Open Track Day participants

I only have the list from Penang thus far, I'll update with the Mainland, Perak and Wilayah participants list soon.

Ray Eoh - Satria GTi 1.8
Kelvin Ang - Iswara 1.5
Teoh Chun Zhi - Waja 1.6
William Ng - Iswara 1.5
Richard Khoo - Waja 1.6
Vin Ong - Satria R3 1.8
Robert Loke - Satria 1.3
Ahmad Fuad - Civic EK 1.8
Rasim - Civic EK 1.6
Suhaimi - Wira 1.8

Tommy Chan - Wira 1.5
ScAvEnGeR - Perdana 2.0

Rubber! Oh glorious rubber!

I'd just went to Chris' place to get my track day rubbers installed for a fun-filled Sunday at the Dato Sagor Track. I went and got my spare 17" rims from the store and brought them down to get the rubbers installed.

As we were fitting the rims on Silver, it started to drizzle but nothing will dampen my spirits that evening... I was going for a tyre test no matter what!

I had never ran rubbers so wide so I was quite adamant on how the Silver Banana would handle. Luckily, it was spot on! Great on-centre feel and loads of grip in the wet... Or damp, rather. I'd yet to test these rubbers in the dry but I've heard great reviews of it although most of the users were highway cruisers... Hey, rhymes... Kewl.

The only gripe I had with the tires are that its too comfortable.. And that brings about more doubts on how it'd handle on track as the level of comfort would relate to the stiffness of the sidewalls. Dang! But with proper engineering, maybe these tires may not suck after all.

I guess we'll just have to wait and find out this weekend.

See you all there, in whatever you wear!

*forgive my attempts at rhyming in this post... or ever! :P

Harness and the void

I've recently attained and "added" two mods to me Silver Banana. One is the harness I'd found last weekend and a void where the rear seats were.

I'd emptied out the rear and looking for mounting points for the harness.

Willans harnesses... I always loved this brand... Could be due to me reading too many States or UK mags growing up :P

Exceeded 100!

I'd just realised as I signed in this morning that I'd just exceeded 100 posts! Yippee! Thanks to all my friends and readers for visiting my blog all this while and commenting on my usual blabber about my automotive endeavours.

Why am I so happy? I guess I'm just succumbing to the euphoria to start a dreary day at work...

I'd like to wish everyone a great day of work/studying/lazing, whatever you'll be doing... Cheers and have a productive day!

Endorphins ROCK!!!

Track day tires.

Hi readers, I've been away on business and consecutively swamped with back logged work thus the delay in postings.

Recent update, I've finally found my track tires! My mech Chris had found me some sweet tires for the one day excursion. I'm going to have a blast at this upcoming Open Track Day at the Dato' Sagor Track in Kampung Gajah next weekend, 13 July 08.

My very well (and evenly) worn tires on the right whilst, on the left, Chris shows off his find! A used pair of about 50% thread wear tires for the track excursion.

Track tires fitted on my Silver Banana with my track rims from an earlier car. These rims have proven to be hardy and light for my low powered applications. Wolfrace is casted at the back, although I doubt it is :P
I hope all you fellas are prepared for this track day. Its gonna be a great event!

p.s. I just found out that this is my 101st posting! Thanks readers, for following me through this journey of automotive endeavours. Keep posted on future activities and excursions!

We are on ZTH~!!!

After a fair amount of waiting... The Dato Sagor Track in Kampung Gajah, Perak is featured on Zerotohundred.com!!!

You can refer to their write up here. There are also lots of pics of the event and its many participants. Fantastic coverage.

Woo-hoo!!!

Much thanks to Adam, Tom, Keshy, and the beautiful Angeline that day for the coverage and write up. Much appreciated!

More "Huan Lo" with a dash of spice!

I was driving home from work after a very dreary office day to see Kiong (exhaust man) for some bars he'd ordered for me. The Silver Banana felt great after the first two bars installation (I'll update later once I get pics) but I was fated to discover that there is a clunking sound everytime I turned left.

I then bypassed Kiong's shop and went straight to see Chris (my mech) only to find that my right upper arm had worn out. Dang... Just when I thought I'd be ready for the July excursion!

