And I thought Malaysia FD 2009 was bad…a hit on the wall during qualifying caused the fuel pump relay to get damaged and I was unable to complete the 2nd run. So a DNQ for me WTF???? Jane wasn’t spare either…but I’m sure she’ll do better with her new setup…Singapore 2011 here we come!!
With my S13 still in the panel beaters after my major screw up in Formula Drift Malaysia, Jane and I decided to take part in the inaugural ACE Drift Challenge in Jebat stadium in Malacca. ACE is a company that specializes in suspension and undercarriage components for drift cars here in Malaysia. They are quiet popular amongst the AE86 and KE70s crowd as they are known to make top notch robust absorbers that could withstand all the abuse drifting could offer 🙂
Photos taken from :
http://ellmiesupreme.blogspot.com/2010/01/ace-drift-challenge-round-1-2010.html
The course that was set by sole judge, Ah Keat, was the usual ‘R’ Shape with a single rear clipping zone and two front clipping points. What made it different was the line that he wanted us to take; Entering in third gear, we were required to take a angular line towards the rear clipping zone!! To be honest, I was a bit confused about what the judge wanted when my run where I clipped the rear zone (knocking a cone off) and nailing the two front clipping points only earned me an 9th qualifying placing . Unfortunately Jane’s runs , which I thought were good, wasn’t good enough to make it to the top 16.
TOP 16
My first tsuiso run was against Rocker Loh ,in a borrowed Cefiro. I had managed to follow closely the RB25 powered car while trialing and managed to distance myself while leading . With that I got through the best eight.
TOP 8
My next opponent was top qualifier Tan Tat Wei. My AE86 was no match to his high powered hatchi but unfortunately he made a fatal mistake of following too closely on this tight course which ended in him rear ending me during the switch over and straightening in the process. With that, I’m in the top 4!!
TOP 4
Top 4 was against me an Zulfikar. Zul was still struggling to get in grips in his newly transplanted SR20 turboed trueno. An uncharacteristic spin by Zul and strong chase run by me ,allowed me advance to the finals.
Cool sequence shots taken from www.rattlezasia.blogspot.com.
FINALS
The finals was me against Derrick Lim. At this point, with the total of six tsusio runs I had, along with the two qualifying runs I was still using the same pair of Goodyear Duraplus tires at the rear. Jane was getting a bit worried if they would last the next couple of runs but after thoroughly inspecting them, we were amazed that they were good enough to go for another dozen of runs!! Most importantly, the grip level stayed consistent throughout. I believe this gave me the advantage against Derrick as I was alot quicker than him during our runs even when I was short of more than 50 horses against his car!!
In the end of the video by eddie88 (www.zakumalaya.com) below , shows the final tandem battle of me against Derrick !
After a disastrous Formula Drift Malaysia last December, it was good to be on the podium again .
Five months had past when my S13 is finally ready. With a hefty power up grade and a newly acquired control arms and knuckles, the round 2 of the ACE Dift Challenge seem like the perfect opportunity to test out the car before Formula Drift Singapore 2010, scheduled was 2 weeks later. However, things didnt go as smoothly a planned with an untimely failed LSD and a misaligned knuckle kit that would either cause me to straighten or spin at any given moment.I had barely scraped through qualifying with an 8th placing but got knocked out early by Hong when the s13 veered off course during my lead.
Videos by Nash from Singapore
(www.youtube.com/user/driftonowhere)
Jane wasn’t spared either as she had suddenly developed misfiring issues right during qualifying!
We were glad that we were able to identify the problem and have two weeks to rectify them!
With our maid having to go for surgery. We had Johanna with us for this round of competition. I was a bit worried as the environment at Afamosa isnt what I would call ideal for a two year old . So Jane and I had took turns looking after her while one of us would go out for practice. It helped also, that Yoong and Swee Kin had brought along their daughter Sze Yun to Malacca too. Swee kin had the daunting task of looking after both of them when we both were out during practice!! Thanks Swee Kin!!
We had taken baby steps to develop the handling department of the S13 since it debut in April and we are glad to say that we are almost there. Our experience during round 2 of FX Open ( report will be done later) had exposed the car’s weakness of its intitial set up.The car handles alot better after making a few adjustments and we reckon we are able to make it even more faster.
I managed to qualify 3rd with two strong runs with Jane making into the top 32 with a 28th placing!!
Having to take care of Johanna and also not having (our photo/videographer,caretaker and friend) Kevin Boey around results in having no drifting photos of the event!! My apologies..
