Yeah, kinda sad isn't it? Even though I've been following drifting for pretty much a long time, but after all these years this is probably the first time I actually made an effort to attend an actual drift event! Although the event just happened last week on Sunday, but the memories are here to stay with me for the weeks and months to come... and maybe even until the next Formula Drift event in Malaysia! Anyhow, I don't know if I wanna give the full detail of the event or just a short summary, but I'll try my best to explain the event from my personal point of view.

So the day started off with me knowing about the event a week before the actual event started and since I had no other events clashing with FD I gave some thoughts if I wanted to go or not. Back then I was still 50-50 whether or not if I will be going. But then on that Saturday before the event I just got the nod from my parents saying there wasn't anything to do so I went and bought the ticket just a day before the actual event started lol. So I bought the ticket, got my stuff prepare and earlier that morning on Sunday I went ahead and went to Formula Drift Malaysia at Speed City KL! (and yes, this is also the first time I've been to SCKL after years of having to postpone my visit lol) The drive from my place to Speed City KL took about 15-20 minutes by car while driving through the Shah Alam Highway, but its also quite expensive as you have to pay RM2 for the toll... twice! (and that makes it RM8 for the whole trip to and from) But once I reach there I didn't care much about the toll or even the parking (which was RM5 for the whole day, not bad I guess) but I was really looking forward to seeing the whole event. Even when I was outside the gate I could already hear the cars drifting, the screeching tires and the smell of burnt rubber lol.

So after parking my car and meeting up with my friend there, we queued up to enter the place but sadly they had a policy of no food or drinks allowed in the event. Even a bottle of water wasn't allowed which was kinda sad really... as the expect us to pay for the food and drinks inside, which was a bit ridiculously expensive. (for us locals anyhow) But apart from that, I didn't really have any problems entering, and as soon as we were inside the event area I quickly took out my sister's camera and started shooting nearly every car and booth I see lol. While I just did the normal photo taking like everyone else, my friend did it a bit differently and used his (and mine which I borrowed him) nendoroids to take photos of the cars and drivers. Meh, I didn't care much for it but he did get a lot of weird looks doing it haha. But yeah, it was kinda cool to see some of those cars up close as well as taking photos with the drivers who I admire since way back ago, especially Fredric Aasbo (pic above), Masao Suenaga, Daigo Saito, Daijiro Yoshihara and a few others.

Also met a few friends I've made back when I was doing training and internship back in college as well as a few other friends throughout the day as the event went along. Before I know it, it was already noon and the qualifying was long over. There was also a small concert during the event but I didn't take much notice of it. However I did remember there being an autograph session later that afternoon, and I managed to catch the queue very early on lol. When it was already like 1pm I think the queue was almost all the way to the back of the area and near the exit lol. Glad I got quite a lot of autographs and free goods that day, I mean... its totally worth more than the ticket I actually pay for! Gotta say the drivers in Formula Drift are some of the kindest and down-to-earth people I've gotten to see up close and personal with. You just can't beat the hospitality that Formula Drift provides, and its kinda easy to see why a lot of people love going to these events year after year.

After that me and my friend decided to go out for a bit to catch a break and find somewhere less hot to sit down and talk a bit, and then I decided to head out a bit to find some place to get cheaper food and drinks while also finding a place to do my Zohor prayers. After we did all that we managed to get back before the main top 16 event started, and we headed back in. The weather did look like it was gonna be pouring anytime soon, but thankfully that happen latter on during the event. (more on that later) But after the national anthem was played and the top 16 introduction was over it was time for the actual battle to begin. Now I'm not really gonna go over every detail regarding all the battles, but I was kinda shocked to see both Daigo and Aasbo being knocked out in the top 16. Also kinda sad to see Djan having to settle with 4th place after an almost flawless run throughout the day. But the biggest surprise was seeing this one Thai driver called "S" (yes, that is his name lol. Okay, but not his real name obviously) driving the Westlake S13 to the win against Tom Monkhouse in his newly bought (or borrowed, can't really remember) JZX110 Toyota Verossa, which was previously owned by an ex D1GP driver who was driving for T&E Vertex. (can't remember the name of the driver, but I kept mistaking it for Tohru Inose for some reason when clearly it was not! But yeah... still very knowledgeable in the drifting world even though I don't keep up as much as before) I could clearly tell it was an ex-D1GP car just by the livery and body kit lol. (apparently the team didn't change the livery or color and just added an Archilles sticker for sponsoring sake)

