Thursday, November 27, 2008

Pics Disclaimer

Hi guys, due to the multitude of photographic contributors available that day, I may not have featured everyone's rides in my previous posts.

Do drop me a comment or contact me if you'd like your photos featured on Snappy Scav or sent to you.

Cheers and enjoy the pics.

See you fellas soon!

Northern Touge Race Day - Sanjev's cam

Another contributor and VERY dedicated photographer (he was out in the glaring sun the entire day) Sanjev had just passed me his beautifully taken pictures for Northern Touge. Enjoy!

The morning meet at Bkt. Merah R&R.
Our massive convoy passing through the Cangkat Jering toll.
Arrival at the track with a kiss of the beautiful morning sun.


Our sole auto K-car racing under the 1.6 category, Bom (Jason). He made it into the finals. Respect!
The gruelling fight in the 1.6 category which ended with the two Vios' taking a 1-2 finish followed by the Kelisa! Kudos to the sole K-car podium finisher.
The open class being led, by far, by the number 13 EK track car driven by Patrick Tam, which took pole all the way to the finish.
The top dogs in the 1.8 category battling it out to see Chin Hooi (red EF) take top podium, followed by Suhaimi (black Wira) in a close second and Patrick's (red/white EK) take home a cool third.
Participation was beyond our estimation with a massive turnout of spectators. Crowd was allowed on track upon ending the 1.8 category finals with the champ cars basking in the glory.
The champ cars - Red EF from Hup Yew Tires & Batteries and the Black Wira from Kiong Lee exhaust taking home top spots.
Daniel was having a grand time as a parking attendant.
Mark striking a sexy pose just before dinner... I've no idea why! Those interested, his cell number is 012-4212 XXX. (At least I gave you the first four right? :P)
The Penang-kias dinner party!
The entire crew was having a great ball with the race events still buzzing their thoughts.
Some extra shirts were given out to buddies in need of a clothe change. Much thanks to Tommax, Northern Garage and Kiong Lee for the shirts.
Believe me, these fellas were HUGE!

In conclusion, I'd like to thank all our sponsors: Northern Garage, Kiong Lee Exhaust, Tommax Stickers & No. Plate, and Chean Exhaust for all their support and encouragement.

It was a fantastic event held with much drama, sweat and tears, fellowship amongst enthusiasts and lastly, everyone left with a smile to their weary faces.

See you guys next round!

Northern Touge Race Day - Ray's cam pt.II

Continuation due to some conflict with blogger's server yesterday, I couldn't upload any more pics... So here goes.

The early morning pics... The Silver Banana parked next to my sponsor Kiong's car.
A small part of the convoy heading towards Kg. Gajah. There was such a large group, we had to split into many smaller convoy just to accomodate the driving speeds. Yes! It was that huge!
The Penang convoy has arrived and queueing up for registration to get into the track.
The main event banner, much thanks to Camo3.
The Silver Banana parked next to Touge Monk's (Daniel's) Civic.
All the drivers were listening intently to my short safety briefing before going on track. (save for the yawning Hwa).
Initiation to the track was lead by Tommax's Wira SE as safety car for the first couple of laps.
Upon letting them loose... Rampage!
Super fast street legal White EK battling it out for a few laps with the Red/White track racer whilst VictorGR's FC follows suit.
Robert (Yellow "Terminatrix" Satria) was a fierce competitor. He shocked everyone with his lap time of 1min 08secs whilst only armed with a 1.3 carby Satria. Robert's shown here hunting down Loy's (of Norther Garage) Wira 1.8.
1.6 class 1st heat - Watch how the leading Kelisa's passenger side front tire is lifted, Tripod Mode! Excellent work dude. You lead them all the way!
1.6 class 2nd heat - All the cars gave it all they had. Most friends were surprised with Mark's (Green Satria) driving and ability to keep up with more veteran drivers. Reason was that he's never had track experience, never drove "enthusiastically" on the road, and only driven up the touge about twice in his life! Great job buddy :)

