A night to remember 2....

What the... Keisuke just posted a half hearted post =.=

Man, he's really slacking off now...

Anyway, back from where he left off... eee to.... hmmmm?

Yeah, back from where we seem to have the balls to follow Danni through the Ulu Yam Touge, that was one of the most craziest experience we ever had...

I mean, I never did push the FC to such extent... even at the High ways I still have lots of reservation in driving the FC, but that night everything was like Hell...

We were going at 160++km/h at the Touge!!! O.o the FC tyres being cheap and the thread already worn off was almost breaking traction at any moment... that was really a GAMBLE RUMBLE xD

Anyway, to make things short... by going to the touge with Danni, we can see the difference in skills.... it was like heaven and earth, he wasn't even pushing hard and we were already struggling just to keep pace....

I was jumping into corners not knowing how the corner is, everything was new to me and I pushed like heck!! Just to keep in touch with the MR-2.

On the return run, I lead the MR-2... with the FC having more horses under the hood, the MR-2 fails to follow in the straights... but he really burn our behinds at the corners...

I was already jumping into the corners like a lunatic but that MR-2 just keep on hugging our ass like it was nothing... incredible!!!

Too bad that there was far too much traffic on the touge that night... if not it would be far less scary than it was xD

Anyway, we only made a single run at the Ulu Yam touge and parted ways at 11:30, with Danni giving us a lot of advice about our car, it was really an enlightening experience meeting people like him^^

With protest from Keisuke, here is the video of our first run with the MR-2 leading and Keisuke being the noisy camera man xD

A Night to Remember...

Well, haven't written anything for quite some time now...

Finally I got some work last Thursday so I couldn't write any updates on our activities, even now I'm supposed to be busy, but as usual, I'm slacking off.. :-p

Anyway, last Thursday we went scouting on a new Touge route in Mantin at the road leading to its industrial area with the trusty old meteorain :-) this time around, Cloud allowed us to drive the car ^^ haven't driven an iswara for quite some time :-p a nice decent car actually :-) (as it was the first car we had before Ryo went sending it to kingdom come X-p)

There were two routes to the Touge (based on our research X-p extensively done by Cloud... I guess he got tired of our exciting kamikaze attitudes... X-p) one was through the town of Mantin itself, the other was through broga... We decided to take the latter (as we've never tried that route before, during the days when we used to occasionally go up the other Mantin Touge...) and boy~~ what a mistake that was....

Half-way through the route (right after we passed the town of Broga) the tarmac road gave way to a Rally-spec gravel path O_o (since the road seems to be going under some sort of renovations) that went on for the next half an hour or so... Not to go so hard on meteorain (as she got enough trauma from our last climb up Genting and Fraser in one night... X-p) we drove through the gravel roads barely more than 10 KMH... It took us almost forever to get through the area...

When we finally got there, the course didn't disappoint ^^ it's quite a narrow road (with a number of debris strewn at the roadside, obvious signs of disuse...) which was really quiet even at 10 p.m X-) (considering it was suppose to be the road leading to Mantin's industrial area... X-p) from where we started, it began with a mild uphill slope with fairly easy sweeping bends, nearing the top (about 1/3 through) the road twist and turn in violent hairpins, and stoop down the remaining 2/3 of the course for a downhill run filled with more hairpins and tight chicanes, one after the other in rapid succession.

Rather suprising was that at a certain hairpin, there is this dog that sleeps at the middle of the road O_o it does move away when we arrive, but still, whenever we came back, he's there again at his favourite spot (we made 3 runs; one run each). Whatever it is, it's a GREAT course >:-) and we've tagged it as a possible second home course for us ^^ (since it is rather close to our area...)

But better things are yet to come >:-) we went there again on Friday, this time with Turbo Jr and meteorain tagging along as back up car ^^ (in case things go awry… :-p) We started off at 12 am, got there at 1, and scouted the road… To our surprise, all the animals of Mantin really enjoy a sleep on the tarmac O_o

First there was the dog that was there since yesterday, always sleeping at the middle of a hairpin corner… X-( though he always got up and gave way (albeit rather sluggishly) but he may not make it in time if we went blazing through the corner… X-p so that was our first concern (didn’t want to cause any unnecessary casualty for our reckless fancy… :-p)

Secondly, and worst still, there were cows sleeping on the road O_o COWS!!! OF ALL THE PLACES IN THE WORLD TO FIND A NAP, WHY ON THE TOUGE???!!! WORST STILL, THEY WERE ALSO SLEEPING AT A HAIRPIN NEAR THE EXIT!!! X-( albeit a bit by the roadside… All 3 of them, one happy family… X-(

And there was also a whole pack of dogs sleeping on the middle of the road O_o what’s this? A zoo? Well, with all the wild animals running loose on the streets, we had to be extra careful (especially the cows…)

Ryo started off the first run to and fro with Jr riding shotgun (it runs uphill till up to 2/3 of the course, and slopes downhill afterwards… The reverse obviously when running the other way around…). Cloud, in order to save the expensive fuels, decided to stay back with me at the starting point…

After about 10 minutes or so, Ryo was back, and then Jr got a shot at it next… The booming sound of the FC’s exhaust note echoed through the mountains… Again after 10 minutes, they got back... And it was finally our turn, Cloud and I X-)

Of course I was scared shitless X-p so I went in really easy (never even pressed the gas more than half :-p) and on the end of the uphill run, we ran across a police patrol O_o (WHAT ON EARTH ARE THEY DOING AT THE TOUGE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT??!!!) We tried to call back to Ryo and Jr to tell them to run off as cops are coming, but as expected, there was no line there at such a God forsaken place… >.>

