Track day... I woke up at the first ring of the alarm and snapped it off... been half asleep only... it was 4.30 am...

Dressed and drove off by around 5.00 am... to the meeting point at WCM. Haha... din speed at all and drove with all windows down to enjoy the cool morning breeze... and it started to drizzle... heh heh...

ok lor ...

reached WCM and soon the rest were there leow... and we headed up at 6.50am

The drive up was uneventful and drizzly... lucky for us...

and the event was truely spectacular... If I could recall correctly, 2 warm up laps to calibrate the tyre pressures, three more to double check. fire was behing me on first 2 warm up laps... damn... he was chasing me and sliding all over.. i was worried he'd come kiss me ... and i'd driven faster to keep him away ... on the warm up lap... at one point i glanced at the rear view mirror and saw him going broadside... din look much becos me still in the middle of the corner and need to look in front... thereafter din see him leow...

he came in after the 2 lap warmup... and kelvin who was sitting beside jumped out...

and we went out again after checking tyre pressures...the AD07 were set to 190kpa at the start... now they read 220kpa!!! whoa... i bled off the air back to 185kpa and went out again. 3 laps this time...

and then as i was resting Turtle, the red flag was waved... first 'crash' of the day - well not crash as per crash.. but prolly run off till needed tow truck to tow out, i hope... so we waited... everyone came back... except fire88 who went out with rOcH... hmmm....

yup he hit the gravel big time...

anyways no serious damage... and he managed to tap off most of the gravel and went out again... after about 40 minutes of cleaning up. bro rOcH was most helpful and helped him clean out the car... the rest of us just went off as track time was running... thinking back i was a littlebit selfish hor... shud have helped more besides providing him with all my tools for his use...

gone another 6-8 (truely, I lost count here) rounds before coming in to rest... just wanted to do those CORNERS!!! hee hee hee...

this round picked up fire to have a 'joyride' to see the line better... although I'm not the best there... i hope to have given him some idea... so we went another 3 rounds...

and bro rOcH came... haha... go again! quite fun actually... another 3 rounds... and Macross... another 3... shud have gone another one as tattybear came and chased us down... I 'd let him pass tot he was a student (turned out later found out that he was first time on track...) oh well... nvm... no ego there ok? was sightseeing with Macross... haha...

and back to rest becos water temps hit past 110 degrees leow on the last straight... whoa... hot... so back to the paddocks for a longer rest... before last round out... but that was not to be... by the 5th corner going out, the red lites came on... sigh... slowed down and on hazard lights... and slowly drove back to the paddocks... track time finish leow... the GT3 had slide into the deep gravel... last 10 minutes... he must have gone all out... eveyone had that feeling... last few laps ga ga... push all the way... but for me, was really to enjoy the last rounds and hope to pass the entrance just as the lights turn red for end of track time, and go another round before ending... too bad, this run no such luck... but still happy... everything is running well in the car, handles well, tyres make known their end of traction, quite responsive and communicative, and i drove the limit of my skills and sometimes car as well...

it was a good run...

End of track session means a few thing... repack the junk you put out of your car, drive out of the paddocks and go for shower!!

the sweat is starting to dry and cake up... and stink!

and the showers are malaysian... ON and leave it on.. not those push - it will go off by itself type taps... and the water pressure... and shower... ahhhh.....

after that it's off to to the Petronas station to get our tyres reinflated to the right pressure... the trick is to let out at least half to 3/4 of the air inside as it's HOT AIR... and refill wif cool air so it won't sag later as it cools off and retain pressure.

took some pics, drink lots of fluids to replenish and recharge... and headed out to the highway home... although we 4 stayed in formation and convoy... others were tired and had to drive faster to stay awake... and so began the chase home... haha and the ES5M hit a speed of 210kmh before backing off... if ES1 on piggyback and proper setup... 223kmh shud not be an issue... but we law abiding one... no one went over 110kmh la...


again, blessed... no incidents... and we were all home by midnight. some of us even had time to stop at the petrol station to get a car wash (we din want to stop in JB... too darn dangerous... so came back via Tuas and that's it)

what a wonderful trip... total cost... RM$800. (RM$450 for track, $200 for petrol, $110 for toll, the rest for food and drinks) NOT cheep...

come to think of it.. November 12 trip... even if track fees are $300, it's still gonna be RM$650 for the trip... sigh.... maybe PG looks more economical... got to try it one of these weekdays leow...)

