Transplant: Mixed feeling

Finally got the car 2 weeks ago and it has been on the road since, generally the car was good on the road, the air cond was not cold initially when it was out from garage but it has been fixed few days ago due to a faulty compressor.

Initial results shows good, no temperature increase when stucked in long traffic jam (except the failing aircond earlier), no leakages on the undercarriage, no knocking sound, reach 180kmh smoothly with no flat zone, minimum turbo lag even on front mount intercooler, moderate fuel consumption (RM60 for 350 km city driving) and no wiring faults.

One thing funny about the car is its fast on straight, but slow on corners. The way you decelerate and accelerate no longer apply when you drive a NA compared to a turbocharged car. This is one thing I guess I will not figure out until some months later on the road and its pretty frustrating to wait for the turbine to spool your way our from the exit corner... I used to think that with such a forced induction engine, everything is going to be fast, but this is virtually not the case. With boost on 0.9 bar max, the car is pretty fun when on the federal road but not so fun on, say Tanjung Bungah hill road...

I missed the feeling of driving the Deto at 5th gear and you still can overtake a car while youo yourself going at 60kmh. I missed the feeling of instant torque whenever you want it on my old Deto. I also missed the feeling of the LSD gear when taking corner with the Deto, knowing quite well that upon exiting the corner, you already on your power band and its linear acceleration. Now only I realize my driving skill sucks because I relied too much on the old engine's torque to drive regardless of the correct gear to use... but anyway I guess life was not meant to be that simple.

Well, for what's worth, going to Genting or Cameron or city driving would be much fun with this 4E engine, but certainly the scary feeling of driving this 4E will always be there, one will never know when the turbo is going to kick in when you are going through a corner, and if it kicks in right at the apex with a pool of water, that might not be a good way to die.

Until I can find a way to fix the way I drive during corner and change my driving style when handling gear, I don't think I will say this engine is good for me.

On a lighter note, I will be needing to change my botak tyres soon, the Yokohama Advan Neova had finally run to a near 10% tread and definately not road safe during rain. Another dilema is whatever tyre I choose, it will never be as good as the AD07 because I can't afford semi slicks anymore, and that's probably whats made it even more frustrating. Regardless, safety is still a priority..

Transplant: What happened to my old engine?

HD-EG sold! Gonna send to Brian O' Connor somewhere in L.A.

Didn't know they watch fast and furious :P

Transplant: Week 10 engine bay touch up

Tomorrow is the convoy trip to Pantai Merdeka, but because my car is not able to be complete... anyway its still pending:
1) Rear disc brake - Removed on loan for someone to get his car approved by JPJ
2) Change steering rack
3) Change dashboard light to ah bengz red LED
4) Change head gasket
5) Change to heavy duty clutch
Basically those are the things needed before can drive safely in our hectic road

And now the snapshot for this week...

The engine has been cleaned and touched up, all vacuum hose has been replaced with bengz silicon tubing, the whole engine back has been painted flat black, even the exhaust manifold are covered with high temperature silver paint... One of the relocation was the radiator reservoir where it made way for the intercooler piping on the left

The standard ah bengz intercooler had been installed and it seem small compared to most of the turbocharged car out there, but this is intentional as I want to drive with the best heat management setup that I can afford and I believe this type of front mount intercooler will be able to absorb most of the heat and leave my engine heat alone...

Wait till Shidi comes back from the convoy....

Sunday spree

This weekend a little more free than usual, one case mainly that my manufacturing line is up and running with no more pending issues, therefore I am right here at my apartment watching movie, cooking and blogging. Can't beat this kinda life huh? Yesterday had a wedding dinner at Lone Pine Farlim area, the place is kinda cool with nice environment for a wedding dinner, but the food can be better...

After that hang out with Horny and Jeebs at SOHO, nothing much, just seeing that Integra guy trying hard to beat some foreigners and make friends, then received a message from Sheeb and say they are at Soi 11, never heard of that place (yeah, I memang aw) so went there and hang out with them for a while... took a shot of Chivas I think before heading back to SOHO, dunk the remaining Carlsberg and headed back home, nearly killed myself on the last leg of the corner entering Halaman because some idiot parked a 4 wheeler right at the corner apex.

