advantage that there was not much effort needed from our side... but going toe to toe with Gan and his monster, our timid weakness and fragile psychological strength became obvious like a glaring sun >.<

So being late for our return trip we hastily picked ourselves back up and headed the long road home, getting stuck again in KL traffic jam and being back to the reality of our life :P

With the mileage clock ticking past 300km, our exhaust note fell silent and ticking itself cool... next thing we know is that the short escape to a life of pure motoring heaven has ended...

Part I

Part II

The precipituous peaks

2011-08-28T06:43:00.009+08:00

Before the Ramadhan, and before sending Kate again to the workshop :-p I managed to squeeze one last hurrah from Kate X-p

We were finally able to visit the infamous Genting Sempah touge, where Touge G had made it their home :-p and so what better guide to show us the way than the landlords themselves X-p or in this case, touge-lords X-p

And better still, Hanz was able to come along ^^ at the least, if i am to be left behind, I'll still have his company X-p bcoz Hanz never leads on a new route, so if i am to fall behind, i'll be holding him back }:-) hoho..

Anyway, as usual, we were late... :-p even after quite a spirited wangan drive through MMR2 :-p

Well, fortunately we were not the last to arrive X-p they all gathered at the hallowed grounds of the 'Touge Bistro" :-p

The Enthusiasts

"Bila hero 120Y nak datang ni...?"

"Den tak tipu... On the way tadi, Den drift naik bukit turun kat jalan sebelah, nak cepat punya pasal!! " X-p (Note: all conversations are entirely fictional)

Before heading off...

Fans had a good look on the legendary 120Y :-p

After the arrival of the legendary Datsun 120Y, we finally headed off :-)

There was quite a number of us, I didn't really count (not really good at it anyway :-p) but it's safe to say that there were probably about 10 or more cars in our group...

Before we really took off, there was the ritual visit to the nearest gas station X-p

Don't ask why he's filling up the car like that... :-p

Kate doing what Kate does best... posing for the camera :-p

Meeting with the fans (of course that's totally untrue... X-p)

One of the cars broke down... :-p

And there are more onlookers (me included X-p) than actual helpers...

There was quite a lot of time on hand... to get to know each other :-p (and yes, there's even a lady X-p) "hello baby..." X-p (Note: neither she nor I was available anyway X-p)

There was SO much time, that Kate decided to get a little naughty by slipping up her skirts :-p

After quite a futile attempt to get the broken down car running (and after posing quite a nuisance to the visitors of the station as we were clogging up the space :-p) we finally decided that resistance is futile, and abandoned the car to her gravely fate X-p

And finally headed off... :-p

After going through the highway and trunk roads (and some villages as well :-p) we finally reached the start of the infamous Genting Sempah touge...

The starting grid..

The drama at the paddock.. X-p

Hanz's impeccable Neo CPS..

Kate's glowing sexy buttocks :-p

And luscious flowing eyelashes... X-p

After the paddock visit is over, it was time to move... "Drivers at the ready!!"

And then we're off!! X-)

Kate being the overwhelming monster that she is, makes the event not really a test of her limits, but reconnaissance of the touge itself :-p

To be fair, the Touge G and gang are superb drivers. Having been in this dangerous hobby as long or probably even longer than ourselves, they are good at attacking the touge as any other serious enthusiast...

However, limited by the power of their ride, and further compounded by the fact that it's a hill climb, they're not really going at speeds that would challenge the limits of Kate's new breast implants and her monstrous new stilettos X-p Kate has SO much grip nowadays, that the speed needed to really make Kate work for those expensive plastic surgeries and stilettos are in the region where my balls don't dare to venture :-p

So it was quite a cruise ride for me ^^ following the Datsun 120Y while enjoying some cowboy country music X-p But i have to hand it to the legendary 120Y, he hardly brake into the corners (up to the point that i thought his brake lights were broken :-p) and took the turns so violently, that his inner front wheel tyres are always up in the air X-p I suppose he's really suffering from roll steer, but heck, it looks cool X-p

Hanz not wanting to spoil his paintjob (as usual) didn't want to follow behind Kate... Being rather infamous for throwing chips of stones to any spirited suitors X-p so he decided to follow the Proton Saga of a fellow enthusiast by the calling of 'Botak' (for obvious reasons :-p)

The touge of Genting Sempah is always a series of turns on a rather tight narrow road... It becomes tighter whenever we crosses a bridge.. :-p interspersed with a few really steep and tight hairpins... If not for following the 120Y, I suppose I would be making my acquaintance with a few trees at the bottom of the dark abyss of Genting Sempah in more than a few places X-p

Being rather steep in the climb at some places makes following the 120Y even more of a breeze :-p Kate being overwhelmingly powerful.. however, at the turns, and even some tight turns, the 120Y dives in like a kamikaze dive bomber without any braking, that even i didn't dare to go so gung-ho that i would slightly tap the brakes X-p (more to make sure that it's still there than to really kill the speed :-p) but Kate's new stilettos are very reassuring X-)

The touge was made even more treacherous by the fact that that is the common route of plying lorries O.O and massive Lori Balaks!! getting caught between the long drop and a squeezing Lori Balak in a tight hairpin is not my idea of fun :-p

The almost sheer vertical wall makes almost every turn a blind corner... So i suppose it's bordering on being suicidally crazy cutting corners like nobody's business.. :-p it seems the touge is also the usual route of the local villagers (like 'duh...' X-p) so we almost nearly hit an oncoming motorcyclist X-(

We reached a right-hander, and the cliff wall was so close to the road, that there's hardly any space with the road... the 120Y dived in, and was about to exit the turn, when suddenly a motorcyclist showed up (I suppose he was also speeding through considering how fast we suddenly came upon each other X-p) I was in the middle of the turn when he suddenly whizzed by :-p the speed he was going was so fast, that i wasn't able to react at all to his sudden passing X-p Thank goodness it's a habit of mine not to cut corners to the limit in a blind turn, so when
he passed by, there's quite a considerable space between me and the cliff road...

His meeting up with Botak is another story X-p Botak was cutting corners to the absolute limit, with no space at all between the tarmac and the little space of grass and the cliff wall... O.O quite a recipe for disaster... Luckily the motorcyclist himself was quite an accomplished rider X-p he was able to drive through that very little space (running on the grass i suppose :-p) with extraordinary precision X-p his face was so close to the cliff wall, that Hanz said he saw the motorcyclist holding the cliff wall with his hands in trying to keep the fine balance of hitting a car or the wall X-p truly a situation of being stuck between a rock and a really hard place X-p luckily he could still stay on the 'between' path :-p my hats off to that great 'Rossi' ^^ (of whom i will call him such as forth :-p not that i know him anyway X-p)

After a while, as we were nearing the end, Botak began to drop behind... Not really sure why, but Hanz said Botak lost his usual pace (he usually could keep up with Kate and the 120Y) that forced Hanz to finally overtook Botak... Hanz's ego now doing the thinking (as usual X-p), he tried to close the gap which Kate and 120Y had built :-p

But not being familiar with the road (since it's our first time) Hanz misjudge a hairpin and ran on the grass at the exit X-p again thank goodness that nothing untoward happened :-p

The 120Y i suppose being very familiar with the road and traffic, overtook the lorries we came across very quickly (and dare i say, almost at the point of being reckless X-p) I wasn't so exuberant about it as he was :-p

When we came upon a lorry at a blind turn, the 120Y overtook the lorry without any hesitation... Me being jaded by the motorcyclist event, couldn't really muster the balls and faith to commit to such a kamikaze move X-p and decided to settle behind the lorry until i know there is a clear road before me...

So the corner turned around VERY slowly X-p that when we finally cleared it and the lorry, the 120Y was no longer in sight X-p and it was at this time that Hanz finally manage to come up to Kate :-p

A few metres down the road, we came across another lorry X-p after making sure that there's no traffic coming up, we then overtook the lorry... and came into a highway (I suppose that's why the 120Y dived ahead of the lorry almost suicidally... he knew that there would not be any incoming traffic i suppose :-p)

The 120Y was no where in sight, and to make matters worst, the road turned into a downhill course X-( Still being traumatized by the experience, decided to take the course very gently :-p and braking at the slightest hint of the road turning into a corner X-p the fact that there was an open gutter right beside the road is not really comforting X-p

But that was the last stretch and we finally hit the end when we came upon the Genting Sempah R&R area :-) Because Hanz had some appointment with some friends, we decided to forgo the downhill attack (which i think it's just crazy X-p) and went back through the Karak highway... Hanz being extremely fast and crazy at the Karak Highway, that he went through it at 200++ Kph O.O not really having the balls to follow, he naturally left me behind :-p

Then it was a long night of shisha hopping and boasting X-p haha... anyway, it was a great drive all in all :-) the Touge G and gang truly are crazy enthusiasts X-p I suppose if we went for the downhill attack, i would be more than sweating trying to keep up :-p considering how crazy these fellows are X-p

Anyway, here's a compilation of the vid ^^ it's my first time using a software i am entirely unfamiliar :-p not that i ever made any good vids in the first place X-p it's not as poetic as Ryosuke's vids, nor as epic as Takashi's, but still, at least it's a vid X-p

(note: pictures courtesy of Takashi of Touge G :-)

Till next time ^^

Shakedown at Kuala Klawang

2011-08-28T05:58:00.006+08:00

Well, finally the holiday season is upon us ^^ and i could at last find the time to write something up :-p haha...

Anyway, when I first took up Kate from the workshop, I had taken Kate for a shakedown with Richard and co... :-p from what i gathered, it seems that we got the muscle, but not the brain X-p We finally got a car that could compete with Richard's monstrous Scooby, but unfortunately, not the balls nor skills to compete with the man himself :-p haha..

Anyway, I'm not here to talk about that shakedown, it'll have to wait... Haven't completed the vid on it yet X-p haha.. anyway, Takashi from Touge G did a vid on the 2nd shakedown and it's pretty epic :-p i enjoyed watching it and is really honoured to put this up here for the viewing pleasure of our spamming readers X-p

The basics of Braking

2011-08-18T01:02:00.005+08:00

Ahh... I haven't written anything in eons... X-p

I do have a lot of materials to write upon, since we were brimming with activities the last time Ryosuke came back from war-torn Iraq :-p but i haven't found the time to divest the necessary creative juices to actually pen any worth mentioning literary pieces :-p

Anyway, what I am about to post is not about our recent activities.. :-p that'll have to wait, since i am still trying to find the time (and correct software) to come up with a nicely composed video collection ^^ maybe not as poetic as the videos edited by Ryosuke, but at the least something worth spending the next 5 minutes of one's life... :-p

I have always been thinking about braking techniques... I have read many articles on it, from cadence braking, to full-lock braking, to threshold braking etc... However, I have come across something so basic, that i feel it's fundamental to read and reflect before one tries any of those advanced braking techniques.. which unfortunately we did not practice as we had immediately jumped to trying it :-p a trial and error way of doing things, one finally learn something, but at quite an atrocious cost X-p

We have always instinctively known this basic concept of braking (and i am sure many are) however, this article, i believe, is great in the sense that it is able to articulate on that basic concept so well :-)

After so long driving at the touge, I notice that one of the most important aspects of driving technique is, for want of any better word, 'weight management' :-p and i am not particularly referring to my growing waistline (which is, quite frankly, also a cause of alarm X-p) but to the understanding and manipulation of the dynamics of the car and its shifting weight... this is particularly so when driven at the limit, and even more so in a downhill run... with an oversteer happy rear wheel car :-p

Aryton Senna was famous for being uncannily good at knowing where the 'grip' is...
and to me, Weight management is the holy grail of controlling when and where the 'grip' of the car is... by manipulating the weight of the car, one can control how much grip goes to which wheel and etc... of course i am not here to talk about weight management (considering my not so graceful growing physique, i certainly am not the most appropriate person to talk about it :-p) but about braking...

One of the most basic and important technique in this 'weight management' concept is braking... proper braking helps the car to settle in on its suspension, to take a 'set' (as they would call it) before turning in... more advanced drivers would do 'trail braking' by braking deep in the turn, manipulating the weight of the car using the brakes rather than the throttle (which is, speaking from experience, a really difficult feat to accomplish...)

Braking, if done properly, is not only to 'slow down' the car, but make the car take the turn faster... Jackie Stewart (particularly famous for being a super-smooth driver) used to say that his advantage over his opponents is how he 'eases' off the brakes... thus, eventhough braking is the most fundamental aspect of driving, mastering it can be considered one of the most difficult (for me at the least :-p)

Well, enough with my rant... This article was found at http://www.racingschools.com/drivingtips.php, a really good site to check out :-)

"BRAKING - Slow It

Virtually all of the braking that a race car driver does is done in preparation for or in conjunction with cornering. One of the first lessons that every racer must learn is that the most efficient way to slow a car is in a straight line, with the car's weight evenly distributed side-to-side. The "standard" turn on a race course is made under power, with all slowing having been done before the car is turned.

In the last article I noted that braking transfers weight from the rear of the car to the front, and that your braking system is designed to accommodate this. Cornering transfers weight from one side of the car to the other -- from the inside to the outside of the cornering direction. The braking system is not, with rare exceptions, designed to adapt to this weight transfer. The driver has to adapt instead.

Any time we turn our car's steering wheel we compromise braking efficiency. When we turn left, for example, some of the car's weight transfers to the right side; the left side of the car gets lighter. If we brake (or, for that matter, even slow down) at the same time, the car's weight is transferred forward as well. Now the car is unbalanced; the braking and tire adhesion forces on all four corners of the car are different. In all likelihood, each of the four wheels is either bearing too much weight to brake efficiently or too little weight to stick to the pavement optimally.

At the very least this condition will make the car uncomfortable for its passengers and difficult to steer. At the worst, it can cause the driver to lose control of the car entirely. The solution? For comfort or for safety, whenever possible, don't brake and turn your car at the same time. If you have to do so, be aware that it will neither brake nor turn as well as it would if you were doing one at a time.

While absolutely correct braking and cornering may not be a matter of safety at street driving speeds, they can be a matter of increased comfort. Next time you drive on the street try slowing down for corners before you turn the steering wheel to negotiate them. Turn at a constant (but not too fast) speed, and as you start out of the turn, accelerate gently. If that's different from the way you usually drive, you'll feel the difference immediately and so will your passengers.

The same braking technique will make driving a curvy road much easier: concentrate on slowing down for each corner while the steering wheel is straight. If the corners are esses, slow during that brief time when the wheels are straight as you turn from one direction to the other. Do this as smoothly as possible. Accelerate lightly coming out of the corner. Assuming you've judged your cornering speed correctly, slowing in a straight line and not braking while turning will make a dramatic difference in the ease and comfort with which your car negotiates a curvy road. And it will let you make better time without having to drive any harder.

Ideally all braking should be done before the wheel is turned for a corner. At the very least, 70% of your car's braking should be done before turning, and all of it should be completed by one-quarter of the way into the turn.

The cornering/braking tradeoff is dramatically illustrated in a highway emergency situation we've all seen or experienced. The car in front of you stops abruptly. You brake as hard as possible and swerve into the breakdown lane simultaneously. If you're lucky, this works, but it's only because you weren't stopping as quickly as you could have. If you're less lucky, you're suddenly sliding sideways toward the car you'd hoped to avoid or you're in a spin.

That shouldn't be a surprise now that you know your car can't brake and turn optimally at the same time. If you've mastered the technique of "instantly" squeezing your brakes to the limit, you'll brake at the limit first, then ease off your braking slightly to turn to the side; or, if getting out of the lane is more critical, brake lightly to preserve turning capability.

Copyright © 1998 by Tim Moser of Silhouette Racing. All rights reserved.

BRAKING - Stop It

Of all the skills that a race car driver must master to go quickly around a road or street course, none is more complex or more critical than braking. In fact, braking is important enough and complicated enough to discuss that I plan to devote two of these articles to it, and I'll do a third article, later in the series, on the unique characteristics of antilock braking systems (ABS).

No racing skill is harder to execute perfectly or to learn than is slowing a race car at the limits of its braking performance. It occurs dozens of times each lap on the race track. Slow down too much, too slowly or too soon and you've lost critical lap time; slow down too little, too quickly or too late and you've lost your race car or more.

There are three factors that make braking so complex. First, virtually all braking during a race is done at the absolute limits of the car's performance -- at the limit of the brakes' ability to convert the car's kinetic energy into thermal energy and/or at the limit of the tires' ability to adhere to the track surface. Second, the car's braking characteristics are never the same for two stops in a row. Third, the act of braking induces changes in the race car's posture, its weight distribution and its handling characteristics, all of which make braking more difficult and complicated.

Because race braking is done "at the edge," race car drivers have plenty of opportunity to experience and to practice braking for maximum performance. The everyday driver rarely experiences braking at the limits. When we do, it's an emergency, and one for which too few of us are prepared. I'd like to see every driver have the chance to practice braking at least twice a year, coming to a full stop as fast as possible, without skidding, from 30, 45 and 60 miles per hour. If all of us knew exactly what that feels like and how much time and distance it takes, the streets and highways would be safer places to drive.

There's a television commercial on these days that says something to the effect that your brakes stop your wheels; your tires stop your car. That's actually a profound statement, for all that it's technically flawed. Tire characteristics such as pressure and tread depth have a direct impact on a car's ability to stop. Race cars are checked for tire pressure and condition dozens of times during a race or practice session. Do you know the ideal tire pressure for your passenger car? Do you know how to measure it? What's the tire pressure of your car right this very minute? If you can't answer these three questions, you are in increased danger of not stopping in time when you need to. Tire pressures should be checked every time you put gas in your tank, and you should take a conscious look at the tread on your tires every time you get into your car.

When you step on your car's brakes, whether gently or firmly, some of your car's weight transfers from the rear of the car to the front. You experience this in the front end's dipping down. Your front brakes and tires experience it by having to do more of the work of slowing. That's why your front brakes are probably larger than your rear brakes and why they will probably need maintenance before the rear ones will. Weight transfer happens as a result of the laws of physics and your car is designed to accommodate it.

However, if you "grenade" your brakes -- if you stomp on them -- it is possible, even likely, that your more powerful front brakes will lock before that weight transfer occurs. Your tires will be skidding well before your brakes have dissipated any energy, and most of your braking effectiveness will be lost. The race car driver learns, and every passenger car driver should learn, to squeeze the brakes on (rapidly) rather than to stamp or slam them on, and to maintain pedal pressure right at the brakes' limits. The panicky "Oh no....STOMP!" stop has no place on a track and no place on the streets or highways; when it occurs either place it's likely as a prelude to a crash.

Copyright © 1998 by Tim Moser of Silhouette Racing. All rights reserved."

Though ABS is not really relevant to Old Kate (being stripped of that system long ago :-p), however, for the benefit of modern day drivers, i suppose there's no harm done in posting an extra article on ABS braking ^^

"ANTI-LOCK BRAKING

In my first braking article, earlier in this series, I promised a separate article on antilock braking systems (ABS). A recent report by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has raised questions about the effectiveness of antilock brakes and prompts me to follow up with this article.