So we headed back, the plan in mind was if the cops were there interrogating Ryo and Jr, we’d continue on as if we don’t know them… X-p and as expected, the cops were there, having a field day throwing questions and suspicious glances on Ryo and Jr (also inspecting the funny faces they had on their license and IC X-p) SO we slowed down to a very law-abiding pace and when we passed them, Ryo went on and signaled us to come over!! O_o there goes our getaway plan… X-p apparently Ryo had told the cops they were waiting for their friend there, and they were only told to wait there… :-p bummer… Next time we’ll have to coordinate our protocol when it comes to cops… X-p

Anyway, the whole event upset us all and Cloud decided to skip his run and head back (luckily no one ended in the local pound X-p) So we started the journey home and that was the end for the night… Greater things were still to come… >:-)

Ryo had afterwards set up a meeting with Danni, a Touge enthusiast who drives a Toyota MR2… :-) We were to meet up at Sunday night and go for a cruise through the Ulu Yam Touge… X-) Sunday couldn’t have come any sooner…

When the time comes, Jr had something up so he couldn’t join us, so was Cloud, thus it was left only me and Ryo… We set out at 8.30 and reached Batu Cave at 9.30… Ryo was really tired so he had a nap… around 9.50, he went out for a leak and ordered some burgers as well… around 10.05 I saw a red MR2 pass by O_o SH****T!!! He’s here!!! and our burger’s not done yet… X-( So Danni had to wait for us till half pass 10 :-p man, we came so early to avoid such an embarrassing moment, and there we were, embarrassing ourselves… X-p standing there with our pants down... :-p

Anyway, Danni was a really cool guy :-) and his car was really beautiful X-) to think it is just one year younger than our FC was astonishing O.o the car looked like brand new, while our FC really showing its age… X-( after some brief introductions, off we went setting out for the Ulu Yam Touge :-) Danni took the first lead… And boy was he FAST!!! O_o (His favourite Touge ground is the notorious Fraser Hill O_o him and his gang would drive from Ulu Yam till Fraser Hill, punch through to Bentong, and ride back the highway… No wonder Ulu Yam touge is considered chicken feed... Considering his level of playing field...)

He was BLOODY FAST!!! And he actually wasn’t pushing it all out (he had his street tires on, so he didn’t want to ruin them… Apparently he has another set of tires reserved only for Touges… O.o) but still, trying to keep up with him was really shaking our boots… X-p Ryo was driving like mad trying to keep up :-p (I didn't drive that night as obviously because I have a bit more sense and not the balls to go THAT fast on my first run… X-p unlike Ryo, more ‘kamikaze’ly insane than I… :-p)

Ryo was going so fast through the corners, that more often than not, the car's traction was only holding on to the road by a thread... Ryo went in the corners so fast in his first run was only because he sees Danni doing it, and he inferred with the simple logic “if he could do it, why not me?” of course, Danni was suicidally fast, and Ryo was suicidally crazy... X-p

There were a number of traffic that night and we overtook them like crazy rude reckless street racers that we are :-p once Ryo went diving into a right-hand corner on the inside while overtaking a civilian when suddenly a car came from the opposite direction!!! O_o Ryo hit hard on the brakes and maneuver back into our lane... A really close call... We were that close to having a head-on collision… That was about the time my heart flew out and scampered under the seats X-p

After that incident, Ryo took it a little easy... :-) to my great relief (though the worst was not over yet.. X-P) because of Ryo's conservative overtaking maneuver, he was left back at one point, Danni broke off and left us trailing a rather long traffic chain... By the time Ryo cleared the traffics, Danni was gone, and Ryo took his sense of reason and sanity out the window as well O_o

Ryo floored the gas, and the FC went screaming through the Touge and at one point, at 180 KMH!!! O_o his average speed through the straights were around 160-180 (the straights were not long enough to accomodate any faster speeds.. THANK GOD!!!). He dived in the corners like there is no tomorrow X-( about that time, my balls jumped out of its pockets and out the window... X-p

By the time Ryo caught up with Danni, I was half-relieved X-p at least Ryo would only be suicidal, and not hell-bent crazy lunatic trying to jump over the moon... X-p however, the inducing heart-attack moments were not yet over X-( Ryo continued to try to match Danni's speed through the corners, and likewise, heart-stoppingly suicidal.. :-p

By the time the first run was over, I could hardly walk... X-p my knees had popped off.. I had to scrap my knee caps off the roof.. X-p I had to try to coax my heart to come out from under the seats.. X-p and my balls were long gone... X-p (I'm a wimp I know.. X-p)

BUT THE NIGHTMARE WAS NOT OVER :-O THERE WAS THE RETURN RUN!!!! X-( worst still, RYO WAS THE LEAD CAR!!! X-(

Some pointers for relief was the fact that the straights wouldn't be as scary (as the FC got more horses under the hood, Danni's NA engine MR2 simply couldn't keep up with the Turbo-tuned FC, so Ryo didn't push hard through the straights) and Ryo could control the rthym of the run as well as any reckless overtaking maneuvers... :-) But that's about it, everything else was 10X SCARRIER!!! X-(

Because Ryo was leading, and that we're not familiar with the course, we barely had any idea on the entry speed of the corners, Ryo just plough his way through, at the very fine edge of traction cohesion... More than once we almost went sideways... and more often than not, the back kept on twitching through every corner under the enormous grip demand Ryo was subjecting the tyres to...

