As good as it gets Friday!

Yesterday, big boss called an urgent meeting at 6p.m., being Friday and 6 being our time to get off work, we were properly pissed! Reluctantly, everyone gathered at the lobby only to be greeted by big boss wielding a cleaver and opening up durians (he'd brought from his orchard) for all to eat.

Everone were enjoying the durians off the back of boss' truck.

Big boss is in the long sleeved shirt and thick gloves opening durians for us.

Production's main man was awarded with the prized durian of the day.

There's only one 'biji' in there and the entire fruit is smaller than a rambutan.

After everyone's had their fill, everyone had a little extra to bring home. TQ Boss! I went to visit Silver, he's fitted with a new bumper, grinded down and plastered up. Now only waiting to be buffed then into the oven for paint.
Everything's going smoothly, Soon's car is also almost complete (Scooby conversion), and so is Daniel's. I couldn't imagine a finer ending to a hard week's work than this!

MJ Puns

I received lots of SMS yesterday on MJ jokes and heck, I'd like to share with you, my dear readers, a couple of the best I've read.

What did God say to Michael Jackson when he got to heaven?
BEAT IT!

Farrah Fawcett died and went to heaven. God gave her a wish, and she wished for all the children of the world to be safe.
So God killed Michael Jackson!

Cheers all!

The passing of a Pop Legend

I woke up this morning to morbid news on my clock radio, "Michael Jackson has passed on". It was the worst news I'd heard in ages, and it seems that to many, the King of Pop has influenced us in ways more than one. His songs are always charachterful, full of emotion and lively at the least. I always had his accompaniment when I'm sad with "You are not alone", "Ben" when reminiscing of pals of old, and "The earth song" for those holistic moments.

Transformation..

Critics may say he's a freak, his nose for one will be the point of jokes for generations to come, but I say damn you all. This dude is just awesome. Don't remember him for what he's done wrong, but reminisce of all that he's done right and what he has done for the world. A poor kid from Harlem that grew up to charity and worldwide recognition ain't all that bad!

On May 14, 1984, Jackson was invited to the White House to receive an award presented by American President Ronald Reagan. The award was given for Jackson's support of charities that helped people overcome alcohol and drug abuse. Jackson won eight awards during the 1984 Grammy Awards. Unlike later albums, Thriller did not have an official tour to promote it, but the 1984 Victory Tour, headlined by The Jacksons, showcased much of Jackson's new solo material to more than two million Americans. He donated his $5 million share from the Victory Tour to charity

A young Michael with one of his famed flashy costumes. He was the originator of bling yo!

One of his pimped out military styled jackets which he publicly wore multiple times.

His album "Thriller" is still the world's biggest selling album of all time. This album remained in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 for 80 consecutive weeks and 37 of those weeks at the peak position, won 8 Grammy Awards and sold up to 109 million copies worldwide!

Jackson's star on the Hollywood walk of fame, set in 1984.

He was characterized as "an unstoppable juggernaut, possessed of all the tools to dominate the charts seemingly at will: an instantly identifiable voice, eye-popping dance moves, stunning musical versatility and loads of sheer star power". In the mid-1980s, Time described Jackson as "the hottest single phenomenon since Elvis Presley".

Michael was just inspirational, and to many generations, he is and always will be a legend, and part of our lives forever!

The King of Pop Passes On

Pop singer Michael Jackson, whose rise to fame began at Harlem's famed Apollo Theater, died today in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles coroner told CNN.

A CNN affiliate says he was hospitalized just before 12:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time after suffering cardiac arrest.

Affiliate KTLA reports that Jackson was not breathing when emergency responders arrived and paramedics performed CPR.

The Los Angeles Times reported that he arrived at UCLA Medical Center in a deep coma. Crowds of mourners congregated Thursday night in front of the hospital.

Jackson gained national attention as a youth in the 1960s, where he performed at the Apollo Theater as a member of The Jackson 5.

