37.5k kms oil change

Still feeling muscle pain from extensive tourist walking throughout Jakarta, decided to wake up a little bit early to send the Pocong for its 37.5k kms oil change and replacing worn solid control arm bushes at Auto Reign. As usual, fresh 4.5-4.8 litres of Castrol Edge 5w40 oil poured in filtered with new VAG original oil filter (Part# 06A 115 561B). Everything is very much a routine job except we had some trouble with over tightened oil filter caused by Goh Brothers SC’s personnel. That took a while. Should it still jam that time, I swear to give them a thoroughly trash talk!

Unlike the Mk5 GTI, the guys have to take out the entire control arm assembly to replace the bushings with Seat Ibiza’s. Pretty complicated job, slightly expensive yes, and ½ day gone but I was at peace knowing these guys know what they’re doing. The whole job cost my credit card balance to up by RM405. And another good alignment & balancing from Consistent Distinction for RM63.

Fortunately, the end result is worth the pain. I can sense the acceleration & braking feels more decisive, you can floor the car 1st, 2nd, 3rd gear without having lunatic torque steer all the time. And according to Clement of Auto Reign, my clutch is still in good shape :)

Taking out the control arms is the first thing they do

Dog Bone, going to scout for solid rubber or PU based material as upgrade

After 1.5 solid hoursm both arms managed to extracted out

Worn stock bushes

The guys ingat-ingat lupa where to put the bolts into which holes

15 minutes to 3p.m. finally done, alignment & balancing next

Seems like I need to skim the rear rotors!

4G93 still ROCKS!

This has to be the most powerful 4G93 I've ever seen first hand. No mivec, forced induction, ITB goodies but punching out 191.5hp on wheels! And it can still hit 11-12k rpm with even more power! This sleeper beast already roaming in Gombak and Shah Alam. The only hints I can tell you is that the car is Satria GTi and is using Goodyear tyres. Pocong got to be really be discreet when going to these areas hehehe

Gran Tourismo 4

I’ve been addicted to GT4 lately and been yapping about it ever since (yeah I'm outdated hehehe). And yesterday managed to nailed Hachiroku 240hp on stock tyres on Nordschleife, plenty of room for improvement but still netting 8:12 secs :)

Stay tuned for vids of E46 M3 CSL’s 6:46secs on Nordschleife, 49secs on Tsukuba and Elise S2 111R dance on ice circuit !

Sound Bites on Lotus F1

The cat is already out of the bag as we speak. It turns out Lotus F1 Team errr sorry my mistake 1Malaysia F1 Team has just announced its drivers Jarno Trulli and Jacques Heikki Kovalainen while the Malaysian’s Fairuz Fauzy as test driver.

It may be a good news that at least Fairuz got the spot in the team just being a ‘tester’ giving him more mileage under his belt before having a crack at F1. But with test ban in place these days, test drivers are just well filling up the blanks with almost zero mileage of drives. I quote Mike Gascoyne’s statement “He has the talent but we don't want him to 'crash and burn' in the race because of his inexperience”. How can he get more experience by just filling up the blanks and now tell me why should this team branded as “1Malaysia F1 Team” and why it should be supported by Malaysians and why it has to be funded mostly by Malaysians’ conglomerate?

If you look at the stats, Fairuz has participated more formula series than Alex Yoong (touted to be Deputy Team Principal?) and this year finishing runner up beating the likes of Jaime Alguersuari, the Renault driver this year (and almost be certainly be on the second cockpit of Toro Rosso). He certainly deserves F1 seat more than Alex .What more convincing work he has to do now? At the age of 27, it’s now or never!

Of course, he doesn’t score that well in GP2/F3000 but let me give you stats to this argument. Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen, Kimi Raikkonen, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve and newly crowned Jenson Button did not even drive in any of these championships, and yet still became F1 champion. The only person who’s ever won GP2 and doing well in F1 is just Lewis Hamilton. Past GP2/F3000 champions like Björn Wirdheim, Bruno Junqueira and Jörg Müller didn’t even entered a single F1 race.

