Archive | 2009

Project Airtrek – A Day At The Dynojet Dyno

A few Sundays ago a bunch of us headed down to Sunway to do some dyno runs with a friend of ours who was doing some dyno tuning on his Evo 6.5 Tommi Makinen Edition (still considered one of the most powerful evos ever made).

I was gonna do some dyno tuning too, but due to some problems I was having decided it’d be better to do street tuning first and polish off on the dyno later.

The dyno is the latest model of Dynojet and seems fairly accurate according to our own calculations of engine HP. Anyway will talk more about dynos later when I dyno my own car hehe.

This was the car that was being tuned with a custom Vipec setup, not too sure on the car mods but pretty sure it has fully forged internals and some other minor mods.

Evo 6.5 TME

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Merry Xmas 2009

I just want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, I hope santa delivered whatever you wished for and you’re stuffed with turkey and chocolates!

I was definitely very pregnant after last nights dinner.

Stuffed

Great party at KY‘s place with all the usual suspects.

Anyway, merry xmas! And enjoy yourself.

Here’s my rendition of Jingle Bells for your enjoyment.

Eric Yong.

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Movie Review – Sherlock Holmes – Awesomefunny!

Sherlock Holmes 2009

Robert Downey Jr. brings the legendary detective to life as he has never been portrayed before. Jude Law stars as Holmes’ trusted colleague, Watson, a doctor and war veteran who is a formidable ally for Sherlock Holmes. Rachel McAdams stars as Irene Adler, the only woman ever to have bested Holmes and who has maintained a tempestuous relationship with the detective

I read Arthur Conan-Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes books with great glee when I was a child, they were actually quite scary at the time as they tend to feature rather dark and gruesome plots in seedy, back-alley locations.

My mother bought a rather large Sherlock Holmes compendium one Christmas and it was absolutely fantastic, with this movie coming to the big screen it makes me wish I still had those books and perhaps I shall consider buying some again to re-read.

After the disaster that was Fung Wan (Storm Warriors) a few days ago, I’m so glad I watched a truly good movie to end the year.

There’s no rating on IMDB yet as it doesn’t actually come out until tomorrow, but I’d guess within a week or so it’ll be somewhere about 7.5 (that’s my prediction anyway).

But then again I foresee the hardcore Holmes fans not liking the movie, it’s a very different and rather more modern portrayal of the character. Quite opposite in fact from the stuffy, pipe smoking, tweed wearing, slightly eccentric Holmes portrayed in the books.

As for me, I absolutely loved it! London was superbly portrayed for that era (exactly as I remember from my schools day history books) and the dialogue was quick and witty in a very Guy Ritchie way.

There was a few signature Guy Ritchie scenes, like the bare-knuckle boxing – does it seem familiar? Well if you’ve watched Snatch and you remember Brad Pitt as the gypsy boxer you could make comparisons.

Robert Downey Jr. was superb as Holmes, bringing a very weird, fairly intense and incredibly smart Sherlock to the big screen. Mr Downey Jr. has had his moments in the 90’s and his ups and downs with drug problems and rehab, Ironman really smashed him back to the mainstream with a great amount of force and this movie has cemented his position as one of the best lead men currently acting.

I rate this as one of my top 5 movies of this year, totally enjoyable, great script, solid acting, well paced and just really really fun.

Unfortunately we had to watch it in the TGV at 1U which has the smallest most uncomfortable seats ever, I used to go there before 1U had the new wing because I had no other choice…and honestly they haven’t upgraded a thing in the past 6 years. No wonder GSC is pawning their face.

Anyway go catch Sherlock Holmes at the cinema ASAP! Next…I need to watch Avatar in 3D!

I give it a pipe smoking 8.5/10.

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Pasar Malam Acupuncture – Wrist Pain (RSI/CTS)

I’ve been sad lately because I couldn’t play Badminton…no not because I was grounded but because I was having some pretty nasty wrist pain which limited my wrist rotation and flex.

I thought it could be Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or Repetitive Strain Injury, but not being a doctor I wasn’t really sure.