TOP 32
Jane had to go against Kecik of Sultan Sulaiman Team. Jane did a strong trailling run but had straighten during her turn to lead.A One More Time was called. Unfortunately Jane had straighten during both of the runs giving the win to Kecik. I believe with her new power upgrade coming up, she wouldn’t have to struggle so much during her tsusio run.
I had a ‘walk by’ as I qualified 3rd (within the top 8) and went straight into the top 16
Top 16
I had to go against another Sultan Sulaiman team member, Popeye (i swear, thats his name) . During my lead, Popeye had taken the inner line while I was clipping the rear clipping zone thus forcing him to brake and straighten when I dove into the front clipping point. During my trailing run, I followed him as closely as possible and manage to advance to the Top 8
T0p 8
In this round, I had to go against Oliy of Feinto D. Oliy and I have gone against each other before and we are both not shy about exchanging some paintwork (report of Cyberjaya competition later). However it was unfortunate that his NOS powered supercharged AE86 was low on NOS which result in me gaining a huge gap during my turn to lead and him straightening during initiation when I was trailing. I’m into the TOP 4
Top 4
This is the second time I have to go against Tan tat Wei. But this time Tan is packing even more power with a 300bhp++ Nos powered rotary AE86!! Not wanting to take any chances I opt of have a tire change. So I picked up my crew from the starting line and off we went to our pit. This is where things got a bit weird; somewhere during the time my tires were being changed, the NOS switch on my car was switched off. I was in the car the whole time and my crew reckoned that I did it. I strongly doubt it as during my experience of FD Malaysia, I made it a point to never touch it !. Somehow i suspected that my crew had accidentally knocked it off while trying to get out of the cramped caged car. Anyway, I not pissed or anything but I just found it weird. So as you might have guessed, my run with Tan was a disaster. He qualified 1st , so he was first to lead. The starting point is extremely sandy so I am forced to drive half throttle throughout the 1st gear and floor it mid into 2nd. Usually the car would response with a sudden surge of power. However this time nothing happen!! I saw Tan gained 4 cars length infront of me and I knew there was no way of catching him.Upon returning to the starting grid ,only had I realised that the switch was off. With my over zealousness of wanting to gain a gap during my turn to lead, I had entered the rear zone a bit too hot causing me to hit the rear barriers but not losing drift! However this slowed me down tremendously thus allowing Tan to stick close to me!! So that puts an end to my day in this competition
With that I was awarded a third placing and inturn making currently in 1st spot in the overall standing!! With one more round to go, I hope my luck improves for me to win the title..wish me luck 😉
Looking at the recent photos of the Thailand Goodyear International Drift Series, we see that white is no longer the required base color of all Goodyear cars..Thats good news as it is no secret that Jane and I really aren’t really fond of white ..
So looks like its back to black!!! Yipeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
Kinabalu Sports Car Owners Club (KSOC) held their two day Borneo Motorsport Carnival at the Kota Kinabalu Port last June . With Car shows, Audio shows, Race Queen pagents, Autocross and Drift demo/session, this event promised to be the biggest car related event, to date in the Borneo region!! We were fortunate to be invited by Tony Wong, President of KSOC to be a part of this prestigious event!
The first place we actually went to was the port where we did the track set up and also to test the cars that we were to use during the demo. I was really impressed with the selection of cars that they had offered us; two S15s, one S14 and a 180sx. These cars were immaculate, almost show car like!! All running on bling out 18″ which is almost unheard of in drift car back in Peninsular Malaysia!!. After a few laps it was decided that I would use Steven’s well prepared 180sx while Jane would be on Mah Lau’s wide body S15. They were incidentally both black , which I think is hows Goodyear cars should be colored in the first place :p. After deciding on the cars we will be using , it was off the the nearest Goodyear dealer which was called Bintang Ramai .
The first thing in order was to fit fresh new Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymetric tyres on the cars! Those are 18x10j on the fronts!!!
Obviously a little fender knocking was in order 🙂
After doing the alignment and a quick bite to eat, we went back to the site ,just in time to watch the Race queen pagent rehearsal ..yum yum
Anyways, the two days of event went by so quickly, as it would always do when you are having fun. It was a pleasure working with the KSOC crew and all the people we met during our stay there..sorry for the lack of photos of the other events as I ate up my memory space on the Race Queen pageant..;)
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I couldn’t believe how slow I was. No doubt it’s my road car and short shifted at 5000rpm due to the worrying knocking sounds I heard ( Excuses #1 and #2) but still ,I had expected a better time. I must have held back a bunch of drivers during my run ..sorry guys … 2’59” WTF????