As unexpected, though Danni loses some ground on the straights, he immediately gained it back (and more) through the corners... X-( We were simpy no match for such a skilled driver... :-p

I was relieved the whole ordeal ended with no serious consequences, and Danni gave us a lot of advice on improving the FC's performance and especially the suspension setting and tyre selection :-) he's a really great swell of a guy... ^^ Hope to be meeting up with him again and maybe we can learn a thing or two on improving our pathetic skills X-) (and probably how to keep our balls in its place as well… X-p never did find my balls after that.. X-p)

Uh Oh… I’ve been slacking off for a bit too long.. :-p gotta go to work ^^ Shigoto2… :-)

Go Karting = fun

Incredible... is all the word I have for it^^

Before I came back from France, our instructor made an end of course activity, which is Go-Karting!!!!

Anyway, the Go Kart experience taught me lots of new stuff... mainly, I suck T.T
Before this I was just running around the Touge having fun, trying my best not to cross the center line.... suddenly at the track, the whole road is for the taking... line have become a serious issue O.o

Anyway, we were given a single lap tour, then they gave us some free practice lap, which I was having so much fun going sideways with the Go-Kart that I didn't notice they were timing us for the starting position... so consequently I was 4th on the grid T.T

To make matters worse, I had a bad start and had to defend my position from the start... which leads to me almost spun out at the first lap xD

I was able to recover and started to make my ground, finally when I was in 2nd place behind my instructor he gave way O.o He is so dang fast that I can feel the difference in skill... he was 3 seconds faster than any of us in qualifying anyway O.o

He kept on pressuring me from behind, something that is new to me also... since I have been only doing fun solo touge run.... so in the final lap... I hit a barrier!!!! xD

I was paying too much attention at the back and tried turn too close to the apex that my Kart scrape the inside barrier, making me lose significant time and drop 2 places behind....

That was the final lap and nothing much can be done... so I settled at 3rd place and after that I had some great Tsuiso Drift session with one of my classmate who is also a petrolhead^^

the third place trophy

The most important thing I learned from the experience is that the shortest route or the most aggresive line is not necessarily the fastest way around the corner... I may not have notice that although I tried to maintain a neutral steer throughout the corner, but I lost some small traction that made my friends pass me on the following straits with the small difference of the traction that they gain at the exit...

And mostly I lack the concentration necessary not to crack under pressure which I did on the final lap T.T

Finally here's an interesting quote I found in one the webs I surf on advance racing technique^^ :
Stirling Moss on fast cornering: “A racing car is always in an attitude at corners, never pointing directly fore-and-aft in its line of travel as a road car would be in normal motoring. The racing car is sliding, to some degree, nearly all the time, but to be quick the best drivers try to do the slides and drifts with the least drag possible at moments when drag doesn't matter. One can put the car into a Kriste - a broadside as in ski-ing - to slow it into corners. But once one has presented the car to a very high-speed corner it's rather like throwing a dart - when it has left your hand you can't do a thing about its path. If you present a car accurately to such a corner it will track through in a long drift on a virtually predestined trajectory. You can make tiny adjustments, but once you have presented it to the corner you can only adjust the trim, not make major changes of direction - not if you are on the limit. Steering is used to present the car, then to compensate for the throttle, because as one opens the throttle, and car starts to slide you may have to use the steering wheel to compensate - to balance the power. I would describe the steering wheel as the presenter and balancer really.”

THE FC IS BACK!!! X-D

Yesterday was an important day :-) among other events, the FC, after a long time behind the bars of a workshop finally came home X-) It didn't looked like the best of wear (as it still needs a new spoiler and a total repaint.. :-p as well as some cleaning to wash down all those dusts it had collected sitting idle at the back of the shop) but hey, he's back and no one's complaining X-) (maybe just the neighbours.... >.>)

The whole repairing exercise caused our lean pockets to fork out thus far a whopping RM2900!!! >.<)

First off, the car fells a bit more stable than before through the corners :-) (I guess it's attributable to some unknown fact that probably it had suffered some accident from any of its previous owners and the chassis was already bent, even then...) and secondly, IT'S JUST GREAT TO HAVE IT BACK!!! X-D

Though it wasn't so great when you start filling in the tank >.> before the hike, it took about RM110 for a full tank (that'll probably last a few days... X-p) but now, even RM150 just fills up three-quarter of the tank... >.<

So yesterday began with me sleeping really early around 8 X-p (the night before had taken its toll...) but was woken up around 8.45 by Ryo to go out for a movie :-) we went to Alamanda and bought us some tickets for the dark night X-) (yes, we haven't seen the movie yet... :-p) which begins at 9.30.. So to kill off the time, we headed for some artificial touge pleasure in the form of Battlegear X-) We had 2 rounds, 1 in Akagi and another in Akina, me having chosen the faster car :-p (as usual, the FD, my dream car.. X-p) had the advantage and took the lead from the start.. I never looked back :-) (the last thumping really made me more sober.. X-p) Ryo driving the FC was a bit better than I was in the corners, but the difference of power and acceleration compensated what I lack :-p hoho.. A fitting start for a great night.. X-)

Then the movie, I won't go on for long about the movie (as I'm sure everyone has seen it, except Cloud.. X-p the poor fellow.. :-p) but I must say, the Joker was the man of the hour :-) if it wasn't for him, the dark knight would have just been another has-been superhero flick.. X-p Joker really stands there among my most favorite villains of all time ^^ right up there with Darth Vader (yes, I'm a fan of Star Wars.. X-p and so is Ryo) and Sephiroth (what's more cooler than walking around with a pretty face and a cold couldn't-care-less-for-anything attitude wielding a 2-m long katana? X-) not to mention the cool outfit :-p)

You wanna know how I got my scars? X-)

haha... classic...

