Ya Would If Ya Could

As I'd promised, further updates are in order after the month long slow down in my blogging. Without further ado, I'll kick off our list of activities that you know ya would if ya could!

Leng got us a sweet deal to celebrate in a VIP room at a friend's joint. The place was huge with awesome facilities. Everyone was hyped up for the celebration... But who's that in the background?
Being the ever dedicated mech and workaholic, Fer was using the free internet access to search out some tech specs whilst we partied outside.

Kai Xing was having a ball on stage along with our dancer for the night...

Mr. Daniel "the horny" Civic!Cake cutting is always warranted no matter the location, and being the dedicated people us Northern Touge kakis are, we even included our sponsors list in this pic.

Leng was our silvertongue for the night... This dude could belt it out all night and still keep his voice! Kudos buddy!

During the CNY holidays, Soon had already opened shop to kit an Innova as his initial customer depsite the festivities.

Beautiful job done... Note the red crackers still on the ground as part of the Chinese festive tradition.

A spoiler was later added to complete the look.

Soon was still doing final checks on fit and finish as we were closing up. Diligence ultimate!

On the fourth day a bunch of us decided to have an auspicious touge + makan2 trip in the afternoon. As usual, we met up at Relau Shell, whom graciously allowed us to park and pose for some pics.

We then pushed off for the first stop at the peak of Jln Tun Sardon where we met up with an old friend from Balik Pulau (Blue KE70) and to get some refreshments and "jeruk" (pickled fruits).

We then traversed Balik Pulau and on to Teluk Bahang, through all the beautiful scenery and ending up at the Tropical Fruit Farm for some ice kacang and rojak. Plus, the scene there was awesome and the atmosphere serene.

After a refreshingly relaxed pit stop, the gang continued downward to the Teluk Bahang dam for a photo op.

It was a bright and sunny day out so I thought WTH, why not take a silhouette pic with all the beaut water and scenery surrounding us.

We ended the trip with Daniel (Civic), Soon (Wira GSR), Ewejin (Satria GSR), and Kenny (Wira 4G91) going for a cooling dip in the beach just down the road. Leng (KE70) and Pin (Wira 4G91) traversing back through the Balik Pulau way, and Fer, Joven (Wira GSR), and myself going for a light dinner before leaving for home.

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An awesome end to an awesome Chinese New Year. I'm now back in the office... So happy working all! Cheers!

Inaugural TT & T session

Northern Touge had our first Teh Tarik and Touge session on the 1st of January 2010~!!! We all met up at Goodall cafe opposite for some good fare.
I arrived albeit a little tardy and they'd all makan'd liao...

Everyone was having a good time chatting over drinks and burning time.

As the touge session grew closer, more kakis joined in and we had both tables filled up with another group already at the meeting point.

We pushed off and had a nice cruise around to check things out and eventually headed up the touge for some thrills and spills. I had such a good time I'd forgot to even take pics of the cars!

A good start to a new year I'd say.

Cheers all!

A visitor, hitting 400, and a Meguiar's treat

I'd recent received an SMS from an unknown number whom identified himself as Daniel stating his request for touge and to meet up. Being the ever friendly dude I am (ahem!), anyone's welcome within the Northern Touge group. Turns out it's a visit from Daniel of Danau Motorsports and his pristine MR2. A touge was inevitable and we chatted the night away, talking of future collaborations and past experiences.
It was a relieving Sunday morning drive when I realised I'd finally hit 400kms on a full tank of gas which I hadn't done so in a while. Thanks to Fer for touching up my settings and getting my electronics in order. Amazing what a little tweak does.

Finally, since it was a sunny day out, I got down to washing my car for the first time since the re-paint and decided to treat it to some Meguiar's Carnauba wax.
A little steeply priced, but it's well worth the cost and effort. I never noticed all the glittery stuff I had on.

I just couldn't resist another snapshot of Silver in all it's temporary shiny glory.

A well spent weekend I'd say. Cheers to all!

Northern Touge Mega Gathering

Daniel and Soon were just sitting around chatting when Dan was struck with the idea of having a huge gathering of all touge kakis in Penang under the Northern Touge banner. A couple of SMS flew around and lo and behold. We had a mega gathering on our hands.
We all met up at the Balik Pulau Kassim, which we love coz got lotsa parking space, where friendly banter and chatter took place whilst more and more friends continued to arrive.
We managed to book 6 tables for all attendees and yet, our table was overflowing. We literally breached into the surrounding tables.
We did a little touge action and ended up at TB dam area where we cooled off to the excellent night breeze. Organizers Daniel and Soon can be seen laying back after the successful event.

