Savvy!

Months after the disposal of my Proton Putra, I was looking for another car which would help keep my pocket heavy again. The many expenses of the Putra have put a big hole in my pocket. Now, I have brought a Proton Savvy.

Proton has made many inferior cars in the past with designs taken from Mitsubishi and their own designs of Gen-2s. However, Savvy proves to be a much better car than anticipated. When I first decided to buy the Savvy, I told myself that this is the car that I am going to have to “suffer” with for the next 3 years or so.

Kuala Lumpur is one of the worst places to travel around during the morning and the evenings. The morning and evening jams will leave most of us either banging our heads on the steering wheel or surrender any hope of going home early. The Savvy is equipped with the basic necessity for an everyday Malaysian that encounters these jams. It has a good CD player with four (4) speakers, a good air-conditioner, semi-bucket seats and even mirror for the ladies to do their make-up. However, for some unknown reason, I have no idea why there is no mirror on the passenger side, does it mean that the guys get to look at his stylish hairstyles while their girlfriend or wife looks in jealousy. I guess the designer must be hoping that their other half will kill them by the end of the day from the use of the car.

The semi-bucket seats are a good idea for a car that rolls quite a lot. I brought mine to Kg. Gajah to test out the car, thanks to TK, the organizer who allowed me a few laps for free. I drove it below 3k RPM (Still running in) and found the semi-bucket seats were able to keep me in a rather relaxing position even while turning the car at high speed and in the wrong gear. <Ok, it’s harder to drive fast with a limit of 3k RPM you know!> It is under these conditions that I realized that the Putra would have handled much smoother. The Savvy has more body roll but as the car is shorter, it was able to make the sharp turnings a little less technical. One could just swipe the car left and right over the chicanes and still be able to maintain the speed. However, right off the main straights, you will notice the lack of speed compared to bigger cars.

The acceleration of the Savvy is quite nice compared to many cars of similar specs. Compared to my old Wira 1.3, the Savvy could touge (hill climb) much better. Testing it in Camerons, the car could really climb for a 1.2 liter car, even at 3k RPM, the car can climb about 20 degrees. Not bad. Again, this was tested when I was running in the engines.

With the increasing oil prices, there is little doubt of a petrol price raise as early as next year. Many ways could be used to counter this huge increase in petrol price, you could car pool with a bunch of overly good smelling people (or bad smelling people if you are working in certain industry), take the bus with lots of weird people or buy a car that has low fuel consumption. The Savvy is one of those car with a lower than average fuel consumption. Despite the fact that manufacturers always overstate the fuel consumption in their brochures, the Savvy did do a 6.5l/100km (5.3l/100km in Proton’s brochure) in the busy streets of KL and 5.5l/100km for my long trip to Ipoh. Great thing, now I can plan to buy every other thing I wanted that I couldn’t afford with my old car.

Many of us would like to afford a BMW or a Mercedes because of the spacious interior and its comfortable ride. Well, the Savvy offers neither. While the leg space and the overhead is good, the car lacks boot space. The seats can be moved to provide additional boot space but the transformation (Yup, like transformers.) will turn the car into a two-seater with 4 doors. Handling is an issue here, the car rolls like mad (maybe that’s why there is a need for the semi-bucket seats). Even with good control over the car, passengers and drivers alike will feel the “roller coaster” feeling while driving fast. Under heavy braking, you can definitely see everyone inside trying to push themselves up (funny sight nevertheless).

So, if you want a car that’s cheap, (RM37,000 for the mid-line, which comes with basic accessories) you can be sure Savvy is a good choice for us budget driver. However, if you are a hardcore driver in need for speed or a driver that likes to sit in a comfy sofa like car, go buy yourself something else to pamper your everyday needs. The Savvy is a good choice for city commuters and small families.

Camken Engaged!

Cute or not, that's Ken Choong and Lee Lian at Putrajaya today at 10am to register their marriage. My best wishes to the both of you.

A DAY AS A TIMEKEEPER

            I was saddened when I could not join GRA Round 1 as my car was up for sale. All this changed when one day, Mr. Grass called me on my mobile and said “Do you want to be the head timekeeper for the day?” My face brightened up and eagerly I said “Yes.”

            The hard task that Mr. Grass gave me to do was to get the best two or best three time of any number of timed runs for the day. I had Ms. Suzie send me a copy of the last year’s data to help me do the formulations. After a while, I manage to finish the formulation and after some testing, found to be consistent.

            Day before the race day, I prayed hard that there will be no mistakes for the timekeeping exercise. I wished I prayed harder, for you will know in the end how Gremlins can spoil a perfect day.

            Morning of race day, I arrived with my dear, Evilaine on time at 7am. We took a short stop at McD to buy some breakfast. Arriving on the scene, we were greeted by marshals who, look at the white Proton Iswara I was driving and asked with a raised eyebrow, “Are you a competitor?” My dear immediately said “No, he’s an official.” Candidly, he let me into the pit area.