Anyhow, after the main event and podium celebration was over I was hoping I could see the team battle go on, but after 2 teams just went out it started raining heavily and the competition had to be cancelled and before we know it the event was over while the rain kept continuously pouring and the whole area was flooded lol. Then I also got to take a few more pictures with a few more drivers, waited for a bit and even chatted with a driver or two while waiting for the rain to stop. When it finally stopped I clearly noticed a lot of people already went back, but I still had one more thing to do before I could go home happily, and that was meeting up with Larry Chen of Speedhunters fame. I managed to meet up with him earlier that day and he even gave me a few "official" Speedhunters sticker, but I still wanted to meet up with him, take a picture and maybe even have a small chat with him. So when the chance arrived, I managed to do all that and then some! Haha... my small dream of meeting up with a Speedhunter crew was finally fulfilled but now I guess I should aim for something a bit more bigger. I might have been "featured" in an article or two but I think I still haven't made any major contributions to that website just yet. But good to know I'm still following that website after all these years... =)

Well I guess that should be enough talk about the event. I managed to do what I want, I got more than what I bargained for and I definitely went home with a happy face with having to deal with personal issues for that whole week. I will definitely look forward to the next Formula Drift event, and who knows... maybe one day I can be competing in the event myself against my heroes too. ^_^

Anyhow, if anyone else wants to see some of the photos me and my friend took or interested to know about the results or the event in even more detail, you can check the links below:
My gallery (Facebook)
My friend's gallery (Facebook)
Mat Canyon's gallery (Facebook)
Coverage from Larry Chen on Speedhunters
Formula Drift Asia coverage
Zerotohundred coverage

So yeah, exactly one year later and how does my car look now? What happened to all the plan mods and stuff? Okay, to be honest I'm quite disappointed I still don't have enough money to fully modify my car like I wanted to but I can't do much being a student and stuff. Oh well, that is next year I guess... Anyhow, enjoy looking at my Hyundai i10 and all its (un)glory:






But of course, with a few battle scars or two (or three, or four...)







So what mods did I do to my car then? If you noticed the picture above, what is that poking underneath the bumper...




Yeap, got my exhaust replaced a few months ago on my birthday. Not sure how much horsepower my car makes with the new exhaust, but whatever it is my car now sounds really loud... (and annoying lol)

Also, I removed my stock air filter and now using a DIY cold air intake system. (if you noticed the picture of the front bumper where the huge scrape was, that is where the cold air intake feeds from) Again, it was to increase horsepower but all I'm certain was it sure made even more noise hahahaha...



Okay, this might not actually be a real modification but if it means the car go faster... why not!? Beside, now I have more boot space as well... =P


Over 10,000KM driven over 1 year, hope to drive even more kilometers until next year. =)

So nothing much changed apart from that, so much for my cars stance and fitment and stuff. What will the car be by next year then? I'm not really sure, but if anything it will probably not be the same as it is this year... =D

A few weeks late, but I guess its better than nothing hahaha... Not really gonna post much here (will leave a few useful links below) but I'm glad that the team managed to do so well compared to the other teams there. Of course, it was the Asian Touring Car Series is what I'm talking about here.

Charles Ng did a great job finishing 2nd in both race 1 & 2 despite having to compete against much faster cars on the grid, just goes to show how good a driver Charles really is. Who knows how much better he would be if he given a better car... Not to say that the current car wasn't good or anything, but the car could always be improved. Hopefully those new upgrades will help him become more competitive for the next race...