Anyway, then we headed back, did our prayers and stuff, and took the FC for a spin X-)

We first started off with a simple 180' turn :-) (we suck at drifting so that's about all we could do.. :-p) after a few trys (and realizing how bad we've rusted X-p) we decided to go for some spin (not literally :-p) at our local touge, our home course Bangi Touge ^^

Cloud had went to join us for the 180' session, but decided not to come along to the touge as he has some other matters to attend to (like catching up on some hard-earned sleep I guess... X-p) so the clock ticked 1.50 and me and Ryo headed out to the Touge :-)

We just wanted to try out the car and get the feel of it, so we kept our run short... :-p We did only one complete run (back and forth) with Ryo taking the wheels for the 'back', and I took the wheels for the 'forth' :-p and since the car had just came back, we didn't push hard (basically we were just cruising through.. :-p)

The car feels great through the corners, the suspension was stiff enough to give us complete confidence :-) the steering was razor-sharp responsive :-) the wheels, the steering, the car itself, just feeds us with raw details of the road X-) the car just felt SO GREAT, giving us such a stable platform X-) it's even better than before X-) (either because the workshop did a really good job or because we haven't driven it for so long, we forgot how a true touge machine should feel like X-p not like that rolling-happy Howling Banshee Kancil of ours.. X-p hoho..)

So by 2.30 we were home :-) all the excitement and joy of having the FC back really flooded my head with overwhelming emotional rapturous delight that I almost drown in my own euphoria... X-) I was so excited, that I couldn't sleep till a quarter pass 3 X-(

Woke up late again this morning.. :-p haven't taken my breakfast for 4 days straight already... X-p (basically eversince Ryo came back.. :-p) and can't wait to go back home for tonight... X-) we still don't have any plans yet (as always..) but hey, we can always go where the road takes us.. ;-)

Looks like it's going to be another long unproductive day... >.>

haha... You wanna know how I got my scars? X-)

Another scouting expedition...

BLOODY HELL!!!!

Is again the word for yesterday's expedition... X-p

Yesterday we went out for another scouting expedition in our campaign to get acquinted with the touges around our area, this time, we were joined by Turbo Jr :-D and no longer riding the unreliable half-exploded 3rd-level wight-reducted selotaped-DYI-cap-ayam meteorain X-p (do excuse my honest opinion Cloud.. X-p) but we went with the 'Howling Banshee'!! X-p a car just a tad bit more reliable... X-p and a whole lot worse in many ways... X-p the policy of riding the Banshee is to "not ask of any weird sound it makes (usually because it's writhing in pain and agony.. X-p) nor question any leaking liquid one may notice.. Drive it with faith, and LO!! It shall not disappoint thou..." X-p

Our butt-ugly green kancil (or is it blue?) :-p dubbed the 'howling banshee' for its notorious howling due to the poor old engine needing an overhaul.. X-p (some people say the engine sounds like a rotary.. O.o I find it sounding like a banshee howling.. X-p thus the name.. go figure.. :-p) well, it's a gas guzzler that can put mercs to shame, a real adrenaline supplier for its high body-roll tendencies (and an even higher body-rolling possibility... X-p) a car battered, bruised and condemned to be 'everybody's-car-that-nobody-takes-care-of'... A car full of 'everyone's-junk-and-no-one's-responsibility' X-p A real survivor considering how Ryo and I often subject it to countless unjustified punishments.. X-p all for the sake of satiating our unsatiable lust for Touge ectasy... X-p The poor beast... may it serve us for many years to come before it is left forgotten rusting in some junkyard... X-p

Well, the expedition did not really kick off till midnight :-p after we did some errands, we went to pick up Jr (and tolerating Cloud's incessant complains of a headache.. >.> hehe.. nah, that one I made it up.. X-p) and off we headed first out to Cheras to do another errand.. :-p

Our destination this time around is the infamous haunted home turf of Team Kansei, Kuala Kelawang!!! X-D (check out their blog for more info at http://kansei.wordpress.com/)

By 12.30, we were off to the purported direction of Kuala Kelawang X-D (and this time it's not really a kamikaze stint like last time.. :-p Jr did some research X-p but all we knew was that we had to head to Semenyih... wherever that is.. >.>) and it didn't really start off smothly.. By the time we were heading out, I WAS ALREADY GETTING SLEEPY!!! X-( Cloud was already turning on and off like a bad radio X-p and for Heaven's sake, I GOT WORK TOMORROW!!!! WHAT ON EARTH AM I DOING AT THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT??!!! X-O

Of course, no one ever said that the things we do ever was backed by any sound reasoning.. X-p so we headed off again into the unknown.. :-p But I can't really say much about the way there... I; like Cloud; kept on turning on and off like a bulb with a bad starter.. >.> But I was finally able to maintain perpetual consciousness (though I can't say the same for today here at work.. X-p GOD!!! MY BRAIN IS PULSATING DEMANDING SLEEP!!! IT'S A RIOT UP THERE!!! X-p) when we reached the kampung road leading up to the touge... :-)

It had some mild-long sweeping corners, with some turning in to a tight exit (which was pretty much a scare :-p considering we had never gone there before...) and there was no lighting whatsoever (typical of all mountainous kampung roads...) so there were some really dark corners that just jump out at us from the pitch darkness... :-p (and the howling banshee's lights were not helpful at all.. X-p considering it had only 1 good light left.. :-p truly the one-eye warrior.. X-p) a prelude of what's to come...

