Happy New Year People!!!!! And a Picture of a Ferrari Dino to end 2011

2012 beckons! I hope it will be another fruitful year for all of us.

Anyway, I do not wish to be retrospective as too many other websites, facebook and twitter postings would want us to sing Auld Lang Syne and other nostalgic stuff. I did nostalgia recently already remember?

But let's end 2011 with a photo of what a new 'small' Ferrari will never ever be like again. Small and totally curvy for the sake of being curvy. The Dino 246GTS. Spotted around Petaling Jaya early this year and that little car sounded great too. Oh yes, it wasn't equipped with a V8, but a 2.4liter V6. It was actually marketed as 'almost a Ferrari' back then as this was supposed to be the budget line for Ferrari. But everyone calls it a Ferrari Dino. It is actually worthy of the name, even without the supposedly required V8 engine that a Ferrari should have.

But it is small, and if it's small you don't really need such a large engine. Especially in those days. Check out how small it looks next to a Suzy Swift. Dainty isn't it?

Happy New Year people.

I Cover the Century Ultramax and Century Battery Assist Launch

A few days ago I received an invitation to attend the launch of Century Battery Malaysia's new Ultramax battery as well as the Century Battery Assist – Which is Century Battery's new Emergency Battery Assist Service. It was to be held on the 15th of December 2011 at a top secret facility somewhere in KL. I decided to attend.

Well, actually it was held at KLPAC (Kuala Lumpur Performance Arts Centre) in Sentul East (which is actually a glamorous name for someplace Off Jalan Ipoh). It just felt like someplace mysterious to be as if you look at the photo below, it does look like some military bunker of sorts.

But anyway, once I entered the KLPAC's lobby cum event location it looked....

...like any other launch event. Which is good. Obviously.

Maybach bites the dust....Again

No one wants a Maybach actually. They'd rather buy Bentleys, Rolls Royces, Aston Martins and even Perodua Myvis. Which is why parent company Daimler AG, more famous for owning Mercedes Benz is ending the brand in 2013.

Read what I think about this whole thing here. Posted over at MyAutoBlog.org.

Of Nostalgia, Of Supposedly Having No Future and the Rolls Royce Corniche

I feel a little nostalgic. I suppose with the big four-zero closing in rapidly one would suddenly feel that life has just passed by in an instant. Just fifteen years ago I was at the prime of my life, just starting out my career in. Just twenty two or so years ago I sat for my SPM or MCE for those older than I. It is of this period in my life that I believe is pretty interesting on several levels.

But then again, I have always had a pretty interesting teenage and very interesting twenty something life. It is indeed a blessing and a whole dose of luck that I am still, relatively speaking, in one piece. Aside from a weak left knee, some broken bones and a nice scar on my forehead I am glad to report I managed to survive my school and college days. In fact, I should be extremely thankful. Which I am.

Now one incredibly interesting story that had happened in my past was the fact that I happened to end up at the St. John's Institution, Kuala Lumpur in 1988 and was to sit for the SPM the following year. So at SJI I was put into the last class as it was the only one that offered arts as a subject. I couldn't count properly at that time so I basically hated accounting. Nothing balanced and before I ruined my SPM I had decided to take arts as a subject. And being in the last class this meant that we were the black sheep of the whole school. It also meant that it was a bloody fun place to be when you are 17.

With Power Comes Stupidity................

......Or was it responsibility? Sometimes a high speed convoy is actually a very dangerous thing to be in. It may look cool, but one mistake, as was the case over in Japan. A convoy to a supercar meet ended up in the most expensive pile-up to date.

A Ferrari up front lost control and the rest couldn't stop in time) and a bazillion Yen worth of Ferrari (about 8), Lamborghini (1), Nissan (1 GT-R) a few Mercedes Benz (3) and a Prius (somehow caught in between all that carnage). Sometimes being rich does not mean you have the skill and talent to handle more than 300bhp. Some of you out there have the skill to only operate a Prius. Or an ugly Peugeot 207. Or actually ride in a bus. Understand?

This is also the reason why I seldom participate in any 'drive-to' TT (teh tarik) sessions as it is actually quite dangerous. This is also the reason why I prefer to do b-road runs by myself. Sometimes, the kampung roads around the famed Ulu Yam - Genting Sempah area can be pretty dangerous - Chickens, dogs, cattle and even village folk who simply make U-Turns whenever they want as it IS their everyday road. Of course, you would be doing the run early in the morning or late at night. But it pays to be careful and it also pays to take it a little easy sometimes.