Nevertheless it was a good evening spent, I seldom play until so late already, guess its age calling out to me...

And now for the weekly update on my car...

The front mount intercooler is getting in, this is going to be sweet, I just hope the lag is not obvious, but by using a medium sized IC coupled with 2 inch piping, it shouldn't be that much lag on the CT9...

The car is now being 'wrapped' with a blue clothes because Shidi claims that too many people wanted to go in, start the engine and play with the throttle -.-"

Hope the IC will get fixed this week and roll out for test drive next week... still have alot of cleaning up to do on this scumbag... I miss you dear :P

Anyway today had watched a movie called "Cloverfield" which is one of the shittest movie I have ever watched, it talks about a creature terrorizing NYC and with the filming effect of the portable camera (ala Blair Witch, Quarantine...etc) it made me felt so damn dizzy after the show. Granted its interesting but I find it hard to visually track the footage while remaining focus of whats going on, thumbs down for the show... alot of impossible things happened like removing a victim from impaling WITHOUT having much problem on over bleeding, things like no corpses on the road after all the crap that had happened, things like the US military using non-guided rockets against an enemy in their own home soil... I doubt so

Then after that watched another movie called "The curious case of Benjamin Button" starring Brad Pitt... this show pulak totally change the experience, nearly cried watching this movie (read: I still didn't), it talks about a baby that was born very old, and he gradually become young again...

So basically the timeline for this movie is:
Mental age: 1 physical age: 80
Mental age: 10 physical age: 69
Mental age: 80 physical age: 1


So when he was newly born, his skin is old like fart, and when he is 80 years old, he is back to become a baby again, the main story is how he meet with a gal and how their relationship turns out to be... the last few years of the relationship is nice because he is living the best of everyday because he knows one day the gal will become old and he will be too young... So anyway, something worth watching with a little change of typical flavour in movie.

Transplant: Week 9 of the completed framework

Yay, can't believe its completed. The everything from the dashboard is IN! Not to mention the whole engine bay, everything from the original dashboard is functional and all wiring has been traced to all the supporting equipment.

The video says it all...

Dashboard is sweet, it probably goes into the record of the most copy-exact transplant being done in the Northern region, pending validation.


Mouting looks strong, not much movement during maximum rev

Transplant: Engine started...

Yay yay, the car started without any problem.... except for the radiator leakage which require the whole core to be tore down and service. Other than that the ignition was good, the idling was good and the air cond is working fine. Can't wait for it to release for a spin



Sweet dashboard, 4E dashboard looks dull compare to Deto, but then again you can't compare Japanese rice car against Italian design... Its like comparing MNG with LV, different class alltogether... Now I kinda miss the red Deto dashboard light... its so peacefully sinister


Not so sweet engine coz its more dirty than longkang... but overall the idling is great, air cond kicks in and pings out nicely with the rev stabilizing at 800 to 1000 rpm. Seen here is Shidi checking the air cond high pressure piping leakage, no leak observed.

Now lets hope its on the road next week... still has the intercooler, alarm, ICE and central locking to install...

Transplant: Everything is up except for the dashboard

Basically the engine bay is done, the steering rack is done, the condenser / blower / controller has been done. What needs to happen next is to install the dashboard. This shouldn't take much effort and if it goes through, the car shall have a 2 week trial run.

Lets hope the car doesn't explode when it start...

Transplant: Intercooler decision mk2

OK, so maybe Silvia's intercooler is not that cool. Why not get a new custom intercooler with so much better cooling efficiency?

Bring it on !!!

Long and skinny, just like me.

Now that this is on the way, the damage will be double the original intercooler price, not something wise during this economy downturn period but what the heck, its better to buy something you want rather than compromising due to budget. I am the type that rather skip meals and beg just to get a bling bling that is nice, a bling bling that can put on the shelf even it doesn't bring in any revenue or income... yeah, pathetic mentality, I know...