Ryo was the driver, and he didn't really push the banshee through the roads.. Considering how ignorant we are of the road condition (and how me and Jr kept on panicking every corner.. X-p the wimps...) It was actually just cruising through.. Of course, the Banshee's notorious body-roll did helped in unsettling the stomach and weakening the knees.. X-p

Then we finally arrive X-D the infamous Kuala Kelawang Touge.. It starts off from the Pekan Hulu Langat junction to quite a decent hill climb (which the Banshee is so terrible at.. Considering it is a 660 Stock Kancil with a bad engine and a whole load of people, including 2 heavyweights.. X-p) and turns into a succession of corners one after another that would put every pie-throwing contest to shame.. X-p and it was like that through most of the course.. And some of the corners, like before, just seem to jump out of the darkness in its so-far succesful efforts of wetting our pants.. :-p There was quite a number of corners that starts off mildly, turning in to a sudden violent sharp exit... That is when my heart jumped out spattering on the windscreen.. X-p

Jr panicked through every corner (so was I, but hey, I'm the writer X-o) and as the co-driver, gave a very distorted description of the corners... X-p Every corner we came across, he described it as a 'hard corner'.. Not to mention there were a number of times (most of the time X-p) he gave the total opposites of the corners (due to probably permenant brain damage :-p an after-effect of the fear spasm attack.. X-p) shouting out "HARD LEFT!!" when it should have been a right (of various degrees.. Which was not important to Jr's vocabulary.. X-p) and so on..

We had started the night with a full tank, but throughout the touge, nearly half of the tank was spent, and the Touge doesn't seem to be coming to any eventual end.. :-p So we decided to turn back when we hit the half-a-tank mark (since throughout the journey, there was no gas station within any practical proximity to the course.. So the threat of running out of gas along the way was, just as the threat of turning turtle, definitely real.. :-p

Half-way through the course began the donwhill section... A whole new set of fear sets in.. X-p Unlike the blinding exits of uphill attacks, donwhill runs don't usually have that kind of nasty suprises, but it does come with a caveat... :-p Every corner always just tempts the car to overshoot (due to the momentum and inertia of the descent) and jump the ledge down the cliff into the seductive ravenous dark abyss... X-p Of course, such an affair would always end up with someone getting hurt.. :-p one way or another...

Then miraculously, like a sudden lull in a storm, we reached the end of the course (we're not sure.. But we thought we had reached the end.. :-p judging from the cessation of the endless heart-stopping corners..) we stopped by the roadside for awhile.. Those that had actually wet their pants went to answer the call of nature (which was unfortunately only me and Ryo X-p) and by 1.55 we headed back.. This time, I was behind the wheel >:-)

Not that it makes much of a difference :-p besides the fact that I suck more than Ryo in tackling corners.. X-p (I'm a wimp!! >.<> But then the second terror began X-) (not for me though, as I was having really great fun!!! X-p) The succession of corners were exhilarating X-) I had to do a lot of steering correction to keep the Banshee's understeering under control, and with the rapid successions, steering work has got to be crisp and sharp... :-) truly it's a great place to sharpen all that.. X-) I never really did pushed the Banshee hard (it was supposed to be a scouting expedition :-O) but the traction of the car was so bad, that even at such low speeds the car was suffering from very terrible understeer, and the notorious body-roll was very prominent throughout the course... :-p Nevertheless, IT WAS GREAT FUN!!! X-D

But kudos to Cloud, our ever great zen guru... :-) throughout the whole run, back and forth, he just maintained his cool.. quiet sitting at the back, so intense in his stare, that you're forgiven if you'd thought that some philosophical revelation had suddenly dawned on him amidst all the chaos and clamour... He had reached the state of 'ULTIMATE NOTHINGNESS'... He feels nothing, he fears nothing, he THINKS OF NOTHING... X-p an empty brain I guess is the best thing to have at the touge.. X-p think too much, and you'll be paralyzed by fear.. :-p like the rest of us.. X-p

Then it all ended as abruptly as it began... The furious winding corners just suddenly gave way to mild leisure temperate bends... :-) and finally everyone's heart can stay to rest ^^ the worst is over.. :-) and now it's our time to make the journey back.. The time is 2.20 a.m (I can't imagine how fast Azuri of Team Kansei went through the Touge to set the track record of 4 minutes and a half.. I throw my hats down at him (~~,) truly he's a touge pro.. not like us amateurs.. X-p)

So then we started to make our way back... Apparently someone wanted to eat (I don't think I need to mention who.. X-p) as all that back-breaking overwhelming fear (yes, we sound like pathetic masochist... X-p the sad truth..) sapped all the food in our stomach.. :-p So we reached Bandar Kajang at 3am, and drop-by the local 24-hours KFC there... :-) we ate till 4!! >.<>

When we finally started to really make our way back home, Jr got SO sleepy, that we was starting to go crazy O.o because his sleep deprivation was starting to sap his sanity.. X-p (I presume partly also because of the terrifying experience early on as well :-p I'm not suprised if someone lost a couple of marbles or two back there.. X-p I'm sure I did..)