Obviously caused by too much wanking typing/mouse use in the wrong position, I bough a new Fellowes gel mouse mat for the office to remedy the problem as I already have a nice ergonomic setup at home with my Ergohuman chair!

Then I need to fix my wrist itself, I was considering heading over to Osso Bone Care, but it’s just too bloody far!

One night I happened to be in Cheras at the Pasar Malam and I saw one of those random Chinese medicine counters in the middle. I thought why the hell not just give it a try.

Chinese Medicine Stall

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Hannah Tan Christmas Charity Concert – Dec 20th 2009

As you should know if you’re read my blog for a reasonable length of time, I’ve been involved in many projects with Hannah Tan. She’s truly one of the hardest working individuals I’ve ever known and humble at that. Fortunately for her she has a great team to support her and her latest project is for charity in the spirit of Christmas.

Hannah is back from Japan and is set to make a difference for underprivileged children this Christmas. Hannah and her team are putting together a Charity Concert and will team up with industry friends such as Harith Iskander, Hans Isaac, Pietro Felix, Daphne Iking, Jojo Struys, Reefa, Sasi The Don, Meet Uncle Hussein, Reymee and Sam of Innuendo, The Fabulous Cats, Caprice, Atilia, and Liang, just to name a few.

Hannah Tan & Friends Charity Concert

The tickets will be sold in exchange for gifts of any value (instead of money) and subsequently shall be distributed to orphanages and underprivileged children for Christmas.

I managed to drop into the press conference last week when I was in Solaris porting from Maxis to Digi (more about that saga later) and saw a lot of familiar faces.

Hannah Tan Press Conference

You also stand a chance to be the opening act for the concert! All you need to do is upload a video of your demo on your Facebook profile, email the link to catchme@hannahtan.com & get your friends to vote for you by “LIKE-ing” the video.

Any kind of talents are welcome such as bands, solo singers, and beat-boxers, to comedians, magicians or even dancers. The entertainer with most votes will be invited to perform for 15 minutes as the concert Opening Act.

It’s all happening THIS Sunday, 20th December 2009, at The Gardens Ballroom (above GSC Signature, The Gardens) at 4pm.

Email Isabelle (isabelle.llh -at- gmail.com) to reserve your tickets. Give your name and h/p number (as well as the details of your friends you’re bringing) and they’ll get back to you for confirmation.

You can also find the event on Facebook here:

HANNAH TAN [ Live In Concert ]

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The BMW Eco Drive Experience – Diesel Rocks!

Recently Malaysia underwent some changes in it’s fuel structure (you may have noticed the whole RON95, RON97 thing) since September 1st they also finally changed the diesel fuel quality to something decent – Euro 2M. Apparently by 2011-2012 we will have proper Euro 4M spec diesel meaning we can really have powerful and super efficient cars (they said the Euro 4M engine versions can go down to 4.5L per 100km which is just silly).

So now we can have proper diesel cars like I’ve driven before in Europe, we were invited by BMW (Sashi in particular) on a blogger specific weekend outing to Belum Rainforest Resort to test out the new 320d and 520d sports models.

First of all I’d like thank Sashi, the BMW team and the events team for an awesome weekend and all in all one of the best organised events/outings I’ve ever attended. It was just amazingly done, attention to detail was superb and we were treated with the true premium BMW style from start to finish.

We arrived early in the morning to park our cars at Mandarin Oriental to grab some breakfast, check in and have a short briefing about the trip. We also learnt a little about Efficient Dynamics (the BMW initiative to make more efficient cars without sacrificing a dynamic driving experience).

To hammer the point home, when we set off…all the fuel tank caps were sealed! They boasted that the 520d could do 1000km on a single tank and the 320d could do 800km at least with normal driving (both at around 8L per 100km and down to 6.5L for steady driving)..we were skeptical of course.

Sealed Fuel Tank

There was a flag off for each car…shortly after we were having a police escort all the way to Mutiara Damansara from KLCC!

Flag Off

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Movie Review – 2012 – Fantastic Effects

Columbia Pictures - 2012

Never before has a date in history been so significant to so many cultures, so many religions, scientists, and governments. A global cataclysm brings an end to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors.