Strictly speaking, antilock braking isn't a racing technique, since most race cars don't utilize antilock braking. There are two primary reasons for this: 1) It isn't entirely clear that antilock braking will reduce stopping distance for the skilled driver; and 2) Antilock brakes add system complexity, cost and weight to the race car, the disadvantages of which outweigh any possible advantages.

The IIHS report, issued December 10, 1996, notes that in single-vehicle accidents, cars with antilock brakes are as much as 44% more likely to produce fatalities than are cars without the antilock system. While the Institute declines to give a reason for this, it seems to me that the reason is simple and obvious. I don't believe that it indicates that antilock brakes are ineffective or dangerous in and of themselves. The problem is that stopping with antilock brakes, in an emergency situation, requires an entirely different braking technique than the one used with conventional brakes, and virtually no drivers have had or taken the opportunity to learn this new technique.

Different ABS systems work and react differently under extreme braking. While they all prevent the brakes from locking up, many of them generate pedal feedback -- pulses or bumps -- when they're working. They may seem to be pumping themselves; they may alternate between feeling firm and feeling soft; they may feel as though the pedal is going to the floor. The instinctive reaction for most drivers when they feel this strange brake pedal action is to reduce brake pressure, which deactivates the ABS, increases stopping distance and can actually cause a loss of control by upsetting the car's balance.

I said earlier that it isn't entirely clear that ABS will reduce stopping distance for the race car driver. It is very clear that it will reduce stopping distance for the everyday driver -- except perhaps in loose gravel or loose snow -- but that's not its primary purpose. The primary function of ABS is to enable the driver to steer the car while braking at maximum effectiveness. But steering in an emergency stop is itself a new technique. Abrupt or severe steering movements under these conditions will, again, unbalance the car and may cause a loss of control.

If you have a car with ABS you must learn to use it. ABS works and works well when you apply maximum braking pressure and HOLD it. DO NOT pump or ease off on ABS brakes in an emergency braking situation, no matter what they seem to be doing. If you steer while in an ABS stop, do it smoothly, but don't, under any circumstances, release or lighten your pressure on the brake pedal until your car is stopped completely. None of the above, by the way, applies to pickup trucks with rear ABS only, which should be driven as though they have no ABS at all.

It behooves every driver of an ABS-equipped car to unlearn his or her old braking habits and to learn the new ones that work with ABS. To do that, take your car to a safe location such as a completely empty and obstacle-free parking lot or a completely unoccupied street, preferably when the pavement is wet, and practice hard braking. Don't "slam" on your brakes, but press firmly, as hard as you can, with the force that would definitely lock up conventional brakes. Start at 15 - 20 mph and try to lock the brakes up while driving in a straight line. Your tires may screech or even skid or slide momentarily, but they should not lock up. If you can lock your brakes up, your ABS is not functioning properly. Stop your practice immediately and get your brakes checked and repaired.

No matter what the car or the brake pedal does in this practice, don't let up the braking pressure. Get used to what your ABS feels like when it's working; then do the same thing from 30 - 35 mph. At each speed, once you are comfortable with the feel of the car in a straight line, practice turning smoothly but positively while under maximum braking. Repeat this exercise several times, particularly at the higher speed, until you are completely comfortable with the way your car will react to a maximum braking situation and are confident that it won't surprise you.

ABS technology is expensive, and the more expensive the car the better the quality of the ABS system it is likely to have. There is a world of difference between, say, the ABS in a relatively low-cost Chevrolet and a top-of-the-line Mercedes. Both, however, require learning new driving habits.

Learn your car's ABS braking, what it feels like in your car and how it's different from what you have learned in the past. It is an exercise that can save your life in an emergency.

Copyright © 1998 by Tim Moser of Silhouette Racing. All rights reserved."

Anyway, hopefully this article helps refreshes my memory on proper driving technique ^^ sometimes we get lost in the minute details of trying to push the limit even further, that we stray from the most basic of concepts :-)

After a hiatus of driving on the limit for so long (due to that rather unfortunate accident :-p) driving fast again feels pretty much alien to me, and I do feel that I have to re-learn everything again, from the ground up X-p that crash really shattered everything inside of me :-p from my self-confidence, to my courage and even to my understanding of the most basic of concepts... It's great to finally able to drive again ^^ but the dread is still hanging over every turn :-p

Ryousuke is certainly over it (as is his post earlier), but i still got quite a hill to climb X-( well then, nothing wrong with a spirited hill-climb attack then X-p haha... Until then, drive safe ^^ one hardcore touge enthusiast once said (whom shall not be named for security purposes :-p) "drive safe, not slow... but safe" :-)

Driving issues....

2011-08-03T17:38:00.001+08:00

Well awhile back it seems we were having self-confidence issue concerning our driving technique...
(here)

It seems the accident Keisuke had last year has affected everyone one way or another... both physically and mentally...
Keisuke was in a dump... and for me, for something to happened to my nearest rival... even I started to have self-doubt concerning our level of driving technique...

Coupled with the fact Old Kate suddenly had power bump after another... she was turning into a real monster before we know it... and making our self-esteem taking a nose dive and our balls turn into the size of peanuts...>.<

But lately... after so many countless hours driving her, testing her and refining her.... it seems we may have found the light at the end of the tunnel...^^
For us modding her, we are no longer in the realm of small horse-power... we have entered into the dangerous world of high powered machines... so she would need the best to contain her...
No more cheap-o second hand tyres that has very little grip... no more banana chasis and kamikaze steering:P

She's now equipped with a very powerful chasis and tyres to catch up with the very powerful heart... the only thing she's lacking are modern electronics that makes driving monsters like her a breeze.. somethings like ABS, EBD or traction control, but not having those electronics only makes us driving her all the more sweeter :D
Becoz if she goes fast... we know its not just the car ;)

Notice how high she stands now... she's no longer a track focused car but a streetable touge monster^^

Lately we have been going for some touge action... testing her at Tekali during daytime and testing her at Kuala Kelawang with some new friends... the Touge G and co. :)

Hardcore Touge Enthusiasts at its best^^

Kate is doing what she is born to do... tearing up the touge at break neck speed^^

Semi slick goodness^^

After so many months only communicating via the web and smses, finally we were able to meet up :P

p/s : pics courtesy of Taka Fuji from Touge G

What I've found out from those touge actions, lately driving Kate is no longer scary... and we are getting comfortable controlling her 300 whp at the touge... her brake feel and the enormous grip those semi-slicks provide...

We've gotten back to our pre-accident days of confidence driving her... controlling the minute slide the car goes into corner... threshold braking with those big brakes and catching those big slides... even when the tires lock under braking no longer makes us panic...

All are starting to become natural again^^

Keisuke is finally getting some glimpse of his former glory... albeit his self-confidence is a mere shadow of his former self... but we are slowly getting out of the rut...

Thank god... so what we have learned coming out from our depression state?

It seems once we have jumped higher than 200hp, with a classic suspension and chasis with no electronic aids... our driving style will just have to get smoother... everything will have to be smooth so as to not upset the balance of the car...

Now we understand how important it is for smooth driving style and feel...

But still... even after all these years, if you ask us who is the fastest we've seen at the touge, it still is Richard and his monstrous Subaru Ver 8 Spec C... he is so fast, Keisuke was not even able to match his speed at Kuala Kelawang when Keisuke was attacking with all the road available while Richard was maintaining a single lane attack >.<

I guess we still have a lot to learn... seeing how fast those guys are really make us see the difference between heaven and earth >.<

Having fun at Fraser

2011-07-22T16:07:00.002+08:00

Fianlly, part II of our Fraser trip :P

Kicking off from part I, so first thing in the morning....

This is the kind of view that we woke up to in the morning ^^

SilverPark Resort... the resort that can never be Gold :P

After our humble breakfast we took some morning walk around the resort^^

And some bird watching... if you watch closely you can catch a glimpse of a bird on the tree :P

The monster machines in their natural habitat... the parking lot :P

So after our morning relaxing session, we took a drive around Fraser with a practical car (my father's car :P) to absorb the beautiful scenery that is Fraser's Hill ^^

And finally some wild orchid picking :P

All was nice and quite until the arrival of...

The Boy and his Tiger.... xD

So with Keisuke and his family arrived, we've decided to go for some swimming at the waterfall...

The Baron with his Rider Kampung Style :P

The road going there was unique in its own way^^

The arrival of the RedSuns at Air Terjun Jeram xD

The Baron is liking the water :P

And Keisuke in his natural habitat :P

Cloud trying to meditate underneath the waterfall :D

He's really contemplating hard :P

But the return journey is not very exiting for some people :P

The flight of stairs was too much, so we had to stop and take some air....

Like father like son :P

But the walk to the waterfall is picturesque as usual^^

That night they went to have dinner out at one the restaurants

With Cloud and Justin Bieber :P

I was knocked out cold that night with a seething tooth pain T.T

The restaurant^^

Next morning, with the rest of our extended family... we went to The Paddock for some horse riding and archery competition^^

Keisuke with his family

Abdullah with his family... with me tagging along :P

And another stowaway we found on our way to the archery range :P

The much anticipated archery competition... who will go out on top?^^

Justin Bieber making his pot shot :P

Cloud concentrating making sure he wouldn't lose xD

And he makes a Bull's Eye o.O

While Keisuke was having trouble on which eye he should be using....?

His eyes? or the tiger's eyes? :P

End of the day.... Clouds shot was kinda good....

But not as good as mine :P

Keisuke's was kinda hopeless...

So was Justin Bieber's :P

Next round was for Abdullah and his rivals :P

Abdullah pulling the bow to the rhythm of his body :P

My sister-in-law claims the target was too short

While Keisuke's other half is having trouble shooting :P

So all in all, their shot was kinda hopeless :P

They were even lucky if they got the arrows inside the target xD

Next up was the horse riding... poor soul...

The horse's worst nigthmare xD

The Tiger (retard) and the horse :P

The Baron (retard?) and the horse xD

After the fun-filled morning, it was time for us to say good bye to Fraser's Hill and head back down to earth where we belong :P

Family photo before returning down to earth^^

The Boy enjoying his first taste of superbike :P

But being Fraser Hill, the road down itself was an adventure to be had^^

What a way down it was...

We had to make a pit stop while heading down...

'Coz Keisuke had to pee :P

While Keisuke was answering nature's call, The Baron strikes back!!!! :P

And testing some photographic skills...

And appreciating some of the finer details of Kate :P

Once everyone was wrap up and ready.... we continued our way down that awesome piece of road^^

And finally we reached down from Fraser's Hill

And a few more stops for those all important memory lane^^

The RedSuns were here :P

The RedSuns pose!!!! xD

With The Baron being in the middle of retards :P

Our touge machines from a vantage point :P

After those few more picture snapshots... we continued down to The Gap where we met...

The Stalking Tiger!!!! xD

The Tiger spotted in its natural habitat :P

The Baron and the retard :P

Justin Bieber about to hand The Tiger "The 1000yrs of Pain!!!" xD

Old Kate at The Gap..

Abdullah was kinda pushing it going down to Kuala Kubu Bharu :P

We had a stop at KFC Jejantas Sungai Buloh^^

Then I found out Kate's electrical wasnt really working... we had no wiper :P

So the return journey became kinda dangerous with the rain and not seeing where we were going >.<

And after the journey Cloud sent his Bike for some inspection because idling issues they found out that the bike was running on a single cylinder o.O

Single cylinder up and down Fraser Hill :P

And Old Kate had to go to the workshop to have those wiring issues addressed :P

So that was a wrap up of our journey up Fraser Hill... I know I am kinda too lazy to type it into beautiful words, I neither had the creativity like Keisuke and he neither had the time :P

Oh, and one last montage for our return trip from Fraser.... how to get into Old Kate :P

Becoz her central lock was not working, we can't open the doors using the keys... below vid is how to do it^^

It's the climb....

2011-07-01T09:43:00.001+08:00

Last weekend, just as I arrived back home... the first order of the day was to get Kate out of the shed and back into the world because during my working period, Cloud and I had planned a touge trip to the picturesque Fraser Hill :D

With Cloud just acquired his superbike a fortnight ago, we were itching to have our taste of adrenaline rush after so long... Old Kate with the new 2 wheeler on the block ^^

As usual the plan did not go as we had planned :P
The trip stalled until late in the afternoon despite all our intentions of an early morning dust off... because with Cloud taking his Bike up Fraser we can't afford to be still climbing when its dark.

The Baron gearing up and ready to go^^ little did he know that his SuperBike is not quite super fit for the climb actually..

Kate wasn't actually fit and ready for the climb either, with her broken plate number and some wiring gremlins... but I had to run-in the engine just for fun xD

But different from all our other trip, 'tis time we bring along a stowaway in the form of Malaysia's Justin Bieber >.<

As going to Fraser Hill, we only know the route through MRR2... which did not bode well for our timing because just as we were passing through to get to Batu Caves, we hit the inevitable....

MRR2 Rush Hour....

But still we had fun ^^

And had the time to appreciate some of the finer details of the interior trinkets we just bought for The Lady Kate :P

Also her new voice... although not at full song, but she does make a nice melody on low tune ;)

And as usual... being part of the Malaysian motorist... making up the market statistics for road use, we were bound to hit one of our friendly, social conscious government's tax collector :P

But this time we were equipped with the latest gadget to combat Plaza Tol Road Rage :P

Its not like we are trying to become some kind of politically correct blogger or something, we just didn't have any choice concerning our Touch n Go card picture :P

As usual, with such heavy traffic.... Kate didn't stand a chance against the shattering speed Cloud and his Bike was eating up the miles :P

So eventually Cloud had to make several stops at several gas stations just to let me catch up, also for some rest n refit and our evening prayers.

Cloud and I having some serious intellectual discussion :P concerning the sheer amount of time just to get past MRR2 and Ulu Yam.

Obviously time was against us... it took us 2 hours just to clear MRR2 to reach Ulu Yam... and we have approximately another 1 hour of hill climb to reach Fraser... the prospect of tearing the Touge with a 2 wheeler in the dark looms high in the horizon... the risk-o-meter just jumped out of scale >.<

We made one final stop before moving on to change Cloud's visor and top up our fuel for the Battle Gears and ourselves (junk foods) xD

Cloud and Kate racking up the miles at Ulu Yam Touge... ;)

The high speed Ulu Yam Touge... with its beautiful curving roads and long sweeping corners, it feels like putting your heart right in your mouth... literally :P

But try as we may... it was already night fall once we past Kuala Kubu Bharu.

With the day light failing us and road lighting non-existent ... Cloud could not push hard and had to rely on the lights from Old Kate... which is however you put it, it's not good news.
Kate's lights are wanting at best, so we had to make the climb really slowly... with me having to nurse Cloud up to the clouds :P making sure he catches up and having him clear view of any obstacles or imperfections on the roads leading up to Fraser.

But eventually we reached Fraser's Hill... with the clock striking at 9 when we reached there... that's almost a 4 hours journey since we started at 5 in the evening o.O

We immediately went to the Silverpark resort where my parents are already waiting 'coz they checked in since afternoon.

After we offloaded our stuffs we went hiking around Fraser's Hill to have that taste of England in the Summer ^^

The Hills were woken up from their sleepy hollow with the sound of horse powers... The RedSuns Crew have arrived ^^

It seems we were not the only one to pack some punches coming up Fraser's Hill that night.. some even came in style :D

The trademark RedSuns pose ^^

And I found a new Battle Gear to tear up the Touge xP

That's about it for part 1... this post is becoming quite long, and I'm getting tired writing it up, I'll just wrap it up for tonight and hopefully I'll write up about the rest of our adventure to Fraser's Hill in part 2 ;)

I'm coming home...

2011-06-27T13:26:00.000+08:00

"I’m coming home
I’m coming home
Tell the World I’m coming home
Let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday
I know my kingdom awaits and they’ve forgiven my mistakes
I’m coming home, I’m coming home
Tell the World that I’m coming"

These specific lyrics from Diddy was always playing in my head these past couple of days because of exactly that...
I'm finally home... now our touge adventures are just waiting around the corners... just a couple of chores that needed to be settled first.

But during those busy days at work, I was able to find some time to compile a video clip with a collection of our memories these past 3 1/2 years since we started owning Our Good Woman Kate (FC) and the start of our RedSuns adventures ;)
Collection of Memories

Whats Up?

2011-05-10T16:04:00.000+08:00

Well it's been awhile since our last update.... not quite a while, but very long time that the blog seems to be dead :P
Well we Redsuns has been quite on a slump of Touge and Automotive orientated activity lately but we has been doing something quite entirely different for our regular adrenaline fix :P

Hanz was busy making some last minute arrangements :P

We found ourselves at Kota Kinabalu, Sabah...
With some very expensive rides

Where should one go once you're in Sabah? Of course the islands.... with the many pristine islands dotting Sabah's waterline, its just natural one heads there ;)
But we were not there to have some unadulterated fun, we're also there for some license application :P

After that last adventure I had to report back to my work life and everyone carries on with their life uninterrupted with any adrenaline frenzy.... >.<

But since I've been having alot of free time lately... what has been the news of the motorsport world? :D
It seems the results as of late has been very pleasing from my side^^

The Nissan GTR won at Fuji Speedway at the Super GT, beating both the Lexus SC430 and Honda HSV ;)

The JR Motorsport Nissan GTR made a double at Portugal FIA GT1^^
They won Qualifying race and also the Championship race...
In fact the GTR's was so dominant at Portugal they clock 1-2-3-4 qualifying time, finishes 1-2-3 for Qualifying Race and finished 1-3 for the championship race^^
Being only their 2nd season in FIA GT1 things are looking good for the GTR :D

And Sebastian Loeb won at Rally Sardinia^^

The only thing that is sad for me is that there no longer any Rotary at the grid for the Super GT :(

And what of the update for our Good Woman Kate? (FC)
Well she has been borrowed by our mechanic to test some killer engine he's building for some of his customer... so since he got the HKS engine down and I'm off for several month from her, might as well let him rebuild my engine as well... not some porting or anything, just regular engine rebuild for better reliability ;)
But is seems Hau has got the crazy ported engine in Kate and Keisuke has went to take some pics of her and her roar ;)

With a short vid of her hearty roar ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGqGB3xcIg

The hard trip home...

2011-03-29T14:29:00.000+08:00

Well it seems our activity haven't picked up even after I came back for a week already...

It seems a lot of other things has taken our attention, I'll try to re-iterate our not-so-happy sequence of events xD

As usual, the first thing I did once I arrived back home was to pick up Old Mattie from her normal sleeping home >.<
Keisuke has been naughty with her... he has been spending our savings on her like there was no tomorrow.
He sent her for some tuning at Formula D by the world renowned tuner Mr. Omura (?) and has bumped Old Mattie's horses to another extra 30 hp >.<
Ouch! Just when we thought she already has too much power she has another power bump... it seems she is gaining power more faster than we can catch her up with our noobish skill T.T

But it seems they has fixed some of her smaller gremlins and caught some unseen one as well, most notably concerning our tires and LSD.