Me and Ryo got home at around 4.30, and this morning I woke up late again... T.T luckily I just made it in time to clock in to work before office hours begin... :-) but MY GOD!!! I'M SO SLEEPY!!! RYO!!! GIVE ME BACK MY NIGHTS OF COMFORTABLE SLUMBER!!! X-O

Hehe... Of course there is no waltz without the other partner :-p hoho.. well, last night was superb X-) the FC is finally coming out from the workshop today X-D and looking forward for another crazy night and unproductive days.. X-p

haha...

*Note: Pictures courtesy of Team Kansei

Thumped, beaten, bashed, and left for dead...

The title says it all...

Last night, Ryousuke, Turbo Junior, Cloud and I decided to go out for some fun-loving battlegear sessions... X-p (Yes we know.. it's just an arcade.. But for Heaven's sake, they got Akina and Akagi in there!!! X-D and Initial D cars!!! And they're much more fun and realistic than those crummy Initial D arcades.. >.> besides, the FC is in the workshop, we had to get some touge dosage from somewhere.. X-p)

Apparently, Ryo and I haven't played for some time, Turbo Jr. had never even played before, and Cloud was really crappy the last time I remembered battling him.. X-p (No offence Cloud, but you busted my nose last night.. :-p I guess it's fair I pass some air upwind... X-p haha..) but last night was a night to remember.. How Ryo and I (self-proclaimed Battlegear Gurus... Though we never had any students.. Just our over-bloated egos.. X-p) were brought to our knees weeping over our deflated egos.. violently popped by reality.. X-p (that's what you get for living in your own world for too long.. X-p)

Cloud had apparently been secretly training (the fox!!! >:-O) and secretly thumping our other old good friend (Dzulq) in his attempt to make sure we get a run for our money (as I had always used to thrashed Cloud around so hard, it never took a sweat to do it again.. then, that is.. X-p hoho.. sorry Cloud, I just had to embellish my glorious past.. X-p *sob* makes yesterday all that much harder to swallow.. T_T) and boy did his training paid off...

We tried to play Akagi last night, a new track to us all (as we're used to play only at Akina... :-p yeah.. we all wanted to try the gutter run.. X-p never work though... X-p haha..) and our first battle was me up against Ryo...

Ryo, being the rusted player that he is, got a good beating X-) and I was beeming proud.. HOHOHO!!!! ^o^ Ryo left the first round with a busted nose.. X-p then it was Cloud up against Jr the rookie.. Boy did Cloud toyed him around.. X-p Cloud waited for him for so long, that the time actually ran out.. X-D haha!!! Of course, me and Ryo being the fools we are, never saw the potential Cloud had in the dark 'gloomy' (for some..) battles ahead... X-(

First it was Ryo up against Cloud, Cloud's first victim of the day (or night to be more precise.. :-p) They both used the same Tuned FC, and Cloud was just that bit better than Ryo in the corners..

Then it was me, the next casualty of the night.. X-p and the sad thing was, I never saw it coming (I guess because my nostrils were too inflated for the punch that was coming straight for my nose.. X-p) I chose the Tuned FD (slightly more poweful than the FC I guess...).

At the beginning of the race, we burst out of the starting grid.. I was accelerating a bit more faster and was taking the lead, until a thought came over me.. :-p I was a bit cautious when I saw Ryo took the gun, but nevertheless, I realize ego is greater than reason X-p and for that, I let go of the gas, and allowed Cloud to take the lead... A victory from behind would be a glorious victory indeed.. X-)

And the first few corners came, a mild left turn, and a sudden sharp right followed immediately by a tight left hairpin... and the hairpins continue on for several more corners... That's when I realized "SH****T!!!!! I'M GOING TO LOSE THIS ROUND!!!!" X-O Cloud was going that bit faster than I am in the corners, and though my acceleration is a bit better, his exit speed was able to counter that and made me looked like a noobish sissy.. X-p

Half way through, Cloud is still ahead of me and enlarging his lead.. Slowly the white rear end of his FC slips away from my view... With every corner, he took another few tenth of a second away... ANd with every corner, he dissapears from my view... X-( That's when Ryo came and slowly whispered to me "Cloud will probably going to win this.." and I had to grudgingly accept that fact.. X-( Realities are always hard to swallow.. :-p

The further Cloud gets away from me, the more mistakes I did, and with every mistake, the more the gap widens... It was a vicious cycle... X-( with me being the loser!!! X-O

The battle ended, and Cloud was so full of himself... I can't blame him, he had beaten me and Ryo consecutively, hands down and in a straight fight (I was even worse.. I had the better car.. X-( just shows how much more a sucker driver I am.. X-p) I felt like how Keisuke felt when he couldn't shake off Takumi.. X-p

"NANI??!!! The gap has decreased??!!! Is my second Turbine working??!!! Why is my FD slower tonight??!!!"

"He has caught up!!! X-O This is a racer's nightmare!!! Being caught up by a much more underpowered car!!!"

"DId I just met a ghost... The spirits of the racers that had died on this touge..." X-p

So the truth was... I SUCK!!!! X-O but so was Ryo.. X-p but to make matters worst, Ryo then beat me!!! X-( Therefore the conclusion is=

-Cloud: ultimate undeafeted undisputed champion

-Ryo: finally got his act together and thrashed me...

