Thursday, January 31, 2008

Off to Sepang!

This past Sunday was a truly exciting and memorable experience for me as it was my first time driving down to KL and my virgin run on a sanctioned circuit, which other than our very own Sepang F1 Circuit~!!!

Initially, some friends invited me down for a pit-walk, photo session and some taxi rides, which I agreed to. But I really wanted to bring my trusty Perdana down to truly stretch its legs and to test my skills on track despite the budget. When I was informed that Sepang was going to open up the full track for the 27-Jan Track Day!!! I immediately jumped on the offer, prepped the cash for registration, and off we went!

It was 3.45a.m. on the 27th of Jan when I was rudely woken by a loud Russian song... Darn my alarm! Woke up and called up Tommy and Jay (we were carpool-ing) and had a very slow move through my morning routine then left to pick up Tommy and fill up my Silver Banana (Perdana). We then left Penang Island to meet Jay at the Juru McDonald's for breakfast (or supper). After we've had our fill and done our preparations, we left Juru for Puchong,KL at 5.30a.m. We were slightly off schedule as I was supposed to meet with Tan and Zoggee at 8.00a.m. as promised. As I sat comfortably at the helm of my steed as we sped past 180km/h outta Penang and onwards.

It was super dark through the course of the highway, luckily I had installed a new set of HIDs and adjusted them for highway travel which helped a lot on visibility thanks to its light intensity. We were at Tapah "Garpu Camca"(Garpu Camca - Fork and Spoon in Malay) (I call it so because there's a fork and spoon on signboards to R&R's with food stalls) by 6.45a.m. We had a short stop just to empty our bladders and stretch our limbs then onwards to Puchong, KL. As my eyes were watery from all the strain of driving at high speeds through the super dark highway, Tommy took over to drive as dawn was breaking and light was slowly pouring onto the roads ahead.




We reached Zoggee's place at 8.00a.m. with minutes to spare even with a few detours on account of us getting lost :P The entire team was still sleeping to my dismay, so I went on in and had them all go through a rude awakening :) Zoggee and I had to rub Hush Puppies' "mammary glands" to get him aroused enough to wake up as he had gone through a terrible night with diarrhoea. Kesian the dude.

After everyone took their showers, tok kok (chit-chat) and watched Rides on DRT, it was already 10.30a.m. We went for brunch and preparations then took a drive down to the Dengkil R&R to meet up with Zoggee's friends and off we went to Sepang F1 Circuit. As we were merrily driving on our way there, a bright red TE72 came loudly from behind and revved us. It was Tougeking!!! He had come from Ipoh to join our fun filled day at the track.

Upon reaching Sepang, all the drivers for the day paid in full and signed an indemnity form (darn). We got a paper wrist tag in exchange for RM200 :(


We went in early and waited just outside the empty paddocks in anticipation for the officials to roll up the shutters. Once they (the officials) did so, we rushed in and took front spots and got ready for the fun to begin!




I took some laps on the track and found that the car was really fun to drive, just lacking a little power and some good tires. My brakes were cooked by the end of the day and I drive back on spongy brakes all the way to Penang.


My Silver Banana is now squeaking everywhere and pending a check up but it's all worth the experience of driving on Sepang. Do try it if ever the chance arises. I assure you will not be dissapointed.

Cheers!
*much thanks to Terato.com for the beaut pic*

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

History of cars owned.

Hi readers,
This blog is a simple introduction to what I've driven before and a little oversight of the experience driving them.

My 1st ride is the B14 series of Nissan's Sentra (Sunny to the rest of the world) 1.6 (A). This car was a family saloon and was an auto. I went through 2 auto boxes in its lifespan of only a year in my possession performing stupid acts of bravado in my younger days.

*There are no pics of this car, much to my regret*

My 2nd and most memorable ride is the Toyota Corolla EE90 1.3 (M). This car was a beauty and it seemed to me that its handling was great during my transition from the previous Sentra to this SE. The little 1.3 went through a lot of hardships until it finally gave way when the main crank bearings cracked up. So in went a replacement 1.5 engine soon after which I installed a Weber DCNF for better breathing.

The Corolla SE is a little oversteery at stock due to differently offset wheels. This charachter and multiple misjudgements on my side ended up with me sending this car off to greener pastures.


My third and current ride is a Proton Perdana SEi (M) which I bought for a low budget. This car is my daily drive to work and fuel consumption is more or less the consumption of my previous car albeit the 500cc difference in capacity. It was an immensely confortable car save for the few squeaks and scratches which I'd done ala DIY to resolve (some are still in process).

I'd gone and spoil everything by changine to a set of Apex springs, or so I thought, but soon changed after my first trip to Ipoh and it was extremely comfortable at highway speeds. So I stuck with it but everything else is left stock.

The most amazing activity is me taking this Perdana and went swooping around the Sepang F1 circuit this past weekend. I have to say I'm quite amazed that it handles quite well if only I'd bothered to uprate the dampers and put in better tires.


At the transition from the Corolla EE90 to when I bought the Perdana, the touge monsters in me were just dying to get out so I went out to get a little toy to play around first whilst waiting. This came in the form of a Toyota Corolla TE72. This little bugger came with a fire-breather of an engine.. The 20Valve 4A-GE silvertop. Dubbed, "Project Pooh" due to its color.

I had loads of fun going for touge and bullying some larger cars on the street :P

This is Pooh when I bought it initially.

Pooh after a few touch ups by sponsors and a little DIY by myself

Whilst the TE was all fun, I had a slight mishap at a foreign touge route and due to its chassis condition, it was no longer feasible to repair. Thus it's body was scrapped and sold off, whilst the internals and all running gear was salvaged in preparation for the rise of project "Snappy 'lil KP"!!!

As mentioned, a new chassis was sourced and for the budget at hand, the best conditioned chassis I could find was a KP60 1.0(M) Toyota Starlet. This shall be the new body to facilitate all of Pooh's "heirlooms" to make for one damned SNAPPY 'lil KP~!!!


Project Snappy 'lil KP is still waiting for its heart as the old one was fried within 2 days of me gettin' the car. I was too excited and went for spirited drives which ended with my blowin' the engine.

Keep checkin' in for the updates to Project Snappy!!!

Initial post

Hi readers,
I'd just like to say "hi" to all the readers out there on the world wide web of mis-information that have landed here either by mistake or on purpose. Thanks so much for checking out my blog. This blog, as you see, is in its initial stages and it's platform for me to post up whatever rantings or perversions that I may be thinking of, my automotive endeavours and some parts of my life which I care to share.

Stay tuned, I'll be updating a few posts looking into my past cars and activities that I've went to as a starter.

Cheers all and keep readin' ;)