Here are a couple of other members standing under the light having a chat and some automotive banter. There were many more in the shadows... You know us nocturnal types :P

Me Silver Banana posing with the most expensive touge car to date, a Merc CLS350.

Compliments to Patrick for this excellent shot of my Silver Banana with super bright HID backlighting. Thanks a lot for the great shots of our outing dude.

We concluded the evening's festivities with a cruise down to Gurney for a drink and off to bed we went!

Thanks a million to all the members that had showed up and for all that didn't... You missed out. Hah! But it's ok, there's always next time aye? You can be sure there'll be round 2, stick around.

Birthday, Pits, and Revelry!

It is the 9th day of the Lunar Calendar and the entire team was invited over to RPM Autoworks to celebrate Ah Peow's (air-cond man) girlfriend's 21st birthday! We were all ponna excited and I was, as usual, too early :P Anyway, Chun arrived slightly after and gradually, so did the rest of the team and all invited guests.

It was a fantastic evening of festivities and revelry with much fellowship, food and drinks aplenty, and everyone just having a ball of a time!
Well, as you can see, there's not many at the dining area since we were all a "helpful bunch".... Here's what most of us were doing. We actually have 6 cooks! 4 at the pits and 2 prepping the skewers :)

Whilst a bunch of us were.. Er... "Discussing" and "planning" over some drinks and a cig. Told you we were a helpful bunch didn't I? :P

A tribute pic to all the hardworking cooks whom constantly had the pits on full burn and full capacity!

We ended the night at 1a.m. to a cheery crowd, and what seemed like never ending revelry, but here I am in the office again!

Cheers fellas, see you guys tonight... I'm sure there are lots to clean up still!

Of stiff sticks and soft bounces!

It was on the 7th day of CNY and I was just having a lazy rested day in preparation for the working year ahead. I'm sure we'll all have to be as tough, hardworking and persevere as the Ox to survive the current financial plight :(

I got a call from Fer some time after lunch time and the Norther Touge fellows all met up at Tommax for a cock-and-bull session :) During which, Daniel had wanted to re-adjust his damping for some time now and I'd needed to take a look at some of the wirings on the Silver Banana. So we decided to grab the keys to RPM Autoworks and have a little DIY session with our guru Fer on the watch.

We arrived to a brimming workshop full of cars so since Daniel had the hardest task, his car was fully parked inside, and the Silver Banana was parked halfway rearwards in since I only had to look in the rear half. The supervisor-for-the-day of course, had his monster machine parked just outside.
Low and it's all show, no go! I was parked on a ramp... Just took the pic to check out how it looks if I invested in a set of pneumatic shocks.

Daniel set off to work on removing his dampers slowly but surely seeing that this would be his technical debut! He never DIY'd on his mechanicals before. Great effort bro!

As with all learners or first timers, supervision is warranted and I was only there to prop things up and to aid installation :P *I'm also the inpromptu camera-man mah!* (self redemption rocks!)

After a lengthy process and Fer working his magic on the new settings the car was lowered off the tripods and lo and behold! The Civic is a whole new machine...

Getting low is the theme of the day. If you're thinking wheel to fender clearance, its non-existant!

Of course, this warranted a touge run, so we proceeded to meet at a fav car wash since Daniel wanted to ge this car washed (to look clean and mean) where seatings were allocated and Fer was riding with Daniel to get feedback on the new settings whilst Mark sat with me for a little Touge 101. We blasted up the touge full on (since we'd been MIA since before the CNY) without a worry in mind and its enlightening how the drive through Penang's fav touge route clears ones mind!

I had a fantastic run, and Daniel was extremely happy with the new damper settings. His new settings were stiff enough to avoid unnecessary roll whilst keeping the bumps and dips in check. Mark had also improved a lot in the past few months, he was even able to point out to me the 2 mistakes I made on the way up!

Watch out world, Northern Touge is coming out yo!

True blue pal

Soon and I were just wandering around town last night, just checking out the night life since it's been some time since any of us had been partying. We were going along the UPR (Upper Penang Road) stretch when Mark called up and asked if we wanted to meet up. As "busy" as Soon and I were, we hurriedly agreed and sped off to the Caltex station meeting point.

Mark soon arrived with Daniel in tow, and a bright set of HIDs were following suit... Whom other than our true blue touge kaki from KL, Shazwan was in town! We were chatting away to the sounds of Kardinal Offishall and having a few drinks from the store.

What does a touge-head do when in Penang? You'd have to check out the routes here of course! Daniel had already brought Shazwan and Mark up to the dam and back, but they'd left out one route so I could have a little fun to quench my "thirst". Without further ado, we filled up, warmed up and got to driving :) It was a fairly fast paced lap around Vale of Tempe, after which Shazwan got a call and we had to head back to meet up with his better half.

