Audio and gearknobs.

I had an impromptu TT with the 4GTuner community yesterday evening. I arrived at Tommy's shop to find that Kong (Super_White) had already arrived and was at Chris' place to fix up some alignment woes on his Wira MIVEC. We chatted a bit and Kong had to meet up with a friend before the TT, so he'd left and I went to pick up my pal's audio car from his shop for some listening pleasure and further tuning (Chris can tune anything that's on a car).

I walked opposite to Smart Tint to pick up the car and as Kiong handed me the keys, he told me to beware of hard-hitting bass! Dang! I was soooo excited...

This is Kiong's ride and soon-to-be Smart Tint audio car!

Vanity shot, but heck... It's my blog... So humor me :P

(L-R) Sanjev's red monster, old man's van, Kiong's Persona, Chris' Wira VR4, some unknown cars and at the bottom of the pic is Kong's Wira MIVEC.
(L-R) Audiophile, Touge-phile :P , and Wangan-phile... Bwahahaha... Just more vanity shots... Dang I love holding a camera.
Lookit what's peeping out from the trunk.
It's a rearward mounted monster sub.
The location and enclosure is still in the making, but we couldn't wait to fire it up!
Interior is well stripped to lay down wiring and controls.
The infamous Chris you'd all been hearing me rave about. This fella can tune anything related to cars! Suspension, engine, audio... You name it! *Thanks bro for all the help over the years*
Powering the speakers and subs are the trinity of amps located in the trunk space.
A monster Rodek amp to get the sub pumping.
Gold emblem... Oooh.... Shiny...And two Autocraft amps to run the speakers. One for front stage, and one for the rears.
Can't really see ler... I was using Kong's flash and my camera for combo effect :P
The owner Kiong (Left) with the tuner Chris (Right) in front of the would-be-demo-car. Sorry for the poor lighting, both of them wanted to stay "slightly anonymous".
All of us parted ways to bathe and freshen up. Then we met up again around 11p.m. at Tommy's shop for a gearknob TT. We were either changing, swapping, or polishing our knobs (pun not intended). We had much banter and eventually "yum cha" until 1a.m. I got sleepy and we all left for home.

Dinner and dance ;)

Tuesday was just gruesome at the office and seeing that one of our colleague's birthday is on Wednesday, we'd all decided to celebrate it earlier and let off some steam with a dinner function.

We went down to Golden BBQ Steamboat Restaurant (http://www.goldenbbqpg.com/), located at 38,40, & 42, Jalan Nagore 10050 Penang. Yes! It's three whole shoplots, this place was huge...

I'd arrived at 6.30p.m. followed closely by my boss and his would-be bride. My driving that evening was quite enthused... I even met a black Vios and Raymond (Golf GTi) on the way down, but let's leave that for another time.

Our party started immediately and my boss and I enjoyed our food first and taking in the cool breeze with a couple of self-wrapped ciggies. Aaahhh.... Good stuff.

Then our party arrived totalling 13persons and all hell broke loose! We ate, we drank, we chatted, we sang, and we laughed heartily to the post office personas of our supposedly "gentle" ladies :P

I went to meet up and have a chat with the boss, Mr. Joseph (joseph@goldenbbqpg.com), whom was kind enough to sponsor us a trickle of Chinese wine for our clear soup steamboat. It tasted soooo good.... The sweetness of chicken and the robust flavor of wine was just a winning combo.

Believe it or not, I was the smaller sized guy to the right.. This just goes to show that men of stature love food :P

It was time to cut the cake, and as usual, my boss was his jovial self and was dancing around the B'day girl.
As we complete the B'day song in multiple languages (don't you just love Malaysia), it was time for the lady of the hour to blow out the candles and remove the candles with her teeth.

Now watch my boss' hand...

