Category Archives: Goodyear

Federal Open Drift Challenge round 2 @ Bukit Jalil, 24th 25th Sept 2011

DAY 1

After missing out on the 1st round of the Federal’s Open Drift Challenge, Jane and I made it a point to make sure to not miss this round.

I made a couple of changes on the SLOW s13 since its last outing at ACE Drift Challenge and was eager to test it  the new Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymetric 2 just recently launched in Malaysia!!

 

When we got to the competition , we found  that the organisers had opt for a different layout as what the other drift competition past had done in  Bukit Jalil. I would like to hand it to the track designer as he  had the knack of somehow managing  to lay the course on every single ripple, hump , pot hole and grill that you could find at this parking space. Yes ,I am exaggerating but I honestly felt that way during the  initial practice runs. The course looked deceivingly simple but due to the surface and the placements of the clipping points, the course proved to be very technical.

 

 

I was struggling during the 5 odd runs I had during practice as my car felt too loose and had the tendency of veering off course. I couldn’t seem to  get a single clean run!!! A quick check of alignment and tire pressure found that everything was in order but immediately when I went out again , there was a huge metallic bang during the initiation which followed by a loud grinding sound!!I had managed to blow my differential !! A quick call to Ah Wai, the flat bed carrier, had him transporting SLOW to Chi Kian Workshop to get the differential replaced. Though tragically this would mean I would have no practice time and  possibility not being to get the car fixed in time for qualifying, I was glad that SLOW’s handling woes I had experienced earlier could had been attributed to the failing diff. I decided to hang around for a few minutes  before having to leave to supervising the differential swap and got the chance  to watch the others run.

 

 

Everyone was nailing the course , most notably Jane with her aggresive smokey runs!With the competition being so close and equal, I knew qualifying high isn’t going to easy as I was certainly was at a disadvantage for not having any practice time.

I hug out at the shop, helping Kian as much as I could as his partner in crime Boy was on leave that day ,leaving him to perform a one man show at his shop. We got the final drive mounted onto the diff and into the housing and mounted it on the subframe, and as he started to tighten the mounting bolts I promptly left the shop.

They were calling for the last 10mins of practice when my SLOW finally  arrived back at the course .However as luck had it, practice time ended as I was about to reach the starting line!! I spoke to the start Marshall which then allowed me to drift the last few corners of the course just to see if the replaced differential was working!!

Anyway, 3 hours later it was qualifying and I somehow managed to qualify 5th with two very cautious runs and  Jane qualified 13th. This meant that both of us had the posibility of going against each other during the best 8 battle.

 

DAY2

 

Next day during Best 16 tandem I was to go against Yokohama’s Ah Heng . I had watch his runs during practice and saw that he was fast and consistent on the course, a deadly combo.  But unfortunately his car had suddenly straighten while  following my lead thus sending him in to the tire wall. I knew I had a   huge advantage but I didn’t dare to risk being penalized for “playing it safe” and tried to drift as close to him when it was  his turn to lead.

After a few pairings it was Jane’s turn.She had the daunting task of going against the last round champion Along ‘Rempit’ who is fast and excels in tight courses such as this.

During Along’s lead, Jane had managed to maintain her distance to him throughout the course.

 

During Jane’s turn, Along made the mistake of diving into the inside during initiation and straightening soon after. This sent the nose of his car right into Janes side rear panel , making her spin!

There was a sudden hush of disbelief  amongst the crowd followed by a huge cheer!!  This had meant that Jane and I would be going against each other during the best 8 tandem!!

If I was paid 1 ringgit for everyone who said that I would sleep on the floor if I beat Jane that day, I would be a millionaire! Anyway Jane and I had gone each other during competition a couple of times , once during MITC and the other during a KBS competition so it’s nothing new. We constantly practice tsuiso togather and I was fairly confident  drifting door to door with her.

I knew she had gotten the course down so I took no chances while I was leading.  I drifted as cleanly and fast as possible and had to confirm with my spotter of the day , Jon, on who had the advantage after the run . When it was her time to lead, I managed to shadow her moves and managed to edge her out of contention 🙂

Top 4 was against ACE’s Boy. Boy was killing it the whole weekend! His flawless aggresive run had him as one of the favorites for this event.

