Touge Meeting

Wanna try some high speed settings on the Neo, got on the highway last night:

(Here I was, being a good boy...)

I like the dashboard... I am sorry but the 190km/h pic was seriously out of focus, S couldn't get the camera to stay still, as the car was vibrating due to the less than perfect highway... Anyway, the road was wet as it was raining, my top speed was 190 on some dry stretches, car felt pretty good with stock suspension...

On full throttle, staying between 160km/h to 190km/h, the car guzzled RM40 (U$1= RM3.1) of gas from Ipoh to KL, whereas, I was being a civilized driver and stayed within the speed limit, and the Neo only needed RM20 of gas for the way back from KL to Ipoh. Not bad at all!

I was really happy as I met up with the crew from Kansei, the downhill specialist, as well as Steven, KE 86 from the Chinese Cari Touge Forum, my friend Elaine and her boyfriend Chris (the couple already left when I took this pic):


We discussed about an odd touge character. He drives a K car, but it appears that he doesn't accept the possibility of losing in a touge battle. Apparently, some guy set up my buddy Azuri for an impromptu touge battle, with 9 cars blocking Azuri (who earlier just had a bike accident), with the odd character running his K car in front of the 9 cars.

My bro Azuri overtook the 9 cars, of which some tried to block his overtaking maneuvers, forcing Azuri to use the gutter-drop technique. Although the K car started in the front, with 9 cars behind him, he wasn't able to drop Azuri. In the eyes of experienced touge lovers, the K car lost, big time. I have no respect for people who doesn't accept losing. There's always someone faster out there. Respect and learn :P

Azuri's post on the visit here.

Bob's wagon

We just did a high compression wagon for Bob, with Toyota's trusty 4K engine, and Weber DCNF 40 carb:




I love old schools :)

Sunday Runs at the Cameron Highlands Touge

What do you do when you just got a new car? You drive it!

Downhill:


Uphill:


Some shots at the uphill checkpoint:




With the newly installed filter funnel intake, I experienced a power dip in the low 2000rpm range. However, I experienced significant power gain at high rpm, my Neo revved very willingly at high rpms, so, if you mainly drive your car in the traffic, don't do my filter funnel mod, you have been warned!

After flushing out the useless Dot 3 brake fluid, the Neo had much better braking power with the Dot 4 fluid. Well, at least I didn't experience any brake fade! It's one of the cheapest and easiest "mod" on the Neo :)

In the afternoon, it started raining, so Boy drove my ex-touge machine, and I drove the Neo to record Boy's attempt to drift at the touge:

Unfortunately, Boy wasn't used to the TE, so there wasn't much action. Here are 2 clips, only watch if you are really bored...

Boy Part :


Boy Part 2:


Pic at the checkpoint:


One note on the Neo, the fucking A-pillar really blocked my view:


I wanted to see if there was any oncoming traffic, but the A-pillar was right there, BLOCKING my view, so I had to be good and stayed single-lane at the touge...

The Dark Knight Unleashed

For the record, this is NOT the snappy car I am getting. I just wanted to have a good FF car to play with, the Neo happened to be ready for action, the snappy car not (it will make its debut in a couple of months, I hope).

After the Neo's maiden touge run, I noticed the Neo was struggling at high rpm. A look under the hood found one of the most restrictive exhaust systems I have seen for a long time... So, Han, Boy and I did this:

(Removed stock header and installed 4 to 1 header)


(View beneath the car)


(welded a center pipe for straight flow)

Then, we got my ex-touge machine's 5Zigen ProRacer welded on to the Neo :) My ex-touge machine, you asked? Yup, as of March 29th, 2008, Boy now owns the touge machine:

(Damn she looks good...)

After the exhaust mod, we headed back to the shop, to breathe more life into the engine, with the removal of the air-box:


Junk:





(This is much better!)

Around midnight, I met up with Boy and Jeremy, and we headed up the Cameron Highlands touge, to see if the mods helped my Neo. It was strange to see someone else driving the touge machine:


We waited for Jeremy:


but Jeremy needed to get his tire pressure right, so Boy and I headed up by ourselves.

