Saturday, September 26, 2009

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:




2 comments:

Firdaus Asri said...

My auntie bought this EF when she was stationed in Tokyo many2 years ago and then sold to my uncle. 1.5 ltr PGM F1 engine is good enough to bring the car all the way to 180kmh will full load. Then he had this B18C plonked in and some mods, I was told she was pushing 220 on wheels at Links. Unfortunately he sold it off recently for a price that I couldn't believe. Sigh

noname_yma said...

x nyesal ke jual ni bro?