On the personal life side, I just realized what is going on in my mind, and there had been so many thoughts that came through lately, priority is important when it comes to tackling problems in life, it also changes the way you view things... Therefore I believe everyone must always know what they want before they go out and tell people what they think... I already made some decision about my life, and the path that I choose ain't an easy 1... but then again who would want to take the boring and easy path? Like I told my friend HL, there are things in life that gave me energy that I never discover that I have, and this are the things that I will cherish and pursue, even if the path might not bring me to a happy ending.

OK, on a sidenote, I changed the layout of my blog to expand and utilize the real estate around the space, so that it doesn't waste the 21" monitor screen.... If you are using anything less, you should seriously consider updating yourself with technology :P

Transplant: Engine da masuk

Today went and took a look at my car, the engine bay is beginning to resemble a proper engine bay, with everything in except the turbo and intercooler. I had made a decision last weekend to straight away mount the intercooler at the front bumper, this is to prevent heat stroke, get away from cutting the front bonnet and made the car more low profile... But this will also mean higher cost and more turbo lag. The pros and cons were weighted and due to the fact that this was to be a daily driven car, the cons were acceptable.

So far the huge radiator is in, the air condensor is in, power steering, master brake pump and hydraulic clutch is in... the clutch system and timing belt is to be purchased new for replacement.... air filter still needs to be clean and re-oil

The strut bar still haven't simulate for installation, looks like it might be able to make it in bypassing the brake pump.

Intercooler need to get a SR20 type which is small enough to place on a charade but big enough for the CT9 turbo.

Lets hope the car will be out in 2 weeks time... I beginning to miss her :(

Transplant: Holes and fittting simulation

This week my engine bay are beaten the hell out of it to make way for all the components, air cond and radiator. It looked pretty much like a junk crap right now with all the welding and spot mark (wait, it is a junk!)....

Practically alot of knocking and welding happening, I hope there is not much leaking going on once it gets assembled later.

Someone left a practical joke at my screen, the original joke was placed on the owner of the workshop - Shidi, coz his car is a 4WD Charade, they placed a "This car is for jungle only"....

Then they decided to make it big and tag every car inside the workshop, lame :P

Transplant: Mounting ready

Having 2 Deto on a G100 gave me the impression that transplant is simple and easy, however... if the engines are from a different make, a tedious process of calibrating and alignment should occurred (at least for those who wanted to ensure a more balanced configuration in the engine compartment.

Seen here is the alignment process before placing the mounting on the chassis, the engine upon placement should be levelled so that the driveshaft will not be overly stressed when the car is landed on the ground, something that I am not aware when doing a transplant.

Basically thats whats going on for the past 1 week, nothing more except placing the brakes on the front wheel. Speaking of brakes, the new 4E brake caliper are way larger and cooler than the original charade...

Well just hope they don't jam when its on the road... Still remember there was once my old front disc brake jammed on the road for like 0.2 seconds and it caused the car to swell to the left... upon investigation it shows the single pot disc brake could jam on the cylinder due to no maintenance, definately one thing I need to do a preventive maintenance on when this car is put on the road later...

Now that the dashboard has been taken out, lets hope there will be some superlon be place on the firewall to prevent the noise from coming in... another thing to work on is seal any un-used hole in the firewall area to prevent unwanted odour from coming in, guess that will be the auxilliary project when working on the mounting.

Now that I figure out the timeline, by the time the car will be out on the road, my production will be starting to run and I have to work extensive hour in the day... that means the reliability assessment and trial on the road will have to be carefully planned and balanced, talk about work balance... Probably will be under alot of stress when it happen. Sigh, what a good timing.

Transplant: Halfcut mari

Sometimes you do wonder is it worth changing the heart of an old patient... Its just like Dr. House usually finds it hard to find a donor for his superbly sick patient and especially so when Dr. Cuddy refuse to let his patient on the donor list citing too old.

Anyway, I had decided to go ahead and do a transplant for my old pathetic car, with the reason that I want to have a daily driven car to go work, it has to be:

- Small and zippy

- Soft on the petrol

- Cold air cond
- Low maintenance

My old engine currently only able to fulfill the first 2 criterias, while leaving the remaining 2 in limbo ever since day 1. So I guess this time the downgrade from 1600cc to 1300 will be good a good move.

