Car Club Rendezvous 2008 Leg 5, 14 Dec 08

This was an event held by Motorsportchannel.com which main purpose is to expose car clubs to the motorsport scene. An autokhana were held in conjunction with the event in Genting Highlands and several car clubs like the RX8 Club and Mini Club were invited this round.

Since Sean and I were listed as 'professional' driver and not entitled to win anything, we decided to just go have some fun while chilling our weekend off.

Pictures taken by www.motorsportchannel.com

Zee's Wedding Video

Check out this short comedy we did for Zee's wedding. Featuring the Red Twins and Zee's 180sx, with a short appearance of the Dunlop 32.

Part 1


Part 2

Nice pictures from the event

Just wanted to add some pictures in here as there were some really nice shots. There were many photographers around and they did an awesome job shooting fast cars and drifts.

Drift For Charity

The event was for a good cause, Yoong and Joe Han ( Drift House Boss ) and myself did many thrill rides for the kids from the orphanage. There were about 50 kids and they were really excited and scare as well to get the chance to sit in the cars.

Sat was a good day and had TV3 and NTV7 . Tv3 coverage came out during the prime time news at 8.30 pm and NTV7 was on Sun afternoon. Yoong will probably post up the coverage once it is edited. It was good of the TV crew to come and support the event as well as the people who came to support the event throughout the day with a constant flow of traffic of thrill rides for charity. It was only, the cars needed to cool down as well as running out of tyres that we had to do the thrill ride in batches.

Sun was hot and we all got a nice tan from cooking under the sun even the photographers. But they are all great guys and nice pic came out too.

I did a Human Cone Donut with Zamil as well. His video is out in youtube and I got the higher resolution from him too.

KKS-AAM Autocross 2nd November 2008

It has been 2 years since I last competed in an autocross event. I love autocrosses and had been doing it a lot during drivers training program with Sean but we’re never serious into competing.

Recently, there have been quite a number of autocross events going on. The KKS-AAM Autocross is one of them. Seeing that the Dunlop 32 and Dunlop 13 were under maintenance after Star Drift Challenge Round 3, we decided to give it a go with the red twins.

This event took place at the Shah Alam Stadium carpark. There are a total of 3 layouts to be completed throughout the day. Each driver was given one practice run and two timed runs in each of the layout. The best run out of the two for all 3 layouts will be added together to determine the placing. The key to winning here is consistency.

We were put together with the Toyota MRSs in sports car class. The MRSs were very nimble and quick with superb turn-in and throttle response to maneuver through the tight turns and slaloms. So it seems that the only advantage that we had over them is power, which comes at a cost of turbo lag and uncontrollable wheel spin when the torque kicks in.

The Hiper DCM Silvia is setup as an all-rounder, so only minor adjustments such as dampers setting and tyre pressures were altered. To compensate for the natural poor turn-in of a drift setup which is caused by the 2-way LSD, I’ve opt for bigger 245/40/17 tyres on the fronts. With the bigger contact patch, steering feedback and mid-corner grip were much better, especially on the sandy surface of the Shah Alam Stadium carpark. Although the turn-in sluggishness was still present, the car feels more neutral.

After completing 2 layouts, I realized that I’m in a close tie with Dennis Loo, a seasoned autocrosser in his MRS. I decided to give it a fight on the 3rd layout and clocked a 59-second run. That run bumped my overall position to 1st, winning Dennis by a small fraction of 0.1 second. Sean popped an intercooler hose during his 2nd layout run and realized that his times were quite far away, so he were practically smoking up the course. Sean came out 4th place in sports car class but was put to 3rd place in graded driver class due to him being an AAM license holder.

Kampung Gajah Open Trackday - 07 September 2008

The Cari Touge Club of the Chinese Cari forum has organised this open trackday at the Dato' Sagor Circuit located at Kampung Gajah, Perak. It's a mini circuit which is about a kilometer long, with twisty bends and short straights which mainly cater for grassroot motorsports events.

I've been to the circuit a few times for events and drivers' training, but never have I drifted there all this long. Having inadequate practice and testing with the Hiper DCM Silvia since its last upgrade, I decided to give it a go, at the mean time meeting up with a few old buddies from the Chinese Cari forum.

7am Sunday morning, we set off to Kampung Gajah in 2 cars, with the Caldina carrying the tyres and all necessary spares. It took us about 2 hours to cover the 200km journey to the destination.


The trackday was basically a free run session with a time trial and mini race later in the afternoon. As there were not much cars on the track, I got plenty of time to test out different lines and setting, and also getting myself acquainted to the power of the current setup.