The moment of truth:


My Neo sounded exactly as I wanted, it revved much smoother and faster to the high rpm region, and it sounded GOOD :P ! I love it!

Obligatory uphill checkpoint pics:




One note on the Neo, it still has the stock, Dot 3 brake fluid in the car, which was alright for uphill, but disastrous downhill. My brakes were spongy after only a few corners (downhill)! Will upgrade to Dot 4 or 5 today or tomorrow. I also gotta mod the suspension on the Neo, but it'll need more testing :)

New member: The Black Knight

Bored with my touge machine and impressed with 小幻's Proton tria Neo 1.6 manual (read my review of it here), I got myself a one year old Neo today:


Although I can handle an FR car pretty well, I think my FF skills are lacking, so this is a good car to train with :-) I have underestimated Proton... This is a great car. I love the point and shoot nature of the Neo, the stock suspension is pretty good (but requires further ugrade for the touge), the structural integrity is excellent, and last but not least, it looks good :-)

Anyway, I took the Neo to the touge twice tonight, there's a lot to be done to the car... I wasn't happy with the brake fade downhill, I wasn't happy about the suspension roll, I wasn't happy about the torque dip below 4000rpm, and I need some noise when I heel and toe :P

I will be going up again tomorrow. Videos coming soon.

Good night :-)

Touge buddies up north... Waaaay North

Single Lane Touge in the USA:


M3 and Forester.

Drift spec E-brake button for sale

Folks, we now make these buttons for your drift applications:


These are machined out of high grade aluminum. To install:
1) Release e-brake
2) Unscrew stock e-brake button
3) Remove spring
4) Keep stock components at a safe place
5) Screw on your new drift-spec e-brake button

To use:
6) Just pull the e-brake whenever you want
7) With the drift-spec e-brake button, your e-brake doesn't lock, it just drops down to the "release" position
8) This facilitates drift initiation or drift angle modulation with the e-brake
9) When parking, simply pull up the e-brake, and then pull the button outwards, which then locks the e-brake.

Price is RM35 or U$11 +shipping.

GiGi

Poor GiGi always try hard to get on Ruby's bed:


They are too cute :-) !!!

Nice day at the touge

Went up to the touge today in a Naza Ria. It was one glorious day with blue skies and white clouds:




Cheers everyone :-)

Kleemann visit

Yesterday, Joe and I went to visit Kleemann's for a business discussion. Here are some shots:

(Waiting for the principals...)


(Pretty funky waiting room...)


(huge ass rims...)


(The infamous E55 modified to over 700hp)




(400km/h speedo.... Look Ma, I can fly...)

Bad video of the E55:



(500hp ML... The perfect car to pick up your kids in.)

Bad video of the 500hp ML:


After the meeting about dealer appointments, I met up with Yeap, Tougewaja, and KE86 at the Sunway Pyramid. We had a blast talking about touge and cars :-)

I had dinner with Joe, Cecilia, and Yeap. Dinner was pretty sumptuous, Michaelangelo in Sunway Pyramid wasn't great, but it was alright. Some shots:

(Caesar's salad was alright, Fried Calamari was soggy, yuck!)


(Joe ordered soft shell crap pasta)


(I had chicken fettucine)

The Tiramisu made up for everything though. I absolutely loved it :-) ! Sorry, I gobbled it up without taking a pic. Yeah, it was that good :D !

Old skools

Touge Motorsports has been in business for 2 months now:


I guess you guys could tell that we are really into old schools from the cars parked in front of the shop:

(The Japanese old skool)


(with the British old school)


(and the not-so-old-but-getting-there German)


(Not forgetting Boy's drift spec KE70 on the left...)

Just wanna say thanks to everyone :) !

E28 Exhaust

My E28 now sports a really deep tone, man, 6 cylinders with a huge 5Zigen exhaust really sounds beautiful:

Kei Kei

S has a beautiful and very cute niece, she loves her chocolate:

Mercedes Benz 190E Hillclimb

Yeah baby!!!!!

