Q3 2012 - Grigio Telesto DC5R

If you may see my last post was back in March 2012. The reason being for this blog not being updated was because Black Mamba was broken into around that time. Few items were stolen early Saturday morning and the car was left with broken passenger window and electrical wiring cut off. Had to tow the car to John  as it couldn't be started.

I was devastated with the event. The car was left untouched for some time. Progress was no where to be seen as I wasn't sure whether to pursue or ditch the projects. However after having countless conversation with my close buddies, I believe continuing and finishing the project would be the best decision. After all, one can't simply leave halfway of what he has started. :) 

To cut things short, the car has yet to recover from the theft 100%. But at the moment I have managed to put on the staggered powdercoated CE28s and changing the paint scheme. Yes, the moment I have been waiting for, is to paint the car. And the color I chose is not the typical Honda color. It Is called Grigio Telesto and it is a standard color for Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4. Why this color? Simply because it is exceptionally stunning and I want the car not to be the average DC5 you see on the road. And by the way the color is actually metallic although it looked solid under different light.

I am not sure if I will write more here after what has happened. Only time will tell. If you could see I have removed my Facebook tab on this blog. And to further protect my privacy I have removed unknown people who added me on Facebook. Till then, have a blessed Eid ul-Fitr for the Muslims and enjoy the latest pics below.

March 2012 Quick Update

Has it been 3 months since my last post? Quite a lot has been done to the car in the past months. But time has not been very friendly with me to update the blog since I'm being a dad in January.

Whatever it is, this year's plan is going pretty smoothly so far. Just need to make the right decision on couple of things and it'll be EPIC. Hehe. Here are some of the things done and going to be done on Black Mamba:

Done:
1. Mugen 5 pieces aerokit installed
2. Ings+1 wide fender installed
3. Mugen interior goodies purchased
4. Mugen airbox installed
5. Mugen front and rear tower bar purchased
6. Swapped my black Bride Exas III with a red Zeta III
7. Sold the Blitz R-VIT

Coming (still deciding on few things though!):
1. Staggered 17" Volks
2. Repaint the car
3. Ecliptech Progressive Shift Light
4. Revalve and retune my TEIN Flex c/w higher rate springs
5. Rebuild gearbox possibly with carbon synchros
6. Hasport/Innovative billet engine mounts
7. Attend track day

Will update the pics when I'm done feeding the baby.. LOL.

A Glimpse of 2012....

Hope it's not too late to wish you guys a happy new year! Let's hope 2012 will be a better year with better income, better mods and eventually a better car. For Black Mamba, it will definitely be a "無限" year.. :)

R-VIT i-Color Flash

Sold off my Pivot Racing Monitor few weeks ago and got myself this cool multi-functional display monitor by Blitz Japan. Initially I wanted to get the Ecliptech i-Shift Progressive Shift Light for Mamba but since this item will be put on top of the steering column, I don't think I could see it as I'm planted deep in the full bucket seat. Haha. So until I get an aftermarket steering wheel (to have a clearer view of the steering column) this R-VIT will serve as my real-time data display.

Why R-VIT and not APEXi RSM? Well, as you can see from the link above, it has a lot of features that could assist my driving. Though you need to buy few sensors to make some display work (oil pressure etc), the other information does help me to properly monitor what my car is doing. One of the best feature of the R-VIT is the fuel consumption monitoring. Not very sure how accurate this is since my O2 sensor is out but the km/l figures decrease whenever I drive WOT haha. There's nothing wrong with RSM, it's just that the design and display looks old-fashioned to me. :)

By the way this is the latest version of the R-VIT and you just need to plug in the single socket to the OBDII port to activate it. If there's anyone interested to buy this do let me know. I don't mind selling it cheaper than what I got for. My email is on my blog profile.

Kouki

If you have been following my blog you will remember I have posted about the Chargespeed Japan bodykit which I purchased in Singapore. The complete 4 pieces kit were collecting dust for almost two years simply because I was not ready to get it installed on my car.

Throughout 2010 and 2011 I have seen only two cars that were using this rare bodykit. One of them is an on-the-road car with only front bumper and the other one is a complete kit on a car that has been on the dealer since god knows when. I have managed to save some photos below and that is how it will look on my car, except mine is lower and has nicer wheels :P .