            We were later briefed by Mr. Peter Hansen from Motorsports Association Malaysia (MAM) on the need to register as an official for many purposes, the most important being insured in the race track. He was a cheerful guy with many smiles while we ask many inane questions. We all signed the lovely form that will make us feel at ease for the rest of the day.

            Mr. Grass later came to the timekeeping tent and assigned 4 timekeepers at my disposal. He also briefed us on how the time system works and how to work the switches. This is when one will really appreciate how much work a timekeeper must do to even launch a single car. A simple throwing of 4 switches but one can mess it up if he is not concentrating.

            We prepared our procedures as we go into practice runs for the Grass Class. Vroom vroom is all we hear in the tent as Vtecs, Turbos and some loud exhaust, tellytumby’s car being one of the loudest exhaust pipe for the smaller cars. Not much mistakes was made there as we were all fresh and eager to go.

            Our jobs consist of 3 timekeepers with little cute stop watches. They will launch the cars and watch them all the way from start to finish. After the time is taken, he will go over to my assistant and myself to give the car number and time. My assistant, Mr. Choo will record the time manually while I will record the time electronically and checking the manual time as we go.

            From time to time, Mr. Grass will come over and ask “Results ready?” I will answer with either “Printing” or “Pick it up from the printer.’ Except for once, when our printer ink ran out, Mr. Peterink, true to his name like Peter Pan saving Wendy, comes to our rescue with his bottle of ink!

There were few hiccups during the race, one being the many re-runs due to jumpstarters. Many competitors were seen letting go the clutch even before the timekeepers little hands can push the green switch. Marshals were doing a good job stopping the cars before anything happens and reporting in all penalties with effectiveness.

However, all this were marred at the end of the day when the results were finally out for the pro grass class. The overall results for a single competitor was wrong as the formulation did not take into account one of his time due to a gremlin eating a few words  in an overly complex formula. I really wish to apologize to the organizers for that mistake and hope that it will not happen again. Also, a new and better timesheet is in the process.

All in all, it was a fun day at the GRA, where many people doing realize that it’s a lot of work in the event. For only Mr. Grass and Ms. Suzie to organize such a big event is almost a miracle and the delay for round 1 was worth it. We did get our nice race and we all had a good time. It was my first experience as a race official and I will cherish it till the end of time.

GRA

Today's blog is about GRA, not it's not BRA...which many will drool over the sight of it. It's GRA, Grass Racing Autosports. What does GRA has to do with me? Well, GRA is about the only main organiser for Autocross in Malaysia. In the head of this organisation is Ian Khong, the son of the famous Y.S Khong who has won many titles in the past in races around Malaysia. Ian himself has won many and a trip to his house, and you will notice that the amount of throphy will convince you that it may be a museam.

Autocross is a relative old motorsports in the world. However, the sport has not gained much ground in Malaysia until recently. R3 and GRA were the main organisers until this year. R3 was forced out due to lack of support from their main sponsors, including the dubious Proton. The main reason being the lack of funds to support such an event compared the the D1 Drift events which yields more publicity and money.

GRA is a made as ...... (tbc)

Street racing

Due to the nature of this topic, lots of data and information has been editted.

Street racing is what others on the road  will know as street holligans. In essence, street racing is not much different from Mat Rempits. However, street racers barely go beyond racing for fun or money and will not show off stunts in the middle of the road. The best street racers do not even race with unknowns or drive at breakneck speeds for no reason. Only the street racers wannabes will actually race down a highway at breakneck speed thinking it's safe to do so.

Many people do not understand what street racing is about. Akuma once said to me "You do not street race unless you have raced for money." I agree with that, because when money or something precious is involved, you actually raced with all your heart.

The heart is an important element in street racing. If one does not have the heart or guts to race in the middle of one of the most dangerous places to race. Recently, I went to the Sepang International Circuit and sat on Julian Pang's car. Only then, I knew how little guts you really need to race there. You can spin out and hit the gravel, all you get is minor damage to your car, <unless of course it's a high speed corner> and damage to your pride. However, in street racing, you can die by just a simple mistake. Bear in mind, I have seen enough deaths.

For those who thinks that driving fast on the road is a street racer, think again. Have you ever driving 170km/h accross LDP. Trust me, if you aren't skilled or gutsy, dont do it. You will find yourself in a hospital or worse yet, you might be a mural in a tunnel somewhere or some sound barrier. Think of your loved ones and think of what you are dealing with. You are not invincible, and if you continue, God above will prove it to you.

Thanks to be given to:

Akuma - For giving that quote.

Uncle Pang - For giving the ride of my life in SIC.

My girl - For pestering me to write about street racing.

The only other thing that is more dangerous that this is touge (Initial D Style driving) but for that you have to visit www.xanga.com/princess_evilaine to check it out.