Cars/Motorsport Category Archives - ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery https://www.shaolintiger.com/category/carsmotorsport/ Craft Beer, Travel, Children & Much More. Mon, 01 Sep 2014 12:35:37 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.1 Oldskool Car Porn: The 1990 Lotus Carlton https://www.shaolintiger.com/2014/09/01/oldskool-car-porn-1990-lotus-carlton/ Mon, 01 Sep 2014 12:35:25 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/?p=33837 I can never forget this car, seriously. My uncle drove a lot for work, I never knew exactly what he did, but he was the first person I knew that owned a laptop. He worked in some kind of manufacturing industry and was possibly a rep/salesman. Which suits this car, well the original version anyway […]

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I can never forget this car, seriously. My uncle drove a lot for work, I never knew exactly what he did, but he was the first person I knew that owned a laptop. He worked in some kind of manufacturing industry and was possibly a rep/salesman.

Which suits this car, well the original version anyway – the rather boring Vauxhall Carlton (along with the Ford Sierra) was a stock 90s salesman car.

1986 Vauxhall Carlton

Certainly not the most exciting car on the block. Until 1990 anyway.

I remember my uncle was looking for a new car and I happened to join him as he’d found a Lotus Carlton he’d like to look at, he didn’t know much about the car, and well nor did I. There wasn’t a whole lot of Internet back then, and there certainly wasn’t the abundance of information on sites like Wikipedia. It just so happened the car he wanted to look at was near where I lived, so he was coming down from Birmingham to have a look. I’d guess this was probably around 1992-1994 period, so the car was likely new, or barely used (1-2 years old).

When I saw it, I was like..is that it? I was pretty underwhelmed to be honest. For a £48,000 car (which was an enormous amount of money back then).

Lotus Carlton

Even the interior was kind of drab, dull and plasticy. It just had the odd Lotus emblem here and there.

Lotus Carlton Interior

Little did I realise this was a 377bhp, 3.6L twin turbo BEAST which could reach 100mph (160km/h) in less than 17 seconds. So we sat it in, took it for a test drive. It seemed fairly ordinary as we tootled around, then we reached the sliproad to the motorway.

We weren’t going slow, my uncle was in third gear as he reached the merge and he accelerated hard to pull onto the motorway at a decent speed (as you would)..the car span its wheels like a drag bike on a leash.

And once it found grip…it pressed my head so hard into the back of the seat I thought my eyeballs were going to collapse. It was quite an eye watering ride.

And yah, at that point I realised this car was really something special. I read whatever I could about it and was amazed to find that it could outperform the top supercars of that era like the Ferrari Testarossa which could do 0-60mp/h in only 5.3 seconds and had a top speed of 180mph (only 3 mph more than the Carlton!).

For a 4 door sedan..full of people, speeding along like a bullet train. Quite a crazy (and scary) proposition). Also the fact that it was a target for car thieves and criminals as the police didn’t have any cars fast enough to chase it made it a little unpractical.

Sadly my uncle didn’t buy the car, so I didn’t get to sit in it (or any other) ever again. There was only 320 Lotus Carlton’s released in the UK, so it is a rare car. Even now, 20+ years later they are fetching good money for mint condition examples (£12-20,000).

There is a modern day equivalent or a spiritual successor (in some ways), the Vauxhall VXR8.

But yah, something I still remember so vividly from my younger years. Some videos for reference..

Fifth Gear Vauxhall VXR8 vs Lotus Carlton

Top Gear Lotus Carlton

Autocar heroes: Lotus Carlton video review

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Project Airtrek – Fixing The Stalling Problem https://www.shaolintiger.com/2014/05/14/project-airtrek-fixing-the-stalling-problem/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2014/05/14/project-airtrek-fixing-the-stalling-problem/#comments Wed, 14 May 2014 09:12:29 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/?p=33775 It’s been a while since I’ve written about my black beauty, a 2004 Mitsubishi Airtrek Turbo – since the first (and terrible) mechanic I had for my car – Project Airtrek — The First Service – Part 2. So here’s my story about the fixing the stalling problem. I’d spent so much, but didn’t manage […]

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It’s been a while since I’ve written about my black beauty, a 2004 Mitsubishi Airtrek Turbo – since the first (and terrible) mechanic I had for my car – Project Airtrek — The First Service – Part 2. So here’s my story about the fixing the stalling problem.