Now she is running on a much fatter 295 tires on the rear... Bridgestone Potenza RE-050 to be exact, how Keisuke was able to procure such a gem at a bargain price is still quite a mystery for me >.<

The tires were so huge.. only one fit in the Vios bonnet...

The other we had to fit between the backseat >.<

After some tuning and alignment adjustment... Old Mattie seems to be ready for some shakedown.
Which we did exactly that on the night of my return^^

Unfortunately that was our only touge adventures since then... at first my grand mother passed away... so we had to cancel all our plan and rushed to Kelantan to help with her funeral (may Allah bless her soul T.T)..

It was a sad moment for us... but as soon as we headed back to KL we would still find ourselves in some very peculiar predicament...

The night of 25th Mar was when our little brother Madun arrived back from Penang for some much needed break... so we picked him up at KL Sentral and had a race back home with me and Madun in Kembara going back through KL-Seremban highway and Keisuke and Rafiq in Old Mattie through Federal highway... what we thought was a lost cause ended in a victory for the Kembara xD
Old Mattie was handed again another defeat in the hands of Keisuke :P
Hahahah... although it was not an intense battle but it was classic Top Gear race >.<
Unfortunately we did not have it on camera since it was quite an unexpected race :P

After that we went to have some midnight fun with our Airsoft Guns.... unfortunately we were caught by the low-life UPM pakguard... and with a lot of ego and bullying attitude they send us off to the nearest police station, where things were getting out of hand with my temper and Keisuke's future was in jeopardy.. so we informed Hanz of our problems >.<

Hanz came along and help us out of our messy situation, and after sleeping at the police stations all night and pulling some strings along the way we somehow gained our freedom!!! :D

With Hanz bailing me out and Keisuke's wife bailing him out... that was not a very exciting experience... but it seems we have owned Hanz more that the value or our unpaid momo steering we got from him >.<

Now our weekends were ruined.... our sleeps were ruined... and our armpits were smelling like sewers after almost 24 hours without a shower xD
As for Madun.... our unfortunate little brother... it took him 19 hours to reach home from Penang xD
with most of the time spent at the UPM security guard office enduring abuses and the Police Station >.<

Now Old Mattie is back in the hands of our friendly neighborhood mechanic Hau for some more little mods and touch up and I'm off to Bandung for some vacation with my family >.<
It seems our touge adventures has stalled for another few more weeks.... T.T

Old Mattie initial test...

2011-02-25T11:15:00.000+08:00

This is another really late post, but since I found my self with a lot of free time lately... :P

Just another 1 more week before I can return home and since activity around here has slump, so I guess it wont hurt my productivity if I post a belated post here xD

Just before I had to return for duty back in January, I called up our mechanic Hau and took the Old Lady for a spin... she is nearing perfection now^^
Her sensitive handling issue has been addressed, new semi-slick rubbers and a powerful heart screaming beautifully past that 5000 rpm marker^^

Keisuke and I took her for a spin and had to run her through the bedding process since we had changed her brake kit... both back and up front, although her bent front member havent been addressed yet but with the proper front and rear brake balance she doesn't show her dangerous tendency to spin too much so we had the confidence to run her through her stride that night^^

With the road being a little wet, we had a hard time ensuring the brakes don't lock while doing the bedding process and since she has massive brakes... we had to resort to pumping the brake so as to not lock her up too early.... it seems we don't have the skills to apply threshold braking but I suspect the brake force will need to be tuned more if we are to fully exploit the brakes potential...

After the bedding process we went to have some snack at the local 7-E then we hit up at our normal hunting ground... Tekali Touge.

Since now it appears Bangi Touge has become too busy and crowded for us to fully appreciate the road around that area safely we had decided to move to Tekali as our home turf... so we had to get use to Tekali quickly before we can start any real benchmark test around the area :(

As usual Tekali was quite and dark, unfortunately it was foggy as well... some part of the course was covered with fog so thick we had to slow down since we still havent memorize the road yet to go full blast blind >.<

But we persevere and made several runs each... from that early test it seems the rear suspension is still too stiff... we can't properly load the rear tires to get enough traction coming out of the corners, but maybe it's still too early to make any adjustment as we would need to sharpen our skill in handling FR with huge power as the Old Mattie now possessed.
During the long hiatus of Old Mattie, I had the opportunity to test out some other cars at the touge which is mainly FF and what I found out was that our driving style still resembles that to drive an FF car.

Previously Old Mattie didnt pack too much punch (possibly around 150~200 hp), so we didnt notice much the different drive train layout except that we can drift her :P
But now she's handling way more power than what we can handle, our driving style has become an impedance to driving an FR to its limits.

So now Keisuke and I had to start from scratch on ascending the steep learning curve of car control... with the FR, most of our previous technique learnt from driving FF is quite possibly obsolete... until I can further clarify these driving issues I don't think I can dwell on it much in this post yet...

The vids below capture a glimpse of our activity that night but summed up our excitement of having Old Mattie back, so much happy we were that we had renamed her Old Mattie :P

From the test, I noticed how shattered Keisuke's confidence in driving Old Mattie, I guess the tragedy must have struck him harder than I thought... he was so slow in taking the corners there was not much fear coming from his driving :P
Anyway, hopefully Keisuke can overcome that fear and reach new heights and as for me... hopefully with my return we can start making serious test and more handling tweak to Old Mattie to make her the handling monster she is born to be ^^

New Year, Genting & GTR

2011-01-12T01:47:00.002+08:00

The new year of 2011 will forever be ethced into my memory as one of the most memorable moment of my life^^

Somehow Keisuke was able to convince his bosses and senior to have a leisure touge drive at Genting on the new year holiday... and I happily obliged to help him climb the corporate ladder^^

We arrived at the promised Petronas station at 8 o'clock, as usual half an hour late than promised xD
Keisuke bosses was already waiting there... patiently :P

We introduced ourselves and chatted for probably another half an hour to wait for Hanz and the Evo Jahat to arrive, and when they do arrive... all hell break loose ^^

We made a mad dash to the foot of the Genting hill, with my cousin AbuWe driving a bone stock Satria Neo was in the "I'm not gonna be left behind mode" Kamikaze all out attack xD
His car was sliding taking corners at break neck speed, I was in the mighty GTR and totally oblivious to the carnage and chaos of the outside world....

I was in seventh heaven^^ and in gratitude that I was able to live up to that moment in life... xD
Now even if I were to die, I would have died knowing I've lived a full life and have achieved spiritual enlightenment^^

The GTR was mind numbing... utterly, viciously and unforgivingly fast!!!!

When we have finally started our dangerous climb the GTR was always the conforter... caressing us assuring us that whatever mess we'll end up in, it will pull us through safely^^

There was no drama in the GTR, when it understreed and almost hit a Wira... Mr.E would just simply press the brake and the GTR stop dead in its track...
The climb was smooth and amazingly not frightening at all... with Mr.E putting on the classic Malay music its quite an anti climax to the GTR performance xD

But half way through my future brother-in-law was suffering from severe car sickness :P
So we had to pull aside and let him have some rest, while we were chatting at the side a group of supercars pass by... made up mostly of Ferraris. With Lambo and Porche tagging along as well... Hanz suddenly had the urge to give those rich men a chase and off they went in a hurry to fill their ego xD

Meanwhile I was given the rare opportunity by Mr.E to test drive his precious GTR o.O
That was an offer I cannot refuse... having seen and heard of this monster's performance ever since its debut back in 07 I almost died of excitement xD

The vid with the rock concert just shows how excited my soul back then behind the wheel of the monster... it was mind blowing...

The GTR exhibits a lot of safety restraint without any of those 'R' setting, it understeer heavily and the traction control was annoyingly intrusive... so midway through I pull off all the stops and put the jack pot of the motoring world in its stride... the 3 R ;)

The car suddenly turns into a totally different monster.... with vicious acceleration and un-imaginable grip available... even when the pavement was not at its best condition the GTR just oozes confidence...

Like a big Goliath it takes its stride with pride, with a hint of a slight oversteer at the exit, predictable and most definitely controlable... the GTR was sheer joy to drive.... I have finally attain Nirvana xD

Unfortunately the G's was a little too much for my future brother-in-law and he throw up in the mighty GTR :P
Obviously his was not an enlightening moment with the beast... we stopped at the Genting hotel and buy a new clothe for him and then off we went to our breakfast^^

Downhill was just a cruize... with Keisuke showing signs of his crazy and phycologically disturbed DNA, he climbed out of Hanz Neo to take a video shoot of the touge monsters going downhill, with the evil Evo behind Hanz... the downhill gradually pick up speed until even the un-intelligent Keisuke noticed it was getting dangerous xD

Finally we pull aside at Restoran Ratha Kari kepala ikan Raub... and had our 'small' breakfast and gloating about our uphill climb^^

Then everyone decided to make a downhill run through Ulu Yam and it was game on for a second round of touge madness...

I took the wheel of my cousin's bone stock Neo to give him a chance to have a taste of the GTR at the touge and off we went...

Unfortunately I got held up behind some other bone stock Satria Neo that probably thinks he was a match for us xD
So I was unable to witness one of the greatest touge battle ever happened in my lifetime o.O

Hanz was sticking right up Mr.E's behind all the way.... they were totally nuts going at blinding speed, but Hanz with his unsatiable ego and Mr.E with his indomitable GTR pushed the enveloped of safety at the touge xD

Unfortunately Mr.Y mighty German developed some brake heat sickness going downhill and was cruising while Mr.Z Evo Jahat had to take his hourly supplement of tobacco that he was driving while his mind was in cloud 9 xD

So the great touge battle of David vs Goliath was only captured on camera in the monster GTR... but through out all the way Hanz was right up there sniffing the GTR nice behind ^^

So we ended our morning making a final touge run through Ulu Yam touge and parted ways after everyone agreed suffering from excessive adrenaline rush... so before anyone had any more bright ideas we all say our good byes and hopefully we can organize more of these 'climbing the corporate ladder' get-together thingy xD

The Perfect Day with a RENAULT MEGANE RS

2010-12-28T21:55:00.005+08:00

The perfect day... how would one define it? I have no immediate yardstick for it, but I know i've had a perfect day when I had one... :-p

Well, how would you look at a day where the morning start with a free flowing traffic to the office (instead of the usual dreadful hour long traffic deadlock), an always satisfying ride in a GTR afterwards (even IF you're only sitting in the back seats :-p) and round off the morning with a rather spirited testdrive of the latest hothatch to hit our local market? X-) surely, a morning like that would make anyone smile from ear to ear the whole day long :-p it surely did that to me X-p

Anyways, I am not here to talk about how perfect my morning started off, or how nice the day wound away... I am here specifically to talk about that new rave in town, the hot and sexy Renault Megane 250 RS cup (did I wrote the name right? :-p)

Yes, I had the very rare opportunity to sit in the back seat of a GTR into the renault showroom driveway to testdrive their latest introduction to our already crowded yet expensive local automotive market ^^ and how would I sum it up you say? I would say that the Megane RS is a world of contradiction :-p

Let me explain, the car is great, it is a whole bundle of fun, like an overenergetic puppy on steroids that would come yapping and jumping at you from a mile away, and yet, the yapping and jumping is so subdued and subtled, that you'd think the puppy was shot with a tranquilizer the moment it started yapping and jumping :-p not that it's bad, it's all in a positive sort of way... :-p it's like handling a thoroughbred yet tamed to be timid enough for children to play horsie with... X-p

Let me first explain the style of the Megane. I used to despise the Megane, its looks are so devastatingly ugly, that I would attribute it with a mutated fault in its dna genes caused by its ascendants being tainted with radioactive fallout of hiroshima :-p (but of course renault being french, wouldn't really be an unfortunate participant of that tragic yet triumphant page in history, depends on whose side of the fence you're looking from)

(See how everything was just ALL SO WRONG with the previous car X-()

But now, the mutated genes have all been rooted out, and I suppose following the wake of their success in F1 during the alonso years (the RS has been around Europe since 2008) they came out with such a beautiful exterior design, with all the right curves, dips and grooves (the insanely beautiful smooth curve of the front splitter was claimed to be inspired by F1 aerodynamics) that would match the beauty of any French nobility :-)

(see the family resemblance? X-p)

Honestly, i've never had much of a liking to hatchbacks, to me, they are like cars without a butt X-p but in recent years, hatchback designs have evolved to such an extent, that it causes me to rethink the way I look at them, and the latest Megane is the final nail on the coffin of that outdated thinking.

Nowadays, hatchbacks are cool stuff, from VW golf and scirocco to the Ford Focus RS and Fiesta, some of the designs are pretty much love it or hate it, but yet, its endearing and makes you think that THAT is a proper car and that you wouldn't miss the butt so much :-p unless you want to put a spoiler, then you'd start to have the ridiculous idea of strapping it on the rooftop X-p

To say how beautiful the Megane is, I'll let the pictures do the talking :-) because I certainly am not really adept in explaining beauty :-p but I am pretty much adept in describing how the car jumps and bark (or yap in the case of puppies X-p)

(that lower front splitter reminiscent of the low slung front nose of an F1 machine)

(that unique rear light clusters and exhaust is just insanely enchanting)

(the silhouette of the car and its side profile looks fast even when standing still, and those red scarlet brembos punch the point in the opposite direction :-p)

The interior is very much minimalist, with even the radio controls tucked away behind the steering wheel giving a very clean wheel :-p not cluttered by numerous buttons that one would not even bother to notice when taking a turn at high speeds :-p

The field of vision, the usual A-piller, as in any car, given the right circumstances is always a bother :-p the rear view, how should I say, requires a periscope X-p (not that you would bother what's at the back of ya :-p) but apart from that, the interior is almost perfect ^^ the recaro seats hug you like a supermodal in love :-p the wheel is full and satisfying to the touch and the pedals, with its studded rubber, is wholesome :-p (if that is the right word X-p)

The clutch is light, and being track-cum-race oriented, is pretty suprising :-p the brakes, as always for cars that care to employ the magic of brembos, are phenomenal. The feel of the brakes are just awe inspiring (as a matter of fact, the whole car is awe inspiring :-p), you feel you could out brake any car any day :-p given that it is not up against a GTR or any other supercars out of its class X-p Another thing worth mentioning of the cabin is the gearbox, the short shift gives it a very robust feel and it slots into each gear with a very convincing; pray for lack of any proper word; racy feel to it X-p

To put some justice to the car currently under limelight, allow me to define the perimeters and circumstances of which I am priviledged to experience. First of, the ever obliging sales man had set the car to “sports” setting, and from what I could see, it maps the engine throttle and response, torque curve and everything that has to do with those electronic wizardry I suppose, to a fairly aggressive yet linear set up, whereby the torque curve would rise rather fast but without much drama, and having a fair bit plateau of a powerband. The Megane has 5 settings, the first 2 for economical and leisure driving I suppose, the 3rd for a linear drive (as in the curve being linear), the 4th being for sports, and the 5th they called it extreme. Here the torque curve is pretty dramatic, with a much wider plane for the powerband.

Without given much liberty to try the rest of the settings, my thoughts will thus be on how the car handle under the “sport” setting only.

Secondly, as I have said before, having gone there on a GTR, I could not help but to compare the RS with the GTR, eventhough that would be grossly unjust. Nevertheless, having a fresh memory of how the GTR would burst out under acceleration doesn't really help in the impression of the RS. But the fact that I am comparing it with a GTR, and that it could hold its own, is pretty impressive in itself.

Thirdly, we were only priviledged enough to gun the car through the autobahn X-p there were not many curves and corners for us to truly appreciate the handling charateristics of the subliminal beauty of a car, but I suppose it'd do enough to give us a peek at its true performance :-) especially at high speeds ^^

Now, that put aside, we begin to slowly roll out of the showroom. Being a track-oriented car, it's pretty unforgiving :-p the clutch being a typical racing clutch, would catch the flywheel very early without slip, and without a proper input of throttle, the RS would leave you stranded there with a stalled engine :-p which to my embarassment as a self-styled passionate driver, is quite a slap to the face on my inadequacies X-p I would usually match the rev of the car with the clutch from the sound of the engine, but the RS being very subdued, audio-wise, would hardly allow you to hear the purr of the engine, and before I know it, the engine stalled, without even giving a hint of it apart from the sudden jerk and stop :-p

The very much obliging salesman do point it out to me that even the clutch point of the RS is adjustable per the settings as aforesaid above. Pretty impressive. Yet still, pretty embarassing to have stalled the engine X-p

After going through the dense traffic of PJ, I opened her up through the highway passing Sri Hartamas, took a right hander quite enthusiastically, and was instantly impressed X-) the acceleration may not be as dramatic and G-force inducing as the GTR, yet as I said before, it is quite raw, yet on the same breath, very subtle. You feel the jerk as the car zooms forward digging the road with all its 340 Nm of torque (YES, 340 NM OF TORQUE!!!), yet it comes at quite a gradual pace with little drama. It is like being slapped with a gentleman's glove by a gentleman X-p it is not painful, yet it hurts your dignity like a stab to the heart X-p this is all that, in the opposite direction that is :-p so satisfyingly fast, yet timid and controllable. The car is INSANELY fast, yet manageable and not scary. It gives confidence to any man that you feel you could control it, yet at the same time, the car dares you and instantly you know that you would need a whole level of skills to truly tame the beast.

When one hears that it spills out 340 Nm of torque through the front wheel, one would think that steering is pretty much non-existent X-p like how Jason Plato would describe it, think of the front wheel as 'men', hopeless in multi tasking X-p same goes with front wheel drive cars, the tyres could do only so much when traction is jostling with control and forward propulsion :-p lets just say that the traction circle would have to deal with a lot more tasks than simple braking and steering.

The car tempts you to go faster, with its stiff and rigid chassis, magnificent suspension, very talkative steering, phenomenal brakes, and when you are tempted so, the car dares you to try to reach its limits, whereby you'd notice a chasm where only the truly brave and great could leap with the god-like skills of a professional racer.

Yes, that is what I felt, in that split-second of turning the car into the corner at God-knows-what-speed, I was instantly tempted and dared, in the same breath, at the same instance, that I am both truly amazed and terrified (the passengers would probably be more in the latter category than the former :-p). The car is both forgiving, yet once you pass the threshold where only the greats would commit and touch the ceiling, the car turns into the unforgiving race car that it is. It is a TOTAL bundle of fun, terrifyingly fun, horrifyingly fun X-p

The tyres tell me they could handle more traction than I expected, and as I squeze the throttle even more, I felt the car losing some traction over some rough surface of the inner side of the corner, but the tyres instantly catch the car, and the LSD went to work. I felt the car, instead of understeering as expected of FF cars, rotates in the turns O.o IT IS THAT AMAZING. The feeling was EXTRAORDINARY!! X-D

The car is so talkative, you know instantly what is going on. The recaros hugging me like i'm Brad Pitt, doesn't falter in its task, and I hardly felt the side Gs through the turns (if not for my rather useless head being tossed to the side that is :-p) the steering, full and responsive, tells me the condition of the road and what the front tyres are going through, the chassis, rigid and firm, confidently relaying me messages from the suspension hub how the car is coping on its legs.

