Media Formula Plus 2010 Revisited

Pictures tell a thousands words right but which words?? Well some of the words in the last Media Formula Plus 2010 area these courtesy of 1Motor resident photographer....

Group photo...1Motor conquered rightist, leftist and centre!

Team discussion took place with Firman aiming for the TOP!

All smiles except him again hahaha

Satay

Firman

And yours truly

Kiki of Driven gave a thumbs up!

This is where you can see smiles widen so much so that the teeth are clearly visible from everyone especially us

Malay Mail successfully defended the title

And when it comes to us, the team manager says it all!

Mk1 Golf with a JDM heart!

A mate of mine has just got another toy car, Volkswagen Mk1 Golf! The conditions are pretty at sorry state at the moment but the same can’t be said on its heart power plant. Gone the bone stocker 1.3, say hello to the 1.4 4EFE forced fed delivering 135bhp/157nm. 135bhp might look a bit commoner nowadays but on a chassis that weight less than 800 kilos, it’ll go like stinks. And that bone stocker 4EFE could potentially surpass 200hp on wheel with some mods added on, it’s a new definition of madness retro of the old school!

I wonder if this can sayur the guy's other monster RB25DETT Skyfiro on the 1st-2nd gear acceleration...

Gaga Frog inspired Rocco!

We’ve heard loud and clear by the Bar Council almost putting authoritarian stamp to the government to expedite court cases and of course out of the blue ‘individual rights’. Though in recent years I think Bar has moved into becoming a political joker party in which doesn’t seem to be my cup of tea, but on the expedite cases I honestly applaud them in doing so.

But while they keep on fighting, their members aka lawyers are the crooked lots. Intentionally and indirectly all in the same body language, they still want it to be more or less of the same practices. And one of the readily available examples is convincing the court of postponing cases when things don’t go to their ways. And of course, more delays might means more professional fees further imposed on clients per se.

And that’s what happening to me in recent years till indefinite years. I’ve been slapped with subpoena three times to attend a court hearing as a PP witness and each of the dates given which include today and tomorrow have been postponed again and again. Surely having me ranting about this out loud will definitely be waking up their fangs but hey isn’t that freedom of speech is among the agenda by their ruling body?

Looking back at yesteryears movie like The Godfather, lawyers are there for The Don but they weren’t the war consigliere but guys like Rocco Lampone is. To sum it up, his character is obedient as he’s ruthless and brutal, all in one go. Is that the same case applies to Volkswagen Scirocco? That’s what I’ve got to know this morning.

In an effort not to waste my successfully applied leaves, me and my friend went to VW showroom in Bangsar for him to have a go at Mk6 Golf 1.4 TSI which I drove earlier. We reached there when the sun is just about 40 degrees up and greeted warmly to our hearts and eyes by a out of this world hot looking with model-like body lady SA. If I wasn’t wearing my cheap looking specs, I honestly thought she’s the product we’re window shopping for.

And while we waited for her to get the keys of the Golf, we were busily looking at the cars then her then the car then her again till my eyes trajectory accidentally shifted towards the bay window which overlooked the Scirocco 1.4 TSI. And in a formula 1 split of a second, she’s standing right in front us. Cheeky enough I did asked her if that Roc can be test driven as well and she said YES!

Coming towards the Roc, visually, it’s exactly the same as the 2.0 FSI minus 17” wheels, Merlin fabric seats and of course force fed 2.0 200 hp replaced with the same 1.4 TSI engine as in the Golf. And as for the looks, the Roc isn’t as seductive as MiTo, girly as MCS, far from being beautiful, this Rocco looks like a product of mad love making between a funky Lady Gaga stylist and a frog which in turns transformed into love hate fashion thing. And when it comes to fashion, I’m first class graduate dull!

And the same theme is replicating on the inside. The same stylist has inevitably educated Wolfsburg Ingenieurs applying the same funkiness into the dashboard which origins carried over from Mk5 Golf, weird door handle and seventies rear seats. Typically enough these Ingenieurs still have a common sense in their forehead, ergonomics are still user friendly, all the buttons and levers are being placed at the right place except for the hand brake which is biased to the left and every time I think of touching it, coincidentally nearing that hot chick, a reminiscence of my wife sour face keeps popping up.

My typical habit of beginning a test drive session involves making sure the seating position and mirrors are spot on but this time around I was busily thinking how to make a socialize conversation with this hot SA with her skirt getting shorten by an inch as she seated into conti-Recaro hugging designed seat. And every time, I try to think of something, a vision pops my head of my wife armored with Uzis signaling a WW3 is coming very soon!!