Anyways, Chris told me to keep using it for now until a suitable replacement could be found (I dun know what he has planned for me), so here I sit impaired, until my car could be repaired. What else could I do, I'm now retarded, I'll just have to wait open hearted. Seems to be I'll be restrained, while I've to keep myself enterteined.

Forgive the lame rhyming, it was just bad timing. It was just an outburst, good sense rather than to curse...

Corroded pump and a Mirage.

I'm happy to say that my bubbling radiator had been resolved with slight milling of the engine head and head gasket replacement. Sadly however, the clutch was seems to be giving way again so I'd visit Chris (my mech) for some "consultation".

After a short test, we decided to remove the upper clutch pump to see what's going on. It seems that the DOT4 fluid had corroded the rubber seal and that caused the piston to wear at the pump body.... Bad news...
We sourced around and finally found a good replacement unit with 2 seals on the valve body and an extra O-ring for good measure. Good design eh? Sweet... We got that and installed it ASAP as I was anxious to hit the touge again with a proper clutch...
Whilst getting around with my mech to source for parts, I came across this beautifully stock Mirage and just had to take some pics!
It's fully stock... Imagine how it'd perform in the touge with a transplanted 4G93 in it... Mmm mmm.... I'm going insane for hot hatches! Oh... And the plate number would cost a bomb now!
Beautiful specimen... Too bad its not for sale... Sad-ness...

I'm back... So's Ben from Ukraine!

It's been a slow week past and lots have happened... So sorry for not updating in all this time as office was super busy as well, let alone social obligations. Many Chinese couples are hurrying to be wed as the Chinese 7th month (Month'o'Ghoulies - Kinda like Halloween, but lasting a month!) approaches... The ang pows (red packets filled with $$$ traditionally given by invitee as token of thanks) given out... Phew!

Well, my god bro Ben got back from Ukraine with Catfish whiskers for hair as barber costs there are extravagant. He'd not changed at all.... Maybe skinnier due to lack of nutrition (another form of luxury... ) :P
As always, its customary for him to get me some unusual looking fags/ciggies... This round he'd bought a ciggie that had a long filter with an indent called Parliament, and a super smooth ciggie from Kent (which it had lived up to its reputation) called the Nanotek series. The packing of the Kent ciggies were beaut!
I was trying to get a pic of the embossed Kent letters... Dang the wrapping and sorry for the Pall Malls next to it :P).
Oh, did I mention it was a super slim? Kewl innit?

Road tax... Abolished?

I'd heard over the radio, as I was approaching my office, this morning that the government is planning to lower the road tax and eventually abolish it. As I'm sure all of us knows, the information from our local ministers are a dime a dozen and more often than not is like making, a local staple, the roti canai. Flip right, turn left, upside down and inside out! So I'd checked other media upon reaching the office and multiple sites have already printed out this statement. One of which I'll quote, from TheStar Online, albeit still doubtful.

"PETALING JAYA: Road tax will be reduced gradually and abolished.
Transport Minister Datuk Ong Tee Keat said the ministry was studying the possibility of abolishing road tax.

“I will bring the issue to the Cabinet, and if they agree, private vehicles will be the first to benefit,” he said.

Ong said the rebates given out in lieu of the fuel price increase was not enough to ease the people’s burden in the long term.

On June 4, the Government announced a RM200 reduction in road tax for private vehicles above 2000cc and RM50 for private motorcycles above 250cc.

Also announced were rebates of RM625 for private vehicles of 2000cc and below, and private pick-up trucks and jeeps with an engine capacity of 2500cc and below.

Rebates of RM150 will be given to private motorcycles with an engine capacity of 250cc and below.

On another matter, Ong said he “was going to call” the bosses of Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia for “peace talks” over the pricing war and their tit-for-tat remarks.

“Competition must be healthy and take place on a level playing field, devoid of acrimonious remarks.

“We are all mature citizens and we all know how to carry ourselves,” he told reporters after witnessing a memorandum of understanding between the Road Safety Department and Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Sdn Bhd at his office here yesterday.

He was commenting on the war of words between MAS managing director Datuk Seri Idris Jala and AirAsia group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes recently.

MAS said it would withdraw all travel privileges given to Fernandes who responded by saying that the move was “childish.” " - TheStar Online.