Retrieving the Silver Banana

I'd applied leave last Friday to go down to Ipoh to get the Silver Banana. I left Pg for Ipoh by 11a.m. along with Raj and Patrick in his Satria.

We enjoyed the ride down as Patrick has his suspension set to the softest setting and I'd brought along my laptop for on board entertainment.

We arrived shortly (around lunch time) and TK (tougeking) met up with us along with a member of Hillraiders from KL. Naturally, we went up the touge... After a short lunch session.

Great drink.. Kinda like a float with extra flavor.

The herbal duck noodles were superb! *smack lips*
We had some good rojak... But nothing like Penang.
There was also dried Chee Cheong Fun.
Once we'd devoured everything, refuelled, had a puff for the road and received Fujiwara (another friend). We then went up the touge with TK in the lead (me sitting in his Franken70), followed by Patrick and Steven of Hillraiders (I'm sorry bro, I can't seem to find your site. Leave me a comment and I'll post it up). We were halfway up the touge when it friekin' poured on us! Nonetheless, being the advent blogger that I am.. *ahem*ahem* I took pics standing in the rain :P
A logo of the hillraiders. Innovative use of the "r" 'innit?
We went down to visit what Ipoh is known for, it's caves and caverns, for a photo op! After which we finally went over to Han's shop to take a look at how things were going for the Silver Banana.
Work was not yet done. But night was upon us as Han kept laboring away.
As it was getting too late, Raj and Patrick went home to Pg after a short touge run. And I bunked with Han whom was a gracious host. I for one am always thankful for anywhere to sleep, and Han got me some sheets and a pillow to boot. Thanks bro!

I got a great amount of floor space to roll around in :P
Next morning as we were leaving for the workshop, I saw Han's bike.
Which had carbon fibre forks!
On route to the workshop, I saw this "interestingly" named restaurant. In Hokkien "Kam Ching" (literally translates to "suck gun") is a slang word to describe getting oral sex. I just had to take a pic of the signage! :P
Here's a pic of Han's place with a Kancil Turbo in the works. It'll be used for dragging and bragging.
We then went over to see a machine shop which catered only to the automotive industry. You can get work done from your location pins inserted to boring out your block.

Just look at the size of the workshop space!
We then visited a drift buddy of mine Jim (Ah Hei) at his workshop (ABT motorsport) to look for some parts and to have a short chat with him. I found out about his new project for the DCC RES'2 IBU A31 Drift car... Its new engine will be a monster. Just as comparison, he'd removed an RB25DET in exchange. Lookit his drift machine sitting just outside.

The final touches were done at Han's neighbouring shop as he had certain tools needed.
These fellas even had their name on the concrete ramp!
CT-4 (formerly known as GT-4) had completed the final work on my baby and we started up the engine to perform some tests before leaving for home sweet home! Thanks Lek for the work done.

Thank you all very much for the hospitality and ferrying me around. Much thanks to TK for the ride, thanks to Han for all the work done and a room to stay (very grateful), much thanks to Ah Boy the unsung hero as he accompanied me the entire night and brought me up the touge in his pristine EG6!

As for Raj and Patrick... The engine will be run in soon and you better be ready for my return to the touge!!!

Touge for Friendship (Part 2)

Upon arrival at the Teluk Bahang Dam, we saw that there are too many "spectators" around and we'd decided to park a little further up the way. As with most driving activities, a post mortem was in order once everyone got outta their cars and lit-up :P (Still no pics due to super bad lighting)

After a short chit-chat session and a couple of ciggies, Tougeking wanted me to navigate him through the Teluk Bahang to Balik Pulau part of the touge. So off we went for Round 2 in the thick pillared Satria Neo with Tougeking at the helm.
*Please refer to Tougeking.blogspot.com for the video*

We arrived back at the dam to find that most of the crowd had moved off so we'd shifted to a better lit area next to the guardpost.

Left - Right : TK's Neo, ScAv's Silver Banana, and Tan's V6.

Sorry not many pics as I was already called in for the 3rd round of touge.

Tougeking had so much fun through the super twisty touge that Ah Boy also wanted to get in on the action, I for one did not want to miss the workout so I took lead in my Silver Banana. Tougeking rode with Boy in his EG B16B and Raj and Patrick rode with me in my Silver Banana 4G63 SOHC (I'll just call it torque for now due to its charachteristics)

Round 3 touge : We had a little Torque vs VTEC battle up the touge! Boy and I were having a fun drive and we hit the touge super fast with Boy's EG giving chase with much effort put in but still trailing. I had to wait a bit, just to be sure nothing happened while Boy tried to catch up (I had home course advantage). I'd arrived a little ahead of Boy, so Patrick, Raj and I decided to come out for a ciggie whilst we wait. When Boy eventually arrived at the checkpoint, everyone talked as if we'd known each other for ages even though we had not chatted before. Touge for friendship!!!

My Silver Banana in front with the yellow spotlights with Ah Boy's Civic EG Type-R at the Balik Pulau checkpoint. Ah Boy's "Primo" example of a beaut EG.
Tougeking as usual being the drama queen that he is, did not want to see the arse of another car through the touge and decided to sit in on my drive back to the dam gates. No worries this round as Patrick (also a local) rode back with Boy. So we took the touge super fast this time and I scratched my front passenger side rim on a low curb as a consequence. Haiz... But thankfully, nothing went awry and check-ups were made upon arrival at the dam gates.

It was a super hard workout due to the fast driving, I was sweating profusely! We cooled down, chatted a bit and parted ways as it was already 4.30a.m.

I went home a happy man.. Delighted to see a stock Perdana could handle the touge averagely well on stock suspension and all the touge excitement had been vented outta me. Phew! What a night!!!