Then watch the pretty B'day girls face! Bwahahaha....
We stood around chatting and just making merry before ending the event with many smiles and we bade each other farewell... Another day of work tomorrow.
BUT! The night didn't end there for me. A friend of mine had called up just as we were about to end and asked me if I'd wanna meet up for a couple of drinks over some automotive banter. Gladly, I'd made my way to the location and there was another party there.. Of touge and drag kakis. We talked the night away and as people crawl home and the night market dimmed its lights, Akihito (Edison) asked if we'd like to touge. Dang right we would!

Sanjev offered me to touge in his drag car and who was I to refuse, I was actually begging him to, so I jumped into the driver seat to find that his pedals were unmatched in height and he told me I can only climb to 4000RPM as he was still running in his monsta engine. Oh heck, I love a challenge!

We made great progress up the touge and I learnt how to handle a softly sprung, under inflated, and over powered drag machine! It was so much fun, rope in the fact that I was entering corners 1-2 gears higher due to the RPM limit, and the car handled fine... Sliding from corner to corner, dancing as if a skater on high octane steroids!

We all went home tired but happy around 2a.m. for a good night's rest... See y'all next post.

5/7 Doctor and a high protein diet!

It was a hectic couple of days for me at work... Sorry for the lack in posts, but let's see if I can make it up yea ;)

Last Saturday, my best pal from high school called up to book a lunch meeting with me. We went out for a casual movie and came out starving like wolves. Seeing that we were in Gurney and our gastronomic situation, we turned to Seoul Garden for lunch. They serve steamboat and BBQ style buffet meals at a reasonable cost (about RM20+/person).

We'd started off with chicken and stir fried some onions to go along.
Here's Ben, the 5/7 doctor from Ukraine, happily lapping up all we'd cooked.
Eventually, our target was set dead on seafood. Lookit all dat squid and prawns...
Prawns and squid well cooked... Time to dig in.. *slurp*
We got a little numb after the last platter and went back to having chicken and onions while we whet our appetite with sour lime sauce... *I'm salivating already* Finally, the piece-de-resistance... We had 2 final platters of prawns to call it a day... And yet, the soup was untouched.. We had to pour in soup just to keep the pot from drying up, that's about as much action as the soup was getting :P
Watch for the amount of shells we each had....
It was piled high...
Close up... How can you imagine something so ugly tastes so good...
I definitely wanna go again... Dang... I love food... Anyone wanna come along? ;)

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

Acid woes

This was a rectification that I'd wanted to perform for some time but never got down to doing. I was just too darn lazy... It all started from my previous battery springing a leak at one of the caps and the hot acid splashed everywhere causing paint to peel and in time, a thick layer of rust developed.

So last week, I'd arrived early at Tommy's shop (he hadn't arrived yet), parked my car there and walked over to have a chat with Chris. Upon Tommy's arrival, we got down to work, stripping off the battery and its holder (which was also rusted).

As you can see, the acid had worked its way into the integral structure of my car and rust was just everywhere!
The battery's mounting plate was properly rusted.
Thoroughly!
So we got to sanding off the rust with 200 grade abrasive cloth on the more severe areas and 600 grade on the less affected areas. We finished off the polishing with 800 grade abrasive paper and washed it clean of whatever oils or chemicals in preparation for painting.

Here's Tommy helping to paint up the mounting plate whilst I painted my car's structure.

Front and rear neatly done and lookin' shiny in the afternoon sun :P

The structure after paint, but sadly, the rust has worn into the surface at some areas. Seen here at the left of the picture (rough looking surface).

Somehow, it just didn't feel complete and I had a nagging urge as if something was missing... Something was not done... I looked around and couldn't satisfy my curiosity.

So I gave Kiong of Kiong Lee Exhaust a call to see if I could borrow one of his hydraulic jacks to check the undercarriage. I eventually found some of the acid actually got to the bottom end and had "aided" the development of slight rusting. This was quickly dealt with an 800 grade abrasive pad and painted over to a gleaming finish :)

And the gates of Hell shall depart beings unto our land!

The time is nigh and we've breached into the 7th Lunar month. What is the significance, you query? I shall now divulge and delve into the Chinese beliefs, tales of terror, and ultimately, the synonymous activities that take place on this auspicious, yet considered ominous, occasion.

