Memories of "Pak Lah" the former Prime Minister

I attended the "Hari Kenangan Jasa Pak Lah (Former Prime Minister Remembrance Day)," held at the Dato' Sagor Circuit yesterday:





(My buddy Pak Latif and I)

I drove the Proton Satria Neo there. The suspension was perfect (compared to the Franken70, which was too hard and I actually had to slow down on bumpy roads), and I reached the track in 30 minutes. Sometimes I wonder, why do I subject myself to the harsh suspension of the Franken70?

Pros of the Franken70:

1. Glorious 4AGE 20V sound
2. Fast acceleration
3. Rear-wheel-drive

The setup of the Franken70 is meant for the track, the suspension setting is too hard on the touge as well. The stiff setup is actually very dangerous on the touge (ESPECIALLY when it gets wet), as the car is very tail-happy. Should I retune the suspension to a softer setting and go faster on the touge? Should I install a/c back on the Franken70 to make it more hospitable, or do I proceed futher by cutting the doors and changing to lexan windows for further weight reduction?

With the Neo in the house, I am leaning towards making the Franken70 a track car, meaning higher duration cams for the Franken70 (Toda 304/288), etc.. I have a lot to think about, the experience of driving the Neo to the track (note, not ON the track, but TO the track) at high speed was just too pleasant :-)

Good times

I was waiting for the touge to dry up and before I knew it, it was almost 2.30am Friday night, or rather Saturday morning. I'd most likely wake the whole neighborhood if I start the Franken70 and head up the touge, so instead of going up, I went through my video archives and decided to convert the mp4 vids and join them... So here's what I came up with in 30 minutes:

Short vid of us going to the Dato' Sagor Circuit for some fun, it was a beautiful morning:


A vid of us having fun on track:


That's it folks, I am going to bed, zzZZZZZZZ...

Fun at the edge

This looked like fun:


The Peugeot was really tail-happy, to drive it at high revs near the edge of a cliff would definitely yearn the ultimate adrenaline rush... I can only dream.

Time to workout...

Backthrust:


:)

** For Panda **
This is the original:


I guess S tried too hard with the photoshop filters :p !

Phoebe drives

Met up with beautiful Phoebe this afternoon, I haven't seen her for like 4 months:


Phoebe and I share an active interest in Taekwondo, she fought in national tournaments and she is an assistant instructor as well. Oh she just got her driver's license too, her mom's Toyota Corolla looked pretty good, I think a blacktop 4AGE 20V with 6 speed transmission would swap in just fine lol:


Congrats on the driving license Phoebe! I'll hook you up with some advanced driving techniques when we head up the touge ;-) !

Working out

S took a few pics while I was working out this afternoon:






I love kicking the bag :-) !!!

Crazy Perodua Kelisa "NOS purge"

If you are in Ipoh and think you are all that, wait till you see our friend's Perodua Kelisa with his "NOS purge":


LOL!

Cameron Highlands Touge Full Course Sunday Cruise

At around 12pm on Sunday, S and I decided to head up the touge to visit the Boh Tea Plantation. We drove the Neo and decided to record the entire journey, but since Youtube limits each video upload to a maximum of 10 minutes, I had to cut the 26-minute vid into 3 parts, yeah I know, I was not going very fast, but it was a nice Sunday afternoon cruise!

Uphill Videos
Part 1 (from the Simpang Pulai entrance):


Part 2 (regular readers should know this part lol):


Part 3 (arriving at the first speed bump, i.e., the top of the touge):


We arrived at the tea plantation not long after:

(S with the Neo)


(S almost killed me when she saw what I did to the tires, it hasn't been a month yet, I know... LOL!)

We were at the bottom of the tea plantation, and we had to walk our way up:

(Pretty good workout lol...)


(Yay, we actually walked lol!!!)

It was beautiful:


We had a little afternoon snack:


It was really nice to sit down and check out the hot chicks people-watch... We had a very pleasant afternoon at the tea plantation :) Here's a parting shot:



Well, it started to drizzle and the touge was pretty foggy when we left, so the downhill session was a lot of fun, too much I ran out of room on my memory card:


How can we live without the touge...? S and I were having a great time enjoying the scenery:

(Ok it was more like I was checking on whether there was any oncoming vehicle :p)

I love this pic by S:


Hope everyone had a great weekend :) !

Saturday Night Touge Fever

Jeremy called me at about 10 minutes to 10pm, and we met up at Shell. I brought the Franken70, and right after I arrived at Shell, Botak Adi called, he was stuck at Hillcity Hotel after a meeting, apparently, D drove Botak's car to a party, as Botak didn't expect the meeting to end so early :p Anyway, Jeremy was kind enough to go pick Botak up from the hotel, while I was checking my tire pressure :)

Once Jeremy was back with Botak, we were good to go! Here's the uphill vid, Jeremy led first with Botak in his car, until the main straight after the school (before the tight section):


We had a lot of fun! Here are some pics at the uphill checkpoint:






After we headed downhill, we gathered at the Ampang Kopitiam:

(Botak can never take a pic without rearranging his facial features lol :D! )

We chatted for some time, had our drinks, and waited for D to show up with Botak's car. Once D got here, I asked everyone to go up for another run, to which Botak agreed :) Just when I thought it was too late for Jeremy, the man told me to drive his car up. I was like !!! It is always an honor when a good driver lets you drive his car. Treasure the opportunity, don't screw up lol! With that in mind, I squeezed myself into Jeremy's full bucket racing seat, and headed uphill:


Jeremy's Satria 1.8SOHC was awesome. I loved the on-demand torque. It was available as early as 2000rpm... The car had -2.5 camber in the front, and around -1.3 in the rear, and handled the touge beautifully. The suspension was just perfect, as it wasn't too harsh on the streets, and yet carved corners with precision. The Satria had very high cornering limit, at first, I wasn't used to such a stable car, and I went into the first tight corner with 2nd gear, but Jeremy insisted that he could take the same corner with 3rd, so I decided to trust my buddy, and his car. It was a fantastic feeling to go into the tight corners at 3rd and trust the car. Thank you so much for letting me drive this beast, it was amazing!

Some pics from the uphill checkpoint:

(Jeremy's torquey machine...)


(Downhill King Botak Adi's Wira 1.3M)

It was awesome to be surrounded by Botak and Jeremy, as both are very capable drivers. Jeremy is a very smooth driver with fantastic sliding skills, while Botak, in spite of running a stock 1.3L engine, was able to keep up and at times smoke more powerful cars on the touge. I learn a lot from these guys...

After a short chat at the uphill checkpoint, we headed downhill, this time, Botak had me in his Wira, and Jeremy drove his Satria. These guys were crazy and they were sliding downhill, so this was supposed to be the MOTHER of FF downhill drift video, BUT, shit always happens!!! Click on the vid, Jeremy's gonna be pissed... I am sorry buddy, Botak's camera just decided not to focus (or maybe he had it in the wrong mode), but this only meant one thing: We have to do it again tonight lol!

In the mean time, here's the pretentiously artistic, highly stylized, and visually unique downhill touge vid, ok ok, here comes the out-of-focus vid lol:


It was a great night, let's see what happens tonight (Sunday morning at 8am over here) ;) !