Discovering the "Altis"

After gotten the car for exactly 4 months, I've finally have the time and place for me to test out the car at the limits and getting to know its threshold.

Where else if not at this event that I've attended back in early March 2013.

Prior to this, off and on I do try to discover what is the limit I have but since it is on public road, those test are limited to the occasional corners like thoue found in Kerinchi and Penchala link.
Taking into account that it is a public road, those test are not really at the limit. More like 40% at most.

Curious to know more, the GAB Racing Speedfest.my Track Day & Time attack event allow me the place to find out more.

I am glad to say, I found out more about where my limits are and what are my reserved before things start to get hairy.
I get to know how much the ESP allows me to have fun before kicking in, how much and how hard I need to kick the pedal in order for the ABS to kicks in and more.

I can say that I am glad I decided to join after much consideration and I am certainly pleased with what I've discovered and also what improvement that needs to be done to tweak the car to my driving style.

GAB Racing Speedfest.my Track Day & Time Attack Challenge

Held on the 3rd of March 2013 at PLUS SPEEDWAY CIRCUIT, GAB Racing Speedfest.my Time Attack Challenge is an event specifically targeted at those who wants to know what grassroot Motorsports is all about.

We all know not many can afford the expensive fees of the Sepang Track and thus Speedfest.my take this chance to bring motorsports more accessible to the masses.

In order to achieve this Speedfest.my, together with their sponsors, RSONE AUTO PARTS SDN BHD, RADICAL CHASSIS SOLUTIONS SDN BHD and MADDRIVERS GARAGE arranged a Time Attack Challenge event for those who are keen to explore or get to know more about grassroot motorsports.

Speedfest.my inagural event saw a total of 44 cars participating. We have cars ranging from the usual suspects of Satria and Satria Neo, Swift Sports, Myvi, Civic EF, Nissan S15, Toyota MRS, Mazda MX5, Honda S2000, BMW E36, Wiras, normal family sedan like the Kia Forte, Proton Inspira and Toyota Altis and heck even a bone stock Perodua Kancil 850cc manual.

The 44 cars are divided into different classes from A (Below 1600cc manual), B (Below 1600cc Auto), C (Above 1600cc manual), D (Above 1600 cc auto) and E (Track / Non-production cars).

The day started off with an introductory to the course where all cars will lined up and then lead onto the track to get a feel on how the track is like. This is a course where having a million horsepower is useless and this is a very tight and technical course where driving skills and precision is the order of the day.

Basically this is how the layout of the track looks like.

A chicane is placed on the downhill section to slow things down and also to prevent untoward incidents.

The format of the event is that each cars and participant will have their timing taken from the moment they start until they cross the finish line.

The participant with the fastest time in their respective category will be the winner.

At the end of the day after all the tyres screeching and engine noises has died down, its time to announce the winner.

For Category A, which is for Manual Transmission Car below 1600 cc, the winners are as follows:

1 - Mohd Azman - Proton Satria 1.3 - 0.5890

2 - Tommy Ho - Proton Satria Neo CPS 1.6 - 0.5953

3 - Ridhuan Ramlee - Proton Satria Neo 1.6 - 1.0125

For Category B, which is for Automatic Transmission Car below 1600 cc, the winners are as follows:

1 - Syed Dzulkarnain - Proton Saga - 1.0441

2 - Ong Jun Hui - Proton Wira 1.5 - 1.0800

3 - Wan Norhafizan - Proton Saga FLX 1.6 - 1.0872

For Category C, which is for vehicle with Manual Transmission above 1601 cc, the honors are as follows:

1 - Mitch Chong - Proton Satria 1.8 - 0.5782

2 - Mickey Teoh - Toyota MRS 1.8 - 0.5900

3 - Yong Kok Kit - Proton Satria 1.8 - 0.5934

For Category D, which is basically for vehicle with Automatic Transmission above 1601 cc, the results is as below:

1 - Nicholas Leong - Toyota Corolla Altis 1.8 - 1.0365

2 - Ng Khang Chun - VW Jetta 1.4 TSI - 1.0428

3 - Kamahlaan - Kia Forte 2.0 - 1.0609

For category E which is the category for Track / Non-production cars, the honors are:

1 - Rod Anders - Open Buggy - 1.0001

2 - Hafiz Isa - Proton Satria GTi 1.8 - 1.0200

3 - Matthew Salleh - Open Buggy - 1.0384

All in all, everyone had fun testing their vehicle and at the same time gain valuable insight into their respective rides and also an eye opening experience on what grassroot motorsports is all about.

Not forgetting too the ideas exchanged, new friendship are forged, existing friendship strengthened, all this in the spirit of motorsports.

Congratulations to the winners and also to all the participants in this event.

I am sure everyone look forward for more event like these in the future.

Just a note to the organizers tho, can we have a more structured run instead of having every single participant lined up waiting for their turns?

Finally keep the racing off the streets and make our roads a safer place to be.

Opinion: "Performance" Oil Filters - Works Engineering

Before any hardcore supporters of the brand goes amok on me, please take note that this is only my personal opinion.
If you don't like, don't read la. Easy right?
t(-.-)t

This is to share my opinion on "performance" oil filters.

Now before I go further, the product that is the center of my opinion today would be non other then Works Engineering High Performance Oil Booster Filter.
Yeah serious. That is the complete name.