Offerings laid out for the wandering spirits.

In Chinese culture, the Hungry Ghost Festival is a widely celebrated festival, and holiday to some, which falls on the 14th night during the 7th moon (month in Gregorian) in the Lunar Calendar. The Hungry Ghost Festival is the most important festival or celebration of the year besides the Chinese New Year. The Chinese believed that during the seventh month, the Gates of Hell are opened and ghost/spirits are free to wander in search for food. These ethereal beings can either be friend, foe, or family members long deceased. Those which are lost or have no home to go to are called "hoe heah ti" (good brother) in respect and of course ancestors know their way around.

Most Chinese homes will be holding a food fiesta to be offered to their respective ancestors which return to visit their descendants' home. After the feast, prayers, the burning of hell notes ("kim" (gold) and/or "gin" (silver)) and many other life's luxuries (handphone, TV, cars and homes) made of bamboo and paper (by the Chinese' industrious nature, the resemblance now is impeccable).

The burning of multiple paper-made items for the ethereal beings.

Festivities are also held for the wandering spirits in community halls, and marketplaces by the local businessmen and traders. Huge effigy of Phor Thor Kong or King of Hell is erected and sits majestically at the main table. From dawn till dusk, food offering are placed for the his lordship. For the hungry ghost, they get their share after the King of Hell is fed. Meanwhile, he ensures the hungry ghosts do not misbehave in the time they are on earth. Food offerings and prayers, including the burning of incense, and hell notes as token for the "good brothers" to enjoy and receive before they go on their way.

An effigy of his Lordship.

Multiple offerings laid out.

Mountains of offerings.
It is told that the King of Hell's offerings table is very auspicious and only food is to be placed on it. Children are told that He ate a baby who was accidentally placed by the mother on the table. When the mother returned to fetch the baby, he had turned black or blue.

Besides food offerings, one could enjoy the Chinese Opera and food stalls for us humans. On the last day of the month, modern day live concerts with pretty young girls wearing trendy attire, known as the "guo tai", are the highlights for us humans. Karaoke too can be heard and funny Mandarin or Hokkien pantomime is played to the delights of the older generations. Chinese operas for the King of Hell and live concert to appease the two worlds, the wandering ghosts and earthy beings.

The trendy ladies... As mentioned.

Traditional Chinese opera.
So for all those late nighters... Let's keep it indoors, for just this month, and to all the hard-core touge kaki... My sincerest apologies for my absence. I generally steer away from the touge on this occasion :)

Lunch at SP!

I had a good lunch at Sg. Petani the other day and couldn't help but take pics of the dishes served.

We had vermicelli steamed on crab, prawns, fish and ginger. The taste was superb... Its broth was just fantastic!

Lookit the fish.... Sumptuous. And the small crabs were super sweet!

There was also Kampung Chicken in soya sauce, and wild boar's meat cooked in thick curry. We had a veg there as self justification that we're indeed omnivores :P
I didn't get the name of the restaurant 'tho. But I'll bring you there with my eyes closed... After all, I'm always up for a free meal :P

Review of the twins!

I just can't help but to blog about the twins now hiding behind those gorgeous 17's.

The performance is exemplary of how negative Gs should feel and I'm starting to enjoy braking late into corners as much as following certain lines that were never apparent to me before. I could accelerate for longer periods then jab the brakes in preparation for the upcoming turn.

I'd never thought a slight (10mm) increment in rotor diameter would outperform my original brakes by so much!

I had a test run with Daniel recently and I was driving as how I initially did in the reverse course. Putting in a lot of braking points just to see how the brakes would hold together (I'm still using the pads that came with the brakes as they're still very thick, but I do not know what brand/model they are), and amazingly, there was no fade at all whatsoever!

p.s. I have a set of Toyota twin pots from the Corolla SE Supercharged up for sale from my previous Corolla SE 1.5 SOHC Weber.