Jane did better with a 2’54” placing her 4th in her category; all this on drift setup!!
But the one that impressed me the most was Nas; it was his first time on the track so he drove at a fairly leisure pace , with the air con on ,with me ridding shot gun, and he posted a 3’8″!!! wow!!
Yoong posted the fastest time of 2’31” on his S13 which is no suprise as he is fast no matter what form of motorsport discipline he enters .Another person that inspires me is a friend of mine Megat ‘kalau-time-you-bagus-you-masuk-front-page-hall-of-fame-itu-yang-kita-nak-tu’ Arizal (ari7474). He got himself a FD2R and managed to clock a time of 2’38”. His advice for me that day was ” Make sure you trim your arm pit hair when wearing asleeveless t-shirts!!”
Megat Arizal and Daphne..bet he gave her the same advice on arm pit hair
Now I can’t wait for round 3 where I aim to break into the two forties time zone…wish me luck
The damage the S13 sustained was alot more serious than it appeared to be. Due to using aftermarket front lower arms and rear A arms, the impact to the wall had caused the front and rear subframe to shift! The tie rods were badly bent and the front knuckle wasn’t spared either. Being so late in the evening, it was impossible to get them replaced so with the help from the boys from Tek Ming Tyres, we basically had to try knocking everything back into place with a hammer and a welding torch.
It was almost 1am when we got everything done to best we could. The car steered straight but the steering would not return to center. I figured this was alright as long as I remember to manually counter steering whenever drifting. Besides it was so late into the evening and having hardly any sleep the past 2 nights, I couldn’t think straight 😛
I was eager to start the next morning’s pre-competition practice as I was curious on how the car handled.
Not wanting to risk anything, I insisted for Miki (Ryuji) to lead during our first run. Drifting with a ‘dead’ steering takes a bit of getting used to. It was not too dificult have to counter steer manually when both hands are on the wheel but it proved to be a handful (pun intended) when only using one hand when the other is on the handbrake. Having to turn almost one and a half rotations, I had developed the trucker’s style of steering while drifting.
After a few runs , I was beginning to get the hang of it and even considered a career in driving trucks…the effect of the lack of sleep was definitely hitting me at that time
Soon it came to my turn to go against Rhenadi in the best 32. We both lined up at the start and off we went. Going in at full throttle thru the gears I had noticed something was amiss; the car felt way under powered. It was too late to do anything now so I had just floor it and clutch kick my way thru the corner. The run was decent enough but I knew I should have done better. Upon reaching the start line, I shouted for the crew to check on the car , then only did my crew realised that they had forgotten to turn the Nitrous bottle open!! To put the effect of this into perspective; My car without the aid of nitrous was pushing about 330WHP, with the 50hp shot of nitrous it had 370WHP. With the nitrous switch turned on but with the bottle shut, it makes the engine run at a very rich fuel mixture with retarded inginition timing, and I was only pushing in the mid region of 2ooWHP. Man, was I pissed. All those sleepless nights , all those times at the alignment shop seemed wasted because of this silly mistake. We should have taken a five-minute break for me to regain my composure, but I immediately went for the 2nd run. I had given Rhenadi a car’s length distance at the start and followed him into the initiation point. Rhenadi had intiated while i followed suit. As we approached the wall, Rhenadi looked as if he was about to lose it and had slowed the car considerably to gain control of the car. I was forced to slow down which had caused me to straighten. Rhenadi somehow managed to gain control and continued drifting with a clutch kick which I too had attempted to do. However, to my horror , I had forgotten to perform the manual countersteer as the car spun which the wheels were lock into position!!! I went on for a few meters and did a clutch kick again and the same thing happend!!!
It was then I knew my Goodyear Formula Drift Malaysia campaign was over. Frustrated, I just drove back to the pit .
It was tough to put on a cheerful face on camera after that incident but I know I had to do it
Explaining to Rhenadi’s parents on what had happened during our run
The spectators were all supportive. I really felt I let them down that day
Having been knocked out so early in the round gave me the opportunity to check out the competition first hand..
It was good to be able to meet all the fans as we all stayed back long after the event was over, signing our poster and cards. I guess I found it therapeutic as I felt a lot better after. However it was good I went through what I did as it prepared me for 2010 proved which is about to be most disastrous year yet