Anyway, I have to give credit Traffic Magazine and Autogridz for the photos and articles. You can read the full summary of the race below:
ATCS Round 3
ATCS Round 4
Autogridz coverage
MTCC

I just cannot believe what a week it has been for me. From being at the workshop frantically preparing the cars and whatnot, to actually seeing the cars run and thankfully finish the race without too many problems was a reward in itself. I don't really know what to say really, working with a workshop which is also an actual race team which is also very successful (for a new team that is), once again I have to say that I am really really fortunate to get the experience which I'm sure most of my friends must be jealous off, hahahaha...

Yes, even if it is a little bit more demanding (seriously, working with a professional race team is never easy, especially for a person like me) and have to stay through the late nights just to get the car onto the grid was never easy but I guess in the end, as all things are, it was all worth it. What more if the car not only managed to finish the race, but to finish on the podium in both races!!!

Well, sadly this was not the actual Super GT race hahaha. Would be way beyond my wildest dreams if I was working with a Super GT team, be it in GT300 or GT500. Honestly, if anyone followed my blog you would know about the AFOS race about a month ago, (you would notice it since I don't blog much lol) the Asia GT4 championship happens to be one of the support races in the Super GT weekend, having 2 races with one on Saturday and one on Sunday. The cars that my race team prepared was 2 Ginetta G50 for Track Torque Racing and an Aston Martin V8 Vantage N24 for S&D Motorsport/Conca Macca. I'm not really gonna spoil anyone about the results or anything, but if you want to know the race results you can check the link provided below:

Asia GT4 championship round 3 results
Asia GT4 championship round 4 results

As for the Super GT race, haha it was cool to get to watch the race even if it was just for a few laps lol. Sadly I didn't get to go for the "Pit Walkabout" and get some photos of the cars, but thankfully I did manage to get a few shots during the race. I'm not gonna really post all of the shots here, but only a selected few. I will try to upload the rest of my pictures on Facebook so you can look there if you want to see more of the pictures...






(sorry for the bad quality photos, as I didn't get to borrow a better camera from my brother or sister and also the fact that I can't do panning shots that well lol)

As for the results for the Super GT race, look here. But I do have to say, the Honda HSV-010 GT was definitely one of the best sounding car out of all the cars. Sounds almost exactly as an F1 car, even on the upshift and downshift!!! Only that it wasn't revving as high as an F1 car nor was it as loud, hahahaha... =P

Oh what can I say... working with a workshop which is also a professional race team is kinda tiring and very demanding, but the experience is so totally worth every blood, sweat and tears I shed. (even if that means getting scolded each time I did anything wrongly!) But yeah, this race is my second time for a race weekend (the other one being AFOS of course) and the first time I've been to an endurance race!!!

So erm... what is there to say about this event then? Okay, so first the team I was with was of course G.Harry Racing Team which was running a Honda EK9 (or was it a EJ9?) #30 running in class 2. Not sure what to say about our results during the race though (we were practically nowhere near where the front runners were) but considering that the car was pretty old and gave us a lot of trouble (which we had to work till the late hours to fix!) and still manage to finish the full 9 hour race was remarkable. Finished in 21st place overall (not sure about our class, was probably 15th I think) out of like 50-60+ competitors was ok I guess. Not sure if I want to continue telling my experience here, but at least I manage to do something more than just buying food for everyone lol...

Anyway, if anyone wanted to know who the race winner is you can check the link below:
Autogridz

Just when I thought my life would get any worse, I've just seen the light at the end of the tunnel. Been thinking lately about whether becoming a mechanic was a good idea and that going to college was a mistake and that I should have become a NEET or something cause somehow I just don't feel right about working. Kept doing the wrong things, making mistakes, breaking stuff, etc. I though I would just give up and do something else...

But after today, my mind has kinda changed slightly. Of course I still do feel a bit sad (I'm emokid, what do you expect?) after all the troubles that I caused in the 4 weeks that I've been working at the workshop so far, and after doing something terrible the day before (not work related) I just wish that I could stop doing everything and just lock myself up in my room and think about all the things that I've done. So what happened today that got me motivated you say? Something car/work related of course... *cough*

After working on the Nissan Skyline GT-R R32 for so many weeks the car finally got running after everything was done. Then today after some tweaks and stuff the car was able to drive on the road again. Couldn't believe how amazing it is that the car was from being abandoned by the previous workshop owner, to being completed with the people that I'm working with now. But most of all, not only to get the car in a working and running condition was an accomplishment, but to get to ride shotgun in a shakedown was just something else. I guess you can say it was "the fruit of our labor" (even though I didn't really do much lol).

