Santa Came During Raya!

It was a long holiday so I decided to do some shopping for Black Mamba in Singapore. It's been sometime since I last bought something for the car so it's high time for me to get what I wanted while the funds are still available. The plan for engine upgrades will be put aside for now as I'm going for aesthetics makeover. Don't ask me why, 2009 is coming to and end real soon and I believe that the time has come for me to stand out from the rest. Hahah......

So Ali, Ram and I went to Waterloo Centre in Singapore to get what I need. We dropped by to Mugen store and its kinda cool to see a brand new Limited Edition MR5 being displayed in front. You can get almost everything here but it has to be ordered. I was happy to get a quote for future parts purchase so we went straight to Tanly Motor to buy Black Mamba's new outer door seal. This shop (and few other shops around) sells OEM parts for Honda and you can virtually get evrything here. The Honda owners are quite lucky as Kah Motor imports almost every model to Singapore so spare parts are abundance in the market. Back again to my door seal, it was torn for sometime and I only noticed after I got the car from the showroom. We were rushing to go other places so I didn't realize that I actually bought the wrong seal! How silly.

Then we went around town to get Ram's Canon zoom lens, Ali's racing helmet, my bonnet guard...and......*jeng jeng jeng*....before heading back to JB. Pictures will tell thousand words. :-P

Limited Edition MR5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This would look damn nice on EF and EG!

These are the prices you need to pay to get a full Mugen bodykit for the 2005 DC5 (Front + Rear bumpers, side skirts, wing, and bonnet). That is in SGD sir. So the total in RM would be SGD7,945 x 2.45ER = RM19,465.25. I need few more pieces to complete the Mugen puzzle..

The big book of spares at Tanly for you to browse..Most parts are in stock, so you just need to mention the part number to get it.

EGR bonnet protector. No more stone chips on da hood in SIC after this hehe.

I wrongly bought this...Argh!

A little teaser of what's coming next for Black Mamba..Can't wait :-P

Contact Tanly Motore Pte Ltd:

http://sg.88db.com/sg/Services/Post_Detail.page/Automotive/Spare_Accessories/?PostID=918293

Farewell Oyen!

It is time for me to officially bid farewell to my first ever car - the Honda Civic EF hatchback. The car has been with me almost 7 years and I have since gone through so many things with her. The blood, the sweat, the tears and the laughter I had with her will always be remembered for the rest of my life.

Although Oyen was only boasting less than 160hp at the wheels......that was sufficient enough to bring her light body dancing around the cones at autocross events heheh. Yes it was a daily driven car but I kinda got hooked up with precision driving in 2006 and that's when the fun begins. I didn't really bother about rebuilding the engine as it never gave me any problems, so I just installed a set of B16B cams, valvesprings and retainers from EK9 to give it a lil bit of wilder variable valve action. She did scream louder with the cams on! Then the handling was improved by installing all the bars, camber kits, and suspension to make it stiffer on the road and on the track. Apart from that, the steering rack was also refubished and adjusted to give a 'lighter' steering feeling, so that I can easily navigate the autocross layout. When I decided to get a full 7-point rollcage for Oyen, I know that I'm already an aucross 'junkie' hahaha! But then the plan wasn't materialize after considering possible consequences I might encounter after installing it.

So what more can I say about her? Few trophies from the autcross events is the prove that the car performed well (the driver needs to be damn good too! :-P). Oh yes, Daymen was actually the other driver for my car during some of the GRA events and being a kamikaze, he grabbed few throphies from different class with my car. I only got a third place once, in the 1,600cc class. Not really a kamikaze, but I did learn a lot on how to drive especially when I had to do all the 'octopus hands' on the course hahaha. The rear camber that wasn't tweaked made the car tailhappy - which is good for autocross but not on SIC! Spun the car twice at T5/T6 and that was when I realized the car could not be made a 'jack of all trade' with just a single setup.

I realized that if I wanted something, I will work for it and ensure that I'll get no matter how hard its going to be. This principle should be applied to ourself when we will work hard to get what we wanted, but when it comes to your hobby its gonna burn a hole in your pocket! HAHAHA. The same principle applied to a situation when I saw the thin, long FRP spoiler for the car. I know that I will get that for Oyen. Arn found out that ChargeSpeed Japan was still selling it so he started talking to them. After a week or so, we decided to get it and..woossssaaaaaa.....the price I had to pay was almost RM2,000 (with tax etc). The most expensive exterior part I ever had on the car and probably the ONLY original, brand new ChargeSpeed spoiler in Malaysia. The place Arn collected the spoilers was at ChargeSpeed booth during the KLIMS 2006. How cool was that?