I’d spent so much, but didn’t manage to get the car in working order..It still kept stalling – as you can see in this video here, these were the symptoms (hard to start, after a slight revving the car would stall):

It was REALLY annoying, and sometimes terribly embarrassing as it would happen at junctions, when parking etc – so I’d stall in the middle of the road..and it would be hard to restart so I’d be blocking traffic. And in the daytime it was SUPER hot as the aircon would go off.

After going to a new mechanic in a weird back alley all the way in Balakong, he diagnosed the problem within 30 seconds..I found the new mechanic from the Malaysia Mitsubishi Airtrek club (which no longer exists sadly). You know what he did? Started my car and turned the steering wheel, when the RPMs dropped he said straight away it’s the Stepper Motor problem.

The Stepper Motor AKA the ICV or Idle Control Valve also AKA the IAC or Idle Air Control is an odd little piece of kit which regulates your cars idling and also manages the RPM during cold start etc (why you no longer have to step on the pedal when you start a car). This is what it looks like:

Airtrek Turbo Stepper Motor / ICV

Managed to get a Throttle Body with the ICV attached (and a bonus TPS or Throttle Position Sensor) for about RM500 and get that into my car, boom problems gone.

So at this point I was up to a rather eye-watering RM9200 spent on the car, but to be fair – it was riding pretty well.

As for the Stepper/ICV it’s a lot easier to find now though (and cheaper), there’s even someone selling new ones on ZTH since 2012:

Brand New Stepper Motor aka Idle Air Control Valve

Next up? Cracked manifold (the most common Airtrek Turbo problem) and much much more.

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WTS 17″ Enkei Bortex RPM2 7J Offset 45 5xPCD114.3 – Ori From Japan https://www.shaolintiger.com/2011/06/27/wts-17-enkei-bortex-rpm2-7j-offset-45-5xpcd114-3-ori-from-japan/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2011/06/27/wts-17-enkei-bortex-rpm2-7j-offset-45-5xpcd114-3-ori-from-japan/#comments Mon, 27 Jun 2011 08:42:59 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/?p=3708 You may remember when I changed my tyres back in October 2009 – Project Airtrek — Choose Tyres For Your Car — Mitsubishi Airtrek Turbo , well those tyres officially wore out a couple of weeks ago. So bad in fact that I stopped driving the car for a while. I decided to change rims […]

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You may remember when I changed my tyres back in October 2009 – Project Airtrek — Choose Tyres For Your Car — Mitsubishi Airtrek Turbo , well those tyres officially wore out a couple of weeks ago. So bad in fact that I stopped driving the car for a while.

I decided to change rims to accommodate some stupidly massive brake calipers later on 😀 And also so I could fit wider tyres (my new tyres are 235/45/R17), I’ll blog more about those later, and my new rims. Anyway I want to see these off, so if you know anyone who is interested do share the link 🙂

These are high quality, light weight original Japanese sports rims. The weight of each rim is very light at 16.9lb or 7.7KG.

Model: Enkei Bortex RPM2
Size: 17″
Width: 7JJ
Offset: 45
Mount: 5×114.3
Comes with: Original Enkei Bortex center caps + correct nuts to fix the rims to your car.

Good condition (all around 9/10) just one rim has minor curb rash (as shown in picture below) and is rated a 7/10.

The rims with my old tyres (215/55/R17) still attached on my Airtrek Turbo:

The rim without tyre, excellent condition:

All 4 rims are in my car boot ready to roll:

The one damaged rim with some slight curb rash, can be easily repaired:

Price:

RM1800 AS IS
RM2500 FULLY REPAIRED (Also will be resprayed in a colour of your choice using high quality 2K paint at a famous rim repair shop)

For the 2nd option full payment must be made up front and the respray will take approximately 2 weeks.

Can fit Airtrek/Evo etc.

Dealing method: COD around PJ in the day or night time around Desa Park City

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Proton Takes 2nd In APRC Manufacturers Championship https://www.shaolintiger.com/2010/11/15/proton-takes-2nd-in-aprc-manufacturers-championship/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2010/11/15/proton-takes-2nd-in-aprc-manufacturers-championship/#comments Mon, 15 Nov 2010 09:23:56 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/?p=3277 I like motorsports, that’s just how it is. I’m not a huge fan of F1, I kind of lost interest during the Schumacher days when there was no point watching because you knew who was going to win. I’ve always been a bigger fan of Rally! It’s more exciting, more dangerous, technically more challenging to […]

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I like motorsports, that’s just how it is. I’m not a huge fan of F1, I kind of lost interest during the Schumacher days when there was no point watching because you knew who was going to win.