Personally I think one of the reason why I did not want it to be replacing my stock OEM bodykit is that the 'curves' of the bodykit are not totally exposed on a black car. It would definitely look more revealing on a brighter colored cars I believe. I have tried to sell it for couple of times but the offers received were not up to what I'm expecting so once again the kit continued it's hibernation at the paint shop.

  

Time goes by, and to cut the story short, I had the opportunity of a lifetime to own a complete Mugen bodykit for FL DC5 from a friend (This will be written later on a separate post coz it's too exciting haha). Knowing the fact that the Mugen kit can cause a big hole on my bank account, I had to make a bold move to earn some cash to finance this project. No, not robbing the bank of coz. Haha. The Chargespeed kit came into my mind and I started to make it available for sale again. Thankfully after just few days a fellow DC5 friend whom I know from the Facebook group offered to buy the kit. The price has been agreed and I had to drive down to JB and return back to KL to deliver the items to Faizal.

In just less than a week, the bodykit was painted to Championship White and being perfectly fitted on Faizal's K24 DC5R. Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to present you... the one and only.. daily driven DC5.. with a complete Chargspeed Kouki bodykit.. in Malaysia!! Hahaa!



Based on the UrbanDictionary, Kouki is described as the second model of a particular generation of vehicle. So this kit is the second in line for DC5 after the Zenki.

The car doesn't need to be flushed to look flush with this kit haha!

The kit looks very mean in white!

The longer rear bumper looks very intimidating :)



Genuine emblem, obviously.




Impromtu photoshoot @ Sepang Circuit with 9tro Magazine from Singapore





There would be no one who understands JDM will say no to this car :)



That is all for now and I hope you enjoyed looking at the pics. Year end will always be with full of surprises. LOL. I will write soon on the Mugen project for Black Mamba. Last but not least, expect a proper photoshoot of these two cars in the next 3-4 weeks :)

Dyno Day :)

Once the header installation was done, I took Black Mamba for a retuning session the following day. Initial plan was to get it retuned by Tung Chun, however due to the limited time for me to travel around, I opted to get it done by Desmond of N1 Racing.

Tuning was done succesfully on a cloudy Saturday afternoon where it was not too hot, not to humid. Obviously the end result below made me smile the whole day but most importantly the a/f ratio were perfectly tuned to suit my daily driven engine. Prior to the tuning, the car was run couple of times on the dyno to get the base reading and surprisingly Desmond mentioned that my a/f ratio was already optimum from the last tuning with Tung Chun. I am sorry for not being able to put on the full graph as I lost the paper, so once I manage to retrieve back the graph I will share wity you.

Strapped on the treadmill :)

Tuning of K100 in progress

Mappingssssssssssss

The final figure.

Post Tuning Comments:

1. Powerwise the car feels much livelier than before. The header does release extra power from the engine since the excessive gas has been smoothly released compared to the stock header. Low and mid range power has been improved and I enjoy seeing the revs climbing faster than before. VTEC point has been maintained at 5500rpm as I can't afford to have it engaged earlier on a long distance drive. Furthermore I am running on 5.1 final drive so it's not very wise to lower down the VTEC engagement point haha.

2. After the tuning, my secondary O2 sensor decided to die on me. No choice but had to disable it temporarily. Now I need to get a complete primary and secondary O2 sensor as my fuel consumption has increased! If you remember on my post last year, my primary O2 has been disabled when I installed the Hondata.

3. As I have mentioned in earlier post, there is a rattling sound coming out from underneath the car as if metal plates are hitting on each other. Will make a check and possibly fix this next time.

Cost:

1. Tuning @ N1 Racing: RMXXX (contact Desmond Yee to discuss)

Brisk Plugs

Realizing that my Greddy spark plugs were never changed since 3 years ago, I decided to get a set of new Brisk plugs for the next service. As recommended and claimed by some friends, these Brisk plugs can give few extra horses on the dyno compared to other plugs. Since I am going to get the car dyno-tuned after the header installation, why not try this?

The 3 years old plug. LOL.

Cost:

1. Brisk plugs: RM350