Well I may be short sighted in this case compared to Tony Fernandes and Mike Gascoyne but I surely think it’s not worth our massive investment. Oh before I forgot, they’re hiring more Malaysians people but let’s hope it’s just not filling up the blanks again. The chassis is designed by Litespeed anyway…

New Polo is European Car of the Year

This would explains why the new Polo is the European Car of the Year 2010 :)

Sound Bites on VW

The cat is already out of the bag, VW Cars Sdn Bhd no longer being anchor dealer for VW and has been replaced by FA Wagen. Just before anyone jumping in joy, I'm afraid to rant some bad news. The successor is just about the same as the old.

Just so happen that my rhd reading light button switch decided to be consistently on all the time, I've decided to visit FA Wagen's new 3S centre in Jalan 222, and since it's near to my office, naturally I'm intend to make appointments for this fixing either in January or February next year.

A lady SA came and told me that although it is a 3S centre for VW, they're only doing sales and car service and as for problems rectification, I've been asked to contact VGM directly. In other words, they don't want to. To my bloody surprise, she even got a cheek to ask me to come this coming Sunday to test drive Mk6 GTI and Toureg hoping to score some sales. Now why do I want to do that? To add more salts to my wound, last month, I've been given mary go-round by another SA lady about Scirocco test drive, two appointments have been cancelled, the last being VGM no longer giving potential customers test driving the car.

They're just too good I'd say. After the Pocong, I'm thinking R badge Hondas or even rwd shoebox Lotuses. Well, that's what I can afford than VW :)

K-Sport GT Pro Coilovers

I've got an offer for this. Supposedly, it's the same thing as the D2 but at cost price which way below any other on the market (published £526.81) and yet I just don't know whether to bit the bullet or not. Spec wise is pretty impressive but ride will not be soothing to my spine as the spring rate circa 7kg fr and 5.3kg rr. Key features of this coilovers:

-Inverted steel shock absorber for durability
-Lower center of gravity and higher chassis rigidity
-Designed to reduce friction for cooler shock oil temperature
-Inverted design like vehicles in WRC and all JGTC cars
-36-way adjustable dampening
-Made from high quality 6061 Aluminum with T6 for increased hardness
-Compression/Rebound adjustable
-Adjustable spring perch for height adjustment
-Adjustable body allowing maximum suspension travel
-Pillow Ball Top Mount w/ adjustable camber (not available for some models)
-Monotube High Pressure Design reduces oil leakage
-Electroplated body for protection from corrosion and rust

Arrrgghhh!

For Sale: Stock VW Polo GTI Brake Set

Item: Stock VW Polo GTI Brake Set, single pot 46mm calipers, caliper carriers, 5x100pcd 288mm rotors, stock Ferrodo pads
Condition: Used for 1/2 year only, good condition except rotors requires skimming.
For: Ideal brake upgrade for Mk2, Mk3 Golf
Reason Selling: Can't stand wifey's blabering

Interested? Contact me @ 0123827575 or firdausasri@gmail.com

The only pics I have :(

For Sale: VW Polo GTI 1.8T (2008)

Don’t jump the gun just yet as it’s not mine up for sale. A very mint condition VW Polo GTI belongs to a fellow dubber, manufactured & registered in 2008, flash red, Unitronic Stg1+ 210bhp, Whiteline rear anti roll bar up for sale for RM120k. Very decent price for a pocket rocket. Interested? Please call KS at +60192339810.

VW Cars Sdn Bhd is no longer an authorised dealer of Volkswagen Group Malaysia Sdn Bhd

Kuala Lumpur, 9th November 2009 - Volkswagen Group Malaysia wishes to announce that VW Cars Sdn Bhd is no longer an authorized dealer of Volkswagen Group Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

Volkswagen dealerships operated by VW Cars' at The Curve, Mutiara Damansara and Jalan 219 (off Federal Highway), Petaling Jaya will cease with immediate effect.

VW Cars' customers are encouraged to visit the Volkswagen website at www.volkswagen.com.my for more detailed information and updates on Volkswagen’s current dealer network in Malaysia.

[www.volkswagen.com.my]

VW Cars, we will miss you indefinitely! hehehe

Baking donuts .... sincerely yours -Skyfiro-

Remember about my brief drive on the drift prepped Cefiro few months back? Now, have a look at the car doing donuts driven by the owner himself. How I wish...