1.6 class finals - Daniel (Civic) was giving Lao San (white Vios) a lot of pressure but Lao San did not wane one bit. In eventuality, Daniel's over-enthused driving steered him into a collision course with Sunny's Kelisa whom pursued and finished a commendable third placing. Kudos bro Sunny!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Northern Touge Race Day - Ray's cam

Heated battle amongst Suhaimi (black Wira) vs Malat (GTi).
1.8 litre class cars on track was just as entertaining to watch as the actual race.
The front runners of the Open class whacking it out for top podium placing!
With Ketit's pristing Silvia S15 trailing slightly behind.
And VictorGR was just plain having fun on track in his beautifully made up FC :)

Northern Touge Race Day - Mark's cam

All participants, friends, and family (believe me, there were even grandpas there!) met up bright and early at Fantasi Nasi Kandar and left for the Bukit Merah R&R where we would meet up with Dennis of TKA absorbers and some breakfast. There was a massive turn out this round, the entire R&R parking lot including the adjoining Petronas was full of our participants and spectators.
After a most interesting drive through the trunk roads leading to Kg. Gajah, we were finally there at the Northern Touge Race Day.
We arrived at a beautifully sunny and dry track with hot tarmac ready to get a rippin'!The turnout was surprisingly massive as you could see from the pic below.
Spectator turnout was approximately 200 persons! This is the first time I'd seen the grandstand overflowing at the Dato' Sagor Track!

After a heated battle between Lao San (white Vios) and Daniel (Civic) vying for pole position, Daniel's Civic had a mishap and lost foothold providing a window of opportunity for TK (silver Vios) and the green Kelisa (sorry I didn't get your name bro) to gain ground. After that, it was just between the two manual Vios' (yup, you heard right... Both are manuals) to battle it out for a 1-2 finish.

The 1.8 class was the event of the day with impressive driving that wowed the crowd whilst being eventful enough to leave jaws hanging! The crowd went wild whilst this category ran its race. Eventually, only the toughest of the tough remained and these two are made of the toughest stuff!
The open class saw a 1-2 finish from 0-4 Workshop with both their Civic track cars with Boy's Agip sponsored EG on their heels. Ketit's NA powered S15 was giving commendable chase whilst VictorGR was just having plain fun, laid back, drifting and wowing the crowd from behind.

The trophies, engine oil, cash prize and T-shirts to be given away in an awards presentation by our sponsors - Kiong of Kiong Lee Ent., Eric from Northern Garage, Chean from Chean Exhaust, and Tommy of Tommax Stickers and No. Plates.
The cups were a beaut! Much thanks to Emico for the fantastic work.
The day of course ended with a fantastic dinner at Tanjung Tualang - for the super big prawns. Everyone was starving, so food tasted as if heaven sent!
p.s. I've no idea what the fingers mean...
After heated battles and gruelling dogfights, every driver left, better bonded friends, with new experiences in their pocket and most importantly, with a wide smile to their weary faces.This was definitely an event not to be missed.
See you fellas next round! (Oh yeah! Believe you me!)

Monday, November 24, 2008

Northern Touge Race Day - Teaser

I'm still recuperating from the buzz of the Northern Touge Race Day held at the Dato' Sagor Track in Kg. Gajah yesterday. It was da bomb, the bull's bollocks, whatever you call it in every language... It was a blast!

Here's a teaser pic of the turnout yesterday...
The entire mamak was full of Penang participants, and spectators alike, having their breakfast and preparing for the track excursion.Check back in a bit for further updates as our media crew uploads the track day photos.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Green Monster gets Slammed!

I've been testing Mark's green monster (ori Satria 1.6) recently and sadly, it's always been in the rain or in the wet. Luck was on our side this Sunday evening and I finally had a dry run in the Green Monster.

She's a zippy little bugger around the Batu Feringghi and Vale of Tempe route, nippy handling and very obedient to fast direction changes even though running on 14" Miche-licins :P I loved the mid turn adjustability and it's ability to really tuck into the corner while portraying a slight hint of oversteer!
However Mark, being the greedy little bugger that he is, took upon himself to change to a new set of wheels by Monday afternoon. The Green Monster is now slammed on 17"s and well shod with Nankang's NSII performer all round, he's almost ready for this Sunday's track excursion.
Check back for brakes and suspension tuning.