-Jr: Can't blame him for sucking so bad.. X-p it's his first time.. But he's really good in that he finally got used to it and almost beat Ryo :-O Ryo almost had a nightmare.. X-p

-ME: ULTIMATE SO BADLY DEFEATED UNDISPUTED SUCKER!!! X-p I lost all my battles consecutively after beating Ryo and Jr to a pulp in the first few rounds.. Everyone got better, I just went that more stupid.. X-p

It is thus proven, that a human brain can de-evolve... X-p I almost turn into a monkey that night!! X-p luckily just my brain.. X-p

MAN!!! WHEN CAN WE GET THE REAL STUFF??!!! X-D COME ON FC!!!! WHEN ARE YOU COMING HOME??!!! X'-D

Scouting Expedition

Bloody hell...

That was the only word I can say about yesterday... It all began when Ryousuke finally got back from France, and whenever he's back, all our touge activities usually get fired up. So this time is no different than any other time, the only thing is that this time, we were eager to expand our horizon to other famous touges in Malaysia.

Nevertheless, yesterday began like any other sleepy Sunday mornings. And Ryousuke finds it really hard to kick off the jet-lag effects (etiher that, or he really actually sleeps like a cow... either one is a great possibility... :-p) Yet the day really started to kick off at around 2 p.m when Turbo Junior came down to our humble dwellings with a PORSCHE CARRERA S!!! X-D

Of course it's not the top-of-the-line, but still, it's a PORSCHE for GOd's sake!! X-D the luxury sensation in it makes the mind go numb and heads spinning (and a lot of heads turning too.. X-p) the posh leather just continuously pampers the buttocks X-p and... well, that's about it.. :-p

We didn't really try to push the car hard (just up to 160KMH :-p yeah.. it's slow i know, and we're wimps... X-p) as it's neither the car of any of us X-p Turbo junior borrowed it from one of his father's friend, and to go smash up that Porsche would mean a whole lot of debt to pay.. X-p it'll even probably take us 7 generations to pay the debt off... so we were rather gentle on the lady.. :-p as she's someone else's trophy wife anyway.. :-p

I must say I was a bit disappointed on its performance.. Sure it got a lot of traction and torque, but the traction control kept on kicking in before anything exciting could happen :-p (we were trying to burnout the 295/35 rear wheels.. X-p failed miserably though..) and the suspension was a bit on the soft side (and a real scare when you're driving on Malaysia's ever bumpy highways.. X-p) considering the cost it'll involve if anything were to ever go wrong.. :-p

But of course, I'd attribute such disappointment to our sheer ignorance of the car.. :-p apparently, i guess you can set the settings for the suspension (comfort, sport etc..) which we didn't knew how, and we could also switch off the traction control if we knew which button to press.. X-p I guess if we knew any of these, the car would make a great ride for some spirited driving.. :-p

But still, the luxury atmosphere it creates is hands down top notch!!! X-D it makes you drunk with power!!! X-p and for once I felt the gnawing corrupting force of extravagance on my fleeting soul... X-p I guess that's why I'm poor.. :-p GOd knows I can't handle such overwhelming evil.. X-p

Anyway, that was the highlight of the day :-D and the night was going to get better... Ryousuke called Cloud, and with us three and a trusty old red iswara dubbed Meteorrain (check out Cloud's blog... >.>) we headed out for Fraser Hill touge... >:-)

Neither of us knew the way; Ryousuke got only RM5 and a credit card X-p Cloud is dead broke (yes.. the sad pathetic life of a student.. X-p) and suprisingly i was the richest with only RM70 in my pocket (and my only pocket money for the remaining days of this week X-p); and so at 8.30p.m we set off into the unknown armed with only an old car that's overdue on its service.. >.> (around 6k overdue... X-p)

Naturally we got lost and instead found ourselves on our way up Genting Highlands.. X-p don't ask us how, we just followed our nose and apparently the rich scent of the Porsche haven't really left our senses X-p and the money-filled gambling resort lured us in.. X-p it was a rather terrifying climb (as we weren't sure old trusty meteorrain could make it.. X-p) as the roads were so steep and twisty O.o (it'll make a good course for an uphill battle though.. X-) but you'll really need a powerful car to make it exciting.. :-p meteorrain was crunching through it at 40-60 KMH X-p) when we finally got up, the brakes were a bit overcooked and the radiator was running a bit low on water >.> we spent some time up there, waiting for the engine to cool down while enjoying the view :-p

When we finally started going down, the roads were even more twistier O.o with hairpins in rapid successions X-D not to mention the steepness of the road, it makes downhill attack that more dangerous X-p sadly though, speedbumps were strewn all over the place >.> speedbumps high enough to scratch our RX-7 FC's underbelly if we were to take it there.. X-( so it'll make a terrible nightmare to go there with a lowered car :-p

The ride down was even more scarrier.. X-p (though as the name suggest, we were only scouting the roads.. :-p so we drove rather slow and gently.. Not to traumatise meteorrain so much X-P) we had our windows winded down (as meteorrain's windscreen kept on fogging up, we needed to balance the temperature :-p as the wiper is also overdue and couldn't wipe anything.. X-p) and the smell of burnt out brake pads were thick in the midnight air... X-p we thought the brakes were overheating again, but apparently it was the brakes of all the other rich gamblers' cars around us.. X-p

Still, the brakes did overcooked halfway down.. :-p and Cloud started to have to resort to pumping the brakes to get enough braking force on the tires... and the familiar smell of burnt brakes *sniff* smells like burning brimstones.. X-p I think..