So I will be starting a chronological update on the progress of the transplant... on 7th February 2009, Shidi found another halfcut at Ibahraki and we went to inspect the condition, the engine started nicely and stable ignition, electronics seem to be still functioning and air cond is not responding, suspect freon gas had leaked, its a risk worth taking as the condensor and air cond indicator are still functioning. It comes with Blitz BOV and Apex'i open pod filter, which I think will reduce the subsequent task for its improvement...

So today was officially the day my car got warded into the workshop at BM, waiting for the half cut to arrive really made me feel like back in the old days where we children wait for the ais cream uncle to come to our house at noon, heheh. So when the bloody thing arrive, it was hoist with a crane and place side by side in front of my car, then for the next month or so, it will sit in the warehouse quietly doing the transplant there. After settle the remaining balance of the halfcut, the lorry guy went off and the guys at the workshop prepared the layout and everything...

After everything is done, the workshop closed business of the day at 1pm (because its holiday today for replacement on Thaipussam)... Thats all for the update.

Note: My dad is trying to sell off his Ford right now coz needed to increase 'cash on hand', anyone reading that is interested with a 2002 Ford Lynx 1.6 (M), kindly drop me a message, I just hope the car will be here for another 2 months or else I will be forced to 'borrow' Amy's car and leave her carless .... heheh

Stay tuned for the next update!

4E or A31 or leave it be?

Have been thinking whether to convert my engine into 1.3, or get a new car (Cefiro A31), or stick with everything during the economy slowdown that's coming...

If I go for 1.3, I will partially achieve my dream of driving a forced induction car, but its still a Charade... a 15 years old charade to be exact, and that is not something spectacular... And I still have to endure a learning curve of driving a turbo engine, which is not as easy to maintain as a NA ....


If I go for Cefiro, I will be using all my hard earned money and then pay it all by cash, as there are no loan given for a 10 years old car... But doing that would achieve 3 main personal goals which is to drive a forced induction car, a rear wheel drive car, and also to consolidate my family's vehicle structure... not to mention having a normal work car and also a weekend car...But of course I will be a poor damn bastard and living a pathetic life


If I remain status quo, I will be able to absorb my house loan by keeping the cash in the bank to minimize the interest rate... It would definately help in the coming years when the economy hit bottom and starts to pick up again.


Being not able to make any significant decision, I had proceed to gather data on these 3 options and found out that the 1.3 would cost around RM5k, with the intercooler remain as top mount. This is not as cheap as 2 years ago, and the main reason is because of high demand and the strenghtening yen dollar against our stupid ringgit. Yup, economy crisis had impacted this decision, if I choose to move forward...


Then there's the A31 Cefiro... Averagely its around RM25k to RM37k depending on location, modification done and also the condition of the vehicle. I had seen one being sold for RM18k but that's member price... too bad didn't have a chance to see that. This option currently I'm thinking to delay for now, and wait for the economy effect to kick in and hopefully there are people who couldn't afford to maintain huge cc car.... The dropping price of petrol doesn't help in this scenario at all :(


And if I were to remain status quo, I would be able to save at least couple thousands in interest alone... technically this is not a very hard decision to make, but its contradicting to my idea of living...


Hhmm... And then there's this friend J that wanted to find carpet for his Honda City... hiong kan already, since City is being assembled in Thailand, there are no half cut that masuk City carpet as all half cut stuff are coming from Japan... A similar substitute would be Accord 5 piece carpet, I hope he don't mind the word "Accord" there if found....


Problem statement everywhere, analysis are abundant, unfortunately solutions are always tricky to come by...

Petrol price increasing, tricks to save petrol

The news of no rise in petrol price in Malaysia until September 2008 is comforting indeed, especially for those driving 2.0litres and above, but one must not wait until desperate time to try desperate measures. I have experiment with a few techniques of petrol saving and below are 8 general advise that actually works on me.

Before that there are some terms we must know...