I’ve always been a bigger fan of Rally! It’s more exciting, more dangerous, technically more challenging to the cars and takes a hell of a lot of skill on the drivers part. Proton recently re-entered the APRC (Asia Pacific Rally Championship) with the Satria Neo 2000 – quite a beastly looking car.

Proton Satria Neo S2000

And they’ve been doing really well! In the last race of the season in China, they actually took 1st and 2nd place! Alister McRae took the podium for first place and Chris Atkinson at second for the APRC while Alister takes second and Chris third at the podium for the Asia Cup. Alister is currently also at third placing for the APRC Driver’s Title.

Alister McRae & Chris Atkinson

This win put them ahead of Subaru and behind Mitsubishi in the APRC Manufacturers Title in 2nd place!

I can’t wait to see what they can do in the next season!

If you want to follow updates about the team and Proton Motorsports, they have a blog here:

PROTON Motorsports

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Project Airtrek — The First Service – Part 2 https://www.shaolintiger.com/2010/08/12/project-airtrek-%e2%80%93-the-first-service-part-2/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2010/08/12/project-airtrek-%e2%80%93-the-first-service-part-2/#comments Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:19:22 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/?p=3001 After the first major 2-part service I thought I’d be all good, after spending RM6100…I thought I’d be ready to go! But no, the car was smooth and powerful now but the idle was very lumpy, there was jerking during WOT (wide open throttle) and it STILL kept stalling. This was the part where things […]

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After the first major 2-part service I thought I’d be all good, after spending RM6100…I thought I’d be ready to go! But no, the car was smooth and powerful now but the idle was very lumpy, there was jerking during WOT (wide open throttle) and it STILL kept stalling.

This was the part where things went downhill a bit, I started to realise this workshop didn’t know too much about problem solving. They were fine when it came to basic service, finding parts and normal stuff.

I also started to get very intimate with the engine of my car, started reading a lot, joining forums and learning a hell of a lot more about what was going on. Thankfully I found a superb Mitsubishi Airtrek Forum at https://airtreker.com/ where I’ve made some great friends and learned even more (and also I’ve coincidentally become the forum admin).

4G63T - Airtrek Turbo Engine

For those that don’t know a lumpy idle is the term used when the idling of a car is very uneven, it’s not unstable, it’s almost rhythmic and it’s due to having high cams. It sound something like this:

Anyway my car had that, and I knew due to the fact it had a Tomei ECU and Tomei sticker and a Tomei intercooler mount..it had Tomei high cams. So we kept on looking for the problem with the stalling, another fault part was found, the turbo suction hose which was cracked…so I replaced that.

Airtrek Turbo Suction Hose

The Air Flow sensor also failed, it gives an intermittent CEL (Check Engine Light) for a while and causes extremely jerky acceleration under full load – this had been bothering me for a while and I was happy when the CEL stayed on permanently so I could scan it and get it fixed. I managed to get a second hand Airflow Sensor from scrap and it’s serving me well still. This is the old faulty AFS.

Faulty Air Flow Sensor

They starting blaming the stalling problems on the high cams and misfiring on soiled spark-plugs, so they proposed to change the sparkplugs, fit a case steel below the intercooler to stop water running into the spark plugs from the bonnet vent and to fit adjustable camshaft pulleys.

All of which made sense to me. I started studying the car and it’s behaviors often to try and get a feel of what was going on. The reverse sensor was freaking out a bit too, so I changed that. The BoV (Blow-Off Valve) also seemed to be leaking under low pressure, I had this verified elsewhere (as it would also contribute to the stalling) and had that changed too. I went back for the same type, Greddy Type-RS. I think the old one might have been a Type-R or a fake as it has no marking – this is the old leaky BoV.

Greddy Type-R Blow Off Valve

When buying a BoV, make sure you get an original as there are a LOT of fakes out there – especially for HKS SSQV types (including the black one). I’ll talk more about the BoV and why I chose this particular one later.