All these raw information, and yet subdued and civilized, is what the RS is all about. It truly inspires confidence, and truly makes you feel confident enough to even try to be the professional race car driver and make the jump :-p it reminds me of the GTR :-p only on a perhaps lesser extent (I am still truly in love with the steering feel of the GTR, which I suppose, save for the Lotus Evora, which I have yet to try :-p is perhaps one of the best, if not, the best, steering feel in any car i've driven ^^ which is not much i'm afraid :-p) .

But unlike the GTR, you can feel how mechanical the car actually is. It doesn't put in place a gazillion computers in keeping you from being silly and throwing the car over the kerb, but instead in its place are all these mechanical feel, that as if its just telling you what is going on, and leaving you the option of either being a silly bloke or a sensible one :-p that it makes you feel IF you would ever find yourself upside down over a kerb, that it is THAT which what you have chosen X-p the car is pretty much very persuasive I suppose :-p

If there is anything wanting in it is perhaps its rather lazy revving engine :-p being french, I suppose it couldn't be helped X-p still, perhaps this is in comparison to our rev happy rotary rocket ^^ or even Hanz's magnificently responsive Neo CPS, thus it won't be truly fair to compare it with the two. However, seeing that it is unfairly compared to the GTR, I suppose it won't do any harm to mention it anyway. But truly this is mere cheery picking, would that small inconvenience put me off the Megane RS? HELL NO!! X-p

For lack of a better word, I suppose the Megane RS is a gentleman of a car, yet, powerful enough to make you know that this is one gentleman you wouldn't want to mess with :-p I could go on and on about the car, how it drives, how it feels, but I suppose this post is already longer than is warranted, i'll leave with a note that the new Megane RS is all that a hothatch should be, it is agile, it is fast, it is brutally good in corners, yet it is subdued and subtle, that you could have a very disagreeable (to the local folks of the road) night drive through the local touge, and yet take your wife and kids for a leisure sunday drive through the city. To both the task it does very well, very well indeed that this car could be the best hothatch there is :-) its looks are just as great and cool as the scirocco, its performance could shame the Golf Gti and Ford Focus, and yet still agreeable with the wife and sleeping kids in the back seat :-p the Megane RS is truly a driver's car, it doesn't bother with paddle shifters, dsg gearboxes and all the electronic wizardry, it stays true to good old old school gear stick and mechanical drive ^^

Would I buy it? If I had 230 grand laying around, DEFINITELY YES!!

Would it best the rotary rocket? DEFINITELY NO!! X-p

The rotary has always been my first true love, and though its perhaps only a bit younger than myself, and though now even FF cars are faster than it in corners (yes, we have yet to have a rematch with Hanz X-p and restore what little left of my dignity) but would I substitute it with the Megane RS? HELL NO!! X-D

I would buy it as a practical everyday car and for the occasional burst of fun of perhaps annoyingly sticking around an EVO through the turns :-p but for a fun filled weekend car, nothing beats a rear wheel with a heart of a rotary :-p

To top it off, I would like to quote the 5th gear presenter Vicki Henderson:

“Is this the best hothatch money could buy?...... YES!” X-)

EPIC!!!

2010-12-09T03:11:00.001+08:00

Yes, as you've guessed it... this sudden influx of post is due to my boredom :P

I suddenly found my self with internet access and not much to do... just passing my days waiting for my rotation to come back home^^

And during these times of boredom I stumbly upon a jewel among the millions of motorspot vids posted around the web^^

This vid is a must see for racing avids and enthusiast such as my self... the vid itself stirs the soul^^

Also this is an old vid, but nevertheless awe inspiring and make my blood boiling just itching to get behind the wheel and hit the road for an adrenaline filled adventure^^

I've also stumbled upon an old vid of a very peculiar Group B rally car, an RX-7!!! o.o
Those were the days of insane rally cars... the Group B, they were so fast that it was banned just 4 years after it was conceived... and now its legacy has become legends^^
But I'm surprised to find this RX-7 in Group B... but nevertheless the pure sound of rotary engine is enough to wake me up in the morning everyday^^

Seating positions

2010-12-06T03:27:00.002+08:00

I guess the blog has become rather stale as of late... since I havent been home much to organise (organise? hehe I guess Cloud and Keisuke can differ to that :P) any touge activities among us RedSuns crew, thus the lack of update...

And since the last big crash way back in March has forced the Old Lady to be almost constantly in the workshop... until now we are still very cautious on handling here... and with her sensitive handling issue I guess it will be some time until we have her back for touge duties...

So now we go back to some of my main interest in cars... the techniques and tips on getting that little faster than your rival^^

These driving techniques post has been started by Keisuke and contains quite a massive amount of information and studies... I'll try to find some time to try organize the blog better probably to categorizes our entries for easy reference^^

Especially these driving tips, I always find my self reading them again and again... becoz for person like me driving has become somewhat of a luxury for me... my work does not permits me to drive often thus I may forget some of those basic points that makes driving all that more comfortable and much more fun^^

So the subject of this post is rather simple... but often overlooked, but it's one the most important aspects of driving... especially driving at the limit.

Seating positions whether we notice it or not affects our authority of control of the car and also our fatigues... sometimes one doesn't even notice that their driving position may not be correct...
Although driving position may be subjective and differ from one person to another, but there are some basic rule of thumb we can follow to ensure we are always in the correct driving position no matter what car we drive^^

There are 3 simple steps, firstly just after you sit in the car... ensure that you are properly seated, back resting flat against the seat and the buttocks firmly tucked in at the intersection of the back and bottom seat.
The underside of your legs should be in contact with the seat bottom... this is to ensure maximum contact patch between the driver and the car... as to feel the weight shift and grip limit of the car is through these mediums...

This is why even choosing your seat is as important as the next suspension upgrades... racing bucket seats allow these kind of seating position, with fairly little cushion on the bottom seat to enable the driver to have more 'raw' feel of the car... semi-bucket seats some of them offer these kind of seating position with some street comfort in mind... others are just imitation that are not worth the money... also the seat sizes is of utmost important, always before buying your next seat try the seats first and ensure they fit the necessary seating postion as mentioned above and if the seat have shoulder braces make sure you fit in those things ;)
As for our Old Lady we have a racing bucket seat with the size 'S' which makes it rather small but fits perfectly our small body frame... unless someone like Cloud or maybe even Hanz couldnt fit comfortably in the seat xD

Next is the hand position, after you've taken your seating position correctly fully extend the arms above the steering wheel and rest them at 12 o'clock of the steering wheel, ensure the wrist rest on the steering wheel.

This is to allow when we're driving our arm does not overextend... and overextended arms tend to tire quickly and once our arms tires we will lose sensitivity towards the steering feedback and not notice steering vibrations. With this steering position it allows for maximum authority in handling the car and using the 'shuffle-technique' much easier.
Although you may not notice how important the 'shuffle-technique' doing daily driving or town driving but once you get to much higher speed of driving at the touge or the tracks, steering techniques is essential ;)
Also just in case there is a crash... the hand being bend a little allows it to act like a shock absorber... unlike if you have straight arms streching to reach the steering wheel the force will directly be subjected to your shoulder pocket... which is not nice >.<

Lastly is the feet position, when seated fully depress the pedals with the ball of your foot... not your toe. The knee should be bend a little.

This is for the same reason as above, never to allow the legs to over extend and also to make it easier to perform the all-important heel-toe technique if you're driving a manual^^ but make sure the knee is clear of the underside of the dash board a few inches when driving... this is rather hard for certain cars as their factory default position may not cater our arms and leg lenght but just as I mentioned before, these are simply rules of thumb... seating position may be different from one person and another.
Well hopefully you'll find these entries interesting and makes your driving that little more comfortable and enjoyable ;)

*referenced : http://www.turnfast.com/tech_driving/driving

Wangan action

2010-11-18T15:43:00.003+08:00

This is a rather late post since it happened almost a fortnight ago but heck... nothing been going on this blog that I think its turning rather dull :P

Besides, I suddenly have the rare occasion of having an internet access that I figure its high time I update some events that we had been doing ever since we got back the Old Lady ^^

Keisuke went for some track day action when I was not around (again >.<) and it seems although the Old Lady power has been bumped up to almost 100 horses more than before Keisuke is not going any faster...
It seems we still dont have enough skill to grasp so much hike in horsepower that we are actually going backwards... T.T

The tyres and suspension settings really need some major overhaul as he reports that he's getting only tire spins...

It seems I dont have much video about his track day but below are some pics to feast on some fine beast that turn up to one of those rare Sepang track days :D

So obviously the Old Lady is still not ready for any touge action until I can dig deeper into our wallets and see what we can do about her very sensitive handling.

But still that did not stop us from having some wangan fun!!!^^

Just before my next assignment I was able to have a couple of days off, which we put to good use when Keisuke was able to convince his bosses to have some outing with their wicked machines^^

We met up just before 6pm at the Seremban R&R, and with the Old Lady we were as usual late :P

KeKe went along with his DSLR :D so Keisuke had to sit directly on top of the drive shaft wihout any seat until we reach the R&R (and he was constantly complaining about the heat from the shaft xD)

When we met up, Hanz with his awesome Neo CPS was already there, so is En. Yus with his Golf GTI MkV and Zaid with his Evo 7^^... so we exchange our greetings and off we went with as agreed Hanz as the lead car...

But not even 5 minutes pass on the drive, Zaid with his Evo 7 Beast suddenly started a full throttle dash through the high way o.O

All the way until the Melaka exit we were going out meter... it was damn scary sitting in the Old Lady going at that speed for such extended period of time o.O

But the whole drive itself was extremely fun, and when we reach Melaka we stop by the mosque for a quick prayer and off the road again for our main objective.... ikan bakar!!! xD

Hahahaha yes we went all the way there like crazy maniacs just to enjoy the Ikan Bakar :P I had to say the food was very nice, albeit we were eating with such gluttony that we were rendered immobilize for quite some time :P

Then we hit the road again with Hanz bringing us to his college and had some drinks and some photo shoot before we call it a night...

We had some very peculiar incident just before we wanted to head back that made the FC visiting the workshop again the next day :P

Anyway, below is a compilation vid of our wangan adventure... enjoy and have a happy end of the year from us RedSuns crew ;)

Mazda new design language

2010-09-09T20:05:00.003+08:00

Ok, since I've become a rotorhead... I'm quite inclined to being Mazda bias xD

With the extremely beautiful Mazda Furai... which embodies Mazda 'Nagare' design concept, which means 'Flow'... is already mindblowing-ly beautiful.... coupled with a 450hp 3-rotor engine, the Furai must be the most beautiful prototype race car ever built^^

Below is a short vid of the car's unveiling at Laguna Seca ^^

But now Mazda has unveiled a new design language... Kodo - Soul of motion^^

Introduced in the form of the Shinari... a four door coupe, it just shows the design direction that Mazda is pursuing... which in my own biased personal opinion is jaw-dropping-ly beautiful xD

Below is the vids of the concept cars advert and unveiling at Milan^^

I must say, if I am to buy a practical car anytime in the future... I guess I'll be visiting Mazda's showroom :P

I have no idea why I would be writing this kind of post in our 'FC cum Touge diary blog', I guess I'm just bored to the bones... considering I'm celebrating Hari Raya on foreign land, having to work in the festive morning and havent touched the Old Lady for almost a month already... I guess I'm suffering from A.L.A.R (Acute Lack of Adrenaline Rush) xD

Anyway... Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all my muslims friends and Maaf Zahir Batin to all my friends and anyone that might be reading this almost dead blog :P

p/s : Pictures courtesy of www.motortrend.com and www.netcarshow.com

Testing the Old Lady

2010-08-30T01:21:00.002+08:00

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

Reminiscence

2010-08-10T05:18:00.001+08:00

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...

Another day in history

2010-06-14T23:34:00.006+08:00

Yup, my fortunes just keeps getting better and better ^^ eventhough i keep digging deeper and deeper into poverty X-p haha...

a senior colleague of mine have been prowling the market for an Evo... he wants the latest evo he can find that is within his budget, 120k... and that'd be an evo 7...

He finally got it over the weekend, and brought it over to the office today :-) and i must say, it's quite a find ^^

The awe-inspiring Evo...

Pingu making a model fit to turn eyes sore... X-p

Everyone's all over the beast... :-p (the vinyl on the evo says: "Spirit of competition" ^^ lovely words indeed... what is evolution without competition? :-p)

The car is pretty completely modded, any further would probably require internal modifications that would be both extreme and costly... it's got aftermarket parts all over the place, hks intercooler, apexi fc commander ecu, rsm, brembo brakes, single-plate racing clutch, exhaust-God-knows-what and etc X-p

I jumped at the opportunity of taking the car out for a ride X-p and what a ride it was... the speedometer was still the stock 180kph, but with a car like that, that narrow band of speed limitation is just another number... X-p

My much respected senior colleague drove us into the Duke highway (our usual proving grounds :-p) and stopped by the roadside...

I was so eager to get started, that i didn't really adjust my seat properly :-p the clutch, being a single-plated clutch, is heavy and quick to grab the flywheel... the evo started off slow, and with a tap of the throttle, launches itself forward...

There's no dramatic sudden kick-in-the-butt turbo boost or anything like that, the ride's pretty smooth, and the rev just keeps on pulling until its 7k redline... and with pretty closed gear-ratios, and a really nice short shift, shifting through the gears up till top gear is a real breeze, and before you know it, your speedometer is already knocking the wall... :-p

the glare of the sun blocks the view of the RSM, so i never knew how fast i was going, but on a highway with decent sparsity of traffic, one can make an intelligent guess that over 200 kph is not unreasonable.. :-p

We had probably hit 250kph, and the car just seems to keep on going O.o but unlike Hanz's former superb neo (cruising at 200++ kph was a real breeze, and comfortable and quite enough to enjoy his In-car entertainment system) the evo just abused us with its wonderfully blaring exhaust note... X-p not that i'm complaining... :-p

The clutch being a racing clutch, catches the flywheel without any slip... so for noobs such as myself, it requires a certain finesse (that i have not attained :-p) to change gears without the car lurching...

The powerband of the evo is so wide, that the torque just keeps on coming from even quite a low rpm... perhaps as low as 3000 rpm, and it just keeps on going until the redline... :-p having a very wide powerband, it makes rev-matching quite difficult... X-(

Say for example i was running in 3rd at say 3000 rpm, and down-shifted into 2nd, I would need to rev-match the revs up to close to the redline to make sure the shifting is smooth... any lower than that, then the revs would be too low and the car would lurch forward, trying to force match the engine speed and the wheel speed...

Such a car would make machine-gun downshifting (as i would call it X-p) possible only under very hard braking, where speed is scrubbed off at a blistering speed, faster than the eyes could bulge out X-p

The brakes on that Evo is phenomenal O.O it employs aftermarket racing brembo brakes (noticeable from the screech of the pads when the car is stopping, bcoz the exhaust wouldn't bother in the background X-p) thus one can expect nothing less in stopping power...

The car is quite balanced :-) I could scrape off excess speed as fast as i could pile them on the speedometer X-p such characteristics would be pretty handy on the touge ('~,)

The only qualm i have on the car is the power-steering... if there is a weak link, that would be it... and what a weak link it is :-( with all the entry and exit speed that car is capable of, it's rendered useless by the disappointing steering...

The power-steering is not speed sensitive (i don't know whether stocks are like that or that was purposely made by the previous owner) thus it remains light and detached even when running at excess of 200++ kph O.O now that's a thought to really scare the bejeepers out of me.. X-p sadly i noticed that only when i was taking a turn while running in excess of 200++ kph X-p

While going straight, i noticed there's hardly any feedback from the steering, which i attributed to perhaps the stability of the car and the smoothness of the highway surface... but that trait rears its ugly head in a turn, and really caught me wetting my pants... X-p

It completely takes out the fun in the car.. :-( you don't know whether you're running at the limit of the car and its tyres or not... and before you know it, the tyres are squealing, and THERE'S NOTHING FROM THE STEERING TELLING ME THAT!!! O.O

I felt i could push on, but the tyres are telling me otherwise, while the car's computers were making algorithms that would shame even Einstein in trying to keep me from getting into a mess X-p and in all that, the steering tells me only nothing... it's so detached, the car suddenly feels like a luxurious beemer O.o (not that i've ever driven one before X-p) it feels sedated, it feels detached, it feels unnatural, it feels.... luxurious... X-p

That really took the wind out of the whole excitement of driving that wonderful piece of tuning history... :-( and a pity that is... i've pointed it out to my senpai, hopefully he'll see to it soon ^^

That kind of feedback with that kind of speed would definitely kill someone eventually... hopefully my thoughts are untrue, and the truth is far from it... God-forbid... apart from that, i can't wait to have the old lady back and join the crew X-)

the cast is ready, time for the show to begin X-) arr...
shiver me timbers... X-D

The beast is alive!!!

2010-06-12T12:58:00.004+08:00

The engine swap is finally done ^^ so i went to our mechanic today to have a look at the old lady with a monstrous heart :-p here's the vid of her coming alive ^^

All that's left is to tune her up :-) we'll got a new exhaust system installed, with piping 3.8' O.O the injectors are 850cc for the 2 top injectors... the bottom 2 injectors are 550cc a piece... (whatever all that means X-p)

Our mechanic will take it for dyno testing next week, hopefully i can make it ^^

here's the pics of the new engine :-)

And here's the new side skirt for ryo's consideration :-p

It's basically a lot bigger than the original side skirt, and it fits in with the bumper...

A day marked in History

2010-06-07T22:52:00.009+08:00

This day, the 7th of June, the year 2010, shall forever be marked in the pages of my life's history.... :-)

I came to work this morning for the sole purpose of focusing on getting a job done, i have a deadline coming up soon and i'm not sure i could make it... Come what may, i have to make it... :-p but today, it is not to be...