I still do agree to morning runs myself. But I am not bothered to wake up early these days. Anyway, this is an epic fail. Truly epic.

Destroying a Testarossa isn't cool. 

Things May Be Quiet As I Have Been Busy....and a List of Cars

Busy. This is a nice excuse to give everyone that you're just too lazy to start typing something. But I actually have been a little busy with family, work and friends. Work for MyAutoBlog is ongoing but other stuff has slowed down a little. It is Idul Adha anyway and I should be taking a breather from things.

Now that being said, I have prepared a short list of what I think about a few of the cars currently on sale in Malaysia (grey imports not included)
Toyota:
Camry - Ultimate Unclemobile, it makes me sleepy as soon as I enter one
Corolla Altis - Smaller Unclemobile, same effects happen as soon as I get into one.
Vios - Dull, tinny sounding and I rather drive an Inspira
Prius - Unclemobile that's trying to save the world.

Honda:
Accord - Unclemobile with handling
Civic - Decent Transport with a badge that Malaysians like
City - Skinny tall car with a badge that Malaysians like
Insight - Better looking than the Prius, but not as well built. I still won't buy it though.
CRZ - Hybrid little coupe for posers, mums, wives, girlfriends, daughters. Not a "Tap-R."

Lancer GT -  A car all Inspira owners yearn for
Lancer Sportback - A car that looks good but no one buys it because Proton might make one and cause its resale value to drop drastically
ASX - a toad of a car..why buy one when a Sportback looks and drives better?

Peugeot
308VTI -dull handling, heavy, underpowered French croissant
308turbo - dullhandling, heavy, better powered French croissant
3008 - Hippotamus on wheels, enuff said.
207 Sedan - Ugliest car in Malaysia. Why buy it over an Inspira? The Badge? You stupid, stupid person you.

Volvo
All Volvos - For Life. This means you only buy one throughout your whole life.

I think I'll end it for now. I've got to be someplace elsewhere soon.

New Mitsubishi Evolution To Be A Diesel Hybrid

" Imagine that, a Mitsubishi Evolution like the Evolution X pictured above may not emit a single exhaust drone at the traffic lights as the stop-start function has kicked in and when it accelerates, would sound like a Toyota Prius, i.e no sound at all, or like a Volkswagen TDI diesel accelerating or worse still, like a old Mercedes 240d taxi that is still in use somewhere in Africa."

Sigh, another petrol icon may bite the dust.

Read HERE to read what my opinion is on the matter over at CarThrottle.com.

New F30 BMW 3-Series - Evolution, not a Revolution and a bit on the earlier E90 3-series

It's a Monday morning over here and I've decided to tell you readers what I think of the new BMW 3-Series. I suppose staying home and waiting for an electrical appliance to arrive allows more time for thoughts to come spilling out of me. In a nutshell, the new BMW 3-Series, codenamed F30 is pretty much like the outgoing E90 3-Series. It looks pretty much the same with the exception of the front. Much like the fridge my wife recently purchased. It basically looks the same as the outgoing one - square with doors on it. Okay, not exactly a fridge but you do get what I mean.

The front seems longer and more pronounced than before accentuating the rear wheel drive nature of the car (but I think the current Mercedes C-class does this better - it looks more rear-wheel accentuated with its fat rear arches). It still is a 'traditional' BMW 3-series in that the styling still looks evolutionary instead of a totally radical revamp. Current E90 and E46 owners may feel totally relieved as the new car does not make their model look like something totally out of date and irrelevant. That being said, the styling is summed up like this - new front end, but from the A-pillar backwards, everything is the same. Yawn. Yes, I feel it is slightly boring. More F01 7-Series long bonnet styling please.

The Little Extras You Get For Writing, the Perodua Myvi Extreme should have another name and the Project Kahn Range Rover Vogue

By now most of you would notice that I have actually come a fair bit from when I first started way back in 2006. Back then I basically wrote because of the very simple yet famous TopGear motto of "How Hard Can It Be?" 


And so because of this simple thought of how hard can writing automotive related stuff can be I blogged, and blogged and blogged my heart out. Some felt that my thoughts about certain cars were true, some  hated them, some didn't know what to think about what I said but in life you shouldn't try to please everyone. In fact the person that you should firstly please is yourself. 

An Update On The 1990 W124 Mercedes Benz 200e Featured Previously

The 1990 W124 Mercedes Benz 200e featured in here as well in CarThrottle previously is alive and well. It dutifully serves his master well in his daily commute to and from the center of Kuala Lumpur to his place of residence somewhere on the hillslopes of Ulu Klang. This car shares this duty with a Mazda Roadster, so it gets to rest its old legs for a few days at a time.