As I was changing spark plugs (To Deno Iridium IW24) I decided to change the cables too, the first ‘mod’ to my car. I went for NGK Power Cables..which coincidentally the mechanic later told me were the exact same kind the previous owner used. I went for IW24 plugs as those are the right heat range (8) for my car which is considered slightly to moderately modified.

NGK Power Cable

Anyway back the cam pulleys, these are the original stock cam pulleys which can’t be adjusted, I got a pair of Arospeed adjustable cam pulleys. You can see the E and I markings for Exhaust and Intake.

4G63T Cam Pulleys

I’d have preferred Skunk2 Titanium..but he didn’t really offer me a choice and he overcharged me for them..told you things were going bad. But by this point I was cheating on him with another better mechanic, so when this last set of stuff was wrapped up..I was out of there for good. If you have no idea what I’m blabbering about, read this – WHAT IS ADJUSTABLE CAM PULLEY AND HOW IT WORKS.

He also adjusted the cam pulleys, but honestly his tuning was shit, the idle was still lumpy and the power wasn’t there from the additional lifts on the high cams. But by then I’d had enough and was out of there.

The damage for this round was:

Reverse Sensor & Buzzer – RM140
Arospeed Adjustable Cam Pulleys – RM560
Intercooler Bottom Steel Cover – RM60
Denso Iridium IW24 Spark Plugs – RM200
Air Flow Sensor (USED) – RM480
Turbo Suction Hose (USED) – RM120
Greddy Type-RS Blow Off Valve – RM480
Center Exhaust Box Welding & Extend Rear Pipe – RM160 (mid box was leaking after a super sharp car park incident on the Thailand trip)
Petrol – RM40 (Yah he charged me for petrol to test my car wtf?)
Labour for all of the above – RM399 (2 occasions RM126 + RM263)

Total Damage – RM2639

And you know what? My car was still stalling! But more on that later, when I finally got to a decent workshop. So by this stage I was up to about RM8700 and I didn’t have a fully functioning car..all these parts replaced and still having problems? The perils of owning a turbo car!

Airtrek power! You can find all posts about this car under Project Airtrek.

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The Inagural Mini Driver Training in Malaysia! https://www.shaolintiger.com/2010/07/14/the-inagural-mini-driver-training-in-malaysia/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2010/07/14/the-inagural-mini-driver-training-in-malaysia/#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 06:12:22 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/?p=2891 And yes I was there, wuwu so lucky being an over-privileged and under-deserving blogger. Can’t really blog properly right now because my brain isn’t really functioning after 2 mornings waking up before 8am and the long World Cup stretch…I think I have a massive sleep debt and I feel like fainting now. It’s all good […]

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And yes I was there, wuwu so lucky being an over-privileged and under-deserving blogger. Can’t really blog properly right now because my brain isn’t really functioning after 2 mornings waking up before 8am and the long World Cup stretch…I think I have a massive sleep debt and I feel like fainting now. It’s all good tho..even early in the morning.

Me in the Mini!

Especially when you are sitting in a 187hp Mini Cooper S and about to undergo a driver training course at Sepang International Circuit. I have been down to SIC for a while, since the Open Track Day in November last year.

The weather was hot and sunny, which is superb for this kind of thing. Lovely bright and dry conditions.

Bright and Sunny

And of course I passed, won a mug for being one of the fastest in the contest and had an AWESOME time. Here’s me getting my cert from the superbly knowledgeable and extremely entertaining instructors.

Mini Driver Training Certificate

Will blog about it properly soon *yawn* And other stuff too ok, trying to get my blog back on track 😀

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Project Airtrek – The First Service AKA The Wallet Destroyer https://www.shaolintiger.com/2010/05/17/project-airtrek-the-first-service-aka-the-wallet-destroyer/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2010/05/17/project-airtrek-the-first-service-aka-the-wallet-destroyer/#comments Sun, 16 May 2010 18:52:28 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/?p=2737 So I’d got my car and as the tyres were almost bald and seriously hardened, I got those changed first thing as a priority. After that came time for the first major service, this is an important thing to do when you buy a second hand car – even if it has a ‘full service […]

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So I’d got my car and as the tyres were almost bald and seriously hardened, I got those changed first thing as a priority. After that came time for the first major service, this is an important thing to do when you buy a second hand car – even if it has a ‘full service history’ you are better off changing all the fluids.