Another surprise was that I get to ride in the Nissan Silvia S15 as well! But I got to say, after being inside both of these cars and being driven at the scruff of the neck my perspective of tuning and cars in general has changed. Boy oh boy what a feeling it was to feel the surge of power coming from each of these car... definitely a lot more exhilarating than my crappy i10! But of course, it didn't happen if I didn't work for 14 hours either... (went to work at 9am, came back home at 11pm)

But really, I do hope this will give me some motivation on doing my training, and work and study hard to achieve my far-fetched goal...

Oh, and the link to the picture above:
sdobbins.com's flickr

The race finished just about an hour ago or so, and its a little sad to say that I missed nearly half of the race! A lot of things happened in the race, and this years 12 Hours of Sebring was sadly not as good as last year. With Audi wasn't able to race Sebring, it was clearly gonna be Peugeot race to win with neither the Aston Martin Racing nor the Drayson Racing could do anything about it in their petrol cars. (seriously, the diesel were always gonna be faster than the petrol with the current regulations) Then again, what lacked in P1 & P2 was made up by the new entries in GT2. Porsche, Ferrari, BMW, Chevrolet, (and less likely) Jaguar were in a shot for the GT2 class win.

Other than that, there were also 2 new classes introduced to fill up the grin in ALMS with the Le Mans Prototype Challenge (LMPC or Formula Le Mans in Europe) and the GTC class (which is maily composed of Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars). But of course I'm not gonna talk much a lot about those 2 new classes and just concentrate on P1 and GT2. So as the race finished it was obviously Peugeot taking the win, with Alexander Wurz, Marc Gene, & Anthony Davidson driving the #07 Peogeot 908 HDi FAP crossing the line first with the #08 Peugeot of Sebastien Bourdais, Nicolas Minassian, & Pedro Lamy finished some 13 seconds behind in 2nd and the final spot of the podium was taken by Adrian Fernandez, Stefan Mucke, and Harold Primat in the #007 Aston Martin Racing Lola B09 60.

Things couldn't be any different in GT2 as Risi Competizione won yet again in the #62 Ferrari F430 driven by Jaime Melo, Gianmaria Bruni, & Pierre Kaffer having a comfortable win ahead of the #92 BMW E92 M3 of Dirk Werner, Bill Auberlen, Hermosa Beach, & Tom Milner and the #90 BMW E92 M3 of Dirk Mueller, Joey Hand, & Andy Priaulx. So what happened to the Corvette and Porsche then? For the Corvette Racing team, they just had a nightmare of a race with gaining a lot of penalties during the race and the crash in the pits didn't help much either. Porsche was on the other hand was just struck by bad luck when the #17 Falken Porsche lost its right rear wheel and made contact with the #45 Flying Lizards which was in 2nd during that time. Oh what would the race have been like if Ferrari had run into problems as well in the race.

Whatever it is, the race was still quite enjoyable to watch despite the demise of the GT1 class as well as the slightly smaller grid compare to the years past. The American Le Mans series will still be one of the most interesting endurance race series to watch. How will the Le Mans Series and the FIA GT1 World Championship will compare to ALMS is anybodies guess...

I'm not gonna write a lot about my first week on my SIT (Supervised Industrial Training) as a technician/mechanic, but thought I could share some photos I took on my camera phone. Yeah, the pictures might be a bit blur, small and whatnot but my phone camera is only 1.3 megapixel. Hopefully I can get a new phone soon lol...