So in my forward defense move, I quickly fired up the engine, slot the transmission to S and line up the Roc to the Jalan Bangsar towards Mid Valley for power and handling so called test. And just like the Golf 1.4 TSI and Polo 1.2 TSI, it hesitates to move rapidly as I floored the throttle. I wonder why this characteristic is in placed for these new VW cars as certainly Mk5 didn’t!

Power wise, I was told this Rocco has 20hp extra than standard which the same thing I heard from SA in Jalan 222 as well. But as floored and I’m sure of that, it looks as though that it pulls exactly the same like the Golf, not an inch different. So a million dollar question is where on earth that 20 horses went? A quick googling habit led me to know that this Roc has the same power figure as the Golf. Given that, I guess probably that remaining horses still got stucked in customs as they negotiating reduction from what already ridiculous 40% tax on CIF for the extra horses.

It’s still a brilliant engine nevertheless as details in the Golf review but not quite punchy and rapid as say R56 MCS. It’s hard to find the reason here but perhaps the gearing is a wee bit longer than ideal? I don’t know for sure. For bone stocker golf is no issue but for Roc, it is. And that’s a bad news for VW because MCS is the obvious competitor in this hairdresser performance car category. Thankfully enough, the price of the MCS is similar to Roc 2.0 FSI.

Having said that, the Golf drives sedately civic but this one is very sporty but obedient. Wider rear width, ACC trickery and 17” giving plenty of grip to fool around and I’ve a hunch the same applies to 2.0 variant as well. Doing 140ish on a sweeping road back towards Bangsar doesn’t upset the stability at all, it just hold on tight its frog inspired body to go through it without much fuss. The steering too has much better positive feel than the Golf but again not quite as engaging as the R56 MCS but close enough and that means still behind FD2R. And in the 1.4, you could hardly get to see the chassis aided by ACC is going to work overtime given the lacked of power.

But unlike an FD2R and MCS, it has way more comfortable ride going through rough patches. And of course you could meddle with the ACC to soften the car a bit more. This I think a real treat for hairdressers before of course devil slipped into their veins to become a complete chucklehead like yours truly.

By no means, it’s still a very good hatch with tidy handling and gives RM40k savings over 2.0 FSI and as mentioned by that hot chick, she prefers Roc over MCS :) As long as you stay away from the 2.0 FSI variant you should be fine but there’s also a devil thought of topping a meager RM10k more for an FD2R for complete chucklehead experience. Not quite a Rocco Lampone experience I’m expecting hence the reason I went to City Karting in the afternoon to burst some steams away by tapauing Italians duo claiming they topped the timesheet of 1.01 min in a 80cc kart. It wasn’t a waste annual leave it seems :)

With the colour and the looks, I can't be wrong right?

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Smaller cc can have lots of POKE afterall!

It’s a stereotype and commoner perception that bigger is always better especially coming from the accountants because 99.9999% of them are money centric. Err actually I should have put the lawyers as well come to think of it :P

Naturally bigger cc engines should be more powerful and better but on one corner you’ve these German grease monkeys whom given their sense of humor are anything but funny thought since they managed to shoved in an engine on the wrong end and still can get away with it, now might as well come up with engines with all but smaller cubic centimeters but can still tapau others when it matters.

End result is an engine of 1.2-1.4ltr with both functionalities of supercharger and turbocharger and greener to the environment and of course to the wallet too. So it’s hardly surprising that it has been awarded Engine of the Year 2009-2010 on the trot! Or has these been overhyped??

Moment of truth comes recently that I’ve got a call from Francis about test drive invitation of Mk6 Golf 1.4TSI and just soft launched Mk5 Polo 1.2TSI. Next day passed, as I en route to KL for a troubleshooting the troublemaker appointment, a quick detour to FA Wagen Jalan P Narayanan for a quick spin!

First on the checklist was the Golf. Hmm it has been two years Mk6 Golf has been around, although the outlook has started to grow on me but given my obviously honest answer, I still prefer the flashiness of the Mk5 even though nowadays already started to look dated. And if I may, the rear end of this Mk6 is the most pemalas design which incidentally inherited from the not so good looking Toureg which many grandmas will still call it ugly even after putting on their spectacles upside down.

That’s just about it really because once you climb inside the car, it feels no-nonsense, matured and almost Audi-feel quality material fit and finish, far departure than the Mk5. And even the fabric seats, though from photo looks cheaply grey but offers fantastic at ‘home’ feel with good posture and support. Having said that there’re still some parts with contrast cheapness like the flimsy indicator/wiper stalks – typical Volkswagen.