Centuries ago, the Maya left us their calendar, with a clear end date and all that it implies. By 2012, we’ll know — we were warned.

It’s inevitable for someone to make a movie about the rather overhyped 2012 phenomena as predicted by the Mayans to be the end of the world.

There have been some movies about it before, but not quite as big budget as this. You could almost consider with movie an epic with the superb special effects and 2hrs 38mins run-time.

And of course in the 90’s we had our batch of disaster movies like Deep Impact and Armageddon. Of course this big task was taken up by one of the masters of disaster Roland Emmerich famed for similar movies to 2012 like Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow.

Of course this one follows pretty much the same plot, a fairly cheesy but slightly dysfunctional American family (John Cusack & Amanda Peet) trying to survive the end of the World.

As for the film itself, it has a fairly average score of 6.3 on IMDB and I would agree or mark it slightly lower.

The star of the show for me was Woody Harrelson as the slightly whacked out hippy conspiracy theorist and of course the famous “Engine Start” Russian fella.

Woody Harrelson in Columbia Pictures' 2012

After that..well the effects are fantastic, but honestly nowdays we’ve seen so many amazing special effects it’s not the same as say when Terminator 2 or Independence Day came out.

At the time they came it was mind-blowing, now it’s like we’ve seen it all before so we do need the plot and script to keep up with the effects.

Yah it’s a typical blockbuster, yah it drags at times and yah there’s not really much plot just a string of massive special effects scenes.

Is it enjoyable? Yah, but only on the big screen. If you watch it at home you’ll probably be bored to tears (unless you own a 30 ft panoramic screen in your personal home cinema – then please invite me over!).

I recommend it, but don’t expect to be excercising your brain whilst watching.

Just sit back, munch your popcorn and don’t analyze it too much.

I give it a OMG NOW THAT’S A TSUNAMI 6/10.

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Sepang Open Track Day – November 29th 2009

So yesterday afternoon a friend of mine was taking his Airtrek on the track to test it out.

It was a regular open track day and we had perfect weather for racing! Dry, slightly overcast and nice and warm, really good weather for banging those corners.

We met up in the afternoon and grabbed some lunch then headed onto the track about 2.30pm. The trek heading out for it’s first lap.

Mitsubishi Airtrek Turbo

This is no normal trek though, it’s got 18″ rims to accommodate the 8-pot K-sport brakes with 355mm rotors! Why does it need so much stopping power? Because it has a tuned Evo-9 engine inside, Garrett turbo and a manual gearbox.

Monster Airtrek Turbo

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Eric & Esther’s Engagement in Bentong

This past week has been a crazy one, Saturday morning was hectic too then in the pouring rain it was time to head to Bentong for an engagement party.

It was for Eric (one of the Airtrek club members) and his fiancee Esther at the parental home. Luckily when we reached there it wasn’t raining and the weather was clear and cool.

There were quite a few members in attendance, but not all the treks were out there was a Swift and a BMW 5-series in the convoy too.

Mitsubishi Airtrek Club Members

Of course there was plenty of beer and fun too 😀 My new Mitsubishi Rally Team shirt from Hat Yai.

Edward & Me

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Mitsubishi Airtrek Club Road Trip To Hat Yai – Thailand

I gave a little sneak peak of the Road Trip to Hat Yai when I got back, now is time for the full run-down!

We met up at Sg. Buloh rest stop at 12.30am on Friday night, some people were late though so we ended up leaving a little after 1am. We might quite a few stops as some people were sleepy and some monster treks guzzled the fuel.

Around 7am we reached the Kayu Bukit Hitam duty free shop and the place where we bought our insurance for Thailand, it was RM14! If you are going into Thailand with your car this is a must, also make sure you have a copy of your grant (owners slip/pink slip) or the original as the Thailand immigration will ask for it when you enter. Sun was rising and we grabbed some quick breakfast. There were 8 cars in total.

Airtrek Convoy

It’s also advisable to enter before 6am or after 9am as between those times the immigration queues will be crazy because of the busloads of tourists arriving.

The only problem with traveling at night, with your lights on you are a fast moving bug magnet..I washed my windscreen 3 times on the way there!

Bugs!

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