Taiwanese Touge Poseurs

They probably suck on the touge, I like the video though :-) !

Touge Machine up for Sale!

I am selling my touge machine:


An opportunity has come up for me to own something I have always wanted, hence my reluctant sale. This car is flawless and balanced, just buy and drive. Nothing to repair.

There are two ways we can do this:

Whole
1) Buy the whole car, take the whole thing and pay me RM10,000.
(For international readers, as of the time of writing, U$1 = RM3.12)

Part
2) If nobody is buying the whole car, I will take these out to sell individually:

• Twin Weber DCOE 40s, with manifold for 5K engine, RM1500.
• Bride full bucket seat, Rm900.
• AE86 passenger seat, RM200.
• Schroth harness, RM150.
• Sabelt harness, RM150.
• 5Zigen Pro-racer exhaust muffler, RM400.
• Blue banana rims 14 inch, pcd 114.3, RM1000.
• Cusco GT wing RM200.
• Car with built 5K engine with internal mods, lightened flywheel, full AE86 suspension (soft/hard adjustable in front), custom metal bodykit, half cage, with full service history, for RM6600.

Call me at 016 50 666 00. Thank you!

Muay Thai

I was at Bernard's Muay Thai gym with Hong:


Bernard was really nice and told us to sit-in. Muay Thai fighting is very different from Taekwondo, which I have been practicing for over 20 years. It was especially intriguing when Bernard told his students to spar. The main techniques used were:
1) Punch
2) Turning kick
3) Check / Pushing kick
4) Knee
5) Sweeps or throws

Of course, I am no stranger to these techniques. What intrigued me was how the students took headshots, and kicks to the stomach. Did they feel no pain??? I asked one of the guys, and he told me that he was used to it :) Great answer, Hong and I are going back there on Monday. Looking forward to spar with these friendly martial artists, it should be fun!

Moral of the story?

Many can kick and punch, but not many can take kicks and punches :P !

Having fun!

I was blessed by the rain god on Saturday, March 15th:

(pic courtesy of Zoggee)

March 16th Track Event

I woke up at 5am as I had to meet Zoggee at 8am at the Pasir Salak Resort. Unfortunately, once I started the car, the DCOEs flooded on me... I was extremely pissed, as I had to meet up with Boy at 6.45am. Thanks to Boy, who helped me with the Webers, we finally got ready a little after 8am. We reached the resort around 9am:


After Zoggee and the BC Machine guys checked out of the hotel, we went to the track. Zoggee did a Solo I style time-attack for team BC Machine. Each member drove his own car on a clear track, the best time out of 5 laps was recorded, and would be used as a benchmark for future improvement. After the time-attack, everyone left, leaving Boy, Teng, and I on an empty track.

I was a passenger in Teng's Saga from Hell, the car had crazy torque steer and amazing acceleration:


The immense power was courtesy of the 4G63T:


Although Teng's car was fast, I couldn't resist a chase between our cars, as I believe my well-balanced touge machine should be faster on this track:




We did this for a few times, it was a lot of fun to chase Teng. Thanks for being a good sport!

It was hot as hell at Kg Gajah, and there was no sign of rain:


I felt so bad for Boy and Pui Yee, as we were planning to tsuiso and drift on the track... Alas, dark clouds never made it that afternoon :(

We called it a day at around 5pm... Once we were back in town, we met up with Tan, Tan's girlfriend, Mickey, Dennis, and Dennis' wife, Leng, for buffet dinner at "2 Plus 1":






Tan and Boy could really eat... I was pretty sure they wouldn't be allowed back to the restaurant next time :D !!!

March 15th Track Event

Sean Khoo, Johan, and Yoong aka MrNismo, were teaching the Defensive Driving Course on March 15th, unfortunately, I missed most of the actions (as Han and I had many things to do, we also had to source for parts for Zoggee's Starlet), and arrived in the late afternoon. You may wish to read Scavenger's write up on the event.

