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!

Broken vow!

I'm so sorry dear readers, as I'd broken my vow to stop touge for this month. I was presented with a golden opportunity by a good friend of mine to test out a Wira GSR (1.8 turbo) at the Batu Feringghi touge... Seeing that it will be my virgin touge in a high RPM turbo vehicle, I just couldn't pass up the chance.

I'd have to say that the GSR engine is no slouch and boost comes in early in the lower gears and a little later in third which is just perfect for touge. At stock, it doesn't boost much and you don't get that sudden kick in the behind like VR4s do, another plus point. The piece de resistance is that this little firecracker of an engine revs all the way to 7500RPM!

So my friend Ah Soon and I met up in town to watch a "ge tai" (stage show performed during occasions), which incidentally my GFs sis was performing at, and to park my car at a safe location. We then boarded Soon's Wira GSR and off we went to Tg. Bunga Caltex to meet up with Akihito, Sanjev and Bigshow (Sim). We each had our fill of premium unleaded and off we went.

I took it slow initially into Chui Di Lor, and got a feel of the GSR's powerband and whatever grip I could muster from the 195/55/15 Duro tires. After the short touge, I came to find that even without an LSD, the GSR had a sweet spot where there's enough pull from the engine to engage maximum grip from the tires.

We then waited for the others (as they were blocked by traffic) for the Batu Feringghi touge run. I decided to take lead so that I could take the GSRs paces unhindered and what a pace it ran that night. Dang! I was amazed and honestly, shocked at how a FWD turbo performed at the twisties.
Although, be warned that driving a force inducted FWD on our local (Penang) touge requires quite a bit of concentration and precise throttle control as I was about to learn. I entered the first double apex too hot and I lifted to get the tail going, after which, I stomped on the throttle to catch the tail as I would an NA. Unfortunately, all I did was spin the fronts and understeered. Luckily, I still remember a few moves from my younger days and continued to feather the throttle while I reined the car in. Phew!

We descended from Teluk Bahang to meet up with Daniel and his friends for TT. It turned out that Daniel had visitors from from KL and the younger of the two was dying to find out how the Penang touge looks and feels like. So we went up AGAIN! I was blasting and popping the blow off valve like corn on a hot plate. Dang I love this engine.

Everyone parted with smiles, especially yours truly, of having the experience of a Wira GSR on the touge!

Much thanks to my good pal Ah Soon for the chance to try out this fantastic machine and I hope my feedback would help you along your maintenance/tuning journey.

Next, I've booked a VR4 to drive up the touge. We'll see how it performs once the owner is free for the trials :P

Rest assured, another fervent write up will be in store. Stay tuned :P