We were turning of to Gurney when Shazwan called and his DC5 got stuck on a low curb. Being an out-of-towner, he didn't know of the low, sloping extension in front of the traffic lights and went over it with his front wheels with his ass still hanging in the air. Soon and I lifted the rear as Daniel slowly released the clutch to unhinge the DC5's butt.

Shazwan was feeling a little down and out but luckily nothing major had occured and we all left for home happily ever after :)

The Silver Banana hasn't been to touge in quite a while. Tonight was a real refresher course!

*psst* We met a very "enthusiastic" Smart For Two on the way back. He drove like an ass, we had our fun and laughed our asses off! (Sorry no pics, I told you we were laughing our asses off!)

Chatting at the roadside is just... Old skewl! I likes...

Dan's new facade!

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon as we were all still super sleepy on account that we arrived home around 6a.m. and a couple of us had work that very morning. I on the other hand did not have work, but due to force of habit, I woke up by nine and was watching Transformers The Movie with a bowl of cereal.

Then off I went to get my car checked and to have lunch with Fer Fer (my mech). After which, Daniel had gotten off work and come by to hang out and Eujin came by to get his Kancil tinted. We were chatting away when Mansion II's boss called Daniel up to inform him that his EK's bumper had arrived.

Eujin hopped into my ride and we convoyed with Daniel to see his much awaited new facade. I use facade as his EK had a gentle front for the monster within! But now, all that is going to change... He's getting a meaner look to match its bite!

The new bumper matched up to the old frontage.
After much discussion and debate on how the rump was going to look, the ugly ass spoiler was removed and here's Dan taping up the holes for "waterproofing".Daniel was still unappeased by the proposals and were looking East to Japan and Taiwan for inspiration.
Lookit the level of concentration, matching picture to actual feature (pun intended!).
Soon always had great ideas and after a few proposals, brother Dan was happy and went merrily on his way to rest for another night of un-sleep!

3 SMS's & a night out!

A pal'o'mine, Mark, called me up on Friday night and told me he'd wanted to go touge that night and he was already on his way over. So I had myself a quick shower and a fresh change of clothes, then rushed out to meet Mark at my carpark. In the lift, I sent out 3 SMS's to 3 separate friends to meet at a location in an hours' time.

On the way up, we met another group of friends that were having their weekly TT (teh tarik) session in town, so I popped on over for a quick cuppa. Soon, a friend in the local authorities called up to say all's well and clear uphill and it was time to proceed.

All of us proceeded to Caltex to meet up and there were more ppl there than you can poke a stick at! Some joined us for the touge run, some just came to meet up. Eventually after filling up, a bunch of us left for the touge and had one helluva run! I likess.... It was a little damp and oversteer was imminent. I just had to bloody do it!!!

Take on a hotter-than-usual entry speed, left foot brake slightly when entering (to get real good weightage on the fronts), then once the nose is nicely tucked into the corner... sharply lift off the throttle and SNAP! oversteer!!!

Who's rump are these?
Its the Type-R fellows whom were tagging along just to "look see look see"
I have no flash, and Akihito (Edison) was kind enough to make a U-Turn to "borrow" me his lights for a photo op. The line of cars extend further down, but light restricts me to only capture this lot.
The Type-R's (Martin and Johnson) were quite a spectacle and their super clean engine bays were nothing short of stunning.
It was getting super late and a group of us took leave for Farlim's Mc Donald's (somehow, we're attracted to Caltex's... weird) for a little supper and a good night's (morning more like it) rest.
Mark was worn out (being a passenger!) and was a real bitch! (you know you were!!!) But we still love you... Mark's green monster is coming out REALLY soon... Another serious touge freak coming soon!
The 3 remaining Northern Touge kakis for the night. Daniel's Civic (EK), Snappy's Silver Banana, and Soon's Wira Evo III (GSR).
Soon's shiny newly painted bumper. Sweet!
17's all the way! Woot woot!
The last 3 "bandits" of the night.
Daniel being just stupid and...
His royal botak-ness, the man once known as Ewe Jin!
It was an eventful night and I was just amazed at what 3 SMS's could do for a fun-filled evening!

Saturday night was more or less the same... Only difference being I was the one that received multiple SMS and calls... And there were more ppl, much MUCH more people!
Heck! We even had the pleasure of watching a drift demonstration by 2 friends in a KE70 and a Datto 120Y~!!!

The Northern Touge is always happening... And never dissapoints!
I love Penang..... Touge routes :P