Oyen was sold for RM22,000 to a very nice buyer from Shah Alam. A price not many people willing to pay for a 20 years old car, but there will always be real people who knows what's what. As at this moment, I was being told that the car will be going for a paintjob, and when asked the choice of color the owner said "It's gonna be the same bro. the same Metallic Orange" :-)

Goodbye oyen!

My first autocross stint at R3 event circa 2006

One of my good friend, Redz - owner of the strangely-named blog http://candourrealityzeal.blogspot.com/

Putrajaya 2007

Daymen piloting Oyen

Hey is that a trophy man?? HAhaha.

List of things done to the car: http://www.terato.com/forum/garage.php?mode=view_vehicle&CID=275

Some videos hehe:

Best Motoring/Hot Version Video Shoot

As you all know, Best Motoring and Hot Version are well known for producing racing videos, DVDs and magazines of Japanese (and Contis) sports cars. They have been around since the late 80s and are very famous for their review on tuner cars and filming of VTEC touge battles, drift competition and races around Japan. Most of the racers I mentioned in my previous post are still contributing as test drivers since day one..like Keichi Tsuchiya.

So the crew was in town recently covering the MME 2009 and in conjunction with the event, the Type-Rs were invited for a video shoot that will be featured in one of their episodes. It was a Type-R affair at Chris' place that afternoon with the FD2Rs, DC5s and an EP3 filling up the small parking area......we also had a surprise visit from one of the FD2R owner, driving another piece of German masterpiece...

This is what I'm talking about.....The C63 AMG. Probably THE ONLY C63 AMG in Malaysia. Most of us had forgotten what Type-R is when this car arrive, in style.

MME 2009

Probably you guys have read other reviews about this event but I wish to share with you one of the most precious moment of my life - The unforgettable opportunity to be in the pits with the much admired Japanese tuners and drivers during the MME 2009! How cool was that? Its not just that, the first-hand experience seeing the Japanese motorsport action and watching teams professionally managing their machines were utterly awesome and left me speechless. The best part was, it all happened here in our very own Sepang International Circuit!

No words can describe my feelings when I manage to shake hands and chat with the finest Japanese drivers and the owners of the tuning powerhouse like Tracy Sports, Spoon, 5zigen, J's Racing etc; which we all grew up with. Famous 'idols' like Tsuchiya, Orido, Tanaguchi, Hattori, Ichishima etc which are adored by Japanase car enthusiasts were all here racing with their teams! It was a 'worthful tiredness' when I did get to meet most of them especially Umemoto-san from J's Racing and Ichishima-san from Spoon Sports. Ichishima was indeed a very nice chap when he made the effort to come out from the team room to talk to us! I did ask him a question I've waiting to ask my entire 7 years being a Honda loyalist:

"Did Spoon Sports really produce the rear Civic EF9 hatchback spoiler?"

He smiled and answered in his thick Japanese-accented English "No No No.......No spoila for Civic EF9!.......We made onry for Civic EG6 and EK9...No Spoon for EF..Maybe it is addar (other) brand......Sank yu for asking." And until today I'm still wondering where the hell did the term "Spoon Style" spoiler for EF came from? LOL. Enjoy the pics!

Spoon S2000, retired.

The shot that will make Azharul drool.......

Team 5Zigen Civic FD2R. The loudest in the race, but not the fastest.

HMRT Civic FD2R. Love the color scheme.

J's Racing Labs S2000. Note Tschuciya is ready to get in.

Me with Junichi Umemoto, founder of J's Racing (Barang ko mahal nak mampus la!)

Me with Naoki Hattori. I've probably been watching old Best Motoring vids too much to forget that this dude grows old. Haha.

Me with Spoon President, Tatsuru Ichishima. Check out his presidential pose. This shot is dedicated to Azharul who wasn't able to make it to Spoon pit that time. Hehe..

Me with Manabu Orido. Friendly chap.