T

Well... the engine oil held up beautifully. my friend the mechanic checked it when i went to swap back to the silent tail pipe the next afternoon... he looked at it, and oil level... din lose a drop... and still clear as it was when first put in... very very nice... will try to go for 10,000 km before change out and see how it does...

time to solve that headache i created for myself...

made appt to see mr wong at jla km ... he took one look and exclaimed it's not 'original' hallo... it's an S2000 original hor... and when i described the problem and pointed to where and what... he said needed a day and had to charge labour... a day... told me estimated $50 at least... and to come back next tuesday and drop off the car in the morning...

sigh... in my mind... i already said forget it... but kept the appt in case i relly desperate. went to espace the next morning... needed to service my brakes anyway, and clean out the filter... so sun pian do the steering...

all done... service charge for all three things... $50 ... and very nicely done too... damn... some things just can't go back to KM... especially moded parts... they only know the 'official' parts... I will forever remember this...


.

i bot over DV's head unit... a Pioneer 9xxx... it shud be better than the 8650 i had right? somehow, it dun seem to sound that way in the Turtle... did I mentioned earlier that my Philips amp powering my subs is dead? it's now replaced with a Phoenix Gold 100W RMS amp... overkill man... got to downtune the amp to mate it properly into the car's setup...

time to demod this HU to see who wanna take over leow... sigh...

and someone is pushing the P90 HU at me... retail price of course... i got to resist this one... and keep to the old faithful 8650...

and now the meters... a rojak series... 3 x 52mm Prosports gauges... seems that the thing is not working well there... damn it... and it's not using the sandwich plate /adaptor becos the sensors are the long type and will get in the way ...

now the oil pressure is only working intermettently, and oil temp will drop to zero at high speeds/high revs... normal use is ok... only when i drive hard... damn...

thinking of what to buy one last time and defi keeps popping up... the pivot gauges seems like the sensors are damn ex, and controlled by MW... is it? tot Speedworks also can get the sensors for pivot gauges...

the other one is to get the Autometer gauges. again, not cheep, and only jeep chee does those... so i must go there and ask... do you think they'd do a good job for the ES Civic?

anyways... it's for later part of the year leow... gauges... I'm so irritated I thinking of demoding all of it for now... and come back next time haha...

zzz

i was right about the HU... it bleu up my speakers... not DV's fault... it happens to old things anyways... just happened when it's installed in the Turtle...

taking it to the workshop to demod and replace my old faithful and see if anything could be done to save my amps and speakers...

i hope it's just the fuses that were blown... i wasn't even playing loud music when it happened...

sigh... today so busy schedule at office some more... double sigh... hope it gets done by day's end. else very very sian leow...

anyone to give me a ride from Kallang to UppThomson at 5.30pm?

triple sian.....

erm... the 8650 is back in my dash... and i have ICE again... enough said on this issue. complicated enough as it is...

still have this alignment thinggy.. not done before and after the track! car seems to like to drift to the right but some roads, it tracks straight... sigh... really need to get it properly done leow... I'd prolly ask Kenny to open up all the way in preparation for the PG drives...

not gonna lower my car any further. it's the lowest it can go without it scratching at every single hump on the island... right now, only the most obtuse humps gets a chasis drag... so for sure.. it's low enough leow...

pity these things are so troublesome to adjust up and down, else i wud do it daily hahaha ok ok... dun even think about those - air charged height adjusters... it's fugging 300kg for the stupid compressor and storage tank... not for my car la... I'll live with my current setup.