One of my bosses came in today, with a car much desired by many, a car that took the world by storm which TopGear had succinctly summarized as a car that creates a whole new yardstick... It is the world famous, porsche killer, NISSAN GTR X-D

The boss knows that i like cars :-) i love fast cars X-) and i definitely adore the GTR X-p the Skyline has always been my first love in the world of motorsports (thanks to Shuto Kousoku Trial max and its cool R33 for that :-p) and though i may never own a GTR (it's too expensive for the touge X-p) I simply simply drool over it X-p'

i've been telling him stories of my adventures, of how i trailed an M3 beemer through the touge, how i was beaten by a Neo twice on a downhill X-p (there's no two ways about that :-p), how i've often take fancies up the hills of Genting and etc ^^ and i've always told him that once the circus comes out of the woodwork, I'd take him on all our adventures, and how we're going to have a great time X-) bcoz my boss also like cars, loves fast cars, and fell in love at first sight to the GTR :-p

It was totally unexpected when he came in the office with the GTR... i spent a good 10 minutes just admiring it :-p then came the afternoon lunch time, he came looking for me and asked whether i'd join him for lunch and meet up a client... He asked me whether i'd want to drive the GTR, an offer i cannot refuse X-p I dropped everything, and went straight out X-p

At first i drove slowly through the streets of KL, not wanting to scrape this phenomenal piece of technical human engineering :-p whilst the gear in Auto mood, i cruise down the street, wary of the GTR's bulky size, dreading every motorcyclist that whizzed by, and couldn't help notice the sheer weight of the car... driving it in such a way really makes it feel like any other ordinary expensive luxury sedan, more towards a hi-tech beemer than a mechanical Merc though... :-p a true everyday supercar...

Once we had our lunch and meeting, i suggested to take a drive through the touge of Ampang Hill X-p just for a quick review of its cornering characteristics... i couldn't imagine how a 285 tyre on a 20' rim feels like... X-p

Along the way, the ride feels a bit rough, the suspension, being a sportscar, couldn't help but be on a bit firmer side of stuffs... even when it's not in racing mode... but it's something anyone can live with :-) it's a GTR for God's sake, not a plush rolls royce X-p

we filled up the gas, and headed for the touge X-) once we got there, i let her rip... The GTR tears through the touge like a hot knife through melting swiss chess X-p bcoz i was so eager, i forgot to turn the gears into manual mode (where those cool shifter paddles would definitely come in handy ^^) and literally ripped through the first leg of the uphill course in Auto X-p the torque was mind boggling O.O with a tap of the gas, the car just launches itself into space and, dare i say, time itself X-p suddenly you don't feel like you're driving a bulky, expensive, luxurious sedan, but a lightweight, super-torquey performance machine X-p the engine power was SO GREAT...

Once we reached the look out point, i got held up by some traffic... and took time to take stock of the car... i've placed the suspension into racing mood (i didn't turn off the traction control bcoz i wouldn't want to trash another car which costs half a million moolahs X-p) before tearing the touge apart, and though the car's ride is firm, it's still comfortable... The stiffness of the chassis is phenomenal... There is virtually no body roll... well, perhaps bcoz i was never even close to the limit of the monster yet :-p

This time, it's time to test the famous self-rev matching twin-clutch gearbox :-p i put the gears into manual, and open the throttle... The rev wasn't so aggressive at low revs, but i think once it enters into 3000 (or perhaps 4000) rpm range, the torque kicks in, and the car just launch like a giant rocket O.O Suddenly the corner comes in so fast, that i just kick the brakes in in sheer terror X-p

and the brakes, my God... the brakes on the GTR is SO sensitive, that every slight modulation of pressure or jaggedness of touch reverberates through the brakes... It made me notice how rough my left foot braking is, that i had to switch to braking with my usual right foot to smoothen the braking process... X-p such is a noob that i am...

And it's so powerful, that i've never actually pressed hard on the brake... a slight touch could shave off the speeds so fast, that i often ended up braking too early and going in the turn too slow X-p a noob at the wheel... i could just go fast on the straights, and cower through the turns.. X-p

The touge ends so fast when you have such a ultimate car to tear it apart with X-p i couldn't help but to say to my boss, with this kind of car, he can keep up with anybody on the touge :-p by just the sheer brute power of that beast called the GTR...

I turned the car, and make another run for it X-) i just love how the torque kicks in, launching the car as if somebody had just booted you at the back X-p it feels like being strapped into a rocket pack :-p

The body rigidity is so stiff, that there's hardly any weight shifting around, even when going downhill O.O the car feels very neutral through the turns and it's really a point-and-shoot affair :-p The only difference you feel going through the uphill and downhill is the brakes.. it takes a tad bit longer for the brakes to shave off those excess speeds going downhill, owing to the fact that the car is really a heavy car for the touge... i guess nothing beats simple physics :-p

But that was just a simple first impression, i actually hardly pushed the car, and was no where near the limit... i cannot imagine the speed i would have to go through if i were to test the car at its limits at the touge... it'd definitely be the scariest thing i'll ever experience i suppose X-p

One thing that disappoints me a bit is the auto rev-matching gearbox... the downshifting was not as smooth as i had hoped, as i could still feel the car jerk whenever i downshift at high RPMs... i was expecting a silky smooth downshift with the sweet accompanying roar of the engine to match the revs, but the jerk through the tranny is really heart sinking... I guess nothing matches the good old skills of a perfect heel-toe downshifting :-p (of course i never get that right either X-p)

But apart from that, the speed of the gear change is PHENOMENAL.. it feels as if you're playing those arcade games rather than driving an actual car X-p

The steering was perfect, it is weighted really nicely, that you can feel the firmness of the tyres on the road, but light enough to make turning the wheel a breeze rather than a chore, yet not too light as to make it feel disconnected from the wheels...

You can sense every bit of rock on the road, yet feel the information sent to you very gently and subtly, rather than giving a punch at the back of your kidneys :-p Those seats hugged me just nicely, while being comfortable to boot...

I can never run out of praises for the car :-p (and can never stop smiling silly the whole evening as well X-p) and words can never give justice to my wonderful experience with the GTR today... Truly i felt i am blessed to be given the opportunity to drive such a wonderful piece of human achievement ^^

As for my boss's first experience through the touge, he kept quite when i blasted up and down the touge (and just listen to my pathetic oohs and aahs admiring the car's tourque, brakes, handling etc X-p), so i thought he was fine... when we got to the office though, he said he was saying his prayers when i was lost in the frenzy X-p Well, even though i didn't really stepped on it (literally) but still the speed was really excessive X-p even first time at the wheels of a GTR, i felt as though i've gone faster than i ever will be in the FC :-p such is the vast difference of heaven and earth.. X-p

As for that, i cannot wait for the FC to come out of the woodwork, and then we'll be really having fun with a GTR in our midst X-)

As for the FC, here's a little update :-)

We've recently purchased (under sever influence X-p) another half-cut X-p haha... this one comes equipped with full aftermarket parts, and a HUGE turbo O.O one that scares the living daylights out of me by just looking at it X-p it comes with a Power FC Ecu unit and Cusco 2-way adjustable suspensions as well... If my ears were still working, i heard that the injectors are 850cc a piece O.O now that's going to be a real gas guzzler X-p the pictures ain't pretty though :-p

Heart cavity repainted...

2010-05-23T22:49:00.012+08:00

Well, i've just came back from visiting the Old Lady in the hospital yesterday... She just had her engine bay repainted :-) a certain golden shade... sadly, it's the same colour as all the other cars at our house X-p

And the fist-sized hole were patched up for free ^^

And the rest of the junk were stashed in the car for storage purposes X-p a major interior work gotta be done after this... :-p

And cloud has dreams that comes in two wheels... X-p

Well, even i'm losing sleep over something like this... X-p'

Circus updates^^

2010-05-18T13:23:00.003+08:00

It seems Hanz Neo has taken its flight to orbit... its been written off as total lost and will never see the lights of day again, neither will we see its head lights in our rear view mirror as well :P

He had a few great options as his choices, and attempts as much as we did we could never sway him to see the light :P

Hanz being a complete nerdy petrol head as all of us, he decided to ditch the Alfa!!! o.O

He claims the Alfa didnt catch his heart, soul and passion... but a Neo does... o.O

Neo CPS to be exact... and its already under the knife for that extra kick.

It seems now that he have become one of our great rivals, it seems the stage is set for a great battle ahead.

Hanz never had the luxury to kick my pride in the dirt with his old Neo like he did to Kei, but now he's preparing just for that... even his talks sounds a little cocky now xD

But as the case is, now he has chosen a Neo CPS as his base car... and in his own words :

"Yeah.the chasis has been improve..I'm gettin a new neo.with a fiery heart too.n 10 k worth of mods already standing by.n yes I will still use a good ol campro!!!"

"Plus some of the good stuf from the old neo will be thrown in too"

"The neo cps has a revised chassis width n length to overcome..ehem the old problem"

"N I will still put more bars than pudu jail in it N make it faster than its predecessor"

"I'll be ready for ya"

Interesting how things will turn out, I'm really looking forward as how he will mod his new Soul Mate^^

As for the Old Lady, she's still in the operating room.... we just found a big gaping heart stopping fist size hole right under the drivers side underbody...

Guess 20 odd years has not been nice to her =.=

Will need to patch that up before going any further north.

As for the rest of her body stiching, it seems the doctor have a pair of steady hands^^

She now have more stiches on her than Frankenstein... all in the pursuit of youth... I mean chasis rigidity:P

Hopefully she'll regain her fiery young body she posesssed long ago that captured the hearts of million, and back to winning ways.

The mods we're doing on her is getting quite serious, she's turning into a street legal track car... and she is becoming more and more a carbon copy of our friendly mechanic Hau's Track oriented FC :P

These mods will certainly burn a huge hole in my wallet, and I still need to save up some more for some serious black wall... RE-01 is what I'm waking up to in the morning, but unless me being financially ready to take the plunge... I'll have to make way for more options >.<

From our timeline we're seing the Battle Gears being ready in probably one or two month time, hopefully when both our Gears are ready to the starting line, under the moonlight, Tekali will once again be abuse to the sound of horsepower!!!^^

Until then, what have we addrenaline addict RedSuns junkie have been up to... well we've gone to some outdoor adventures that is almost as dangerous as our twilight escapades... I think :p

Beating our self half dead climbing down under a bridge and have a dip so close to the dam that the water level can change in a matter of minutes...

Beating our self half dead by going Parkour without any real training :P

Cloud went to study the mysteries of Physics >.<

And we went to some touge session with really crappy cars (Kembara, Kia Spectra, etc) that I almost slept in the car >.<

And also a hearty congratulations to our best friend Pimal for his wedding^^

May you be among those lucky ones to enjoy the blissful marriage life until death do their part ;)

And as I mentioned before, 'tis being a season of aplenty... we found another beautiful, original R34 GTR V-spec which have just had a visit with the friendly roadside kerbs... >.<

From what I heard... the initial quote to patch up this rare beauty would be around 30k... since it had a direct hit to the chasis main frame o.O

The whole engine and transmission is now aback by a few inches... the 6-speed GETRAG transmission is confirmed to be dead... just hope the RB26 DETT is still intact.... if not one of those babies could cost a whopping 15k!!! o.O

I just hope this beauty won't be scrape... its such a pity :(

Operation Revival

2010-04-21T15:28:00.003+08:00

Well I guess the Old Lady in hospital is old news by now.

But just to fill in some gaps, here are some pics of what happened to the Flying Circus.

Keisuke became over-excited with the new-found grip the Old Lady has with those new Roll-Cage, and without noticing it he has jumped over the limit.... he hit the Tekali mountain side, thank God no one was badly hurt as the Old Lady hit the mountain side with such Teutonic impact.

The Old Lady went out quite rather spectacular, Keisuke overspeeds into a corner... the car started drifting, and next thing he knows is that he ran out of tarmac xD
The car was drifting sideways over the ditch, the backend hit the mountain, making the front end in turn kissing the mountain and pushed back the car back over the ditch facing the wrong way xD

Her chasis was so bend that she literally became like a Boomerang xD

The impact was so strong that it took off both side of the rear side skirts o.O

And a crack on the right side of the car o.O

Miraculously the plate number and both the spot light survived the crash undamaged xD
And tear off completely the rear bumper....

There goes our FEED muffler xD

And made a hole at our spare tyre place :P

The doors can't shut and they had to use the best human technology ever invented... the Gaffo tape xD

But now the Old Lady is recuperating at our trusted mechanic's garage :P

We have just finished pulling her chasis straight, even better than before.... we had to cut a front section of the nose and replace it with a half-cut that fortunately just arrived from Japan^^
That front section was twisted in so many ways that it is non-salvageable, but other than that the Old Lady is doing just fine.

Since I will be needing to get a new body kit for her, and with an offer I cannot resist from our trusted mech friend^^... we installed a wide body kit for the Old Lady too, now she looks so fat that her old image looks rather tame, and those old tires have to go out.... 16" is no longer big enough for the tire well, I guess I have to go either 17" or 18" after this o.O
And also the width tire most likely I'll go for is 245, I hope even that can fill the void of those tire well :P

Just for comparison... the images of the Old Lady before and after her cosmetic surgery xD

The Old Lady showing signs of her Flying Circus DNA :P

But the Old Lady is still a works in progress, we'll be taking off those wide body kit for awhile after this and send her to do some spot welding before we re-install the roll-cage, and this time we'll need to cushioned the roll-cage to avoid the injuries Keisuke and one of our other Neo friends (uhh... dont know his name >.<) suffered during their last incursion ^^ Oddly enough, it seems these past few months has been a season of aplenty..... accidents :P The Old Lady, Hanz total lost Neo, his brother got into one, Zid got into one... and even our mech friend got into one also >.<...
His FC front section was totally wreck, he crashed it while doing some drift session... spun out and the guy at the back hit him head on o.O

Hau's extreme track car FC in the hospital with the Old Lady :P

So I think, I'm the only lucky one to have gotten through this 'aplenty' season unscathed... or maybe that has got to do with the fact that I was not even in Malaysia when all of these happened xD

Some time out...

2010-03-29T23:55:00.002+08:00

It seems the Old Lady is in the rut again...

She had an accident a few days back and now the chasis is bent like a boomerang T.T

Its sad since I was not able to drive the Flying Circus yet with the Roll Cage but things happened... just have to slowly bring the Old Lady back from the dead again....

So until then, we probably wont be having much drive until she's up and running again...

Some night out...

2010-03-26T03:21:00.004+08:00

Yeah I just came back from my weeks long holiday and back to the free internet connection world (You have to pay for everything in Europe) xD

hahaha... I had so much free time that I was able to browse old vids and compile them to make a short movie^^

The battle in the movie was taken a few days before Keisuke's shocking defeat and consequence successive beatings with Hanz Neo xD (Check out his post "The Ghost of Tekali")
I put some "funny" disclaimer at the intro just for some sense of humour and also Keisuke's and Hanz colourful comment xD

But now the Circus has been fitted with a roll-cage and some better sets of rubber, although I havent had my "avenge" battle yet but Hanz has unfortunately crashed his Neo (Thank god you're okay mate^^)

O well.... guess there is no rematch with his Neo I guess, but once I'm back in Malaysia trying out the Flying Circus is my top priority :D

Until then, enjoy the vid^^

Caged beast

2010-03-07T18:52:00.006+08:00

hahahaha!!! i can't stop laughing X-)

well, it's been a long time since we've had any post, just shows how much inactivity we had :-p

anyway, the reason i can't swipe this stupid grin off my face was bcoz we've recently upgraded the Old lady, and how can i say, i've fallen in love all over again X-p

haha... the past week we had sent the Old Lady to our trusty old mechanic to slap in the roll cage.. osteoperosis (is that how you spell it? X-p) does not only affects humans, it affects all beings... all that is aged... well, over time, nothing is left but entropy.. X-p

Well the babbling beside, i've finally taken the Old lady back yesterday, and may i say, that we've put braces on her knees... X-p

and the feel of the Old lady is... how should i put it?... invigorated X-) i just mildly try out the feel of the chassis on the way back, and it was truly GREAT X-) which immediately made me feel like trying out some donuts or take it out to the touge X-p

since donuts would kick up a lot of dirt and ruin the paintjob, i settle for a touge test run yesterday night X-)

called up Hanz -unfortunately, Hanz had a very unfortunate accident a day after CNY (4 times rolling X-p a couple more would be like what Kimi Raikonnen achieved at rally mexico :-p) - and though he may not have the ride, but he still have the spirit X-) so he's game, and more than eager to see how well the Old lady will perform... :-)

and this time around, i decided to bring along my lovely little wife ^^ let her have some insight into my night escapades X-p

We met up at the usually spot in KL, and after chatting hours on ends, we finally made the move to the touge around 3.30 X-p 6 cars went with us :-) including the old lady :-p Hanz's stock bare spare satria, 2 member's of satria neo club, my friend's car and another... 2 neos, 1 satria, 1 honda city, and 1 kelisa...

Once we got there, they started discussing on who should ride with who... one of the Neo's absorbers are leaking, so he would stay out of the run... my friend with the Honda city is definitely not joining since he didn't even know we were going to the touge X-p the other kelisa i suppose will try to keep up... I didn't want my wife to be riding in the FC bcoz it'll definitely pop off her knees X-p anyway, we decided to decide who rides with who once we've checked out the road, so off we went to scout ahead..

Hanz lead with his old stock satria, with me following... i don't know the remaining order, bcoz we pretty much left them behind after the first few turns :-p we were just scouting, but i suppose our pace was a bit faster than ordinary stock cars can handle X-p Hanz wasn't pushing it, just cruising, but on the downhill, i could really see that even though he was just cruising, the car was already at the limit O.O OMG!!!

His Satria was wriggling from all the steering correction Hanz had to put in to remain in control of the car :-p reminds me of when i rode in his car watching ryousuke struggle in the old lady trying to keep her under control X-p once we reached the end, i tail whipped the car facing the other end X-) GOD!!! the chassis felt so GREAT!!! X-)

anyway, once we've checked the road, the rest of the crowd finally arrives... :-) since i didn't want to put my lovely little wife in harm's way, i persuaded her to ride in my friend's honda city, since he'll definitely only be joyriding X-p (on the way to the starting point, my friend, not knowing the road, almost got in a lot of trouble when he was caught by surprise by a lot of those sharp downhill turns that always just suddenly turns-in sharper... shaken, he proved to be the right choice when he really drove slow through the touge almost sending my wife to dreamland X-p)

Hanz would be riding shotgun, Farizz would drive Hanz's car, and the rest would follow suit.. :-) so off we went, just as we were beginning, two cars suddenly streak down the touge (they're apparently also enjoying the twisty road as well :-p) i didn't caught what type of cars bcoz they just whizzed past, and passes Farizz by a few hair length (bcoz he forgot to turn on his headlamp, and i suppose they not realizing Farizz was there, started eating up the opposite lane in trying to gain more speed through the turns :-p) praise the Almighty that nothing untoward happened that night... :-)

my run was great i suppose, i was getting to grips with the Old Lady's new characteristics, and since some parts of the touge is wet, and another is covered with dense fog, we decided to play safe... so apart from the whole new revelation of how great the chassis feels, i didn't really know how well the Old lady is at the limit... but with that little amount of revelation, i was convinced that it was enough to at least follow hanz through the turns.. :-) the only thing left is a set of balls of steel X-p

Once the whole crowd catches up again, we decided to go another run ^^ this time, farizz wants to ride shotgun, and another satria neo club member, Edi, wants to join in as well, so what the heck :-p i said if he can somehow fit himself between the bars at the rear, then by all means, be my guest ^^ and he was dead serious in squeezing himself in X-p

Once we all got inside, i started off... since the night was dark, i couldn't see the road very well, i didn't really try to push it all out at the uphill run... but once the downhill starts, i tried to go a bit faster through the turns...