Anyway, the workshop is quite a cool place to work. The people there are very nice and helpful, and I hope I can learn a lot from them. Spent the first 2 days clearing and cleaning the workshop, moving car parts, furniture and whatnot to make the working environment a bit more comfortable. After those 2 days I finally got to work on some of the cars there, even though I didn't get to work on all the cars as much but nevertheless its quite fun to work even though my body starts to ache a lot nowadays ever since I started work lol. Okay, enough about me though and lets take a look at some of the cars inside the workshop:



Nissan Skyline GT-R R32

Ford Mustang

Lexus GS300/Toyota Aristo JZS161 (with a automatic 2JZ-GTE motor)

A BMW 3 Series E30...

... with a Nissan RB26 swap!!!



Nissan Silvia S15

Honda Integra DC5 race car (ATCS Spec)

Well I do wish I could write some more about the workshop and stuff, but I just feel too tired to explain everything. Oh well, I'll try to post some more when I have a better camera/camera phone (yeah right) and have some more free time to post something. Who knows, maybe there will be more better cars coming into the workshop in the future. (*cough*Aston Martin GT4*cough*) Its only been a week, and there is 19 weeks left to go hahahaha...

Everything about it is just wrong I guess haha. Can't blame the owner for trying though, hey at least its something different!!!

Think the wheels are okay (tires could be stretch though), maybe even pull the fenders or have fender flares made so that the wheels are a bit more "flush" and definitely need to lower the car (the ride height was definitely higher than stock). Other than that I guess its okay for a cheaply modified Malaysian car, haha...

Daaaayuuuuuummmmm.... just look at that thing! Not only am I lost for words, made my jaw dropped on the floor with drools splattered all over, made me jizzed in my pants and made me shat bricks, or even the fact that I could have just imploded into a gazillion pieces looking at this masterpiece. Honestly though, Linhbergh sure know how to work his magic around cars.....

For more info, check the links below:
SLAMBURGLARS STEAL THE SPARKS
Slamburglars
Linhbergh

Sorry for not posting much this month, just haven't really had much things to blog about lol. Practically been occupied playing DiRT 2 over these past few weeks and couldn't care less about anything else lol! HellaFlush III might have been over a few weeks ago but this video was just released a few days ago and I just couldn't help but post it...

Basically the video was just a summary of the whole HellaFlush III event and I got to say the whole video was excellently done!!! The music accompanying the video is pretty fitting with the theme as well. With that said though, I do wish I could be there and enjoy the atmosphere but then again the grass is ALWAYS GREENER on the other side. *sigh*

Anyway, if you like what you see here then be sure to check out these links below for more HellaFlush III coverage:
HellaFlush
Speedhunters
Flickr
Wrong Fitment Crew
(I'm sure there is probably more, but I think this should be good enough!)

Just had to post this ever since I first saw it on Speedhunters a few days ago. (could have posted this a few days ago but only now I had the time to blog lol) Anyway, this is has got to be on of the coolest feature months on Speedhunters ever!!! Amazing cars, amazing stance, amazing...... everything! Trust me, once you finished viewing all the cars and events features by the end of the months you will never look at your car the same again.....

*sigh* If only more Malaysians could understand how to do a "proper" fitment and stance on their cars instead of the usual "ricer" look of the 90's that has been come and gone everywhere else in the world. Be creative people!!! I know I could have done my car proper "IF" I had the money (and of course, people who can understand me!) to actually do it! Yeah, all I have now is just a dream and video games to make it real. Haha, sad isn't it?

To know more about what its all about, just go visit the link below to find out:
Slammed Month on Speedhunters

That is just wickedly low. The fact that those 2 cars were actually scraping the flat ground even at a very slow speed just says it all. Gotta give credit to the Japanese though, for having the craziest car scene in the world.....

Found this on HellaFlush

Yeah, just finished watching it a few hours ago and I got to say that Wagenwerks pulled out all the stops with this one. The cinematography, the music, the settings and of course, the cars themselves all looked stunning in that video. All props to them for making such an awesome feature on Worthersee....