Fans gathered Thursday evening in front of the theater to remember the performer and play his music.

He rose to international fame in the 1980s as the "King Of Pop," known for his innovative choreography which included the "Moonwalk" dance step. Nearly three decades after its release, his 1982 album "Thriller" remains one of the best-selling albums of all time. He later became a tabloid news standard with allegations of frequent plastic surgeries and charges of child molestation.

Fans who gathered in Times Square, including many who grew up listening to Jackson's music and watching his videos, said that they were shocked and saddened by the singer's sudden demise.

"I was thinking it's the end of an era," said one fan.

"It's sad. He's an '80s icon," said another.

"I grew up listening to his songs. There's no place that you can go where you listen to Michael Jackson that you don't start dancing, and that's sad."

The Reverend Al Sharpton of Harlem, who said he was Jackson's friend for 35 years, said in a statement, "I have known Michael since we were both teens, worked with him, marched for him, hosted him at our House of Justice headquarters in New York, and we joined together to eulogize our mutual idol, James Brown. I have known him at his high moments and his low moments and I know he would want us to pray for his family."
Jackson was 50 years old.

Of farting pipes and Frus!

Just felt like cussing and throwing a tantrum, but I'd rather touge to cool off right? I've been searching high and low for a 4G63 DOHC exhaust manifold and all I can find are cast items :(

I'd settle for the 4-2-1 which I've pictured Toda's excruciatingly painstakingly made model here.

And for the ultimate in choice, the awesome 4-1 manifold which I'd love to see/hear revved all the way to the stratosphere!

I would love to see my new engine with a shiny new manifold attached to its farting end of business. But heck, I guess Mitsu's most venerable engine is an FI enthusiast's dream, leaving us NA freaks bone dry for parts.

Psst... Silver's almost done at paint so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for now and I can hardly contain my excitement (this is the first time I'm sending any of my cars for painting) :P

Auto-City Carnival

As the Scav man has promised.. Here are the pics from my short visit to Juru's Auto-City Carnival with Northern Touge.
I'm getting work done on Silver so I hitched a ride with Fer in his turbocharged monster and arrived to the roaring exhausts of 2 FD2Rs doing a demo lap around the Auto-City premises.
As the short race stint was done, we moved on into the main gallery to check out what's on display. We were missing Monster Workshop's (from Ipoh) cars, but heck there were these offroad time attack hellraisers on display!

Where there are cars, there will definitely be leggy beauties from the other gender present. That's why guys keep buying car mags now innit?

Super wide Beemer patrol car with matchingly clothed beauty alongside.

A little later in the afternoon, we were all treated to a couple of demo laps from some of the awesome machines on display. Here's the safety Toureg taking the initial initiative to ensure the "circuit" is clear of all obstructions.

These two are undoubtedly the only two display cars that went all out to make a fast lap.
I love this Celica... Psst... It's rear lamps are from the MkV supra!

Inspiration??? Hmm...

The last car in the line-up with the contender, whom was 1 lap ahead, right behind.

Ass shot... The Marlboro EvoVI in pole position is hunting down the wide-ass 350.

I was swimming in my trousers, so we went into the gallery area again to visit our buddies at Toms' Sticker where they had this awesome and intricately copied "Takumi Fujiwara" (from Initial D) replica on display.

Naza brought every FI enthusiast's wet dream along with every NA petrolhead's fantasy along to grace the event.

Finally, as we were about to leave, the MC announced that a GT car will be doing a few demo laps to our amusement.

The Thunder Asia GT Car was sublime and so low it could've scooped ant poop off the pavement. But the sound, oh-my-god, the sound was just awesome!!!

The driver then stepped out only to be fledged by the GT Queens present that day for a short photo op.

Whilst everyone was crowding the front, I couldn't help but sneak behind the lines to get another.. ass shot!