I knew this wasnt going to be easy but after two runs I was awarded the win as Boy was penalized for taking the inside line during his trailing run and I had managed to follow him a bit closer than he was while following me.

Finals had me going against my best friend in drifting Ivan Lau. We have huge respect for each other and had gone against each other twice prior to this competition. With one win each, I wanted so badly to win this battle . The first run had him leading with me trailing. I was all prepared for his lightning fast starts, like his previous runs in the competition, but was taken by surprised when he was feathering the throttle off the line!! I had to  slow down considerably and was position too far forward to follow his rear. As he initiated I took the inner line thus making it a shallower entry thus effecting the angle of my drift during the transition . This in turn made me dive  into the inside line at the rear clipping point . Its obvious the initiation had cause a chain of undesirable events which left me kicking myself all the way to the finish line. During my turn to lead I managed to distance myself from him but it wasn’t enough to overcome the mistake i had done earlier.Oh well……. I fell prey once againto tactics  but trust me  it wont happen again…for sure 😛

I would like to thank Cheryl for the videos she took..Jon for being spot on during spotting duties, Kian for fixing the car 🙂 and Jane for allowing me to sleep on the bed the night after 😛

 

RESULTS

1st place IVAN LAU Bridgestone

2nd place ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD Goodyear Sync Optima

3rd place BOY Ace Exotic.

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7th place Azrina Jane Abdullah Goodyear Sync Optima RedBull

Cyberkhana Grand Final 2011 – 17 September

Ariff and myself just got back from 1 Sabah Drift Challenger 2011 event in Kota Kinabalu Sabah on the morning itself, I realized that I could squeeze in my time to participate this event. From the last Saturday Night Drift Missile party, I have my last pair of Blue Streak Stilettos that was already fitted on my black Missile 180sx. I would like to give it a try to understand the tire more in this event.

For some you may wonder how come I am not using Goodyear tires and instead Blue Streak. Blue Streak is still part of Goodyear but it is an imported line of private brand tires distributed through Goodyear.  

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce this tire since many of you are not aware of its existence.

Blue Streak Stilettos’ design has extra-large centre rib for better grip and the specially designed grooves are excellent for water evacuation.

They come from size 16” to 18”. And trust me, the price, you will be happy to hear it is a product that is value for money.

Size LSI
205/45R16 83V
205/50R16 87V
205/55R16 91V
225/50R16 92V
225/55R16 95V
205/40R17 80V
205/40R17 84V
215/40R17 83V
215/45R17 87V
225/45R17 91V
225/55R17 97V
235/45R17 94V
245/45R17 95V
225/40R18 88V
235/40R18 95V
245/40R18 93V

So I managed to get hold of our trusty tow truck drive to pick up my car and send it over to event venue in Cyberjaya. We got there in time before the official practice starts. The layout consists of tied-U-turn, donuts, figure eights and slalom. Pretty simple right? But going against some of the veteran driver like Mickey Teoh, Ee Yoong Chern, Johnson Tan and also the regular competitors, it is not easy to gain good time with my “testing” car.

The qualifying starts at about 6pm which gives me some time to take a rest in the truck (woke up 5am in the morning to catch the flight back from KK). I managed to get 7th placed which I will have to go against Dexter who drives a Nissan Skyline R32 RB 26DETT RWD!

Twin battles were the fun part as it is basically 2 cars going out together on their respective layout and whoever finishes the course layout first wins. This round was much easier compared to the previous Cyberkhana I joined as it was a mirrored layout. What it means is if you are on the right side of the course layout with a clockwise donut, after the switchover you will have to do the donuts anti-clockwise. This gets a bit confusing if you do not rehearse enough.

I managed to advance to Best 8 which I had to go against with Kevin Kong who drives a 260Z with RB engine too!

Anyway, here’s the twin battle chart. Kevin beat me just slightly ahead of me which I think I will have to learn to control my throttle when it comes to time trial. This means more practice and learning to do.

All in all, I had a great time and it is a relax environment, catching up with a group of friends and having a drive session together in a safe and controlled environment. And I took home 5th place !