So how did I get interested in this in the first place? Well it all started when I first watched the trailer on Speedhunters. I do have to say that after I watched the trailer I was hooked straight away and thought of getting it. After that I went to their website and noticed they were selling the pre-order DVD (which comes with said t-shirt and stickers) and I knew I just had to buy this. So as for saying what Wagenwerks are, they are an automotive film crew that are based in the US which focuses primarily on Volkswagen cars and cars that are related to Volkswagen Group. With that said though, I do feel like they left out a lot of things in that video and at about 40 minutes long it does feel kinda short. Not that I'm complaining or anything, it was quite "worth-the-see" if you know what I mean lol. Watch this trailer and maybe you will understand what I'm talking about:

Seriously, all the cars in the video was dope. All the cars looked great, had (mostly) perfect wheel fitment and stance and each and every one of those cars are unique in their own ways. If only more tuners would make their cars more "simple" instead of just bolting parts on the car and having no style whatsoever.

Note: Okay, I know this isn't really much of a review and I know I left out tons of details about the Worthersee event, the tracks, and the cars and whatever else that I forgot to mention but its just up to you to find out more about it or not.

Damn right I'm excited!!! After ordering it last month and waiting for like 2 weeks for it to ship it here, I finally got this in the mail today. Got it shipped all the way from the United States of America baby! Lol, okay this might not look interesting or anything, so what is all this hype about then? Well just read along if you want to know. =)


Okay okay, first of all I just want to let you know that this is the first time that I actually ordered anything online lol. (internationally that is) But since I was so desperate to get this I got some help from someone *ahem* to help me order it and use his account to pay for it, hehe. So like, what is chopped on that box you asked? Well if you could read what it says on the box it does clearly read Wagenwerks. So what is Wagenwerks you wonder? Well I myself am not very sure how to explain it right now, but in short it is clearly about cars (Volkswagen to be precise) and well, cool looking cars that will make your jaw drop at that. I will explain more on this tomorrow, but for now though I'll just post the contents that is inside the box.

So lets see whats inside the box:

Oh, a paper wrapper with a sticker on it?


Certainly, the sticker does look quite nice even though its just to hold the wrapper in place. Wish they had given me extra stickers for the trouble shipping it here lol. Oh alright alright, lets get to the main content shall we?


..... and here it is! So as you can see, I get a DVD, a T-Shirt and 2 stickers. So whats so special about this? Well if anyone wanted to know, this is a special pre-order of Wagenwerks' "Worthersee Tour 2009" DVD which comes with the limited edition T-Shirt (which only comes with the pre-order) and 2 Wagenwerks stickers. Got to say though, both the T-shirt and stickers looks pretty awesome in person than seeing it in pictures online. The T-shirt quality was quite okay and tried wearing it and was quite comfortable to wear. (not sure though what would happen once I start washing it....) As for the sticker, they just look amazing doesn't it? Had a cool matte/shiny effect on it and I just like how the whole logo looks. Not sure what I will stick it on to though, maybe I'll just keep it and stick on my future Volkswagen? (haha, whenever that may be....)

How much does this all cost me then? Well when I saw the pre-order on the site it says US$49.99 (or about RM169) and with the added cost for shipping, tax and whatnot the total was about RM200. So is it all worth it? I can't say for sure, but for me it is just worth every penny. Not sure if it is for everyone, you just need to have that certain taste for modified VWs then only you will understand. Just need to say thanks to my brother for ordering and paying it first for me (since I don't have a paypal or online cash or my own bank account) and I'll promise I'll pay him when he comes by.

So yeah, thanks for reading my not-so-worth rant about this delivery lol. Well I'll try to watch the DVD tomorrow (if I have time) and give a review about the DVD as well as describing Wagenwerks in my very own words and know more about them, what they do and why VW lovers just need to watch their videos and buy their DVDs.

Well maybe not exactly the first, but I'm not sure if anyone posted the car yet on the internet so this just might exactly be the first "on the road" shot of the brand new Porsche Panamera!

The car was just released here a couple of days ago and I was quite surprised when I saw this car on my rear view mirror on my way back to college yesterday. Luckily enough the car was going in the same direction as we were (for a short while at least) which was enough for me to get a few shots of the car.



So how much does this car cost? Well the base model (the Panamera S) starts at RM998,000.00 (or about US$300,000 with tax and whatnot). Holy cripes!!!! O_O