Efficient speed: The most efficient and cost saving speed your car should be. Naturally its 2000 to 2500 rpm for each car, at the last gear (so its around 80km/h for my 1.6 Deto)

Synthetic oil - Usually oil in the region of 0W/40 to 5W/40
Semi-synthetic oil - Usually oil in the region of 5W/30 to 15W/30
Mineral oil - Usually oil in the region of 20W/50 and above


1) Always estimate the traffic in front, look 4 or 5 cars in front and simultaneously monitor their brake light, relative speed and intention. This will make you know whether you should accelerate 10%? 20% or 50% to prevent un-necessary braking and maintain in your efficient speed.

2) If possible, use semi synthetic or fully synthetic oil on your engine. Coz these oil is less viscous, therefore less restriction on your engine, so if your engine can rev easier, the work to make your car move also will be lesser. Of course there are problems if you use these type of engine oil, example if your engine is old, or all the while has been using mineral oil... for those who buy new car / engine should remember this.

3) Make sure the tyre is inflated at the optimum pressure. Different tyre use different pressure, my Advan Neova pump at 33 coz its hard wall soft compound, my sister's Falken Ziex pump at 31 coz its soft wall hard compound. The optimum pressure will ensure minimum rolling resistance and prevent tyre damage (like wear faster on one side...etc). Check your tyre once every 2 week.

4) Air cond is for sissy. Try not to use air cond if possible, coz it will pull the compressor whenever you initiate it, and that's around 1 horsepower itself! Only use air cond if there is alot of ppl in your car, if the mirror begin to fog, if its hot, if its raining, if you like some cold air... other than that, don't use. This is where sunroof comes in handy... Of course the best is to remove the air cond belt, but that's for the extremist...

5) Service your car all the time, and when I say service, it doesn't mean changing engine oil and oil filter... clean your throttle body once every 2 year, make sure O2 sensor good condition, change transmission oil every 4 years, crap like that

6) Always find the shortest route to your destination... This might sound simplistic and straight forward but actually it isin't... The terms shortest route is refering to the LEAST jam route also. So imagine the highway is 3 lane and the left most lane is the least jam, go there! Then further down the road if the right most lane is the least jam, go there! You might ended up look like a prick but ultimately you save petrol, and that's all that matters

7) Never drive with emotion. Means no racing, no dragging, no zip zapping in a busy street, always keep a cool mind and this will ultimately prevent regretful moment. One of the reason 2007 F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen was nick named ice cool driver because he showed no emotion, and that helped him in minimizing mistakes, same goes to 500cc motorsport champion Valentino Rossi. One must be cool when it comes to driving because alot of things can happen at one time, and you need as much brain processing power to analyze what's happening

8) Step the accelerator slowly & accordingly. Again sounds like a pointless and simple advise, but actually it isn't. Each car has an optimum accelerate curve, one needs to find and familiarize with the accelerating speed. Usually its 20% throttle. Notice that sometimes when you're in 5th gear and if you step 60% or 30% its the same? Your car is just accelerating at a relatively same speed? This is due to the characteristic output of the engine, for commercial car, the engine was not designed for power, therefore if someone step more on the accelerator, it doesn't mean the engine will be able to produce the same power expectedly. The additional acceleration will only mean more fuel will be burnt un-necessarily while output the same result.

That is about the few main thing about saving petrol that I employ. It might not sound great but its a layman's point of view in the complicated world of automobile.

Street driving pt. 1

Street driving is a complicated art, the survivability depends highly on the ability to adapt (change), techniques to overcome challenge and of course a little bit of luck, all of this to get the joy and suffer from commuting process. It is exactly what Fort Minor sing in their song “Remember the name!”, its 10% luck, 20% skills, 15% concentrated power of will, 5% pleasure, 50% pain, and a 100% reason to remember the name”. If there is ever a statistic to compare the accident rate between average Joe and Ah Beng racer, I would put my money on Ah Beng when it comes to safe journey. Why? We have seen many reckless asshole that plough the road with their crazy high speed zig-zagging and uber acceleration but we seldom see them involve in any serious accident. On the contrary we have young kids driving on their father’s BMW 3 series and got killed when they skidded on the corner and hit a tree; we have people accident when they lane switch from auxiliary lane to main road; we have people rear ended another car during a downpour and the road is wet…. So many cases, why those ah beng didn’t die?
Answer is simple, they knew the condition of the car and environment better than a typical Joe.