The Old lady feels FANTASTIC X-D she's so meek and controllable now, that i feel like i really want to abuse her and see if i could get away from it unscathed.. X-p so i tried to push her a bit harder in the turns, and it was great to finally feel the LSD kicking in and adjusting the rear ^^ the rear just tucks in so nicely, that i couldn't stop smiling silly X-p the car feels just like, even better, then the time when we went touge with the big guns for the first time (and surprised everyone at how grip the old lady could handle through the turns X-p)

Then, i tried to push her a bit more, and the rear break rank and traction went fleeing X-p but with the chassis so well and firm, i could really confidently feel like i can control the drift right through the turn X-) then came the final turn, and again i tried to drift the car, but there was so much grip, that i didn't manage to whip the rear out :-p

I was so confident with the car, that at the very end, i tried to tailwhip the car again, but broke traction a bit too late, took the turn a bit too wide, and almost went in the ditch X-p i immediately braked and the engine died off bcoz i stepped on the clutch too late X-p but we were having so much fun, that we just laughed our heads off X-p

And i went into doing donuts at the junction there until smoke was just everywhere :-p Edi was having a blast by sitting at the back, clutching the bars, and felt as if he were in a roller coaster ride X-p

I took off after the donuts and went right back up the touge :-) but bcoz of the flash of the camera, we stopped to get rid of it :-p and resumed our run.. this time, i was so confident with the Old Lady, that i tried to drift in every turn X-) driving at the limit had never been so fun X-D the rigidity of the chassis just inspires limitless confidence X-) only sometimes the tyres disappoint when it understeered at the damp areas of the touge...

finally, by the end of that run, gas was running low and we had to call it a night... :-) i went home pleased and really looking forward to driving the old lady again X-)

Well, as a conclusion, the findings i found out that night was that the Old lady hasn't really gone up to par with Hanz neo's handling... the body stiffness is there, but without better tyres, the old lady couldn't dream of pulling the kind of G's Hans's neo could pull off... but still, with the confidence the chassis brings in, i believe we could really put up a fight and hold on to hanz through the turns, and probably drift our way through if we have to.. :-p but we could never know, since Hanz has practically retire while he's at the top of his game... He retires as a champion without a doubt.. and muses of taking in a better car, the neo cps, once his neo finally comes out of the bodyworks... well, just when we finally caught up, our competitor is running off again... just like Aaron and his indomitable neo turbo :-p he finally sold off his neo, and i'm sure the car will serve the new owner well :-) can't wait for him to pick up that subaru he was planning on having X-) then it'll be like old times again... being pawned by Aaron night after night X-p haha...

the disadvantages of having the roll cage is well, first it makes ingress and digress from the cabin a bit tricky :-p not so much for the passenger since he wouldn't need to contend with the steering and the bucket seat, but for the driver, it's a whole new yoga one has to learn X-p and since there are parts where the cage rubs with the body of the car, rubbing squeaks are quite inevitable :-p i suppose we have to cover the bar with sponges ^^ luckily it's just a bolt on cage, easy to dissemble and DIY :-p

anyway, it's getting really late so i should go to sleep now... that's all the update i have of the old lady, well not really, i have a lot of things to say about her, but words cannot begin to give justice to it all X-p this post is dedicated to Ryosuke who's cracking his head at France trying to learn new numbers for his job.. X-p i suppose it's quite hard to teach an old dog new tricks X-p haha... read and weep ryosuke.. X-p i can't wait to drive the Old lady again (however, on the way back, reality slaps me in the face when the Old lady emphasized how thirsty she could be X-p oh dear, she really is just a trophy wife, one can only enjoy as much as one's economic position can allow X-p and i'll post the vids once the other fellas uploads it on the net ^^)

Happy Chinese New Year :D

2010-02-15T13:14:00.006+08:00

Gong Xi Fa Cai every one^^

For us Redsuns we celebrate CNY the only way we knew how... uphill to Genting!!! xD

I just came back from Miri, just a few days missing the FC sweet throttle I was already itching to have a go... and not only that, Cloud have just started making his Clim Hazard into a touge machine^^

Cloud just installed camber adjustable screws... setting his camber to 0.5 degs and installed Bendix Metal King brake pads and Ultra Racing 3 point front strut bar^^

Finally the Clim Hazard is receiving the proper mod it needs to be a proper touge battle gear ^^

And Cloud did not just add some handling mods to his gear, but also spice it up with some Bling Bling factor xD

So we met up at our house around 11pm and prep our gears ready for the Genting trip^^
We called out Hanz to join us but it was raining cats & dogs at his place so he was rather skeptic it would be dry at the touge... but what the heck, we just move on praying for the best^^

Filling up the old Circus for the touge drive^^

Cloud lead all the way up to Genting with the Circus following behind.... its just sad these Campro engines dont have enough umph to make Genting uphill more exciting :p

alas when we reached the top it was jam packed, whether people were trying to celebrate CNY or Valentine's we have no idea... we just try to find an empty space to cool around and hang around amongst the cloud^^

Flying Circus & Clim Hazard

Redsuns Battle Gear^^

More bling bling from Clim Hazard xD

Both with a well round behind >.< We chatted around and enjoy the weather up there in the clouds and went back down around 2 am, on our way down I found myself in an exciting downhill run with a Lancer GT^^ He was tailgating me like there was no tomorrow at the bumper area and when the road was cleared a bit I let him hear the roar of a Rotary Turbo^^ Unfortunately not all good things last, I had a break failure when I had to make a hard brake approaching a camouflage bumper >.<

The brake connection at the rear left tyre burst again O.o so I had to make a slow excruciating trip back home T.T

Guess it was not all fun & adrenaline on our night of celebrating CNY xD
I guess the Circus will have to make another visit to the workshop... and also installing that new roll cage^^

Echo of the soul^^

2010-02-09T20:22:00.007+08:00

After almost 1 month not touching the Flying Circus has left me rather restless...
until last Monday, we took the Flying Circus home from our Mechanic friend Hau^^

The rumble of the 13B rotary just stirred my soul, the touch of the throttle excites my inner side^^ immediately I floored the throttle and the Circus went to almost sonic boom^^

Keisuke and I tested the FC on the Putrajaya highway for old time sake and we noticed that since we installed the new FEED exhaust the top end speed is quite affected but the low end response I guess more than make it up^^

And as the sun falls we tested the FC at our regular ground... Bangi touge.

With Cloud driving his trusty and Bling Bling Clim Hazard along^^ we went right after midnight.

This is the FC's first touge outing since Keisuke's shocking defeat at Hanz Neo... and what we found out was that we were consistently slower by 10-20 seconds than our best times at Bangi.

What bothered us the most was the body roll we're suffering, most likely from our Sepang adventures that has literally took its toll on the old lady's chassis rigidity.

Being 23 years old, subjected to excruciating side G's at the track and numerous accidents it suffered under its 5 previous owners... the chassis seem to has suffered severely...

Compared to Hanz Neo with new chassis complete with all the Ultra Racing Bars installed and RM350++ tyres apiece... it made mince meat of our old Circus with only RM300 for 4 tyres I hate to admit it but the Campro pawned Rotary Turbo T.T

Although now the tyres has more grip at hand but the chassis just cant harness it, and with us demanding more grip level just cant chew this bitter fruit...

With fresh from defeat its time to up the level of the FC, we would need to address the chassis rigidity issue of the circus... and so far a competition grade 10-point roll cage is waiting to be installed^^

Hura!!!! and hopefully we'll get our selves a set of high grip tyres it will be back at Touge battles for the Circus, Hanz just need to wait until then ;)

The Ghost of Tekali...

2010-01-18T09:19:00.005+08:00

Yup, the title says it all... i met the ghost of tekali >.< haha... last thursday night was a real eye opener :-p I got home a little late from the office, and while entertaining a guest at my home, around 11pm i got a msg from our good old buddy pal Hanz, inviting us for some touge fun :-) an offer i could not refuse.. X-p After setting out from home around midnight, i reached the agreed rendevous place about 20 minutes later at the heart of KL. About 1 am, we moved out... :-) Our group consisted of 4 cars, the FC, Hanz's impeccable Neo, Farizz's sponsored-laden Neo, and Halimi's fancy and impractical Neo X-p (apparently he had tinted his headlamps, rendering it almost utterly useless.. X-p cool, but useless.. X-p) Halimi just wanted to tag along and witness our touge fun we've always been talking about X-p Farizz is practically still new, so he'll try to keep up; we don't put much hope to it X-p (he's an old hand in the drag scene, but touge is a whole different ball game :-p) the only serious player is myself and hanz... We scouted the road, all conditions are near perfect :-) dry road, pack of dogs running out of the way, and hardly any traffic X-) the only thing missing is a full moon (unfortunately, there was no moon that night... O.O so things were very VERY dark...) then we started off with Hanz leading the way (since the FC is notorious for throwing off stones to any spirited pursuers X-p Hanz wasn't yet willing to sacrifice his paintjob for some ego-bloating bragging-rights of pawning the FC X-p) The uphill section, due to power difference, wasn't really a problem for me to keep up (and tali-gate Hanz X-p).. nevertheless, Hanz was taking it easy since when we reached the downhill part, Hanz didn't really push it, so i still didn't have much of a problem in keeping up... Farizz claimed that he wasn't able to keep up because his engine 'conveniently' died just before we took off.. X-p Then we swapped positions... i got the advantage at first when we took off because Hanz mis-shifted into 2 gear and fell behind a considerable distance entering into the first turn, but an incoming traffic made me slow down and gave Hanz the opportunity to make right the mistake he did... On the uphill, due to sheer power, i pulled away a bit on the straights.. X-p but being a noob that i am, Hanz just makes the difference at the turns (sheesh... being pawned day in day out is really taxing on my self-esteem...) Things turn for the worst on the downhill... Hanz, with very good road-hugging tyres (potenza re-01s) and very stiff chassis (he had fully strengthened his chassis, making the car handles like a go-kart X-p) just jump in the corners (without having to worry much about unsettling the weight balance of the car) and sticks at my behind like a stubborn tick.. Even the FC's flame-spouting anti-tailgating exhaust system wouldn't stave him off his evil course.. X-p (and apparently, his ego got the better part of him, rather than saving his paintjob, he finds it more satisfying to beat my ego to a pulp.. X-p) I must admit that i'm a coward, and driving a car that is not mine makes me even more cautious on these dangerous trips... coupled with the FC's rather inadequate stiffness and tendency to oversteer, is a recipe for a sunday cruise through the downhill part X-p But with Hanz's xenon headlights and knight-rider LED just sniffing my butt (nearing licking it X-p) i couldn't escape from the pressure it creates... i tried to push the FC a bit more in the corners, and armed with cheap-o second hand tyres, went into a massive oversteer (just like the last time when our highly-skilled friend Aaron kept on incessingly pressure us on the downhill X-p) The car's wide drift angle caught me quite a bit by suprise, so much so that i almost thought that we're going to spin out X-p but somehow i didn't really panic :-p just simply corrected the angle and try to keep the car from spinning... but as usual, the drift ended pretty badly since i missed the exit the tail just whipped about X-p Of course Hanz was so full of himself after the run... :-p couldn't blame him, i would have myself X-p Farizz came along afterwards... :-p Then we went another round.. nothing extraordinary... But i cannot but notice how Hanz would enter a corner more faster, and carry more speed throughout, as i would just have to restrain myself from pushing the car further because it is as if that was its limits (which later on i would find i was disillusioned :-p) and watch him crept away at the turns, only to be caught up again at the straights.. X-( We did another round, and this time Hanz leads again (i think... we did quite a number of rounds that night :-p couldn't really remember how much...) this time Hanz went all out on the lead.. i could keep up with him on the uphill (but he doesn't even brake O.O the guy's suicidal...) but it is the downhill where he truly shines.... X-( He hardly brakes and jump into a turn, and just floor the throttle till the exit.. his control over the car is phenomenal, any slight anomaly was quickly corrected with a jab of steering correction input... his driving instinct is extraordiary... O.O since downhill neutralizes any power difference, Hanz pulls away... X-( I couldn't bring my balls up to his standard to push the FC the way he does... i could barely hang on to him, and if the touge had run a bit more longer, he'd definitely disappear from my sights.. :-( i've never seen anybody attacking the downhill part as fast and aggresive as Hanz did that night... O.O (i believe even Aaron never did pushed as fast as he did...) i put my hat down, truly Hanz is leaps and bounds ahead of me, in terms of skills, instinct and pure ball-ness... X-( Farizz was riding shotgun with me on that ride, and he saw how fast Hanz was going, and commented at the end "padanla aku tak dapat ikut korang... laju giler.." X-p of course i wasn't really that fast, but Hanz, he's a different story all together... On the way back, we decided to do some joy riding X-p with the camera in Hanz car, i was suppose to do some drifting with the FC X-p but because i was a noob with balls the size of peanuts X-p i would inadvertantly brake too hard, killing the speed, and try in vain to power-over the FC out the turn.. X-p which didn't work because the speed was too slow and it was too dark for me to see the exit (thus wasn't really brave enough to just swing the car X-p) The last run was a pathetic attempt to look cool :-p but i noticed, that the FC actually has quite a tremendous amount of grip O.O more than i had reckoned... when i was trying to power over the car out, the rear just wouldn't go, instead the car would just propel out the corner with suprising speed O.O it suprised me a bit, and made me realize how much i've lost touch with the FC... i need to get things back up to par if i'm ever to tame the Ghost of Tekali.. X-p i can't wait for another dose of action like that... X-) we went round after round, and because Hanz was barely using his brakes, his brake could actually sustain such abusing continuous rounds at Tekali :-) couldn't wait for more... X-) anyway, here's the vids.. the video quality is really bad :-p (bcoz it was a phone camera X-p) and the FC's chase sucks about half the vid bcoz they got the camera out of focus X-p (or perhaps Farizz thought that i was going to leave Hanz in the dust, so he zoomed in the camera by default to see the FC clearly :-p obviously we know what happened.. X-p)

Update...

2009-12-31T02:45:00.004+08:00

Hmmm.... it seems the blog has been dead for quite some time now... xD

Considering the extreme busy-ness of all the crew as of late it is no wonder.
I have been missing in action on oversea assignment for a couple of months, Keisuke has been busy with his marriage (Congrats^^), Jr Turbo has suddenly become an important personnel in his company and has been on and offshore in succession for the whole year >.< and Cloud.... well he is always busy xD Anyway, lately I have just been back from outside... and first thing first is to check on the FC (and send my congratz to Keisuke on his marriage^^) The FC havent been driven or cleaned for almost a month because Kei was extremely pre-occupied with his wedding so I just woke up the old lady and clean her as thoroughly as possible for the track day on 20th Dec^^ Hahaha.... I came back on the evening of the 19th and 20th was already at Sepang^^ all fired up and ready to have my fix of adrenaline after long month of hibernation xD Unfortunately the FC only lasted for 5 laps at Sepang before the brake connection burst... I lost the brake at the final hairpin, luckily the FC was already sliding at that time so all I had to do was just to maintain the slide and slow down the car naturally... We had to drive slowly back home limping with a leaking brake (since I was already broke paying RM200 for a 5 lap excitement I just cant find myself paying a few more hundred bucks for the tow truck xD ) Now the FC is alright again, with new brake connection... new front brake caliper and brake pads (it seems my previous pads has worn out already O.o) Oh oh and the new (used :P) front caliper is from RX-7 FD^^ and the pads are Project U (Mew :P) We've just run through the bedding process with Hanz (since he just changed his pads as well for his Neo) and now its 2 am in the morning and I'm getting sleepy :p I guess thats just the update from us for these couple of months... our personal life getting the better part of our automotive life ^^ Until then, probably we'll be going for our usual touge session again after everyone has settle down again ;) AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!!!!^^ HOPE YOU HAD A NICE 2009 AND 2010 WOULD HOPEFULLY BE BETTER!!!! ;) Good night >.

Having fun at the East Coast^^

2009-11-11T00:54:00.005+08:00

Well, being bored in the East coast with nothing much to do except work can be quite boring...

Until one of my friend, "The Doctor"^^ brings me along in his classic 1973 Toyota Celica ST^^

Wicked sick! He has just gave the old 'Dato' a new heart transplant... a 4AG^^ with AE86 Tranny all the way to the rear axle with limited slip diff ;)

So the car has become extremely fun to drive... if I were to rate the 'fun factor' of this car it would definitely be 10/10 ^^

Here's a vid of us having some FUN FUN FUN with the old Dato' ^^

SHIRO SUISEI IS BACK!!!

2009-11-08T19:34:00.007+08:00

Finally the FC is done X-)

well, about 99% :-p it still needs to get polished one last time... X-p

now that the FC is beautiful again, can't wait to start putting up decals to beautify it even more X-) especially the all important Redsuns vinyl... X-p

But one drawback with the FC being so beautiful, is that the slightest stain drives me crazy up and down the wall X-(

i'm starting to miss the old facade of the FC, being that ugly at least makes us coy about the looks X-p turning a blind eye to practically any stain on the car.. :-p

being white in colour, surely doesn't help in hiding any defects... :-p haha... anyway, it looks like we'll be postponing any drifting practice indefinitely X-p until the shiro suisei (white comet) gets dirty enough for us to finally have the heart to make it dirtier.. X-p haha..

until then.. enjoy the pics ^^

TOUGE JUNKIE!!! X-D

2009-10-04T01:25:00.005+08:00

Yup... tonite was another nite of back-to-back touge adventure X-) GOD!!! Haven't had this much fun for ages... X-p

I called up our good old buddy pal mechanic whether i can send the circus for a repainting today, and he suggested to send it tomorrow, so ok... another night to squeeze out some more fun X-p

sent our good old buddy pal aaron a msg, and as usual, he's always game X-) his squeaking pulley will just have to wait if it wants to act up X-p also goes the same to the circus's leaking gearbox oil.. X-p

(with fingers crossed) we both headed out to our favorite playground ^^ at first the traffic on the way there were horrendous.. X-( Aaron suffered the same fate :-p so neither of us got there not too early :-p

Had a little chat, and went off to scout the road... the road was a bit damp (as it seems it had just stopped raining a while back) and the downhill part was drizzling a bit...

not surprisingly, i have forgotten how the touge twist and bend X-p it was like "heh? i never remembered the road was like this.." X-p haha... i've really lost touch with this lovely hobby X-p

once we reached the other side, since there were a few droplets of rain, i thought it was starting to rain again, so we didn't want to waste any time (nor wait for any deluge to come along X-p) so just as we were about to get going, a wira turned into the touge...