It was raining when Han and I arrived, the guys were taking a break, when we discovered the a herd of buffalo grazing leisurely on the track:

(Zoggee proceeded to scare them off with his mean, and very loud 4AGE powered Starlet!)

With the wet track, I didn't waste any time :P ! It was time to get sideways:


It was so much fun!!! Thanks for the video, Dan! Too bad the right rear tire punctured:


MrNismo, famous Malaysia drifter, also couldn't resist the wet track, he took his Toyota Caldina for a drift:


It was not easy to drift the Caldina, we were all very proud of him:


A pic of my touge machine with the Caldina:


Oh, for old school fans, we all loved Henry's fierce Subaru, but nobody knows the model... It is a front wheel drive, with boxer engine:


A near-miss accident took place when Lao Hia (BC Machine member) yanked his e-brake, although he countered the first swing of the tail to the right, he didn't anticipate the rebound, which threw the tail to the left, and proceeded to spin the car up close to the wall, gosh, he was lucky as he was literally inches away from a major crash:




Thanks to the team, the car got out without damages:


After that, it was time to go, I love the sunset:


All in all, it was a great day for everyone! Thanks for coming!

New member: GiGi

My princess has a new little friend, GiGi:

Smokehouse

Went up to the touge coz Joe needed to check on the slope monitoring device for Cameron Highlands:


Look at the slopes, these guys are still working hard to prevent further landslides:


After we were done, we headed straight towards the Smokehouse:


Smokehouse was built in 1939, it is an English, Tudor style hotel and restaurant. I'll let the pics do the talking:






Interior:




We sat at one of these:


The weather was really nice, it reminded me of Vancouver in autumn. The captain showed us the menus:


Not cheap (U$1=RM3.2) :


We ordered four scones and 2 pots of tea... Here comes the waitress:


She brought these:


We sat in the garden, which was very beautiful:


I was surrounded with beautiful flowers:


The atmosphere was very relaxing. Birds were chirping away, the weather was chilly and nice... Even the flowers smelled great! I loved it:


The bill came to RM69, it was RM60 for what we ordered, plus 10% service charge, and 5% tax... For the price, the silverwares used were pathetic, but the scones and teas were good :-)

It rained on our way home, but an FR-layout car is always fun in the rain... Too bad it stopped raining after a while:


Next time, let's all go touge and pay Smokehouse a visit ;) !

Riding Rocket to the Moon

Just something photoshopped in 5 minutes, in celebration of the new PAS Perak Chief Minister:

Wrong Perak Chief Minister!

Many Chinese Malaysians voted for the DAP (an opposition party symbolized by the rocket), however, after the opposition's victorious political tsunami over Malaysia, we got this:

The Chief Minister of Perak, should have been someone from DAP (rocket), which has a majority of 18 state assemblyman, but instead, we get one from PAS (symbolized by the moon). What the heck was DAP doing? How could they embrace the requirement for a Malay Muslim Chief Minister? What does race and religion have to do with this??? We should not discriminate on race and/or religion!!!

Sunday Penang Trip

With the tsunami win of the opposition parties in Malaysia on Saturday, I was worried of unrest in the country. After talking to friends in Penang, and after much deliberation, I finally decided to head over to Penang on Sunday for a meeting.

Hong the crazy driver:


Hong was wearing his white glove, and damn, he drives like a lunatic whenever he has this stupid glove on, don't ask me why :D ! With trance music blasting out loud in our car, we sped towards Penang, taking the full lane on the highway, out-in-out on all corners, and arrived "shortly" :P


A pic of the Sungai Perak tunnel:



(I like tunnel shots!)

After about 50 minutes, we were on the Penang bridge:


I love to be surrounded by the sea:


Hong was starving, so he brought us to a shrimp noodle stall located on McAllister road:

(It sucked! Soup had no taste... Change of ownership was probably the reason. Hong said it used to be good.)

We then went over to Gurney Plaza to kill time:

(Parking was jam-packed, so we parked outside the mall.)

