Well it seems like nothing much has been happening since
both Trouble and Kate are still an incomplete project.
Currently I am working again, to fill up our coffers… as our
big budget splash on both the cars has made our pockets rather dry :(
Our
chassis specialist is working on Kate
Her
former damaged nose is taken off for a replacement
By
the last model Infini :)
While Kate is stripped down, we
took the opportunity to remove some unnecessary parts ;)
Like
the sound deadening:)
Since Kate will be a track focused
car, we are giving her some extreme parts
Like
some Mazda speed rear arms:)
I
mean a whole rear axle :) This is an original rear axle from mazda speed
complete with bushings for an FC3S track car from Japan, unfortunately the car
had a terrible accident that destroyed its front end but we salvaged what we
can from its rear end ;)
Kate is still a long way from
being complete, but I hope our target for her to be able to compete in at least
one time attack event this year is not too ambitious :)
While we were busy prepping up Kate, the Garage
Champion is also busy being kitted up to aim for that top step :)
Not only everything inside is
stripped, she has a new engine, a new dog box gear box (that cost a BOMB!!!!
O.O) and many more tid bits that only us mere mortals can dream of T.T
The owner is certainly not pulling any more
punches, hopefully he can be the fastest in his category for the next Time
Attack event :)
As for Trouble at least she is
road worthy now, we have gave her new heart a little touge run but her
suspension settings is still in a mess… as well as her interior :P
Her exterior is also nothing to
shout about, but since we went to all the trouble of making her like brand new…
might as well go the distant ;)
Before :)
After ;)Gave her some new rubbers ;)
By
carefully tracing the old one
Upclose
She
also gets some new taillights
Below is just a short footage of
Trouble on the touge when we were out testing her, the alignment and everything
else was rather bad that she was literally snaking about at high speed but we
just wanted to test her engine and see if there are any anomalies… but
considering the speed we were going with that kind of setting, looking back it
was quite suicidal :P
It seems time is moving really slowly now... without me noticing much, year 2012 has just ended.
Now its a new year... a new beginning... 2013 hopefully will be a better year than 2012 ^^
So what has been happening since our last adventure at Sepang... it seems we have been bitten by the time attack bug as well as our mechanic Hau :P
The side effect is that it accelerated our plan to revive our Old Lady Kate...
Suddenly things started moving very fast for her... and that would also mean our wallets are going dry rather quickly xD
Something new for our Old Lady Kate :)
The donor for Old Lady Kate :P extremely rare bucket race seat xD
A twin plate RE-Amemiya Racing Clutch for the Old Lady :)
But then the main work to revitalize her old decaying body still has not started, apparently the main item for the restoration work still has not arrived yet >.<
Other than that what has been happening around our car life... apparently the FD3S time attack car previously has some heat management issue...
So we have a solution that would hopefully stop her from chewing away our shoes while abusing her xD
An aluminum plate to help protect our feet from 3rd degree burns xD
And in my free time I've been helping Hau at his workshop...
Restoring a beautiful red FD :)
The front subframe after a thorough washing ;)
13B-REW from a 1999 model donor ready to be transplanted, with HKS clutch ;)
The engine ready to be installed :)
Not to mention further upgrade will be done for the Super Street FD3S that won 2nd place in category in the recent Sepang Time Attack... the list of upcoming mods are just too long for me to remember xD
The Champ getting some major upgrades :)
Not only does Amazing Garage is housing 2 time attack machines, they also have 2 in the process :)
Our Old Lady Kate and also Woay Chee's time attack FD3S :)
There are certain details of this car that is worth pointing out :)
V-mount up front^^
Poly-Urethane engine bushing :)
Is there anything else to say about this?:P
You can follow the progress of this car's build from Woay Chee's own blog here.
Anyway, thats it for the update for now... hopefully sometime soon we can start seeing some rotary action goodness :D
Well I've finally found the time to sit and write down our first time attack experience last 16th Dec.
Our day started rather early, I was already at the workshop at 8am to help Hau load up the 2 time attack machines...
Using a very modern car carrier, the carrier lower the whole carriage on the ground and the car would easily just drive on the carriage. Very convenient for these very low cars :)
The trip to Sepang was uneventful, except for the build up of time attack machines prowling the streets... all heading for one destination... Sepang.