I must say, drifting in this circuit is very addictive. The 3 linking high speed turn on the opposite side of the grandstand is really challenging. First of all, the entry is moderately fast and you need to get a good angle on the entry in order to tackle the 2nd corner with a correct line. The transition point is also crucial. You’ll be grazing the grasses (yupe the run-off areas are basically grasses) if it’s too early or too late. A 4.3 final drive for the Silvia will definitely benefit here as with the 4.1, there’s a slight bog down on the 1st transition, and you’ll need to downshift for the final turn.


I met a few drifters there, some of which I took them for a ride and share some tips with them. The boys from the Cari Touge Club are a bunch of motorsports fanatics. I spent most of my time taking them as passengers and swirling around topics related to cars and motorsports. Hopefully this in some ways motivated them.

After the free run session, I decided to head back home early. Before I left, the organizers have decided to put me into the time trial session! Not wanting to disappoint them, I went for it. With the 255 Direzzas worn right up to the TWI at the rears, the car was struggling for traction. Once the power kicked in, the rear wheels were spinning on 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear. The recorded time, however, was 55 seconds. Power do play a part here, but there is much more room for improvement still.

Here's a short clip recorded by one of the member:

Photo credits to Jamie Oh and Alvan Yap

Sepang Open Trackday

It has been a while since I last went to an open track day in the Hiper DCM Silvia.

The previous time it went for a full circuit drive was back in 2006. Back then, it had the GT-SS turbo setup, R32gts-t 4 pot brakes, no means of downforce, and on drift setting of course which made it very very tail-happy. Despite some drawbacks, it clocked a 2'36 on a hot lap, and it made me realised the potential of the car as a time-attack machine.

Some changes were made to the V2 as compared to V1 in 2006:
- HKS GT2835R Turbo
- Dunlop DZ101 225/45/17 Front, 255/45/17 Rear
- R33GTR Brembo Caliper Front with Endless SSS pads
- SARD Pro Drift GT Wing, adjusted to maximum low

The power has increased tremendously compared to the previous setup. On the main straight, it clocked 220km/h on 1.2bar boost and street mapping. The race mapping allows 1.6bar boost which I presume will bring the top speed about 10km/h higher.

The DZ101, despite being a street tyre, are surprisingly excellent under threshold braking. The Brembos can definitely brake harder compared to the Nissan 4-pot, but the front are showing no signs of lock-up. The rear, however, will lock-up under very hard braking on the back straights and main straights. This is caused by the new brake setup which shifted the bias to the rear. The car still braked in a straight line though, just that with an extra puff of smokes.



Although the turn in response of the DZ101 was not knife-edged sharp, it was sufficient to steer the car into the proper cornering line. Smooth and precise steering input will make the tyre turn better rather than harsh and rapid adjustments. With the wider rear tyres and a GT wing, the car is less tail happy. On the high speed corners, throttle can be applied earlier without having to worry about oversteer. However, a slight understeer was present, especially coming out of the fast corners, which is probably due to too much rear downforce, causing the front to lift.

The day ended with some rubber burning down turn 5 and 6, and an overboost problem on the way back to pits during the last lap.

Photos courtesy of Sheikh @ www.evolusiotomobil.com.my

Rainforest Sports Bar Grand Opening, 2nd June

DCM is once again invited to team up with The Underground Tuners for the grand opening of Rainforest Sports Bar at Pavilion Shopping Center downtown. Due to the short notice, only a handful of us were present. Sean was unable to make it as the OMS Drift Performer is still under preparation.


The cars were supposed to be there for exhibition (parking) together with models photoshoot. However, as the night goes, I suggested that we should hype up the atmosphere a bit as there were VIPs around. As a result of it, I performed a donut in front of the bar, on a 2-lane width road. The crowd enjoyed it!

More pictures of the event here.

Underground Tunerz Launch @ MardiGras

Zee and I were invited to display our drift machines at the launching ceremony of The Underground Tunerz at MardiGras One Utama. The Underground Tunerz is a car expo/competition say to take place at a top secret location during September.

Latest upgrade on Hiper DCM Silvia

Just collected the car from Garage R last week after sitting in Singapore for almost 3 months! Did some major upgrades to the car which include a HKS GT2835R turbocharger, new fuel system, and a lot of cosmetic work. Think I could showcase the engine bay at an autoshow next time. Hahaha.

Anyway, the new setup is expected to produce 440whp at 1.7bar of boost, and for day-to-day running and practise, Lester has added a map selector for it to run at a lower boost to preserve the transmission.

For full specifications of the car, it can be viewed at the DCM Garage:
http://www.drift.com.my/forum/garage.php?mode=view_vehicle&CID=10

Thanks to HKS Garage R Singapore for the sponsorship and neat work.