The car has evolved again actually. From the upgraded AMG alloy wheels in the first feature (above) in here to the WALD bodykitted feature over at CarThrottle (below), it now has a new leather interior in grey in place of the fabric trim and a new body kit.

It sports an AMG bodykit these days.

Subaru Impreza S204 - This Limited Edition Scooby Runs RON95

Some of you regulars and those who know me personally are aware that I happen to drive a global specced (one that the official Subaru dealer brings in instead of those grey market imports) Subaru Impreza 1.6ts and the good thing about this car is that it has 80% of the performance of the Impreza WRX and the fuel consumption of a regular 1.6liter car (mine anyway).

Now the other fun thing about running a global spec Subaru is that it runs happily on RON92, 95, 97, 98 or even 100. This is unlike the JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) cars that are actually very very happy with 100RON. You put our 97 and it basically runs happy albeit with slightly less power due to the ECU retarding ignition timing a fair bit. Then you try RON95 because RON97 costs a whole lot more these days. Now non-turbo cars wouldn't have much problems as things aren't tuned so aggressively but when you have a turboed Impreza or even a Lancer Evolution, the car's ECU would already be working overtime trying to keep the engine from running lean and then prematurely detonating thereby requiring an expensive overhaul.

And when you start modding the darn thing it gets trickier. Add an exhaust system, intake and up the boost things go wonky and the stock ECU that is already compensating for lower octane will give up and head for home if you try running RON95. If you still cannot get it, it basically means that the engine bites the dust, kicks the bucket, heads for the happy hunting grounds, swims with the fishes or gets killed to death if there ever was such a term. So how do you go about doing up a Subaru Impreza WRX or a Mitsubishi Evolution properly? You go for a proper tune-up job.

Car Mods: 1st Gen Perodua Myvi Mod Tips

I suppose this article is a tad bit late as Perodua has already launched the second generation Myvi. But then again, I have news for you. There is actually no difference betweeen the old 1^st generation Myvi 1.3 and the new Myvi 1.3 beneath the new bodyshell, new floating type dashboard and the electrically assisted power steering that supposedly helps the engine make 4 more horses (quite true, but slightly off as the Myvi actually came with an improved cylinder head when it was facelifted – giving more torque lower down and one or two horses but this was not mentioned at all. Why? Who knows.) I should know as my mother in law just bought one and I don't seem to think that there is a big difference compared to the pink one pictured herein after a hard drive up to Genting Sempah using the old Bentong Road (lots of body roll, lots of holding on to the steering wheel for support).

Anyway, you now have a 1^st generation 1.3 Myvi from 2005- mid2011. How do you improve the performance of a Myvi? You sell it and buy yourself a Proton Inspira 2.0. No? You're stuck with it for the next five years at the very least because you took a nine year loan that only breaks even in four and a half years? Okay. Aside from being suicidal as you're stuck with a tall, skinny tyred town car for the next five or so years your options are limitless. Remember, this is Malaysia. Everything that you want to do to it can be done. The only thing that would limit you is money. The lack of it.

If This Is 2004.....

...this would be the quality of photos we would use for our point and shoot blogging and spur of the moment articles. My car reviews would have photo quality like this photo below. Terrible isn't it?

Taken by a Nokia 6610i's CIF camera. This was taken sometime early 2011. This photo was obviously not taken in  2004 as that would mean that my wife's Myvi has gone back through time as the first MYVI was made in 2005. And mankind has not invented the time machine for general use as yet. Unless this was something I am not aware of.

Do take a look at my other website amalaysiaman.blogspot.com to have a look at the comparo pictures and the main article. You can click on the link above or here to go direct to the article itself.

Aston Martin V12 Zagato - Too Much Like A Nissan? I think so too.

Do you think the new Aston Martin V12 Zagato looks too much like the Nissan 370Z or the Nissan GT-R? I do. It basically shows that Zagato these days are running out of ideas. Take a look at my posting here over at MyAutoblog.org. There are comparison photos for you to decide. I already have.

Trip to Australia Special: The FG series Ford Falcon XR6

I recently went on holiday to the Gold Coast in Australia. Like my last holiday that required me to fly somewhere I rented a car. The thing about having your own set of wheels is that you are not dictated by the rigidity of public transport or the whims and fancies of tour guides. You are free to plan your journeys and maximize the time you spend in foreign lands. So in Australia, the land of Koalas, Platypuses (or Platypi or Platypus'), Roos and Wombats I rented a car.

