Thursday, December 20, 2012

Sepang Time To Attack

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 :

Monday, December 17, 2012

Zero To Hundred Time To Attack

 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


Thursday, May 31, 2012

The road to perdition...

Even though our progress has been very slow at best, but it seems our "Mech" Hau wants nothing short of perfect...
He has impeccably re-treaded all the screw holes in the chassis and will be replacing them with new screws, he has cleaned and re-sprayed the entire front axle that you can see from the pic above makes it look like brand spanking new o.O
All the main bushings has been changed to new Super Pro Racing Bushings as well :P

The rear axle will also receive the same treatment as the front, except that we're waiting for the arrival of a new 2 way Cusco LSD to make the rear end complete^^

But the main goliath of our journey back to the lion's den is the completion of Kate's engine^^
This heart of the beast has new anodized pulleys and belts as well as....
Our new Techtronic Turbo.... all that we need for her new heart now is the missing intercooler and oil cooler that we left back at Tekali a few months back :P

She's also lacking the anti-roll bars... the stock anti-roll bars are just too thin and unfortunately Kate's previous anti-roll bar has been damaged and bent from our last adventure :(
Buying new sets cost a whopper so we're still on a look out for some bargained price item :P

It seems Trouble may not be complete by the time my days off is up, but we're just making sure that everything is done right the first time around... although we had all kind of planned event participation with her it seems we won't be meeting the deadline after all :P

Anyhow, these are just small updates of our small progress on getting back to the touge trail with some sideshow in our life ;)
Keisuke has become the icon of Sasuke Malaysia with his return of Ultraman bin Seven parody :P

Friday, May 18, 2012

Countdown to infinity....

It seems the preparation for Trouble is moving slower than expected...

While we were hoping to prep her for the coming Time Attack event this coming weekend, it seems with her current schedule that seems to be an impossibility now...

She has just gone through one of the most extreme chassis treatment we've done so far... even far more extreme with what Kate had in the past...

We sent her to where they make Formula D chassis... with competition grade stitch welding...

With her chassis finally done, we will be putting her through an extreme make over that would make even Kate seem like mild.... but Kate is leaving her legacy with Trouble... her 300hp heart will make through the surgery table with a few change in configuration... mainly the turbo....

We're changing her turbo to a smaller Turbonetic turbo... hopefully with the smaller turbine we can eliminate that slight turbo lag in those tight twisty section where Kate had in the past.... with our power cap at 300hp we hope this turbo won't have any issue in power delivery ^^

Suspension is still the original HKS adjustable and the brakes are also stock issue... the previous brake set from Kate seems too extreme for street use... we would need extremely grippy tires to cope with her excessive stopping power and since there is no brake electronic aids with these babies makes them kinda tricky to handle under braking >.<

So hopefully with the stock rotors we can make some slight changes in the braking department... mainly just to improve the braking feel... since the stopping power proves to be too much for street use, we'll just leave Kate with her brake shoes :P

 Kate is still under the wood work...

Hopefully we can finish with Trouble in the coming week or so and start working on Kate, we're planning of putting Kate through the same chassis treatment Trouble gone through... but our wallet will decide on that :P

Trouble's future driver ^^

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Trouble first shake down...

I finally got around to finish up the vid of our first shake down the other night...


Since I'll be heading back to where I belong, we'll be sending her to have some further upgrade... hopefully in another 6-9 weeks I'll be back and she'll be ready for more action :D

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Trouble is a friend :)


Well finally the long wait is almost over \(^o^)/
Yesterday I've received a new present.... a matter of fact, a new Battle Gear :D

Since fixing Kate seems to be a very long and slow process, while in search of parts we stumble upon a deal that we cannot resist :P

But before going into further detail of what we've stumble upon, I'll try to summarize what has been happening in our lives for these past months^^

We tried our hands on virtual pawning :P
As well as real ones :P Unfortunately I was at the other end of the pawning spectrum =.= Keisuke maybe fat but he sure can shoot better than me >(
Took some inspiration from a new customer car our Mech was working on... a 500+ hp 13B monster with full RE-Amemiya bodykit with lots of carbon fiber o.O

Obviously with such a long hiatus we did alot of other things as well :P


We made some new friends :P
Keisuke tried to feed his son to a T.Rex xD
Took some more inspiration from another customer car with full RE-Amemiya bodykit :D
Got lost at Pullman Putrajaya Hotel & Resorts :P
Got lost at Singapore and stumble upon an Amuse kitted R35 GTR at the HKS Garage R \(^0^)/
Which we happen to stumble upon their demo car as well... R35 with HKS GT800 kit good for 800 hp O.o

But after all those we've acquired a gem of our own^^

A new machine to attack those twisting winding roads :D

Her name for now is Trouble... since I got into a lot of trouble with my parents in acquiring her :P
and also for us.... Trouble is a friend \(^o^)/

We've just made her first shakedown at our home course... and from what we can conclude is that she has a chassis that is still uncorrupt.... her handling is more crispier and less twitchy compared to Kate, but most importantly her handling characteristic is symmetrical for both left and right hand corners :D

Although her current heart is slightly lacking in the power department... we're guessing she's only pumping around 200 - 220 hp... with a stock motor and some slight over boost turbo she's still lagging behind on the uphill section...
Her brakes are no where near Kate's stopping power and her steering lacks life... so we still have a lot to do with her before she is fully ready to go full on attack at the touge... our first step will be to transfer all Kate's good points to her... and from there will start to properly building her into our version of an Ultimate Touge Monster :D

I'll upload our vids of her test and shakedown after I've edited the vids, what ever it is I'm getting dead tired now since it's almost 5 in the morning and I still havent slept o.O

So until next time, this blog will probably start coming to life again since our Touge life is sparking again ^^