I was divided whether to let him pass first, or quickly get up to him and pass... i decided the latter X-p so we headed off, with me leading... after a couple of turns, we caught up with that wira...

i prayed, closed my eyes, and took him on a blind turn X-p hoping for the best.. X-p haha... aaron unfortunately wasn't as lucky (nor as suicidal i suppose X-p) he got stuck behind the wira for quite some time (with the wira driver not really being a sport, thinks he is a match to Aaron, and decided to take up the length and breath of the road, not giving way and trying, pathetically i suppose, to outrun aaron... big mistake X-p)

since aaron got stuck behind the noob wira, i quickly build up a comfortable lead :-p so much so, that i thought something had happened to aaron O.O i mean, either he has really lost his touch (which is next to impossible X-p) or he finally had a date with the ditch (God forbid!!) still, even with that nagging thought, i didn't really let up on the speed X-p though i didn't really fully press the throttle (since my knees were shaking more than my teeth X-p) but i can say i was going through the touge at quite a considerable speed... so i thought X-p

once aaron got pass that noob wira, he teared the touge apart X-p and caught up to me O.O when i saw his headlights on the rearview mirror, so was my self-esteem X-p being pawned twice in a row, back to back, night after night, is not really good for mental stability... X-p haha... man, aaron is still a speed demon through those twisties.. X-(

then we parked at the side for awhile, wait for the traffic to die down again, and headed off... again i was leading :-p the uphill part as usual, i began to pull away on the straights X-p (yes, i'm a noob.. i know X-p) but once we pass the peak and began the descend, aaron begins to eat up the distance X-(

with each turn, every bends begins to bend even sharper... the sharper it is, the closer he gets.. X-( i started thinking to myself "IMPOSSIBLE??!!! is my TURBO WORKING??!!!" O.O (haha... yup, i couldn't resist acting up that initial d dialogue X-p if you know what i mean.. X-p)

then when the turns really started to turn sharply, aaron was right there X-( i tried to go a bit faster, but lost it at the exit X-p the car lost traction and i had to struggle keeping it on the tarmac X-p so oppss... haha...

even with me trying to push the limit that more further, aaron was that more closer... X-( and everything ends all too soon... :-(

well, i must say, aaron is as sharp as ever (with me getting more and more dull by the day X-p) but still, the whole thing was GREAT FUN!!! X-D alas it was again a lonely affair for me, so no camera nor vids :-( just my tall tales.. X-p haha...

to aaron, great run bro ^^ you're always that much more quicker on the downhill... how i envy you X-p and to myself, NOOB!!! you got pawned twice in a row!! X-p haha...

can't wait for the circus to get a new paint, and some more adventurous fun ^^ oh, and today i paid that guy who the circus whacked the night before :-p RM250... >.> aiyo... money money money... X-p

Tonight was really more fulfilling than the genting excursion yesterday ^^ i was able to push the fc a bit more (since my heart couldn't take much more X-p) and played with someone who's not too much world apart X-p (but if aaron gets a better car, and with his skills, i don't think we'll be on the same plane anymore X-p)

Once i got back, i decided to try out some drifting :-p so got to the local drifting ground and started doing some donuts.. i tried a new steering technique (after watching the drift king in the drift bible again X-p haha.. basically it's a hand-over-hand steering technique and with enough finesse, one can cope with the speed required to counter steer the car preventing a spin ^^ though i still have to occasionally let go of the steering if the angle became a bit too big :-p) and it seems to be working... at first it was a bit hard to cope up with the demands of the counter steer, but after a few spins, i got the hang of it, and what a breeze it was to control the car ^^

i tried to play with the exit but it seems the playground wasn't big enough :-( the moment i wanted to exit, the drain was right there in front X-( need to find a bigger space if i want to practice my exits :-p so far it seems i can have a better control on the angle of the car and the direction with the new steering work, but from my experience at the track, making the exit is as crucial as controlling the car from spinning X-p

anyway, wouldn't want to waste too much rubber before ryousuke gets back ^^ haha..

Genting Adventure with Scoobie Do bie Doo and Mishap

2009-10-03T09:21:00.005+08:00

wow, haven't been updating the blog for some time already... X-p

Well, with ramadhan and eid, we were all pretty busy i suppose... X-p

Anyways, yesterday Richard our good old friend invited me to go to Genting ^^ i've been craving for some Touge fun for some time already and jumped at the opportunity X-)

However, we are worlds apart now.. X-p yesterday we went in a group of 4 cars... 3 Scoobies and the flying circus.. :-p the scoobies range from version 7 to 9 O.o

a brand new version 9, Richard's spec C version 8, and a whopping 350 pony Version 7 (with carbon fibre hood and canards... O.O and as usual, Gan is the owner of the extreme car... X-p)

I was a little late as i had to attend a wedding first, then around 10.30 i left out... got caught in the traffic at MRR2 (and by God!!! the traffic that night was horrendous.. O.O)

I finally got to the service station, filled up the tank, and immediately went underway.. X-p i wasn't even able to sit down... we got on the karak highway, and went through the highway very politely X-p i mean, add up all our ponies, we may have more than 1000 bhp (of course the FC is the smallest contributor X-p) but we were just cruising at around 110 - 120 kph X-p

When we finally got to the genting exit, we didn't stop either, the Scoobies just went blazing O.O i was hardly hanging on X-p seeing how i could keep up with the scoobies, i was starting to think that perhaps the circus could actually keep up with those powerful 4 wheelers...

Then we pass a wira, and he decided to join our fun.. apparently he's not any normal wira as the car is turbo charged O.o and i could hardly keep up with him X-( he's seems to be a usual at the genting touge seeing how he apparently know every turn..

well, the traffic was pretty bad so we couldn't really push it, but still, even if the traffic was clear, i'd probably be sweating keeping up with the Wira X-(

I even once almost lost it when the version 7 scoobie was on my right, and we were turning into a pretty sharp left turn... the exit caught me by surprise when it suddenly snap sharper O.O i immediately turn into it but since i was quite on the limit when i entered the turn, the rear immediately lose traction and the car oversteered X-p i had to try to control the drift, but with the scoobie beside me, i had little room for error O.O apparently he must have braked when he notice me oversteering, and allowed me room to cross over all the way to the other side of the road X-p approaching the wall barrier.. X-p luckily i was able to gather my act before i hit it...

then once we got to goh tong jaya, it seems that the scoobies were just warming up O.O they were hardly pushing it up to goh tong jaya (that wira owner must be really proud thinking he could keep up with scoobies.. well, he'd definitely give me a run for my money X-p) once we started going up the second half of genting, all the scoobie engines were roaring!!!

with the first straight up the touge, the version 7 and 8 pulls away, and disappears after a few turns X-p (i must be stupid deciding to play with these scoobies... X-p) only the version 9 was behind me as he only recently got his car and it was bone stock... Apparently the car was suffering from excessive body roll and understeer X-p and besides, the guy seems to be relatively new to touge adventures, so he wasn't really pushing it...

once we got up, the fc was smoking again... O.O perhaps the gearbox oil is leaking again... :-( gotta send it for check up before repainting it i suppose...

We had a little chat, and went down to goh tong jaya for some drink... as we were drinking, some guy came and asked who's the owner of the white car (the FC)... apparently, i didn't fully pull the FC's ebrake, and the car slowly crept down backward into a proton satria that was parked behind me X-( the FC is fine, but proton being a proton, his car was pretty dented... so i promise to pay him and apologise profusely... X-( this little trip is proving to be rather costly...

Apparently, 4 wheelers have a lot of understeer and all the scoobie drivers was saying how they had to cope with it, the bright side of it is of course you can just dive in every turn, and the worst case scenario is understeer, which is quite easy to correct (rather than myself, every turn hangs the dreadful possibility of spinning out of control X-p)

After we had a drink, we all decided to go up the touge again X-p and this time, the version 9 driver decided to try to keep up with me X-p (with a car like his, was not really a difficult task X-p)

the version 7 and 8 are as usual in their own league X-p so i was hauling my behind up the touge with a version 9 hooked to my rear X-p the guy is obviously really fast, but i can notice his dreadful understeer at every turn, but his power makes up any advantage i have in the turns :-( i also accidentally drifted in one of the hairpin turns (with a vios beside me X-p) luckily managed to keep things under control ^^

the whole thing happens very quickly and it's over before we could say yippikayay.. X-p the version 9 driver was really excited and suggested another run X-p the version 7 and 8 jockeys apparently were really pushing it and richard says he was even drifting at almost every turn O.O a pity i couldn't see it T.T but we all decided to call a night... X-p

we went down, and richard and me played a little at the downhill part after goh tong jaya X-) and it was definitely a BLAST!!! X-)

However, when i got home, i felt a rather dissatisfaction :-p it seems i didn't have enough touge fun X-p and still craving for more... (or perhaps because i got pawned so badly, that i feel like this time, i only want to play with the kancil club X-p haha..)

anyway, unfortunately, i brought no camera, and had no friends to tag along for some pictures... so that's about it... now i gotta wait for the bill from that little mishap i had :-( hopefully the fella wouldn't whack me X-(

2009-09-08T00:30:00.002+08:00

2009-09-08T00:29:00.002+08:00

30th August Pre-Merdeka Track day Celebration

2009-09-07T20:08:00.004+08:00

Finally i'm able to find the time to write up an entry on our track outing last couple of weeks... X-( Been really busy and lazy lately... :-p

well, these last few weeks have seen an unprecedented back-to-back track day participation X-) with the aftermath a broken car and broken wallet... X-p

The car would be Azhan's, the wallet would be mine... X-p

Fate has it, that our good old buddy Azhan would suffer the pains of a blown engine before we could destroy ours... X-p and fate has it, that i am poor as i am... X-p haha..

Enough nonsense, basically the last track was quite a flop :-p i've been trying some new techniques that i failed miserably... X-p We realized (well, me primarily :-p) that our exit from a drift SUCK X-p the car would whip its tail and send the passengers rocking in our seats... We realized that this is caused by us not straightening the front tyres when the rear tyres regain traction, thus the car snapping in the direction of the front wheels...

To me, this is due to a couple of factors... First, when the car starts to drift, i immediately cut down on the throttle, proportionate to the amount i estimate needed
to regain rear wheel traction... Thus, this instinct of immediately trying to send traction to the rear wheels would most of the time catch me off guard and the rear would regain traction faster than i anticipated (mostly due to the fact that i couldn't feel the limit of the tyres... X-( really noobie.. :-p) and by then, i haven't straighten the front tyres, thus snapping the car into its direction (thus the whipping effect... :-p)

Secondly, it's because of the primal instinct to feed traction to the rear, that the rear gain traction to quickly and abrupt.. Thus the unceremonious exit... X-p

To remedy this, i thought of two things... I need to have a continuous feel of the front tyre directions... Previously, when the rear swings out, i'd let go of the steering to allow the momentum of the car to do the correcting work, but by doing so, i lose touch of how the tyres turn... So after our 23rd august track outing, me and ryousuke went to do some practice, and i found that by keeping our hands planted on the steering wheel, we'd get a better feel of the tyres...

and for the other problem, i would need some way to feather out the rear traction of the rear tyres upon exit... thus instead of instantly feeding it traction, abruptly ending the drift, i would need to gradually allow it to regain traction, by controlling the throttle, feeding enough throttle to keep the tyres just barely gaining traction bit by bit... we tried pumping the throttle (like aryton senna), and for low-speed drifts, doing so would really make controlling the angle of the car really easy... X-) so we thought we had found the holy grail of drift exit.. X-p

So when i went to the track last 30th, i had these two things in mind...

first off, the new throttle control technique is to no avail... X-p Apparently, i lack the skills nor the instinct to execute such technique in high speed... X-p it dawned upon me that driving the car at the limit, makes it very sensitive to any throttle input, by just tapping the car above its grip threshold a bit sends the rear end flying, and by pumping the throttle, i lose touch with the limit of the rear tyres... :-( i guess i have to be like micheal schumacher X-p bwahaha... still, i need to practice more on exiting drifts to be able to really feel my way out of it... X-p

Secondly, the new steering control also failed... X-p though we could have a better control of the drift angle if we keep our hands on the steering, doing it on track is a whole different ball game X-(

this technique presented to me a glaring flaw and weakness in my driving competency X-p my hands are not fast enough to cope with the quick demands of high-speed driting... X-( so i would always find myself giving steering input too slow to correct the car before it goes into the "inevitable spin" X-p (which happened a lot that day... X-p)

After the day's end, i came to one conclusion... I AM A NOOB THROUGH AND THROUGH.. X-p

All is not lost though, i learned a lot during that day :-) i need to refine my throttle control, get a touch on the limit (especially on the exit, i can clearly feel the limit upon entry, but i can't grasp the exit... :-( mostly because i usually try to intentionally drift the car X-p it's so much more exciting that way... but then it becomes a habit, and the sense of its limit gets lost in the excitement of drifting the car... X-p) and try to improve the speed of my steering work... :-p

All i can say is that if i need a really quick counter steer to correct the car, then i can so far (with my current driving level) only rely on letting go of the steering and anticipate the tyre direction by then X-p crude, but effective for noobs such as myself... secondly, i need to practice more on exiting drifts, i realized that all these while, me and ryousuke have been practicing on controlling the angle of our drifts rather than the exit, thus neglecting that final crucial moment when it make or break a feel-good drift or not.. X-p

Another accomplishment that day was that i was able to break Ryuousuke's 2:56 lap time :-p with a 2:55.67 X-) i'm sure that time wouldn't stand as we continue to improve ourselves, but at least now i have the bragging rights over ryousuke... X-p haha... and from the vid, i can see a lot of room for improvement, so perhaps the time we can cut down a few seconds more before it starts becoming saturated... if we want to cut down some more, we got to kick out the passenger X-p but it's no fun when you're the only one having fun... haha...

Just as a highlight, Boy sheared off some parts of his left front tyres O.O the way he throws himself into turn 7 & 8, it's surprising the tyre lasted that long X-p It's great fun playing with boy at the touge (i could hardly keep up X-p) but at the track, the power difference is just too much :-( over 100 bhp difference i guess will definitely show on a wide straight track... :-p i suck like nuts at the turns, but manage to blast pass on the straights... X-p

(Now this is MOTORSPORT!!! X-)

well, that aside, enjoy the picture galore... :-p and the vid i made (it's my first time editing, so i suck X-p but a least i think i was able to capture the moment during that last final scene.. X-p i hope Azhan wouldn't cry seeing it... X-p haha..)

(oh crap.. how do i use this photo bucket...? >.>)

ah shoots... i have no idea how to use this photo bucket features... >.>

i'll upload the pics later... when i figure out how to utilise that bloody photo bucker... >.> as for now, enjoy this amateur lowly rated vid i made X-p

23rd August Track Day

2009-08-25T12:13:00.008+08:00

The Sepang Open track day has finally arrived^^

Our chance to sharpen our technique at the edge and learn more of the FC limit in a safe and legal manner :p hahahahahha

Our day started off rather early, Keisuke and I woke up in the morning and we cleaned the FC, although the FC will never be beautiful in its current state... but just heck, it makes us feels good that the FC is being properly kept :p

Another reason why we washed the FC prior to the track day was because we can detect any loose panel or loose screws on the body to fix it and make sure it don't take off in flight at Sepang >.< We started moving from our house at 12... we gathered our buddies... KeKe(cloud), Bib(Jr. Turbo) and Khaidir.
The cloud was beautiful and it was a sunny day for the tracks... just what we have hoped for... because it has been raining lately everyday, and a wet track is not what I have in mind... perhaps my skills is not up to the task to tackle a wet track anyway >.< We made one pit stop at the Shell just before SIC and disappointingly they no longer offer V-power :( as part of the government plan to phase out Ron 97 from mainstream market they are slowly introducing Ron 95 and soon going to hike the price of 97 (for whatever reason to give the hike probably just for the fun of it xD) so Shell stop offering V-power to facilitate Ron 95 :( So I just filled her up full tank with Ron 97 and off we go to SIC. This time we register on time at 2 pm :D and during the registration I noticed a Grey Satria Neo with a familiar face... but me having a bad memory have no idea who it was at that time :p We just passed as strangers and us RedSuns being the timid little ragtag crew that we are headed to our usual corner spot out of everyone's way and out of sight :p An SIC crew offered us pit garage no. 23 he just opened but we had to give him a false hope of us going there just so that he will leave us alone xD OMG we're so pathetic!!!! >.< I made my first run in the Flying Circus, and again as usual... the FC is a real head turner and funny bone activator xD hahahahha as we cruise by the pit lane everyone stared in disbelief of the FC... its a shame, but its a sacrifice we're willing to make xD besides we dont have enough money yet to give the FC a new paint job :p My first run was with KeKe as our camera man, and heck... after such a long period not driving the FC it all seems rather awkward, with the FC low rear grip we were literally drifting at every corner O.o I spun in the 2nd lap and then I was more cautious, I was still getting to grips with driving the FC at the limit... My first run ended in 4 laps as there were some accidents that the marshall had to show the red flag so in to the pits we went. It seems the new oil cooler is working a miracle... after 4 laps the oil temp is still manageable at 110 degC. Then Keisuke went for his 1st run and also finishes 4 laps before being forced to the pits because of more red flags :( This time the temp crept up to 120 degC after that for our 3rd and 4th run we could only manage 3 laps each as the temps go up to 120 degC and started burning the oil :p Here's our compile vids of our run and action: ^^

By the end of the day, both me and Keisuke were able to break the 3 min barrier^^
Yay!! despite the rear tyres not at grip level at all and also the lack of V-power really handicaps the power :(

And here's a vid of our pal Azhan first run at Sepang with his beautiful Satria Neo^^
Just to shave off the dead weight he was carrying he had to remove his sub-woofer, his junks ,his spare tyre and his girlfriend xD
Enjoy the vids and don't mind the mindless comment xD :

Between our runs we made some tour of the pits and we found our pals from SatriaNeo Club^^

No wonder the guy at the registration looked so familiar^^ I just remembered xD
hhahahhahaha

We chatted with them for a while and off we continued with our tour, there were some really cool collection of cars there and also a Lamborghini LP550-2 Valentino Balboni on display O.o

Enjoy the pics ^^ :

Lotus Europa

Lamborghini Valentino Balboni

The Matte Black GTR

Rotary brother in arms the Veilside RX-7 FD3S ^^

Toyota Supra

Track Monster Evo 7

Silvia S15

Z-Tune Bodykitted R34

Our rotary brother MazdaSpeed RX-8 ^^

The Flying Circus in action

Track Monster R34 GTR

There's actually more photos we took that day but I'm just too lazy to upload all of it :p

So that sums up our 2nd track experience^^ even though its Ramadhan and we're damn exhausted and thirsty fasting during track sessions, but the experience and fun is all worth it^^

Preparation to August Track Day

2009-08-24T01:06:00.004+08:00

--------Filler-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Ma friend posing with ma other friend superbike xD

The new Carbon Fibre Exhaust for his CBR600RR^^
The superbike now sounds like an F1 car... SWEET!!!! :D

--------Filler end-----------------------------------------------------

Well its that time of the year again^^ ehem.... even though its Ramadhan, but tomorrow (23rd Aug) is the Sepang Track day!!! \(^o^)/

Track days are always happy days for us Red Suns xD

Anyway, this time we're going to be better prepared than last time around so we sent the FC to Hau to change the brake pads and brake fluids.

