December 4, 2008
There is no Thunder in this Tropic Thunder
This is one of the movies that gets you all excited during the trailer/teaser only to let you down when you are snug comfortably in front of the silver screen. I have no idea where went wrong. They have a great cast, I like them all, the jokes are good, storyline that doesn’t slaughter the original movie that it spoof and yet when the credits are up, it was meh. I find myself laughing harder watching the trailer/teaser then the actual movie itself.
December 3, 2008
Pozer Gauges
This is just a followup on the so called performance gauges that i’ve installed a month ago on the center dash. And I’ve also labeled it as “this is why we can’t have nice things” which is a nicer way of saying shit list. yes, these gauges are a piece of crap.
1) After only one track session, the oil temperature gauge started acting up. Oil temperature will read 150∘C under hard driving then drops to 0. This 0 and 150 fluctuation happens throughout the open track day. And yes, it’s 150 or nothing, no in between. Normal drive on the road seems normal.
2) Pressure readings are off the scale. During the journey towards Sepang International F1 Circuit @ 160kmh, the reading was temp 75∘C, pressure, off the scale (about 120-150). I was revving way above 4500RPM at half throttle (vacuum reading 0). This is probably why I got these 90∘ gauges cheap for under RM100 each. The highest pressure reading is 100psi! They are no different then water temperature gauge on the stock dashboard which is just an indicator without accurate readings. Higher spec gauges have a 270∘ reading for accuracy all the way to 150psi
3) Smoked screen are not meant for day time driving. This is probably the telltale sign of a pozer/ricer/ah-beng in car gizmo. sure, it looks cool at night when the only luminance are those gauges, but during the day light intensity outside the gauge is much higher then the cheap pathetic luminance they use to light up the gauge reading and needle. looking at the gauge reading during the day is like trying to peer into a heavily tinted agong/hakim/VIP car. all you see is your reflection and probably a glimpse of a ghostly figure at the back seat.
December 1, 2008
3:20
That’s how long it took for me to complete one lap at Sepang International F1 Circuit during yesterday’s track day (High Performance Challenge). 3.20 is not fast, if i compared with a the same car tuned by Proton race engineers, R3 and driven by their best driver who clocked 2.58 !!!
There are lots of room for improvements, most of it is me. Driving without supervision sets my average time at 3.32 and with an instructor got me from 3.26 to 3.20 in just correcting my racing line in turn 3-4-5 which is the easiest, high speed bends on the track. We could’ve gone for more laps, but it just wasn’t our day when another incident triggered the red flag. The last two sessions were interrupted by at least 10 minutes. i’m not sure what caused the first red flag in group2 session 2, but i did see a smoking car after turn 2 during group2 session 3.
During the flag off during the first session, I’ve noticed my rear left tire was under inflated at 12psi (cold). Since i was minutes form flagging off i just carried on with the open track instead of driving out to the nearest petrol station 1km away and setting the right tire pressure. And my last camber adjustment was a year ago, on normal street settings (-0.3 front -0.5 rear) I know i was suppose to get these done a day before the event, i got lazy.
Furthermore, I was running with full bulk in the trunk, spare tires, clutch lock, collapsible stool, and an umbrella. I had at least 5kg of drinking water, socket/wrench tools magazine, another umbrella removed prior the race.
My sweetheart was with me during the entire event. Thanks for being there for me 
Anyways, enough talk, here’s the pictures
rolling out from the pits (taken by Jennihsurf)
me with my instructor, kee (in full face helmet) (taken by Jennihsurf)