We finally got down and the clock ticked 12... I have work tomorrow, Ryousuke was sprawling dead at the back seat, we have yet to have our dinner and I was getting really sleepy (save for Cloud who always was and is the midnight owl X-p) yet, with all these obstacles stacked in our way, we still let irrationality rule and headed out to the purported Fraser Hill route (yes, we still didn't have any idea where Fraser Hill was.. :-p)

Dum da da dum, we finally found our way X-D (and Ryousuke finally woke up :-p) and started making our way up the narrow twisty road of old Kuala Lipis road... There were a number of construction works (to reinforce the banks I suppose..) and a number of landslides as well X-p and a couple of fallen trees on the road.. There were no lights, and the road was rather steep as well (though not as steep as that of Genting's). The final 20 minutes strecth was a single lane narrow steep road with hairpins after almost every turn... X-p It's one hell of a touge!!! The mere thought of taking the FC here for a spin just send chills down my spin.. X-p the road was SO narrow, that there was no room for error... On one side is the solid jagged limestones, on the other side is the sheer cliff drop of God-knows-till-where, and in between a narrow strip of tarmac just enough for a single car... and more suprisingly, that's THE ONLY WAY UP AND DOWN!!! O.o

At daytime, they have traffic control, so there are times when traffic was allowed up, and times when traffic was allowed down, but from 8p.m till 6a.m, it's free flowing.. X-p And to blaze through there with the thought of any possible traffic coming from the other direction is just petrifying... X-(

But still, the Touges we went scouting yesterday was TRULY WICKED!!! Genting may has lost its downhill flair, but the uphill climb is still very much exciting X-) (though you can't get the FC down without rubbing its underbelly with the speedbumps.. >.<) but there is still the 26 KM strecth up and down from the foot of the hill till the Genting Touge... (Which ends with a police outpost :-O) there's not much exciting hair-raising hairpins, but the road is still twisty and exciting with quite a number of tight corners >:-)

And Fraser Hill Touge must be the mother-of-all-touges!!! To make a run through there is like courting with death itself (though all touge runs are always a death-flirting affair :-p but Fraser Hill amplifies this notion to a vein-bursting heart-thumping limit.. X-p) as there is virtually no room for error, and the roads are so narrow and twisty, it'll put any other touges to shame... I'm not sure if my heart can take such punishments.. X-p

We finally reached home at 3.30am X-p Ryousuke and Cloud went raiding through the kitchen looking for food, and I made my way to the bedroom.. I was a walking corpse.. X-p and I woke up this morning late for work, and to make matters worse, had a flat tire at my bike.. X-p What a way to start a day... Still, yesterday makes it all worth it.. :-) but poor old meteorrain... :-p I guess she's the only one who didn't enjoy the trip yesterday.. X-p poor beast of burden.. Send the car for service la Cloud!!! X-O

Anyway, I can't wait when we can make some serious expeditions there X-) hohoho...

Continue with the introduction

Hohoho... since we don't have any activity yet, and I'm getting bored so here's another post about our introduction!!!! xD

Since our main Touge machine is just my FC3S, so we'll start from there...
My FC3S is a 1989 machine... equipped with mark V equipments, 13B single turbo, very lightly tune but handles like hell^^

Here's some pic of our Machine:


The RedSuns:


One of our retarded moment.... OMG its a road kill O.O


The White Knight and the Red Squire:
The FC and Junior Turbo Kancil Turbo xD

TOUGE!!!! TOUGE!!!!

Right now we're going to my favourite subject...

As mentioned in my previous post, we use to make our run at the Bangi Touge and it is considered as our home course, yeah its a beginners course that runs 4.45km... beginners course suitable for us beginners^^
Here is a google earth picture of the Bangi Touge...


We occasionally went to Mantin Touge as well, somehow I can't find it in Google Earth because I don't remember the way there xD

And just for fun, here are Google Earth picture of the Initial D Touge.... have fun!!! ^^


Akagi Touge


Haruna (Akina) Touge


Myogi Touge


Usui Touge


Irohazaka Touge

First contact....

Just as my first post in this blog, I'll just start by introducing myself and some of my Touge colleagues...

I started out having an addiction for racing way back during my student years, the movie that got me hook was Shuto Kousuke Trial Max... until now the R33 GTR remains one of my favourite car^^

Anyway, I started out racing the highways with my younger twin brother who shares the same interest, using our dad's secretly souped up Proton Iswara xD (we secretly install a suction turbo in the engine without his knowledge xD)

Back then we used to use only RM10 of Shell V-Power and race up and down the PutraJaya Highway.... now with the hike in oil price, RM10 wouldn't probably even make it half way through T.T

A lot of things happen back then, lots of ignorant highway racing and some occasional Touge runs and finally I crashed the Iswara to kingdom come.... and almost took my brothers and friends with it O.o that was my first and hopefully last shock!!!
I vowed with my brother that we would train our skills up to the necessary par to ensure that our future racing endeavour will not end in tears....


It took us a couple of months to recuperate from our traumatic crash, and our dad bought us a Stock 660 Kancil!!! xD

Since then we train with the Kancil and it took us a few years before we start hitting the Touge... by then we were going heads over heel about Initial D ^^

Then I bought the FC from Kazuto at Klang and it has become our main Touge machine until now....

One of my Touge friend Cloud a.k.a KeKe have set up his blog here

Since this is my first post... I'll just post up a video of our Bangi Touge with KeKe as the noisy camera man^^
lalalalla~~~~

And here is an old vid with our stock 660 Kancil at the Touge using a Phone camera with Zid as the camera man...
sorry for the low quality :-( and I have to admit in my driving of the FC and Kancil.... my skill is still not enough to drive the FC anywhere near its limit at the Touge... sadly T.T

Testing testing.....

First try... ummm testing testing 1,2,3 :-p