After walking around for some time, it was time for the meeting at E & O Hotel. I took a pic of Hong waiting at the lobby:


After a quick discussion, it was time to meet up with Ah Tan, Andrew, Tommy, Dennis and wife, Christopher at the Queensbay Mall:

(they were gawking at girls...)

Queesbay Mall was full of hot babes. Our eyes were seriously strained... We were surrounded, lol :P ! When it came time for dinner, we all gathered at Tommy's sticker shop:


BTW, Tommy makes good stickers, if you are in the area, check out his shop, Tommax Trading, at 808-N, MK.13, Jalan Kg. Relau, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang. Tel. 012 469 0567.

We all carpooled at went over to Double Dragon Inn for dinner:


My ex girlfriend, Sherly and I used to go to this restaurant, I loved the friend chicken with sweet plum sauce (梅子鸡 ), the salted vegetables with pork (梅菜扣肉), fried fishbone with vegetables, and the ma po tofu (麻婆豆府). Double Dragon is located on 27B, Gottlieb Road, 10350 Penang. Call 04 2277 049 for reservation. Thanks to the guys for buying us dinner!

After dinner, it was still too early for touge, so we went to Prangin Mall:


We met Christine, Tommy's girlfriend, she has a shop in the mall. After fooling around in the mall, the guys finally decided to head over to the touge! Tommy let me behind the wheel of his Wira, so I had S, Christine, and Tommy in the car, while Andrew enthusiastically led in his Perdana. Dennis had his wife, Tan, and Hong in a Ford Ranger pickup.

We started off through Batu Ferringhi, the road was wet after the rain. Unfortunately, there was a lot of traffic, of course, we overtooked all of them, but next time, we should go there much later... After a few high speed sections, Andrew brought us to a dam:

(the guys relaxin')


(still talking about how Andrew and I overtooked a bus on Batu Ferringhi...)


(Hong stretching himself, after coming out of the Ford Ranger from hell, hahaha!)


(S falling asleep, and about to kill me...)


(Shot of Hong's new watch... Purchased earlier in Gurney Plaza.)

After chatting for a while, I hopped into Andrew's Perdana, and proceeded to discover the best touge I have encountered in Malaysia so far:


Here's Andrew's version of "relaxed cruising," with yours truly riding shotgun:

(I embedded DJ Tiesto's Traffic in the background, sound issues with the vid... Sorry!)

I was totally in love with the Balik Pulau Touge! Damn I wished I lived in Penang! I wanna go there every night! Although Andrew was taking it easy at the touge (coz it was wet, with debris too), I finally saw the touge side of him. The man can drive, at such a young age too... Damn he's good!

After an amazing adrenaline trip, Hong, S, and I had to bid goodbye to our friends, and we headed home. Hong must be very tired, as he only drove for like 20 minutes, before pulling over and asking me to take over. With me behind the wheel, we were back home in no time, EXCEPT when we got close to the exit:


There were tons of cars! OMFG!!! I forgot these voters that were going home... XYZ#$%^!!! We were home at like 1.30am!!! Arghhhhh..... And I still walked my dog, see how much I love her :P ???

Andrew's blog on my trip here.

Opposition leading in Malaysia's election

As of this writing, the opposition has won many seats in the election, obviously, some are happy, some are sad... Regardless, I just wanna tell you guys to stay cool, stay calm, and stay home, do not go out on a parade and get into trouble... You don't wanna give the wrong idea and cause a state of emergency, do you?

(Pic taken in front of DAP Ipoh HQ tonight...)

小幻's Proton Satria Neo 1.6 Campro

My new friend 小幻 arrived at the shop today, while I was waiting for parts. I felt bad that I didn't take him for a ride while at the track last week, so I told him I'd take him up the Cameron Highlands touge.

小幻's Campro powered Proton Satria Neo 1.6 has a short-shifter kit installed, in addition, he has Advan Neova AD07s on four aftermarket rims. He also has a replica R3 front spoi