For any car that generally means:

  • Engine Oil
  • Transmission Fluid (ATF or Gearbox Oil for manual cars)
  • Brake Fluid
  • Power Steering Fluid
  • Axel Grease (for 4wd cars)

At a very minimum if you can’t afford everything, get the oil and oil filter changed first thing. The other items you need to look at after you buy the car (and is safer to change) is the rubber items like belts. Check the following:

  • Timing Belt (most important, if your timing belt breaks when you are driving it’ll destroy your engine)
  • Alternator Belt
  • Aircon Belt
  • Fan Belt

If you buy a car and you don’t know when the timing belt was last changed, just change it. It’s less than RM1000 including labour for the majority of cars, obviously if it’s a car with a timing chain you can ignore this.

Mitsubishi Airtrek Turbo - Desa Park City

I started out just thinking I need to do these things, maybe the engine mount, timing belt and well that was about it! I took the very first service a little easy so the damage wasn’t too bad, a total of RM1182.

As I originally suspected at the beginning the engine mounts did need changing, and this car has 4! Including the gearbox mount.

Engine Oil AGIP 5W-50 – RM232.50 (Which I later found out was the wrong oil and has messed up my lash adjusters/tappets)
SAE Gear Oil – RM60
Oil Filter – RM45
Dia Queen ATF – RM180
Front Engine Mount – RM260
Rear Engine Mount – RM270
Labour – RM126

Car was looking good tho!

Mitsubishi Airtrek Turbo at Sepang

That really wasn’t too painful, but I still had 2 more engine mounts to go and the timing belt. The next round I was a little more gung-ho and decided to just whack everything…and boy was it painful. The total damage was RM3018.50! and w00 that hurt.

Brake Fluid – RM34
Power Steering Fluid – RM38
Genuine Timing Belt Kit – RM540
Right Engine Mount – RM495
Left Engine Mount – RM395
Alternator Belt – RM95
Service/Recon All 4 shock absorbers – RM760 (1 was leaking so I just serviced all 4)
Fuel Filter – RM210
Alignment & Camber adjustment – RM136.50 (which I found out later was completely shit and partially screwed up my new tyres)
Labour – RM315

None of the above contains any particularly expensive items but it sure does it add up fast. Add onto that another RM140 for the reverse sensor..and well let’s just say I had quite an empty pocket! Turns out this turbo car ownership is an expensive business. Deeply satisfying tho!

Mitsubishi Airtrek Turbo & Garmin

And well the above was just the start, I thought it’d solve the problems the car had such as vibration, stalling, bumpy idle and jerking when accelerating…but well let’s just say it didn’t and the fun had only just began! More on that later tho. And well bear in mind (including the new tyres) to date I’d already spent RM6100 on the car after buying it just doing basic maintenance work – that’s without solving the problems and even starting to modify it yet.

So if you’re thinking of buying this kind of car (performance/sports cars, especially models with a turbo) make sure you got about RM10,000 spare to use to keep the car running. And if you’re modding it, including stereo equipment etc you better make that RM20-30,000 (that’s just average stereo setup and light mods to handling, engine and brakes).

Airtrek power! You can find all posts about this car under Project Airtrek.

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I Drove An Aston Martin V8 Vantage In Malaysia! https://www.shaolintiger.com/2010/02/01/i-drove-an-aston-martin-v8-vantage-in-malaysia/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2010/02/01/i-drove-an-aston-martin-v8-vantage-in-malaysia/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:05:35 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/?p=2481 And no, it wasn’t in my dreams! I’ve always been a huge lover of Aston Martin, a proper homegrown British luxury car marque. Although it’s debatable if Aston is still really British or not (partially Kuwaiti owned now). The actual car I fell in love with was the Aston Martin Virage Volante convertible. Anyway a […]

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And no, it wasn’t in my dreams!

I’ve always been a huge lover of Aston Martin, a proper homegrown British luxury car marque. Although it’s debatable if Aston is still really British or not (partially Kuwaiti owned now).

The actual car I fell in love with was the Aston Martin Virage Volante convertible.

Anyway a good buddy of mine knew I’d always been a huge fan of Aston Martin vehicles and it so happened, he himself was purchasing one…an Aston Martin V8 Vantage to be precise (the most sporty amongst the Aston Martin cars) and he promised that I would be amongst the first to drive the V8 beast.