BHP held a little go-kart "pump and race" contest which out very own VictorGR took the top podium finish home. Check out his helmet head and that's Joy next to him btw. Congrats bro, on both the prize and the chick. Cheers!

I went home still stunned from the audial blast of Thunder Asia's GT Car. A quick surf on the net showed they were racing either an Ultima GTR or an Ultima Can-Am. Either of which are powered by Chevy small block muscle. These cars come spartan without electronic aid, ABS, traction control, power steering, and not even fuel injection! Which explains the super loud burble from the carb-fed V8.

I loves it... I wants it... I... I... Urgh! I hate Thunder Asia!

Auto City Carnival

This looks ponna interesting... Their site statistics show at least 50K visitors for almost every event. This would be a testosterone filled event so I suppose the guy to chick ratio to be quite high. But heck, with 50,000 visitors... It don't sound too bad after all :P

So who's going? The Scav is...

Partners in Crime

Relieved from the day's worth of DIY session, and long chats, Soon offered to have a run with my. So I put that on KIV and we'd met up at Jamal for dinner and some drinks, when Soon and his bro showed up in a white Perdana. After years of touge in Silver, I'd finally had the chance to run with another Perdana for the first time, who was I to say no :P

Soon's friend had Soon drive up his white variable valved (I know, but more on that later) Perdana through the Batu Feringghi twisties. After a short intro, it turns out I'd met this delightful fellow quite a while back at Tommax one evening. We arrived at the dam in two Perdana's to the shock of our usual crowd (I'm usually the only buffoon rolling in an executive sedan) and awe of the locals (which have gotten so acquainted with us).

Opening up the noisily inducted, fire breathing buffalo, we found a 6A12 MIVEC residing in its bay.

Being the itchy twat that I was, I'd gone and showed off my DOHC to the dissapointment of the masses. Hahaha...

We chatted and loitered and were found thirsty. So we made our (fast-paced) way down to Lan Burger at the Gurney round-a-bout for some drinks before parting ways.

This car was anything but slow, and it was so exciting to have another Perdana up the Teluk Bahang touge, I hope I get to meet more fellows.

Silver's Ammendments

Sunday morning... Wake up... Doing my dirty deeds (purging and cleaning la!)... Fried some vermicelli for breakfast then called up the Fer for a meet up at RPM.

It was a lazy Sunday morning with beautiful cloudy weather which just invokes the "DIY-ness" in any petrolhead. So we brought Silver into one of RPM's bays and popped the hood to see what could be done.

I'd brought along my DOHC T/B for the Fer to inspect and he'd found some scum that the milling and polishing machine could not get to. He immediately got at it with some super fine abrasive paper.

Being the profecient and ever willing mech that he is, after every good job done, inspection is always warranted.The throttle body was smoothened out and all scum removed. Installation was immediate and testing went underway. Mid-RPM throttle was improved and idling was stable, high RPM power improved and on-off throttle response improved drastically.

But somehow, being the perfectionist that he is, Fer was not satisfied with the results mumbling on about how the 4G63 should be much more responsive.

After which he took a look at the crappy temporary fuel regulator I had on for trial runs. He spat at it and yanked the unit out.

Fer went and got one of his old Nismo (I think was done ala HKS design) units to be fitted on. This beaut little mechanical contraption made a beautiful tapping noise when its started up.
Looks like one ugly mutha, but who am I to argue with the top teams?

Fer then found that the air/fuel ratio was immensely rich and retrofitted a modded stock regulator for Silver.

Silver then revved smoothly and the RPM climbed without hesitation. The AF ratio had also improved and ran a little rich at high RPMs just as I'd requested... For engine longevity and all :P

Still unappeased, Fer started to play around with the ignition timing and further improvements were realised during on road testing.

Oh yeah... Norther Touge's highway monster had found a new pair of shoes! Looks beaut dun it?

Ooh... And I finally get to install my beautiful Mitsu strut bar, which I had in storage, after installing the modded DOHC T/B. Pics to come later.