• They knew their Goodyear Eagle GA is a non-directional tyre, so its water characteristics sux, they know not to speed during the first phase of rain coz oil from the road will be virtually ‘floating’ around which makes the road very slippery.

• They knew the limit of the car during high speed cornering because they have ‘frequent’ that zone, they know what speed is safe for such corner and will their car sensitive to porthole



• They knew their braking ability of their car and will find a way to avoid accident if they see the braking distance is too close, rather than an average Joe who pray to god so that the brakes will save them



• They knew their acceleration rate of their car and know whether will beat the red lights or not

But if you ask a typical Joe whether he knows any of the statement above, I can bet with you they knew not more than half of it. Partly because they are ignorant and do not think the knowledge is critical to their survival on the street. I have my first accident when I underestimated the power of 140kmh, or another word, the handling of a 1000kg car running at 140kmh is not linear as you are driving on 80kmh. To stop within 50m is ridiculous in stock standard form. That is why I hit the back of a bike (luckily with no casualty), this is a costly lesson because I have to pay to repaint my bumper, but it also taught me power without handling is useless. So I know adjustable will have its value…

The point of this post is to enlighten people especially the average Joe type to love the ones you dear most and don’t drive ignorantly on the road. The bastard who drove like an arse will meet his doom one day if he is not good enough, no point cursing him/her because he/she is entitled to the road as much as you. Just be defensive when driving and you will reach your destination in your expected time.

Bad luck strike TWO!!!

A week after the glasses, raining and wiper incident, the al-mighty decided to land another blow in my wallet by striking a key into my rear left Yokohama Advan Neova AD07. This is the 2nd incident in a row that strange 'phenomenon' occured to my car! Seriously need a change of luck, but lacking any lately...

Rant aside, just finished submitting my income tax and realize that I am actually spending most of my money paying people / organization / government.... this sucks. Why can't an individual enjoy his pay? My wishlist is growing but there is no progress since.... Last November? The last thing I buy for myself is the 29" CRT TV, how pathetic.

In fact I can't seem to actually afford anything lately, this is depressing as I have worked for 3 years, an average Joe would've save enough to buy a new car or treat himself for an E&O buffet dinner spread, while I have to keep remind myself that I need to keep the extra money for this and that. Sigh....

Well, at least I finally confirmed for the Genting trip next 2 weeks, WHOO HOOO!!! After 3 months of delaying and planning, finally I get to have a break away from all these crap in my life, period.... and get to raid uncle Lim's casino *nyek nyek nyek* Hope this will rejuvinate my hp and mana, and maybe my pocket also :)

Damn my glasses and the gods

Lost the darn spectacles at the SP waterworld yesterday, so no big deal as I thought, what can 60degree of near sight cause? What I didn't realize was that I also have 100+ astigmatism which really sux during the night coz all the lights will be seen as flowery which will have problem when you wanted to pin point the source of the light (estimate distance)
So I guess Zeus decided to throw in some difficulties by throwing down some water from the sky to make the light smear even more, top up with thunder for effect yesterday. So I thought, what the heck, no rain is going to slow me down in the night, even without my glasses, I'm pretty sure I could nail the 20 minutes drive back to my apartment in Penang...

Then it hit me before the Bridge toll, Daihatsu's reknown's reliability decided to kick up a hush by ceasing operation of my wiper, DURING A level 2 rain!!! (Note: Level 2 rain = the rain's frequency requires user to operate their wiper at 2nd slowest speed)

I swear I did not insult anyone (especially gods) in any manner, but this is the list of misfortune that I have to put up with, on a cool Sunday night. I have driven Daihatsu Charade for the past 3 years and I NEVER EVER have a spoilt wiper before, nor did I heard anyone of my friends, even in the forum complaining about spoilt wiper. And then I have it, during rainy days, without my glasses somemore. WTF!