And well, let’s just say he held true to his promise (thanks buddy!). He was calling me all day long on a fine (but rather busy Sunday) I reached home after midnight and managed to get hold of him and he said he was dropping a friend off them coming over immediately.

I didn’t know what the fuss was about as I didn’t know he’d gotten the car yet. But I said sure, I’ll meet you when you get here. So he called me when he arrived and when I walked out from my appt past the guard house I was greeted with this sight.

Aston Martin V8 Vantage

I was gobsmacked, and well so was everyone else that drove past – a few people almost crashed whilst turning into the appt gates from staring at the beautiful Vantage.

It is of course hand-crafted in England as you can see on the kickplate.

Hand Crafted in England - V8 Vantage

It’s quite a beast of a car kicking out over 400bhp and the noise of the v8 roar once the variable exhaust valve opens up can be heard 2 miles away (According to Jeremy Clarkson).

Really if you’re a Aston Martin fan, there are no other cars for you that can top it.

I took it for a spin around, it was fast…very fast and extremely noisy. The handbrake is a very odd position and there is absolutely no headroom..but who fucking cares IT’S AN ASTON MARTIN FOR GODSAKE.

Aston Martin V8 Vantage

Awesomesauce is the only word that is truly fitting, it was breathtaking but awestruck kinda hit the spot.

It’s a little odd to drive though as the ‘auto gearbox’ is not semi-auto, or auto..it’s actually a fully manual mechanical gearbox driven electronically. So if you don’t feather the throttle when you are stationary it feels like it’s going to stall! It’s called Aston Martin Sportshift.

And of course the part which made me fall in love with Aston Martin is the huge, aggressive grill at the front.

Aston Martin V8 Vantage Grill

It was quite an experience, can’t wait to test it out again and can’t wait until he gets his R35 and take that for a spin too.

Apologies for the picture quality but it was the middle of the night and all I had on hand was my phone!

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Project Airtrek – A Day At The Dynojet Dyno https://www.shaolintiger.com/2009/12/29/project-airtrek-a-day-at-the-dynojet-dyno/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2009/12/29/project-airtrek-a-day-at-the-dynojet-dyno/#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 08:43:35 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/?p=2394 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 […]

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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

When it started it’s dyno runs it was hitting about 340bhp on the wheel, soon after that 365bhp.

This is what it sounds like fully open in 3rd gear, pretty mean eh? The black smoke from the exhaust was due to the ECU dumping fuel into the engine just before the gear change to protect it. It was dumping a little too much fuel though causing some unburnt fuel to come out of the exhaust and be burned by the heat of the exhaust tip.

You can see another run and the Dynojet software in action here.

After some more tweaking it managed to make 395bhp on wheel running about 1.8bar boost on the turbo (high boost application). Normal day to day boost for this car should be around 1.5-1.6.

The dyno chart after tuning:

Dyno Chart after tuning.

It can still go a little higher, but the fella forgot to pump petrol before hitting the dyno so he was out of fuel.

Next up was the monster Airtrek we saw on the track at Sepang a while ago.

Airtrek Dyno Run

If you’ve never heard a Mivec Turbo up close, this is what it sounds like..

This trek is also using the Vipec ecu, some tuning was done and I think it got up to about 365bhp on wheel, but the exhaust had far too much backpressure (muffler already collapsed) and the wastegate was having some problems too.

Airtrek Dyno Tuning

After the issues are settled and some additional wiring done I think the monster trek will easily be making over 400bhp on wheel.

I would estimate my car should be putting around 190-200bhp on wheel if everything is running smoothly…so both of these monsters would leave me standing haha.

More on Project Airtrek soon. Almost everything for stage 1 is settled now.

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The BMW Eco Drive Experience – Diesel Rocks! https://www.shaolintiger.com/2009/12/11/the-bmw-eco-drive-experience-diesel-rocks/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2009/12/11/the-bmw-eco-drive-experience-diesel-rocks/#comments Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:49:32 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/?p=2358 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 […]

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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

There I am driving the 320d (fast) just behind the white car (the leader, Ivan Khong). I have to say having a police escort through the busy KL traffic was so far one of the more memorable experiences in my life. Now I totally appreciate why the VIPs always do it, it’s incredible. You can see the video taken by Kim whilst I was driving over at her blog here.