The Hairy One - Rebuilt

After The Hairy One (Ah Soon) was refurbished (read here for more), he decided it was time to fully do up the GSR-vo III in preparations for track day and hardcore touge action. One of the pending issues he was facing was a slightly warped engine head... Which he had our resident NT (Northern Touge) main mech to take a look at.

We took it off, skimmed it and bolted it right up. As Soon was going out of state for the weekend, and The Hairy One was left with me along with ONE instruction only, "drive it hard, let me know how she goes!". Handling tests are always my favourite! And so I did.. After a speedy sprint stint up the touge on Friday night with Daniel (Civic) following suit, I was blasting to the sound of blow-offs all the way.

The GSR is beautifully setup to oversteer on command and the 280Nm (approx.) of torque made sure you caught the tail every time! It was a very fun machine to handle on the tight twisties of the Penang touge. Water temp remained stable throughout and with the slightly increased compression (from the skimming), The Hairy One was one fast fucher! Brakes need uprating though.

I couldn't get enough of The Hairy One and woke up to a sprightful morning, although only getting a couple of hours' shut-eye, and in one deep breath, the essence of touge filled my lungs... Coarsed through my veins... And in no time, I was in The Hairy One and blasting up my fav stretch of high speed touge!

I met our returning champ along the way and we both went at it like rabbits on Red Bull!
We had a pit stop for the refreshingly crispy cool morning air... Champ was commenting how the FI (forced induction) engines had advantage on the uphill.
We camwhored both black bitches present and bade each other adieu, he had to go home to sleep, and I was going to "ronda" (run around) in The Hairy One. I just can't get enough of the turbocharged grunt.
*lookit them beaut 17" rims on The Hairy One*
It then dawned on me, after frequently driving around in The Hairy One, that all the myths I heard in my youth of FI FWD (forced induction front wheel drive) vehicles not being able to handle properly/touge was pure BULLSHIT! Even with comparatively (to today's standards) low tech engine and chassis design, combinations of proper setup and boost threshold, these old ladies still handled beautifully!
As previously mentioned (click here to read), an addition will be made to fill the gap at my grille. Whilst we had installed the new grille fixture, it was raining out and the Silver Banana was already in the shop for ammendments to be made. I thought, "why not spray paint it ourselves?". And so we did.

The materials used were essentially masking tape (duh!), a can of RM5 Anchor spray paint, lots of newspaper and a couple of drinks.
Masking was the first to be done up and it was real nice and proper. EVERYTHING has to be covered unless you wanna spend the next few hours detailing painting flash with a small brush and paint thinner.
I'd roughed up and sanded down the lower lip and proceeded to paint. *shiny*
A friend, Kumar (no Harold around though), from the neighbouring factory where I worked, dropped by and aided to touch up the grille coz my painting sucked and he does paint touch ups for a living :P Free drinks and ciggies were warranted...
We eventually pulled the masking off along with some paint and lacquer (dang old paint needs refreshing) so I got Tommy of Tommax Stickers to cut me up a piece of "plaster" to cover it up from further peeling.
Kumar's touch up did wonders in matching the tone to my ori (albeit faded and chipped) paint.
A very decent job done if I do say so myself... With the help of Kumar of course. Thanks for the fantastic touch up job.

Who was to drop by later that evening but Philip with his immaculately kept Toyota Corolla LE. It's so well kept that the wiring labels can still be read and in their original plastic cradles!
He had gotten a bit bored of the outlook and started to revamp his ride almost a year ago, collecting bits and pieces and he now has electric folding side mirrors, Corolla SE bumpers, JDM grille and bonnet, and a wonderful engine.
Finally dropping by Mansion II for some "bodybuilding" before proceeding to paint.
JDM styled skirting all round to complete work on the old girl.
I did say it had a sweet engine right? A symphony orchestrated by Yamaha and Toyota! Simply be-au-ti-fulll......

Kudos to a well kept car, and majorly successful revamp! Can't wait to see the painted beaut...