Luckily I have my sister with me, but that bugger also drive like no tomorrow, have to call her hp 2 times to slow down then only really slow down. Really glad I made it through Penang bridge without any incident, I seriously think that I have made a significant achievement / milestone in my life by surviving the drive, I think this beats being the #1 in Penang bridge run.

So the hell with Daihatsu's wiper, and my glasses... will post the picture I took inside the car during the freak drive later.

Singapore business trip

Got a mission which is to check out a demonstration of a machine which my company will be buying soon, so off I go to this small country by SQ in a Boeing 777. To make matter worse I need to complete it in 1 day (not that it's that difficult to perform) but tedious if want to squeeze the whole agenda into 1 day. My friend 'Sak' was kind enough to pick me up from Changi and offered to share his bed (actual fact it's more like I get to hijack his bed).

Changi is a very colourful and nice airport, can say beat our local KLIA coz ours looks pretty much like an oversized airport with less 'meat' in the scenery.

Anyway since I'm slightly 'early' in reaching SG, I decided to pop into the once a year International Motorshow which is happening at SunTec convention center. This is the 2nd time I'm been to SG motorshow and this certainly looks the same as my previous visit, the car list seemed to be updated but basically the booth and placement are more or less the same. The first car that meet the audience is a Mazda RX-8, standard car with alot of hype. Nothing much here so I move on....

Next in the line that caught my attention is the Fiat Punto, new edition !!! This car basically no big deal, cheap crap with lots of electronic gimmick, but this one comes with an electronic SUNROOF !!! For those who are not familiar with sunroof, this is actually god's best invention in the world for human mankind. Coz it's ideal for autumn and spring, romantic during meteor shower, and definately cool during drag race. Fiat goes one step further and gave us the ultimate sunroof that any human had ever seen. The following is the evolution of sunroof from basic till the latest punto's !

The latest Punto's sunroof actually goes beyond the normal civic type and further drag the sunroof all the way back, 2x better than the normal Charade sunroof!!!

Man I want this car ! Dunno when the halfcut will start arrive Malaysia.

Then I continue to walk around, found those normal cars like the Lamborghini Gallardo, Ferrari Fiorano..etc, then I reach Subaru's counter, maybe because I'm too handsome, there's a guy name Russ Swift who wanted to take pictures with me, along with 8 others Subaru gals... after the event I went and check out and then realize that guy is the guy who hold the Guiness World Record for :

• Parallel parking in tightest space
• J turn in tightest space
• Fastest do-nutsOh ok, one of those crazy guy who did those funny stuff around the road....

Continue down the road there are those Nissan 350Z, racing spec, road spec, those different versions, then Honda Civic, Integra.... then a nice chick, so I go and take more pictures with them to make them feel less boring...

Then me and my friend left the motorshow coz the rest of the cars are those Toyota Vios, Altis, Sunny, Imprezza...etc which is nothing much to see. This motorshow major items are alot of concept cars, which won't be making their debut on the road, which technically useless cause I won't be able to smoke them on the road anyway...

Noticed that Honda step actually went backwards and use Charade's back cover design :)

After motorshow, we went for dinner at Tony Roma's steak house just off Orchard road. 8/10 for my baby rib experience. Can say not bad lah.

I think the baked potato tasted the best, but the baby rib also cannot be forgotten, sigh....

Reach home very tired, straight sleep d.

D2, my friend need to go to work OT, don't know why people wanted to work on Sundays, in the end also have to use his hard earn money to treat me dinner and supper anyway :P So early morning 10am I off to take their transport bus and MRT to Orchard ! Yay, shopping time. The street is full of Indons (or is it Philippines maid?). Geli loh, so many of those people hanging around Orchard Road.... very little nice gals to see, maybe all stay at home or go other shopping area :(

They got these street ball for gals going on, watched for a few minutes, no big deal so I cabut, checked out Paragon, Takashimaya, Kinokuniya :P, and those adjecent shopping complexes. Run the whole mile and only landed myself with few shopping clothes only, including some for my gal's. So basically that's it, total shopping duration : 9 hours (11am - 8pm). But of course among there got lunch and 2 hours book reading at Kinokuniya :P

Luckily some of the shops already started to have December Christmas sales in advance, else I will be struck with very expensive goods to look at. Speaking of Christmas, the streets are already decked with santa's magic, it's been long since I celebrated Christmas in Singapore, damn I miss those days.