Police Escort

This is the main man, advanced BMW driving instructor and rally driver Ivan Khong. Yes ladies, he’s the one who will teach you how to tickle the throttle. I think I probably got the most infractions through the weekend due to my driving…but hey no-one was hurt and it was fun!

Ivan Khong

Then it was time to go full throttle! All the way to Ipoh for lunch.

BMW Eco Drive Convoy

There were 4 legs to the journey, 2 to Ipoh (mostly highway) then 2 to the resort (winding roads) with each driver driving 2 of the 4. The legs were reversed on the second day so each driver got to enjoy each section (mostly to enjoy the windy part of course). Nothing much to say about the highway driving part, it’s a BMW – it’s quiet and comfortable! We encountered some rain, at that point I discovered how annoying automatic windscreen wipers are. When you want them to be faster, they are slow, when there’s only 3 raindrops they are fast!

Rain

I found the windscreen wipers a bit difficult to operate, but they wiped the windows..so it’s good enough. The rain cleared up thankfully and we were back on full steam ahead.

BMW Eco Drive Convoy

We stopped for lunch at a place in Ipoh called Indulgence and had a few more presentations about this and that. Nothing much to say about the food..I was too excited about the windy driving part! One thing about diesel cars (and the main plus for me) is they have crazy torque and these new beemers are crazier than most. Take my Airtrek Turbo for example it is a car thought to have crazy torque pushing out 343Nm/253 ft-lb with a kerb weight of around 1520kg. Now the 320d Sports Efficient Dynamics edition for examples pushes out 350 Nm/258 lb-ft of torque with a kerb weight of 1505kg..so slightly more torque and slightly lighter than my car.

And wow was it fun driving those windy roads, especially with the dynamic traction control you could really push it round the corners (and trust me we did!).

Pushing the Corners

Our convoy doing some touge roads at high speed, w00t. I’d love to rip this baby on the track with the DTC off..or even the better the 330d sports!

BMW Touge Convoy

I’m not sure how fast we were going…the BMW is deceptively smooth and the power delivery is effortless…but it was fast, so I properly risked my neck taking this pic haha.

High Speed Suicide

And well the official photographer was even crazier in the 530i support car (which had to pump petrol twice by the way) leaning out of the sun roof.

Photographer

This is what greeted us (along with some champagne) at Belum Rainforest Resort, what a beautiful place – I totally recommend it.

Belum Rainforest Resort

The room was really nice too, facing the lake (and very close to the lobby/restaurant haha).

Belum Rainforest Resort Room

We had a bit of time to relax after the testing drive before heading down for a bbq spread at the hotel restaurant. And well what happened on the Saturday night after dinner shall stay in the forest…where it belongs.

The next day it was up early for some bamboo rafting (wtf…wasn’t too down with that) but it cured our hangovers. Following that it was time for a bit more info about how clean burning the modern diesel engines are and off back to Ipoh for lunch!

Then off for some extremely spirited driving back down the hill where some unintentional drifting occurred and some rather late braking…remember people it’s MUCH harder and more dangerous to drive fast downhill than it is uphill as gravity gives you some natural brakes.

We reached back KLCC around sunset and headed off for some dinner at Lucky Loke. Let’s just say we all would like to relive the weekend over and over again soon…please…BMW! Our car had travelled 779km and the range indicated it still had another 103km in the tank and we REALLY floored it all the way.

KLCC

Really diesel fuel is the way forward and BMW is demonstrating it with the Efficient Dynamics diesel sports cars. I hope other manufacturers start bringing in more sporty diesel models and put more effort into educating consumers about the benefits of diesel.

Diesel roadtax is also now the same as petrol tax, no longer double and diesel fuel is 10 cents cheaper than RON95. Bear in mind for all petrol cars with this kind of performance you HAVE to pump RON97..plus 1000km for a tank is just WOW. I cry now when my car hits 300km and the petrol light comes on.

Some other posts here:

how a bimmer saved my life… twice
Tickling The Throttle (and other lessons learnt at the BMW Drive)
Eco-Bloggers Diesel Drive 2009 – The Diesel Myths
BMW EfficientDynamics — Day 1
Breakfast @ Mandarin Oriental and a police escort

See the full set on Flickr here:

BMW Eco Drive – Dec 2009

*Not all pics were taken by me, those without my watermark were taken by the BMW event official photographer*

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