Tag Archives: goodyear asymmetric

ZeroToHundred: Sepang Time Attack Rd2; 25th July 2010

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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????

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Jane did better with a 2’54” placing her 4th in her category; all this  on drift setup!!

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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!!”

ari-daphneMegat 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

Goodyear Formula Drift Malaysia: Race Day Part 3

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.

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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.img_75

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

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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!!!

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It was then I knew my Goodyear Formula Drift Malaysia campaign was over. Frustrated, I just drove back to the pit .

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It was tough to put on a cheerful face on camera after that incident but I know I had to do it

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Explaining to Rhenadi’s parents on what had happened during our run

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The spectators were all supportive.  I really felt I let them down that day

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Having been knocked out so early in the round gave me the opportunity to check out the competition first hand..

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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 yetdsc03534

Goodyear Formula Drift Malaysia Part 2: Qualifying

Oh god!! has it already been that long??? Well as promised heres the rest of the coverage of FD Malaysia 2009 ,which I thought was my worse FD yet ( This year’s Singapore FD  tops it , hands down!!)

DAY 2

We all got to the track early the next day. It was a good thing that the replacement throttle had arrived as today is the offical practice followed by the qualifying session

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Ming and Cheng inspecting the replacement throttle we got early that morning

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1st practice had everyone in a joyous mood

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everyone is raring to goimg_8793

smiles all around..dsc00969

except for me…:Pdsc00998

Finally we got the car together and I was excited to test the car without its gremlins..dsc01035

everyone was doing well

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The first casualty of the daydsc01113dsc01466

My practice time was cut short due to a leak in my manifold..img_8777

Everyone waited patiently for the judges to arrive for the 2nd drivers briefing. Djan took the opportunity to do a few facial excersise while doing so

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Mad Mike’s immaculate RX7 img_8872

Another beautiful ride belonging to one of the Hong Kong drifter

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Pop of Thailand pulled out a few beautiful runs during practice

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Jane was consistent all day

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I was getting use to the car’s handling and but the manifold started to leak again and I was losing power so i had to stop my practice mid way

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Mad Mike was virtually rubbing his rear bumper on the wall all dayimg_9301

Cheng fixing the leak once again.

As predicted it rained

img_9315Yoong did a good run

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So did Meryvnimg_9367

Unfortunately, nerves got the better of Jane. She straighten on her first run and spun on her second inspite of doing so well during practice

img_9504I managed a good run and was placed third at the 1st round of qualifying. Till Djan knock everyone down a spot to claim first place on the second run. I wanted to better my first run and had attempted to rub the wall with my rear bumper…

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Instead I bent everything on the carimg_9657

Well I was off to the workshop and try get everything fixed …

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Apparently I missed the annoucements and the post qualfying interview but I had Jane to represent me so it was ok..

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GRA Round 3 @ Sepang 16th August 2009 ; Goodyear Asymetric on the podium!!

Since we withdrew from our role as the drift competition organiser for the MICCOS event. I had decided  to participate in GRA’s round 3 and try to salvage whatever position I had since I had missed GRA round 2 due to the clashing of dates of Formula D Singapore. In round 1, I was running 2nd in Pro OD class and I hope to get a least a top 5 by the end of the series.

I have always enjoyed the GRA competition as not only the experience gained from entering such an event has help me to improve as a driver but also because the event is so well organised , kudos to Mr and Mrs Ian Khong!!

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Mr and Mrs Ian Khong  and Mr Tang MAM steward

The other competitors competing also make up the reason why its such a joy to be part of this Auto cross event! With Top pros such as Ivan Khong , Andy Kow, Mike Ng and Mickey Teoh ,all willing to share their experience and are extremely generous with tips and advise on improving your runs!!

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Two of my sifus; Mike Ng and Mickey Teoh

This round is said to be the fastest out of the series , with cars hitting in access of 160km/h on the straights. A total of over 60 participants made out of Pro and Beginner categories
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Lim Joe Han with his V8 Cefrio winning fastest FR NA class and the Bling bling award!!

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Joe Han showing us his is slim enough to fit under the car’s undercarriage without the aid of a jackdscn2184

Tina showing us her bolting skills 🙂

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Yoong’s run were extremely clean and fast!!! He was running on a killer combo of RS sports in the front and rear..thanks for the tips bro..

As usual Yoong was super fast that day clinching the fastest overall time and 1st place in Pro OD with almost 3 seconds ahead from 2nd fastest Andy Kow with me trailing Andy by a hair below 1 sec!!

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Results were posted after each rundscn2237

Yoong practicing his pose to the camera when recieving his 1st place trophy during the award ceremonydscn2245

The Eco Coat girlsdscn2307

Yoong 1st!!!dscn2315

Andy Kow recieves 2nddscn2304

Me in 3rddscn2303

Ivan Khong in 4th

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The S13 which I was competing in for this event was fresh  from FxOpen event we entered the week before. Running on Eagel Rs sport in front and the Eagle F1 Asymetric in the rear, I was fairly confident that this set up would be perform well  for a competition  of this genre as tyre tempreture would not be as high as it is as compared to drifting. This is in regards with the Asymetrics which I felt , behaved  a lot differently  from the normal RevSpec we usually run behind ! What I really was impressed with was its low tempreture performance which I think would come as a bonus here in GRA. Looking at our used Asymetrics we had from the Malacca event, I had noticed that tire wear was more evident on the inner side of the tire, a clear sign of the soft wall technology these tyres had incorporated in its design.  It was then apparent that, due to inexperience , we were running too low of a pressure thinking that it  will give us more grip.  So I decided to run on a slightly higher pressure and see how it performed.dscn2341

The tyres performed execptionally well, worthy of its 5 star ratings it had received in reviews. So much so that I had not only placed 3rd fastest in the OD catagory but also 3rd overall!!!This I believe is the first podium finish for Goodyear Eagel F1 Asymetric in a competition in Malaysia!!!

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Yipeeeeeee