The excitement was building up... cars of all sorts were participating in the whole event, not only the time attack event, the gymkhana, the COTY, the track day and also the ridiculous Epic Stance >.<
Although the Epic Stance being ridiculous is subjective based on one own's perspective, my view of the whole stance notion still stands :P
Amazing cars showed up for the day :)
GTRs were abundant at Sepang o.O
Despite being priced almost 1/2 million Ringgit, they're everywhere... it probably rained GTR the other night :P
Even exotics one like this beautiful example.... fully carbon fibre clad, even the interior is pure carbon fibre goodie :P
The GTR doesnt look out of place being beside that Ferrari F430 :P
Even rare exotics like this very fast type-writing machine was present... the MP4-12C :P
And a very rare NSX type R, street legal and too beautiful to be abused at the track :P
For the time attack event itself, our mechanic Hau has entered 2 FD3S to compete. Both in different categories but with almost similar mods, producing around 360-380 whp :)
This beautiful orange FD competes in the Super Street Turbo Category. The only thing that makes it street legal is that it still has a plate number :P everything else is extreme track focus in every sense xD
And this white FD is Hau's personal demo track car... its competing in the Time Attack Machine Category. Considering it is competing in the Time Attack Machine Category... it is quite modestly modded for the category, so this car still have not seen its last evolution yet :P
Hau was not just supporting those 2 track machines, but also lending a helping hand to the Wing Hin TRD team that is competing their street legal FT86 in the Street RWD NA category :)
Hau giving a helping hand in installing the transponder on the FT86 :)
The FT86 engine are still stock, it only has a modded throttle body & exhaust. The main mods comes from their FT86 track car's suspension components which this street legal FT86 borrowed for the day :)
During the open track day event in the morning we were able to hitch a shotgun ride in the Orange FD3S with its driver warming up for the time attack... he was already clocking incredible time then... 2:35 sec was mighty impressive :)
But he was having some brake issue from the morning session, it seems the turbine got so hot that it literally cooked the brake fluid. With the master pump and reservoir being close to the turbine he could only register 3-5 laps before his brakes evaporated :P
Obviously some heat shielding would need to be install in the near future, other than that the car performed exceptionally well... although he did accidentally ran over the kerbs so violently that made his front wheel alignment somewhat toed out a little >.<
Next they went for the scrutineering and prepared for the time attack proper.
Contestant lining up to test the transponder prior to the start of the time attack
Sadly, our camera ran out of juice just as we hit afternoon and the time attack session :P
The plight of being poor >.<
We had no pictures or videos other than the morning session T.T
During the first session the orange FD3S clocked a best time of 2:31.... which was extremely fast o.O
But the time was only good enough for 2nd in the category...
The white FD3S with no ABS overcooked the first corner in its session and almost crashed before setting any lap time :P
Fortunately Ah Chong (the FD3S driver) was able to recover and set a modest lap time of 1:44s... which was amazingly at the time was good for 2nd in the category o.O
The floorpan of the FD became so hot that it literally burned Ah Chong's racing shoe... so even the track car has some serious heat management issue and will have to undergo some major heat shielding.... not only that, the BOV seems to be not working... which may cause some damage to the turbine as we found it spitting oil from the air intake filter o.O
But then as the 4th Group session was about to went underway the heavens opened up, which cause the NA categories cars to compete in the wet.
The Wing Hin TRD FT86 only managed a time of 3:01... which was amazing considering the conditions, and that time was also good for a 2nd place in category :P
So it seems we were in good shape, with all 3 cars in the podium... with the orange FD3S and the FT86 in position to strike at the top step :D
But as we prepare for the 2nd session, which we plan to sneak in as the white FD3S driver, the heavens opened up again, but this time it rained so heavily that the track had to be closed.
So they were no longer running according to the timetable, so me and Keisuke slipped away and tried to charged our pathetic camera with an in car charger...
While we were enjoying the radio and cool AC after the very hot day, and pouring rain outside... we missed the 2nd session!!! >.<
The most crucial 30 min of our day was missed with us enjoying Adele music in a Honda CITY!!! xD
When we came back they already went on track and came in just as the session finished xD
Sadly with the wet track, and us having no rain tires for the FD... Ah Chong could not better his time, as well as the orange FD and the FT86...
But the orange FD and FT86 posted a time in the 1st session that was competitive enough to secure them 2nd place in their category, but for Ah Chong... his time fell to being 4th, just outside the podium :(
In the evening, we packed up the cars in the rain and went back to the garage... with lessons learnt and new zeal to pursue in this rather addictive time attack event :D
I was somewhat bitten by the time attack bug as well, and as we chatted into the night with Hau and the others... we came up with the idea to revive the Old Lady.... prepping her for time attack duties, but since Hau already has a customer competing in the street turbo class... I'll try my luck in the NA category :)
But all those are still just wishful dream, since Trouble is still not complete... but hopefully next year I can truly join the time attack not as spectator... but as a contestant looking for that one magical lap :D
Below is the vid of half the day videos and pics T.T
The official report for the time attack event is here :
December 16th 2012, a date that will live in infamy :D
We were expected to participate in the Time Attack event at Sepang... unfortunately fate has it otherwise.
We were planning of joining the Time Attack with Hau's FD3S Time Attack Machine, but administratively and some funny twist of fate we were unable to attack Sepang with the FD3S >.<
Before I can go into details of how our day turned out, some sneak peak of how Trouble is coming along... she is almost near completion, a monster in the making :D
Some of the new body parts that she will be wearing :) original RE-Amemiya parts directly from Japan ^^
New piping for the front mounted intercooler... the intercooler is taken from an R32 GTR, for better protection it is mounted well inside the chassis front bar... but because the intercooler was so big we had to cut the sides to enable it to fit within the front bar.... :)
A better view of the new engine bay... currently we have only installed a single oil cooler which is clearly visible in the picture, but a secondary cooler will be installed once we've finalize the body kit and ducting :)
Soon she will be prowling the touge again, and hopefully we wont be directional challenged again to find her in the hard end of a mountain side :P
Now while working on her completion, Hau has decided to join the Sepang Time Attack with his FD3S track car... with us at the helm.
Unfortunately I came back from Australia a little too late to confirm our participation and there was nothing we could do about the administrative side of things...
Here is a sneak peak vid of the Time Attack at Sepang... its getting a little late and I will need to wrap things rather quickly. I'll go into the details on the next post, and hopefully the full vid will be ready then :-P