Met George the other morning going the opposite direction... damn his car looks good... I got to get me that wire mesh thing for the lower grill...

anyways, we chatted on the phone while waiting for the lights to change, and he commented that my Turtle was very low... I wonder if he is aware how LOW was HIS own car... hahaha... but on 17 inch rims, damn... it looks really good...

sigh... more temptation to get a bling set of 17 for daily drive... (crazy ah??)


:drunk:

WELL... finally got my half day leave... and off we went to PG.

the details you can see in bro rOcH's photodiary... quite nice.

what i wanted to note here is the track. empty is nice. especially for first timers... the day was dry and hot too... and the tyres... haha

when we stopped at PG and checked, the meter read 205kpa, so i dropped all 4 tyres to 185kpa... went out for 3 laps warm up... and they read 210kpa... so i dropped the pressure to 195 ... and went for 4 more rounds...

it read 200kpa at the end of that... so i just dropped it to 190kpa... and that's it... drove the rest of the hour, and slide a bit here and there during hard braking... way below the legendary 170kmh on turn 2... i hit 160 and it was just past the 100m mark... just enough to ease off the throttle and hard brake and downshift the sweeping left hander... and get ready to move into position for the next left hander either on 2nd or 3d... usually overrev a bit here and upshift in the middle of the turn... becos... 3rd no power, for the speed i am in.. i prolly need to take that corner a lot faster, but the traction there was worrying... starting to drift a bit as tyres are at the edge of traction leow... and swing around to do the next right hander at 3rd... quite ok and can make it up... the next gear at redline... and drop to 3rd again for the 90 degree turner of a big u turn... quite nice, again, over rev here...

the start of the S curve is very fun... maybe i going too slow here but it dun seem that difficult... only the end of the s going uphill and then down to a savage right and left zig-zag is more demanding, and entry speed on braking can initiate a drift when tyres are melting... hmmm...

here you can either end and slow into the pits, or gun it to go another hard right to the 'sprint' straight... can get up to 4th before stomping on the brakes and downshift again to do the 150 degree turn back to the back straight - the up and downhill allows you to gain speed here if you are in the right gear, and can go up to 170 before braking and downshifting (hey i referring to the ES5 here la... high powered cars can go faster...)

and you have gone one round here... i dunno if i missed any corners... seems a short course to me after being so used to the 15 turn Sepang which is over 5 km long per round... this one is around 3+km... and much narrower... and got wall instead of run off safely at 170+kmh... i scared ... i dun think i will push THAT hard here... still want to go home...

in all , i think i did OK for an old timer newbie ... not gonna time myself or anything la... but i did not dwaddle at any corner and took them at near my tyre and chasis limit (more like balls limit) becos I know Sepang King does it faster and never on the brakes... I can't... i have to use brakes here and there going into the corner... can't drift like he does...

i have GOT to sit in his ride when he goes ... as well as my sifu's also...

maybe i will go open up my cambers more for PG...

I dunno man... the Turtle these days... just gets shioker and shioker to drive... not like gonna tear anything la... just enjoying the car's vibrations more and more... even the 'intermittent' meters seem to catch leow, and now show constant readings and less 'no signal' blinking...

sigh...

blissful leow...

which gets scary... like the calm before the storm...

speaking of which.. blardy hell... when it rains... Turtle developed a leak!!

in the middle no less, not from the engine firewall, but from the bottom of the driver seat!!

hahaha... must be driver too heavy leow... but seriously, either the door sill is bad or the bottom undercarriage is punctured and rain water is coming in man... carpet is wet. damn it... got to put newspapers in to soak up the wetness...


and aircon smell is back haha... heater, cooler, blaster... etc.... all the works again lor... sigh this car har... aside from these non-performance irritation... damn... shiok to drive la...

what else can i say...


I love my Turtle.....