If you are to ask me if oil filters increase HP, I would have bitch slap you on the spot. Serious.

How is it that an oil filter is able to increase the power of your engine? 

Do they even know what they are doing?

First a failed camshaft. Story here.

Now this?

For those that are not in the know, basically how engine works is like this. 

When you do an oil change, you basically release back the lost engine power that is lost and this will make you feel as though as your engine is making more power. 

In ACTUAL fact, you are just gaining back all your lost power since the last oil change.

How?

As your engine oils gets dirtier (from giving protection to your engine parts, DUH!), you lose efficiency and thus in the process, losses a couple or so HP/Torque. That is why you hear people complaining about engine being sluggish and such but once an oil change is done, the engine felt better and more responsive.

This is an on-going process.

Simple car maintenance 101. It will not get any simpler then that.

Now lets relate to the mentioned product. 

Notice how it say that you need to do the following:

"However, to maintain optimum low pressure loss properties, it is recommended to change the filter every 3000 km when an oil change is performed."

Basically what it say is to recommend a user to do an oil change every 3000 km in order to feel the filter effect.

Isn't this bullshit plain and simple?

A regular oil change interval is 5000 km and to use this filter, you do it at every 3000 km instead?

Shorter interval means fresher engine oil means more responsive engine means u have less power loss means you feel you have more power when in fact you are actually minimizing the power loss due to dirty engine oil.

Please do some thinking here.

1 + 1 = ?

So now to claim that an over-priced oil filter is able to add HP, in my opinion, would be a plain con job.

Not sure about you but I am surely not falling for this con.

Just another car wash ?

Gave the new ride a thorough wash a couple of weeks after getting the keys to it.
(Yeah, I know, this is supposed to be posted 3 months ago so problem? HA HA)

P/S: yeah, a new ride, a VW Jetta.

Figured to get my lazy ass to give it one thorough wash as I am free that weekend and if I don't, I will be hard pressed to find another opening.

So on a bright sunday morning where everyone is still sound asleep in their bed, my lazy ass is up and running  for the job ahead.

A good 6 hours later, this is the result.

Fresh from the shower.

Re-parked for detailing under the shade.

After detailing. That's like another 2 hours or so.

What detailing?

To me its waxing.

Cleaned and waxed the headlamp.

Overall view.

Dun pray-pray, I put my heart into this ok?

After all is done and dusted (about 8 hours plus in total ok), I realized that I've forgotten to take a pic of the cleaned interior.

Cue face palm.

Anyway, having a spanking clean ride in the porch, more so after you have personally cleaned it yourself, the satisfaction, only a true car nut will know.

It's the best feeling ever.

Ahhhhhhh....

Now to make time for the next session.

Jam Jam Jam everywhere...

A look out the window of my office and the view is not good.

This is not a time to have this 2 condition together at one go.

Heavy Rain + Peak Hours

When you have the above condition, you get this below.

A normal 10 km/20 mins journey can take freaking 2 hours.

Argh !!!!!!!

Mega congestion..

ZzZzZzZzZz

The first time...

Its a matter before the mod bug itch break out and finally it did.

Did a first mod to the car.
Where else would I do it if not at EA Autoworks.

A sneak preview to keep you guys guessing.

Works Engineering Preve: Will it really work?

Will this works work or will it be worked?

LOLOLOLOLOL
Certain readers will understand.

Works engineering... the question is... are you sure?

Hot: Satria Neo vs Proton Preve Drag

Caught in action.
Satria Neo vs Proton Preve drag race.

Hmmm..

Preview: Proton Preve

A more thorough comparison is coming soon.

For now, just enjoy the few shots below.

Stay tuned.

Preview: Proton Preve

Yes.
The car is officially launched today by the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

I've tested the car immediately after its official launch together with one of my friend.

Below is the summary of what I think of it, (based on a 30 mins test drive), posted here.

==========

nope...

the acceleration is so so.... the 205 NM dont make itself felt... 
frankly if u ask me.... i feel the acceleration of a FD2 can match this car


the interior wise, feels solidly put together but the overall packaging could be better <-- bashers will take this as a poorly build interior as they will not understand what is overall packaging.. poor them 

(as much as i think the interior can be better, this is a right step as compared to the interior of previous proton's)

as a typical proton, its the driving dynamics of this car even with traction control off (in the wet), (sorry to those on LDP earlier for terrorizing u guys), that really shines... brakes are solid, steering feel is excellent, lane change stability is there, the chassis is well composed no matter how i try to shake it off balance (hand brake corner in taman megah)..

very big thanks to the folks in taman sea showroom for giving me this extended test drive with my friend...
and we are sorry for burning the brakes... the brakes faded when we returned the car... (yes u can smell them, brake smell i meant)
 

cant wait to see what the R3 boys can do to its already well sorted chassis...


P/S: 
no, i am not paid.... and if u would ask me, i would think they can do better with the interior and oh yeah, bigger brakes please. preve brakes is smaller then those on the exora bold 

A video of the drive:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150701299891494

(If you can't see it, sorry, its shared from my friend who was with me that time)

=================

A more comprehensive personal (together with better quality pictures la of course, how good can a phone captured picture be?) will be done once I go for a second drive this weekend.

For now, the above is my initial opinion.

Feel free to discuss.

Thank you again to the folks from Taman Sea branch and not forgetting my friend who recommend me to this branch.