The S-Four Endless Brake Fluids

The Endless Brake pads

It took almost the whole day to change the pads, at first we only wanted to change the rear pads as it has worn out... but it seems even our front pads was damaged... so we decided to change the front with used ones xD

The old front pads

The damaged pads

After Hau changed the fluids and bleed the brakes we brought the car to a tyre shop to cross the front tires... just to have more rubber at the inside of the cambers ;)

Then after tarawih, we set out with KeKe (Cloud) to bed in the brakes^^ that was the first time we actually did proper bedding procedures, and after the 8th brake cycle the brakes has already faded.... we did 2 bedding cycles and then we head for the Bangi Touge....

(Keisuke dead beat in between bedding cycles xD)

(Again, one of our random retard moments >.<) We need to have a proper tyre pressure for the tracks, so we headed to Bangi Touge to do some testing^^ We applied white shoe across all four tyres and then made a single spirited run at the Touge to see whether the thread wear is even or not... we found out our front left tyre is not really good at the wear.
(Applying the white shoe with Keisuke posing for the camera xD)

So we headed towards the nearest petrol station and then check the pressure... we found out the front left tyre is more 1 psi than the right and so the wear is uneven, so we set all four tyres to the appropriate pressure :

Potenza Grid II
215/55/R16
Front : 32psi

Pirelli P6000
225/55/R16
Rear : 35psi

We made one more wear test for the tyres and it all looks good, so we headed back home via McDonald McValue Meal xD

Thus the FC was prepared for its reason of existance^^

Genting vid from Richard :-)

2009-06-25T00:36:00.002+08:00

Wow Wow!! Richard uploaded our last Genting excursion on youtube... X-)

you can hear at 5:07 the FC's screeching spin... X-p haha...

enjoy...

Old Skool Vids...

2009-06-21T20:33:00.004+08:00

Yeah.... bored again, youtube vids again^^

This time.... old skool racing vids that kept me glued to the laptop.... >.< This vids is from Tsuchiya Keiichi heydays... his professional days in Japan Super Sportcars championship... and man that guy is fast... and not only that... he's also racing my favourite car.... Rocket Rotary FC3S!!!!!! \(^o^)/

And here is a vid testament to Tsuchiya's amazing car control technique... the previous vid may have see him lost to those R31 Skylines on the straight... but this one is wet... and when its wet... its the driver that counts^^

Now this vid is a vid of the GTR at its apex^^ the dominance of the Skyline that literally kill off Group A Championship... and also banned from Australian Grand Prix xD

Enjoy these tidbits of old skool glory ;)

Also a vid of my favourite jet fighter^^ The SU-37 Terminator....

Langkawi chill out..

2009-06-19T14:34:00.005+08:00

Went to langkawi recently to chill out...

Little piece of heaven...

Time attack!!

2009-06-19T11:49:00.005+08:00

Finally got the vids from our last time attack :-p

I'm sure it looks pretty boring and dull, but for ryousuke who's walking in and out of meetings, this is going to make you weep... X-P HAHAHA!!!

My "return" run..

My "going" run

Ryousuke's "return" run

Ryousuke's "going" run

Well, can't wait for some more time attack runs... X-) we'll definitely get more serious from here on.. :-p

Adrenaline Vids....^^

2009-06-18T22:41:00.003+08:00

Just being bored... browsed the youtube video archive and found some interesting vids worth sharing ^^

OMG Cool FC3S attacking Tsukuba!!!! O.o
I wish my FC can be this cool^^

I just love adrenaline rush^^ If I can get my hands on these babies definitely they'll be my ultimate adrenaline fix xD
Going Super Sonic~~~~~ ^^

Back to basics 2.. With 100kg penalty... X-p

2009-06-15T13:42:00.005+08:00

Well, last saturday night was another night at bangi... :-p it'd be great to go out to tekali (after we've finally familiarize ourselves with the FC's limits) since the moon is in full swing and no clouds of thunder to hamper its silver lightings :-) at the least, the road wouldn't be as dark and foreboding as the night before... X-p

Alas we had other things to attend to, and only started making our way to the touge half past midnight... :-p too late to make an excursion to tekali.. X-p since it was to be ryosuke's last night out (since he's going back to work the following day) we figured it'd be fitting to do a whole night rocket dancing party... X-p with the FC our trusty dancing partner... X-p

Since it's a bit too late to go to tekali (and besides, it's a little too late to call aaron up either... :-p) we decided to have some fun at bangi... X-p since we started timing our runs, we find it far more fulfilling to attack the touge at full force.. X-) since with improving our time the target, we finally found a sense of purpose X-p (haha... pathetic isn't it... :-p)

But unfortunately, the touge was full.. O.O PACKED AT THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!!! O.O WHAT ON EARTH??!!! we know it's saturday night, and it's usually notorious to find dragsters plowing the streets looking for some hot spots to burn the asphalt, but this? THIS?!! this is unexpected... because the streets are full of FAMILY CARS WITH FAMILIES IN THEM!!! O.O WHAT ON EARTH ARE THESE PEOPLE DOING, AT THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, AT THE TOUGE (ok.. maybe because the touge so happens to be the the main road bypassing the tolled highway... curse you Big G!!! >:-O)

Whatever it is, the amount of traffic is just too heavy to justify a run, or any run for that matter... :-/

Me and ryousuke pulled aside at the mint corner, and watched the traffic pass by... hoping for it to clear up... to no avail... T.T even mat rempits, with their cheap-o ex-5, doing wheelies, and scarping their exhaust sparking the asphalt were choking the touge... O.O i hate mat rempits... their recklessness just reeks of arrogance and total disrespect for other road users... (I'm praying that we're a bit above those reckless disrespectful rempits... X-p)

then we called cloud up, and cloud gave us a tempting alternative... X-p a late night dine at the McD :-p to top it off with a succulent irresistible cherry topping, cloud offered to buy us the meal X-) in these frugal times, it's hard to resist a free meal.. :-p

And we also decided to check out the local drag scene... there are rumours that big players with big pockets play their rides at a certain highway on weekends, so we decided to check it out, just to get some sight of skylines, supras and all the other great cars people with deep pockets can afford.. X-)

we took cloud and headed off to the highway, and to our dismay, there was only emptiness at the purported drag scene start off point :-( bummer... guess they're not playing that night, whatever it was, we had to pay RM2.50 for nothing just to get off the highway... X-(

we went back to bangi, and decided to check out the touge before eating, and wallah!!! the touge is practically empty.. X-) dotted with cars here and there, but still, it's much better than before... X-) with cloud on board, we were hauling at the most, 100kg extra of dead weight... X-p after sweeping the road, i made my attack run... :-p with ryousuke timing it X-) the extra weight was IMMENSE!!! O.O it affected the car's momentum so much, that the car became harder to slow down, harder to turn, and slower to accelerate... X-( i had to brake early, and practically manhandle the car through the turn, just to cope with the massive momentum the extra weight was causing... X-(

my run was more than 10 seconds slower than the night before O.O 10 SECONDS???!!! In racing terms, that's about a MILE AWAY!!! X-( i did another attack run, and the results were similar... an extra 10!!! i guess if we wanted to carry extra weight, we'd have to have more power and bigger brakes... X-p just to compensate that extra thrust in momentum :-p which reminded me, the basic physics calculation of force = mass X acceleration... with an acceleration that is constant, the bigger the mass, the bigger the force is needed for the car to turn, stop or whatever... X-(

Now, that rambling aside X-p ryousuke took to the wheel... he's much more crazier than i was O.O He'd jump into corners as if cloud was not there in the passenger seat X-p he brake the car near its threshold before each turn and just turn the car in, power it out, and do the same again for the next turn... HE'S UTTERLY CRAZY!!! X-( at Zid's corner (where we had our unfortunate accident before), he actually brake drift the car before the entry... X-( the car was going sideways before the entry, turning the nose pointing to the direction of the exit, clearing the bend, and just powering away... X-( That experience reminded me of our unfortunate accident, and with the way he's thrashing the FC around, it is as if he's dicing with death itself, and sees who's luck runs out first... X-( his time was not as fast as the night before (considering the weight penalty, it's no surprise :-p) but still, he's a FULL 3 SECONDS FASTER THAN MY TIME!!! O.O

His return run was the same, throwing the car around, using the extra weight like a pendulum in an age old time clock, doing steering corrections as if the wheels had came off... X-( he time another massive 3 seconds advantage... X-( he was simply... crazy in all sense of the word... :-p all our four runs were recorded, however, the videos are currently at cloud, and i haven't found the time to go over to his place to take it... :-p

There was a kenari parked at the traffic light at the middle of the touge, the people there trying to fix the lights perhaps... but whatever it is, he was right there whenever he blasted past the traffic at excess of 140 kmh.. X-P he must be thinking we're a bunch of crazy hoodlums... X-p haha.. gomen ne.. fish gotta swim, we gotta get our adrenaline fix.. X-p

We went to McD afterwards, chatted till almost 4, and went to drop cloud off and called it a night... a fitting way to end of short stint of adventure whenever ryousuke's around.. :-p too bad he isn't around for long, since i got a whole week off... :-p man, who am i going to have touge fun with now...?

But then, aaron is still around X-) without anyone reading the pacenotes it's going to be tough keeping him at bay... :-p since his skills and speed have jumped leap and bounds... X-( it's going to be dangerous pushing the limit just to keep aaron off our back :-p it's going to be really dangerous... it's going to be DEAD DROP FUN!!! X-D HAHAHAHA!!! Can't wait to come back from the holiday and dust off some much needed exercise... X-p with the moon as our guide, and the smell of burning rubber as our purpose... X-p hahaha!!! i can't wait... X-)

Back to basics...

2009-06-13T20:10:00.003+08:00

Well after all the excitements of exotics touge experience its back to the basics for Keisuke and me....

And boy, we almost forgot our roots :-o

We returned to our old hunting ground last night.... Tekali Touge, we made our sweep and opened our dusty old pace notes.... and next thing we know.... the pace notes dont make any sense anymore!!!! >.< OMG!!!! Tekali Touge was so dark our balls were squeezed to the point of oblivion!!! xD We made a couple of run each and heck.... even after those runs we were still trying to find our old rhythm... T.T The car just feels so different... the touge feels so scary and the pace notes just feels so nonsense xD Disappointed we rest our old Flying Circus at our goal point, and contemplating what have gone wrong.... especially for me I felt like I was completely out of touch from the car.... it felt so different... why on earth did it felt that way while we were so confident of it during our Genting and Kuala Kelawang excursion... well Keisuke didnt lost much of his touch but I do.... out of our sorrow came a lonely figure of a car.... a more recognizable silhouette... not an S15 or a Beemer.... or a Fairlady to help us out of our predicament... but our good friend Aaron with his trusty Turbo Charged Neo^^ We thought he wasnt coming... his father recently had a triple by-pass so he had quite a long hiatus from touge-ing with us, so we were happy to see him again^^ also good to hear that your father is doing fine now bro ;) He brought his friend Wan, and we had a little chat.... then off we went for our freak hobby xD Keisuke went first to lead Aaron on the "return" run, although Keisuke was still trying to re grasp the pace notes nonsense and me trying to control my mouth muscle whenever he jumped into a blind corner O.o but Keisuke was having a very smooth run, Aaron was saving his brakes for the "going" run and fell back behind on the downhill.... either that or Keisuke is really fast on the downhill, because I was scared like hell riding shotgun with him >.< And then we make our "going" run, this time with me leading Aaron, he did mention that he's more interested in the "going" run than the "return" run... so it seems we share the same interest^^ Hehehe... but much to my surprise... Aaron has gotten a lot better... I mean a lot... A LOT BETTER O.o Not only he was really sticking up my behind all the way on the uphill he was also putting real pressure on the downhill O.o I was struggling to get my rhythm but hey... before this we dont even have to be serious to leave a Neo in the dust either on the uphill or downhill... but this time he is serious O.o Aaron stick to me all the way through.... at the end his brake smelled like overcooked bacon, but hey we had a good time^^ ahahahaha... Aaron has really improved a lot ever since the last time I saw him O.o His pressure from behind feels really different... like its saying... "hey its that all that a Rocket Rotary have? Or is it the driver?" huuuuhuhuuuuhuhuuuu T.T I guess his almost daily training at Tekali is really paying off... this time I have to be more serious in training my skills... its tormenting to be catched up by a car with less horse power on the touge!!!! xD Well done bro ;) I'll have to keep on brushing up on my touge skillz as well ;) So after some short chat, we cruise back and say our good byes.... Aaron went back but me and Keisuke had another mission.... we need serious training.... >)

It was past midnight and it was the perfect time to go training at our home course... Bangi Touge....

When we arrived Keisuke was dead asleep (thanks for the moral support) =.=
I made the sweeping run and everything looks okay, then off I went!!!

Bangi felt so much more at home^^ with very few traffic and clear road I was shrieking through the touge... again, the stability of the car amaze me at how fast I can really jump into corners... really fast that it just scares me O.o

After my first run I made a "going" run, and I was really starting to get to grasp the car's new characteristic.... I guess its best to test the car's new ability at our home course... its just more enlightening then going to other "foreign" touge >.< Keisuke then made his run... he was also at first edgy with the car running at Bangi, then we were running low on fuel... we went to refuel and then came back to Bangi for some more action^^ Keisuke made another sweeping run and then he made an all out assault on the "return" run, too bad there was a little too much traffic that his time was somewhat not amazing, he made another "going" run and again was caught behind slow traffic... And then it was my timed run... my "return" run was quite uninterrupted albeit some minor traffic at the latter half of the course... and then I made my "going" run which was zero traffic, although I almost spun at the "Highway corner" I recovered the car but while at my haste to recover control I forgot to downshift to power through the drift >.< Afterwards was just a normal pedal to the metal to the finishing line, my time was somewhat ok... then it was Keisuke's turn... his "return" run was blistering... he was cutting through corners like his brakes has failed and brake drift through almost all of it O.o I was dead scared... although the traffic was quite a nuisance at the latter half of his run but he was a full 2 seconds faster than my run.... damn =.= And when he was about to do his "going" run, I was getting scared... Keisuke is known to be easily over excited and have always pushed over the limit when he is high... so far we have been lucky... so with my uneasiness I call it a night, and Keisuke understand that it may get too dangerous if he was too much on high^^ so we canceled his timed "going" run so my record still stand xD hahhahaha... although I doubt it will still be there if Keisuke did his timed "going" run... T.T Anyway, Bangi run was so much satisfying and adrenaline rushing that we could feel the adrenaline coursing through our veins.... it was good to return back to our roots and retrack our rhythm, a point to return to when we are at a loss.... >.<

The clock then ticks almost 2:30 am, our adrenaline was losing its effect and fearing that we may not wake up to pray Subuh, we slept at the mosque only to be bitten by sheer cold and annoying mosquito =.= but at least we did woke up for our prayer xD

Genting with Neos and Big guns...

2009-06-11T23:39:00.003+08:00

Last night we had another Genting excursion, this time with company from the Neo club and those hard core touge enthusiast that Keisuke went out with last Sunday ^^

The whole thing began when I just arrived back home yesterday morning from Kemaman for what would be stand-by days off :p

Because of my critical state of wanting to drive the FC Keisuke and I immediately ready the FC for a touge outing that night^^

Suddenly Richard (the driver of the supercharged BMW 5 series) message asking about any late night adventures and then it was all just the pieces falling into its places^^

From there Eu Jin (Silvia S15) joined in, Genting was picked as the hot spot and on the way we met up with the Neos who is also going to Genting^^

We led the way first through the Karak Highway and waited for the Neos (Boy, Azham, Alvin,..... hmmmm I dont think I catch the name of the others T.T) at the foot hill of Genting.

But it seems one of the cars that were with the Neos overheated on the way and Boy told us to go on ahead without them first, since they will have to wait for their injured comrade^^

(The Flying Circus minus the clowns xD)

(Eu Jin's beautiful S15^^)

(The monstrous Supercharged Beemer O.o)

(Richard showing Keisuke how many bodybags he can fit in the boot :p)

So up we go, S15, BMW 5, and the old Flying Circus.... and damn, the FC was really lacking in power against those elites >.< The uphill climb was exciting, with us changing leads and me frantically trying to keep the FC up to pace xD Eu Jin was struggling with his S15 since he set his rear camber to zero... which makes his S15 rear really twitchy so he was not really confident to push the car through the corners... but Richard was another story.... he was really.... really.... REALLY FAST O.o We were really struggling for traction with the FC while the 5 series was really enjoying full traction.... the car was sliding but with the new anti-roll bar, the FC seems to have a more understeer characteristic which makes it easy to control the car once is starts to drift ^^ and really inspires confident to jump into corners :p Half way through we heard like something broke in the engine compartment so we slowed down abit just to make sure everything was okay, once we saw nothing was effected we scream uphill again at full blast^^ Yaaahhaaa~~~~ I was literally having too much fun, and at the same time I was testing the limit of those new thick anti-roll bars that at the final hairpin I accidently spun the car :p hahahha... luckily there was no incoming cars close by so it was not much of a case >.< Once we were on top we checked the engine compartment and we found out what had broken was one of the FC's alternator belts.... luckily it had 2 belts that runs it so only one broke.... but we were not willing to push the FC for fearing of breaking the one last belt :p
(Uphill run with the big guns^^)

Boy arrived almost right after we arrived uphill (he is damn fast >.< ) and we waited for the rest of the Neos... had a few chat and then decided to go back downhill early because of work tomorrow... so we say our goodbyes to the Neos folks and cruise down hill^^ I tried to do some downhill drifting at the consecutive hairpin, but since I did not want to push the engine, I decided to just use the e-brakes.... too bad the traffic only cleared at one corner and having enough entry speed we pull off the drift^^ It was rather cool in a way :p ahhahaha... Keisuke wanted me to do more drifts as we headed down, but there was bumpers before the corners which made the entry speed for the drift rather slow... and me not willing to push the engine didnt agree with Keisuke to pull off any power over drift :p Our cruise downhill was rather uneventful, but again Richard was really fast going downhill.... seeing his Beemer running from behind is really awe-inspiring^^ so much traction at such high speed.... But the downhill run is always fun^^ I'm rather addicted to downhill run that even going down I didnt push the engine we can still slide the cars through the corners :p hahhahahaha....
(The downhill vid is rather short since our camera ran out of memory :p )

We had a blast that night with cool dudes and cool cars^^ although Genting is not our serious touge training ground, crowded with traffic but its a great place to have a run with friends^^

Hopefully we can do more touge excursion before my days off expires but until then drive safe ;)