Nite time meet up with Sak, he brought me to Sakae Sushi off Yishun and seeing that this is his treat, I ordered a Sashimi Bento, heheh, sure must hantam him kao kao mah. After the dinner, made a challenge to ourself that we could down a bowl of Swensen's Earthquake volcano 8 scoops ice cream, and so we did. Later we call off the next challenge of finishing a set of burger king coz we might not be able to walk home if we proceed.

After reach home pack up all my stuff and ready to goto 'work' the following day.

The following day is a plain working schedule with machine demonstration, evaluation, data recording, lunch, closure and then leave Singapore. Lunch is nice at Crystal Jade Restaurant which menu similar like 'Kim Gary', 'Wong Kok' (Chinese cuisine style). The total set lunch for 6 person only cost SGD230, which I think consider ok for their food.

This trip let me know alot more on fact in life. Apparently working in Singapore really is getting good for my friend, coz he practically bought himself a flat screen LCD TV, a high end DSLR with complimentary lenses, mobile phone, ipod...etc, maybe I should start looking at other part of the world ;)

Many thanks to you 'Sak' for the hospitality rendered.

Jacqueline's 3rd routine service

Date : September 30th 2006
Time : 9:30am

It's been long since I bring my Charade for service, poor old Jacquline, after the previous hard run in the SSO, there hasn't been any real maintenance work done on her. So now that my pay is in, I decided to bring her to her doctor for a routine check up, also to ask for diagnostic for the recent clutch slipping which occured on every gear during high acceleration (Wide Open Throttle-WOT).
So in this bright saturday, my gal is working, technically I'm free in the morning, lazily driving Jacq to Butterworth, then I relay the problem to my old trusted mechanic and he put things in motion.

Itenary :

1. Change black oil + oil filter
2. Clutch slippin for no apparent reason
3. Strange sound coming out from the air cond belt area
4. Minor improvement for my car?

So for item 1, after draining all the old engine oil out, I noticed the black heavy sludge from my oil sump area, immediately I know I have tortured Jacqueline far beyond normal torment. Then I check back my service slip.... found out that I have over-run 2000km on her, on semi-synth (7000km limit)!!! How can someone who is so fond of cars missed out this point? What am I thinking? Trying for the Guiness World of Record for the longest journey on Semi-Synth?! OK, my fault, promise won't happen again coz I will use the service sticker from now on. (Note : The bubble from the oil indicates the viscousity is critical)

Item 2 is very stupid, all the mechanic do was adjust the manual clutch cable length and end of story! This is because my manual transmission car was running on clutch plate and not pressure plate, hence there is no automated system to re-compensate during clutch expanding -.-" This is the reason I lost to that stupid BMW the other day during full acceleration...

Item 3 solved after 2 hours of replacing the power steering belt and some modification on the 'tapak' of the compressor (due to the unit has a slight bent which cause the belt to came out from the supposed area).

Item 4 was a recommendation of a better spark plug for my car. True enough to the kaki mod spirit, I went ahead and installed Golden Lodge spark plug (the type without spark plating) as my old spark plug had deteriorated into a state of dismal (blowback current and non-equal plate area). Many people do not believe how this spark works, so it's normal when I explain this methodolgy to people out there and they dismiss this as hoax or marketing gimmick.

Technically the spark plug operate by shooting lighting into air (without electro plate), cool if you watch the demo unit.

Just as my luck wasn't bad enough, I saw every car owner's nightmare... The destruction of the perfectly threaded tyre...

Saw anything different ?

Yup, a small crap had punctured my cute Yokohama Advan Neova AD07 in the middle. And additional RM5 gone because of this 3cm small piece of crap!

All in all it's a good thing that it doesn't incur thousands on my clutch slippage, and also less problem from the engine. This way I can have more money for other beneficial things instead of Jacqueline all by herself :P

So who's wanna get smoke by me?