It's Eid-Ul-Fitr Over Here In Malaysia and I Am Full

Full of food. After a whole month of fasting we've now arrived at the point of eating. Kuala Lumpur has about half of its denizens away due to the 'Balik Kampung' phenomenon. Those who aren't muslims also take full advantage of this long holiday to go shopping or to travel to someplace. The roads out of Kuala Lumpur were jammed but as I am writing this, it isn't as everyone has basically arrived to where they wanted to be.

As for some 'Hari Raya' advice on cars and motoring I have to say;

that this is still the ugliest sedan you can buy in Malaysia today.

and this is a wayyyyyy better buy than that regardless of the badging. I know of a story where someone bought one 1.8 manual version and converted it to a Lancer GT right down to the windows - it now has embossed on the glass Mitsubishi instead of Proton - over RM18,000 worth.

On another note, I shall be reviewing one of the fastest Subaru Impreza STI S204s around. Now we all know that  the S204 is already a limited edition Impreza GD model that has all the goodies and is quite fast in its stock (which isn't very stock at all) form. The thing about this car is that it is a JDM (Japan Domestic Market) car and in Japan, they like running these cars on 100ron instead of the 97ron or 95 ron we have over here. So if you end up buying one, the minimum octane rating you should run on your JDM Impreza STi is 97ron. Any lower and you may incur engine knocking and later on a rebuild if your pistons start to melt like some Japanese Nuclear reactor.

Anyway, this S204 (Pictured with an Impreza GC8 here) makes over 360whp (wheel horsepower) and a good 51kg/m of torque from 95RON. Read about this sometime after my Raya break folks. Sometime here could be a while....I may be a little lazy. You never know.

MTM Audi A1 Is NOTHING Like The Poofy Audi A1 On Sale In Malaysia - And That Car Has Issues

"....it is gravity defying in that the tiny (still) front-drive Audi A1 can accelerate from a standstill to 100km/h in 4.5seconds and go on to 324km/h. In such a small car doing anything above 300km/h must be like riding a bicycle downhill at breakneck speed without any safety gear or even any clothes on."


Click here to read more about this tiny tot. Over at myAutoblog.org.

That being said I would never buy the Audi A1 1.4 sold by the local distributors for RM189,000+. I can bloody buy a Scirocco 1.4 for about the same price. 


One other reason why I won't buy the A1 1.4 here from the local distributors is the fact that they purportedly ordered the A1 without the painted silver A - C Pillars and they are outsourcing the painting to some local MudGuard-lo.  This basically means that the quality isn't factory fit and if you actually dinged it, you may see red paint underneath. They couldn't even bother ordering the car with the optional (yet very sought after) Audi A1 look. Wonderful isn't it? So anyone who bought that close to RM190K little Audi actually has part of their Audi painted by some Malaysian...or a Bangladeshi working for the Malaysian. Which is worse.


This little bit of information was supplied to me by someone who knows someone who happens to know a whole lot about Audis in Malaysia.  Of course this could be hearsay and you shouldn't take my word for it....but remember, this is Bolehland.

New McLaren Lacks Soul

"Of course, you could engineer 'soul' into the car and this is what McLaren will be doing to all MP4-12Cs after this. The main changes to the car centers around a sharper throttle response and a better exhaust note. Somehow these two items add 'soul' to a car, "


Click here to read more about it. Posted over at MyAutoblog.org

News About Lotus And The Lotus Evora IPS

This is the link to the full write-up of our late night/early morning chance meet with the boys from Lotus Cars Malaysia. I've posted it on CarThrottle.com. Basically our conversation with the guys from Lotus has enlightened us on their business plan and a few marketing tricks too.

Oh yes, more pictures and more on the Lotus Evora IPS. Click here to go straight to the article.

Late Night Rendezvous With A Lotus Evora IPS

It is still hard to spot a Lotus that isn't an Elise in Malaysia even though Proton has owned Lotus for a good fifteen or so years. I happened to be with a few friends and we managed to catch one at a car wash in Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. The Lotus Evora IPS in the photograph above is still undergoing testing for our local climate especially in the transmission department since its the first automatic Lotus since the 1980s. It was just back from a run to Kuantan and back to see if all systems are go.

The Lotus Evora IPS with its 276HP 3.5liter V6 engine coupled to a 6 speed automatic gearbox and flappy pedals is on sale in Malaysia for a reasonable RM460,000 (without roadtax and insurance). Stay tuned for a longer write-up and better pics of this chance meeting soon.

Thanks to the chaps from Lotus Cars Malaysia who basically entertained our questions at 230am on a Sunday morning.