The first thing after I did once fire up the engine to life was to get it into reverse. Interestingly without throttle being applied, it creeps automatically just like the old Iswara autobox which is nice after thought. And when I line the car up to join the main road, the dry clutch DSG seems to be hesitant to move forward rapidly, exactly the same feeling like driving an AMT Savvy. I know this well because I crashed one before because of this!

But once you engage the DSG in manual mode and plant the throttle to the floor, my GOD these Wolfsburg Ingenieurs have nailed every cubic of this engine perfectly! I’d be wrong to say that virtually it’s lag free, far from it, it feels actual, reality, fact is lag free! And unlike standard Polo GTI 1.8 which runs out of puff after 4.5k, this thing actually pulls further up….a wee shy before 5.5k rpm. And at no time I felt any interchange awkwardness between supercharger and K03 turbo, the power delivery is very linear and smooth. Out of a 1.4ltr engine, I shook my head in an instant!

And it’s mated to this flappy paddle DSG which ratios have been tailored to suit this masterpiece of an engine. Yeah, every gear change feels rapidly precise as usual and of course followed by unapologetic farts. And they make a good companion by a mile in comparison to the MiTo 1.4 T-Jet, 308 Turbo and even the one I’d like to own someday the R56 MCS (A).

The ride and handling characteristics on the other hand are all but sporty. The steering weighted far biased for the city runabout, it just lacks of feel couple with a commoner 205/55/16 tyres and softer sprung ride to become a hot hatch nor it aspire to be. That’s Golf GTI’s territory. On the bright side, it soaks bumps remarkably good and more comfortable without getting overly floaty.

It’s hardly a rocket science that this Golf is being marketed to executives with small family in mind, bundled with ample lots of goodies and needed an understated car yet not a laughing stock for valet parking in front of event functions. That’s German business sense to you.

Getting out from the Golf and into the Polo, I knew beforehand that Golf is the better car except the looks which I really really like it a lot. What makes the styling a little more sort of standout and flamboyant is the fact that they’ve taken something very simple and translated into something big. Understated, typical German eh?

But at the same time, you get certain features, certain flamboyant and certain flair that perhaps haven’t been seen in a small hatch before. Example, look at the way the headlamp cluster made up from different material, different colours and it’s also more of mean and classy looking at the same time. And yet there’re lots of layers, different surfaces and texture and that is a very high-end car feature which we haven’t seen in a small car before this.

Come around to the side of the car and that’s where you’d get to see more of the muscle. This sharp lines flowing all the way from the front and comes back and turned into a nice shoulder. Very neatly done and adds definition to the rear end. Same applies to wheel arch, it’s flared yet it has flat fleet along with sharp lines. So overall, the car tad bigger than the old Picanto inspired Polo but looks way stunning!

But because trying to price the car as cheaply as possible, they’ve skimp on the accessories e.g. basic alloy wheels wrapped in 195/55/15 tyres almost ruining the whole thing! God the wheels looked hideous!

Apart from the exterior, massive improvements were done on the inside. If I can recall properly, the dashboard material is almost exact quality feel like the bigger brother Golf and ergonomics like typical Volkswagen simple designed control at all the right places. But cheapness still can be seen on the door trimmings, control panel meters and also the shiny surface HU.

Unlike the 1.4TSI, this 1.2TSI only has a single turbocharger pushing to power to 105PS/165Nm mated with the same dry clutch DSG 7 speeder. And rightly so, not exactly punchy but adequate enough to drive around just like the 1.6 NA with better torque to rely on except you only need to pay RM55 of road tax and better fuel consumption than Focus TDCi too!

Because this is entry level Polo, the driving refinement is well basic. Just like the golf, the steering feels lighter than too light of the Golf for feel, 195/55/15 tyres couple with standard dampers and spring giving a basic continental feel without sporting credential.

But these little bits here and there are what made up the car being chosen as Car of the Year 2010. And rightly so because none of the superminis which are up for grabs in here can make this Polo a bit rugged on the edge when it comes to looks, practicality, safety features and goodies. What’s more RM109k is a reasonable price to pay(….this is until they watered down the pricing structure like before hahaha)

I could have been separating out the review but there’s a reason for that. These two cars hold some of the possible insights of the new Polo GTI coming to our shore next year. A nice bit of kit that compliment standard Polo outlook, 17” Denver wheels and the same 1.4 TSI carried over from the Golf only more powerful at 180PS/250Nm. By then, I guess even accountants would even like it :)

It looks fine until ....
Images taken from Bangau

... you see this :(
Image taken from Bangau

In contrast, to me Polo is the better looking brother

Next year coming soooonnn....