VW Jetta MK6 in Sepang International Circuit

I never felt so much at home then in the tracks of Sepang International Circuit.

After finding out how the car would feel during a recent event here, I've finally gotten the chance to test out the "Altis" on the famous tarmac of Sepang International Circuit. Not once but twice actually.

The first time the "Altis" entered Sepang, I did not do any adjustment whatsoever to the car like tyre pressure and such and the car is entered as it is, in its very condition it arrived.

After spending a good 70% of the session learning the car, I then go into "time attack" mode for the final quarter of the session.
Managed 3:05 with the car in moderate to slightly heavy traffic condition.

Not much comment on the time as I need a reference time to base on for future track reference.

It was a good session as I get valuable personal data on how the car behaves and what improvements need to be done.

A couple of months later, I have another opportunity to run the Jetta in the track again and this time, the only "tuning" I did was to check the before and after reading of the tyres and the pressure is adjusted accordingly before each run.

Same thing follows, the first 70% of the session is spent getting the readings and correcting it accordingly. The final 30% is spend on "time attack" mode.

Frankly I can feel the improvement just on playing with the tyre pressure alone. I got more traction and the car ESP kicks in much later allowing me more throttle time.

This time I managed to bring the car below 3 mins to 2:59.47.

This particular session also did confirmed what exactly needed to be done.

A group pic after the second session.

Although the timing is not based on Sepang transponder, but I have the chance to do a cross-checked as the Lancer above is running on a transponder and I have the opportunity to cross check the app reading with the transponder reading.

The difference is only 2 hundredth of a second.

Now bring on the 2:50 barrier for this car.

"Altis" on dyno

Right before the car hit the magical 5 figures, I figure that I better get a power reading first as usually the magical 5 figures is where the green light for modding starts. Well at least for me.

Haha.
Hopefully the missus won't kill me.

So where else if not at GT Auto, a place I always frequent for dyno or car tuning purposes.

On a bright saturday morning, after sending the missus to work, I drop by GT Auto to have the car placed on the dyno machine.

It was after hooking up all the cables that Thomas from GT Auto realized that the ESP cannot be turned off in this car.

So as a solution, the dyno reading will be run in Link mode where both the axles will be placed on rollers like how a 4WD vehicle will be dynoed.

With both the axles safely placed on the rollers, the fun begins.

Due to my excitement in looking at the output of the car, I forgot to take more pictures of the dyno process in progress.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH !!!

Anyway, after all is done and dusted, my final results is as below.

Considering the stated factory output of the car as 160PS / 240NM, I am quite happy with the power that my stock car is putting out.

Wonders of running it hard since day one.

With this base reading in hand, the next stage can now earnestly start.

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..