 

 

 

 

 

 

ACE Drift Challenge 2011 rd3 @AFamosa 23rd-24th July 2011

photo by RTWORKS media.com

ACE Drift Challenge Round 3 weekend started early for us; the drifters from Drift Garage Singapore had booked a private session for themselves a day before the weekend and had graciously included us . The session proved to a fun filled event with the majority of them improving  tremendously since I last  drifted with them in Mardi. Joining in the fun was also our returning drift student from the states , Bob, who had just ungone an intensive Figure 8 training conducted by the famous Team Orange in Ebisu Japan (heeheeheehe).Having to stretch the limited amount of allocated  tyres, for the 3 days had forced us to resort to drift on  used tyres from past events. The term going fast nowhere comes into mind especially when our tyres we down to the threads but in all honesty, a number of the Singaporean were so fast that the outcome of being left behind even with fresh new tyres would not suprise me.

Photo by David Photography

The next day was the  official practice day for round 3 with Jane and I still going through our last few pieces of used tyres. As the clipping points were still not placed I basically took it easy and spent time “hanging out”  at our pit. Joining us today ( they actually arrived on Friday night) is the lovely couple Cheryl and Mike which proved to be entertaining to say the least. My sister inlaw (Jane’s sister) and family also arrived today bringing along with them our daughter! With such company who has time to drift?? Anyway, Jane’s transmission broke (again) thus forcing Kian and Boy to come a day earlier to get the box fixed for tomorrow’s main event.

Photo by mikecheryl.blogspot.com

The next day  ,with the clipping points finally being placed we could now begin practice. The session proved to be valueble as a suspected  fault in the  S13 became apparent; Everytime I put the countersteered  into a full lock position,especially while tackling the rear clipping zone, the car would spin!!(hmm FD Singapore 2011??)  After closer inspection , we found that the front wheels were locking up on the castor rods  whenever it was in full lock!! Thankfully we had wider spacers available and simply slap them on and there were no more spins.

Photo by mikecheryl.blogspot.com

Jane , thankfully, had no more gearbox issues and were able to churn out a string on solid runs during her practice!!

Photo by mikecheryl.blogspot.com

Qualifying had Jane in 13th place with me placing 1st into the top 32!!

Unfortunately for Jane as shewas knocked out in the Best 24 tsuiso battle due to her excessive worn front tyres which had her plowing through in understeer into the first turn for both runs.

I faired better going through best 16 to best 8 then into top 4 and to the final where I managed to display two clear dominant runs against my opponent Ah Fai to win the 3rd round of ACE Drift Challenge 2011

Shot sequences by Jonathan Kok !!

A cool huge  throphy was give to me for qualifying first!!

and another throphy for winning round 3

Yipeeee

My sister inlaw ( Jane’s sister) and family were there for the weekend too!!

Many thanks to The Team: ( L-R) Voon: Our martial art expert , Kian: Head mechanic who managed to fix everything in a jiffy , Boy: mechanic and our “mat-guard-loh, me, Johanna : our daughter and human water shield, Jane, Cheryl: our video camera lady and babysitter and Mike: my spotter and CIMB representitive!!

RESULT

1st ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD   Sync Optima Goodyear

2nd  FAI MENG HUI  Anthera Motosport

3rd   EMMANUAL ARMANDIO  Achilles Tires

13th AZRINA JANE ABDULLAH  Sync Optima Goodyear Redbull

Formula Drift Singapore 2011 @ F1 paddock 11th-12th June 2011

 

photo from www.cheryl-tay.com

Once again, held at the SIngapore F1 Paddock, the 2011 edition of Formula D singapore had Cheaka and I were egar to begin this session after a not so good ( :p) 2010 FD season last year!!Practice went great for both of us . The changes I had made in the S13 proved to have  work beautifully and Jane was getting the hang of the course by her third run of the day. However luck has it that the weather didn’t hold when the next group went out for practice and it stayed that way till qualifying! This had our group going out for qualifying on the unfamiliar wet slippery surface thus it was no suprise that half our group didn’t qualify due to spins , as Jane did   or did qualified lowly, as I did. Oh well…