ADAC Polo Cup

I let the images do the talking. This ADAC VW Polo Cup running on tuned 2.0 ltr NA VW engine mated with 6 speed manual boxes from VW Lupo GTI. Quite popular entry level racing championship in Germany.

Grooming session - the slow, cheap but definitely special

The last time Pocong receives skin beautifications session was slightly more than a year ago and he’s badly in need one now. The problem with me is that I’m a bit tight on cash now where just a month ago he had a set tyres change and I just moved to a new place and for that, my cranky wife keeps on blabbering for this & that for our new home leaving me for no choice but to DIY. And the day is today.

I first went to under coconut tree shop for normal wash as early as 8.00am and got it done an hour later for merely RM8. Quite pricey where I ended up having to wipe the car again on my own after half cooked job they’ve done and don’t get me started on having to wait for an hour. And I can even further be annoyed with the rims not cleaned properly!

Only about 9.30am, the actual spa session commenced. I started off using PermaGlass Tar Remover to clean visible contaminants especially on lower half of the car before applying PermaGlass Polymer Sealant to do so called polish & wax layer on top (twice). Then TurtleWax Clear Vue for the windows and headlamps; and then Ambersil Dash & Trim for the interior trims and exterior rubber parts.

A solid 4 hours job and the end result won’t match the quality of Carnauba AutoSpa, Autoglym or Meguiars finish, nevertheless I’m pretty content. At least, there’s some layers on top of the paintwork to shield from our monsoon acid rains and dirts for 3 months. And the cost is pretty cheap too :)

On another note, I took the Pocong for a drive using Ulu Yam road a day earlier where this time it was dry. My praise for the RSR went a notch higher with it sticking the tarmac like it doesn’t know how to loose grip. Only I wish the car has more power. 200-210hp on wheel should make it psychopath again. Custom FMIC and Ah Heng’s downpipe might do just that. Got to start saving then!

An hour!

Had to borrow my auntie's porch

Plenty of contaminants just my phone camera don't reflect that

First layer done, now onto second one

I'm pretty content with the job

This is better reflection of that compared to previous one

Still couldn't remove all of the dirts

Ok lah

C99 karting 2nd installment

I was late in bringing in this report since this 2nd installment of karting among C99 forummers held last Sunday. Well here goes nothing …

More people joining the fun, it was dry & hot day, we’re burning rubbers (so called la) and not forgetting there’re arab ladies joining the session too abeit more like moving chicanes. This time around, we’ve a very fast karter hustling at me at every corners and tapaued me in the process. It’s time to go back to the drawing board huh??! Tension gua cakap lu hehehe

Below are array of superbly taken pictures and video courtesy of Fahmi and Azdilizan.

Group photo with Zam spoiling it :P

Me chanting some spells

Tazir can't wait to tapau me

Addy with his matte black helmet getting ready

King Bae can't wait any longer

Zam with his Oakley's, non stop smiling!

Darn fast karter - Tazir!

Not going out without a fight (so called la)

Addy shouldn't have chosen the Top Gear kart, Evo better (pun intended haha)

King Bae in action

The spectators anxiously waiting for the 2nd heat

2nd heat starting...

Desperately trying to run away from Tazir but the kart not as fast

He's still hustling me!

Don't have the pace to keep up with him this time :(

Hafiz learning his way around the track

Haji in action

My rempit brother

Distraction #1

Distraction #1 closed up

Distraction #2

Ibiza's solid bushes

The Ibiza R front of the rear wishbone’s (it’s confusing I know hehehe) solid bushes have just reached my doorstep yesterday after two weeks of waiting. Time to scout for H&R camber kit, rear shims before going for installation….

Consistent Distinction

I ran over a deep pothole err manhole last Wednesday and caused the steering pulls to left quite significantly. A quick visit to Consistent Distinction in PJS 1 easily solved the problem. I got away scot free this time as rims and tyres are ok. I’ve to say their customer service relation is really warm, very organised and best of all they hand tightens your wheel nut instead of using air gun!

No. 1, Jln PJS 1/21A,
46000 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor
Ah Wah +60193897433

Same row as Auto Reign

All the wrenches are placed well

The Pocong looking helpless without shoes

312mm is fine but the Textar pads not that heat friendly