Tandem practice went great the next day but during my first tsuiso battle in the best 32, I made the fatal mistake of diving in too early upon entry while following and did an uncharacteristic  half spin while leading causing my opponent, Koh Kae to hit me in the rear . I apologies furiously as I managed to rip apart the whole front of his cerfiro, taking the intercooler and oil cooler out in the process!! It was a silly mistake I made but I still left me wondering what made my rear suddenly go light while at the hair pin!! Oh well..(no 2)

Photo from www,cheryl-tay.com

 Anyways so much for that but on the good note I was very pleased at how I have finally got SLOW’s handling sorted out( finally) and Jane though didnt qualify , was able to show case  her ever improving skills and maturity and was able to mix with the big boys!!

We’ll be  back!!!

RESULTS

21st Place ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD

DNQ    AZRINA JANE ABDULLAH

KBS Drift Malaya Challenge 2011 Round 3 @ Putrajaya 31st April 1st May 2011

Fresh from ACE we were egar to get to the root of the misfiring and power drop issues we had on the S13. The problem was intermitten but had gotten worse during my many tsuisos with Johan Norman. The practice session during day one wasn’t an exception but a sudden scent of burning wires had me cutting my practice short. The smoke and scent helped us locate the source which was  to my relief was a mere ‘short’ed’ loose connection  of the battery terminal . Such a simple overlooked item had basically cause me the chances of winning the ACE Dirft Challenge Series for the 2nd time running..Oh well , no point crying over spilt milk.

The S13 performed flawlessly throughout the practice session with Jane looking real strong in her 180sx. Jane certainly looked like a contender with her consistant clean runs.


photo Akir Imagiography

Competiton day  was  a straight foward affair with me qualifying 3rd and Jane qualifying 9th with her impressive run!

Tandem Battle had Jane advanced to past top 16 when she beat Shaffiq in his rotary 180sx but her run to further her position was cut short by Goodyear teammate Tan Tat Wei.

Going through top 16 and top 8 was fairly smooth for me but during the best 4 battle, my handbrake suddenly decided to give up the ghost on me. It seems to refuse to lock. Thankfully I found this out during a taxi ride given to a VIP before my tandem run. I somehow managed , barely, through top 4 against Ah Boy from ACE but had to resort to clutch kicking when going against Tan Tat Wei during the finals.


photo ZAKUMALAYA

I managed to get the tail to decently kick out but due to some careless gear shifting work, I had shifted to 4th instead of 2nd at the rear clipping point !! During my turn to lead, Tan was on me throughout without missing a beat so I knew I had to make do with 2nd .


photo Akir Imagiography

Result

1st place Tan Tat Wei Goodyear Under5ive

2nd place Ariff Johanis Ahmad Goodyear Sync Optima

3rd place Ah Boy ACE Engineering

8th place Azrina Jane Abdullah Goodyear Sync Optima

ACE Drift Challenge 2011 Round 2 @ A’famosa 23rd and 24th April 2011


photo www.mikecheryl.blogspot.com

Having performed badly during the 1st round of this year’s ACE Drift Challenge, it was critical that I do well during this round to have any chances of retaining the title of overchampion for this year. Alas, it was not meant to be with an early knock out during my best 16 run against Johan Norman. The S13 had intermittenly develop misfiring issues and sudden power drop during tsuiso and after 3 (?????) one-more-times, the combo of worn tyres and low power had me give in the Johan’s relentless aggressive runs. This basically has put an end to any hope for this year’s championship

On a better note, Jane performed beautifully through out the weekend inspite of the set back of breaking her gearbox.


photo www.mikecheryl.blogspot.com

Kian and Boy from Chikian workshop did a wonderful job of replacing the gearbox and had her going for the next day of the competition.
Jane had qualified 21st which places her into the best 32!!

photo www.josh-takumi86.blogspot.com

Though having an early exit out of best 32, her run against Iranian Drifter , Shah in his 400bhp 180sx was a close one!! Only a uncharacteristic spin during her turn to lead had given the win away!!

photo www.josh-takumi86.blogspot.com

Results

9th place ARIFF JOHANIS AHMAD Goodyear Sync Optima
21th place AZRINA JANE ABDULLAH Goodyear Sync Optima