Xavier loves the movie Cars. He can watch the disc again and again and never gets bored of it. And I got him all excited when I showed him the trailer for the up-coming Car 2.
This time is not only about cars and racing and drifting, there are also spies and missiles.
Now if Xavier has a spy name, think he will be called Xavier Coolman. The nurses at the clinic nickname him Cool Man after his deadly cold stares.I'm sure you would agree from the photos below.
Catch Cars 2 movie starting from 25th August 2011 and join the official Disney Studios Singapore Facebook & Twitter page!
My car do not seems to get along well with carpark pillars with red fire extinguisher boxes on them. Twice I had self-inflicted damages to my white Honda Jazz because of these pillars. And both times they were really at blind spots, so blind that I didn't see it till it was too late.
The latest was at the Mount Elizabeth hospital carpark on the last night of Lilian's stay. I reversed into a pillar while trying to turn out of the carpark and the driver's door got a fist size dent and multiple scratches. The scratches were so deep then it reached the bare metal.
I had thoughts to leaving it but the thought of rust setting onto the bare metal forced me to repair and restore it. Got two workshops to quote and the price were about the same. So I went with Khek Joo Motor Workshop. They specialise in paints and many forumers from Fit Jazz Club recommended him when they wanted to install or remove spoilers as they find his workmanship good and price reasonable.
Before repair and after repair
They needed a whole day for the job so I went early morning and only got back my car at 6pm. Boy was I impressed with the workmanship. The dented area was smooth and it looked like before. No trace of the dent or scratches at all. It costed me $160 which I thought was pretty reasonable. Below are the details if your car needs plastic surgery.
Khek Joo Motor Workshop
Blk 9004 Tampines Street 93
Singapore 528838 (Behind SAFRA Tampines)
Contact person : Mr. Ng - 96166658
You may recall in my earlier post about Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (NFS: HP), I briefly mentioned about the driving simulation game, Gran Turismo 5 (GT5), and how people would buy PS3 and steering wheel just for that game? I did that too! Well, for 1 day.
I can only (barely) afford to play one game at a time and when many of the NFS: HP players switched to GT5, I went along with the flow. GT5 is a driving simulation game where it tries to simulate driving in the real world. They have an A-Spec part where you play the driver and win races for credits and cars. Then there is the B-Spec where you play the manager of a racing team, supply the cars and hire drivers to win races for you. There are also other aspects of the game like Online (where you racing with your friends), clearing Licenses (for cars and bragging rights), Seasonal Events, Special Events, Arcade mode, etc. Its one of those games that will probably have a long lifespan and its a very involved game.
Its double the fun when you have both the car model and the virtual car in the game.
So involved that I followed what my geeky heart told me and ordered the Logitech G27 Steering Wheel and Apiga AP2 Wheel Stand. I convinced myself that the G27 wheel would allow me to have fun playing with the Clutch and H-Shifter driving all those dream cars in Manual (as my current ride in real life is Auto). And the foldable feature of the AP2 would make storing ideal as it would not take up alot of space. So when all the stuff arrived on Saturday, I happily spent the night setting it up.
However, once I played two races, the "practical" side of me begin to feel the "After-Purchase Guilt". And it was so strong that I sold off the whole set the next day. My reason for selling were as follows:
1. The high price tag (SGD750) for the wheel and stand doesn't quite justify the small amount of time I have to play the game. Plus I would probably not have time for games at all after July.
2. Its rather tedious to set up the stand and wheel (need to move aside the mat, plug in power and usb, position the chair and stand), play about 1 hour then collapse the stand to keep. It's very heavy.
3. Storing it without collapsing is bulky and since I did not get wheels for the stand, its heavy to move it around for storage.
So off it went to another happy gamer at Bukit Panjang. But not before some photo opportunity for Xavier, the baby racer!
I would consider this setup if I have a dedicated entertainment room and the "cockpit" and wheel can be in a permanent position, all ready to play whenever I have the time. Till then, I will make do with the convenience wireless controller of PS3.
I love the Initial D anime series from the very first time I watched it. I even bought an Autoart Initial D AE86 diecast model as I dream of going to Japan to learn how to drift and soaking in the adrenaline rush of drifting around mountain roads.
My first and only car.
That will remain a dream (till maybe when I strike Toto). But a step forward would be to take an advance driving course. I been looking for one since I got my own car but it was either unsuitable timing (on my part) or cost. Hence when Chris from FootWorks Media sent an email about organising a defensive driving course for a small group of 20, I immediately forward to several friends to see who is keen. Johnson responded and boy did we have fun last Sunday.
The venue is set at Singapore Turf Club coach bay as most of the Kallang carparks are already closed and the only one left is not suitable. Arrived to a small breakfast spread of curry puff, siew mai and soon kuan. Plesantly surprised as I was expecting packed economical beehoon kind of breakfast.
About 18 of us turn up and the car lineup range from compact hatchbacks like Kia Picanto to SUVs like Subaru Forester to roadsters like Mazda MX5 and Honda S2000 to coupes like BMW 325i Coupe and Mazda RX8. There were three lady drivers and three young drivers (age 20 and below). Pretty good mix.
After a short briefing by Chief Instructor Sylvester, off the first car went to try out the Slalom. As the area was pretty small, only one car could do the drill at anytime. So there was a fair bit of waiting. But that provided time to mingle around too. Shalom looks easy but its not when trying to do at faster speed. The idea is to do the left and right turns in a smooth movements (as opposed to sudden sharp turning) and to keep your car to the cones as close as possible.
Next up, Handbrake Turn. This is fairly difficult to execute, especially for the AWD and RWD cars. But once you get the hang of it, its heaps fun. I was able to execute it pretty well on my Honda Jazz after some practise. The trick for my car is to turn the steering wheel in one swift motion and yank the handbrake as hard as possible. For once, drum brakes seems more fun than dics brakes (its easier on drum brakes as the contact area is larger compared to dics brakes).
Next was E-Brake followed by Brake and Swerve. As most modern cars are equipped with ABS, this exercise allow participates to get a feel of ABS at work. I tried the E-Brake on my own before and I know how it feels. I must admit the first time I feel it kick in, I thought my car was going to fail apart. Chris mentioned that many a times when people apply E-Brake during a real emergency, the ABS kicks in and they let go of the brake thinking something is wrong with the car (and the consequences are bad). I feel this exercise is crucial.
J-Turn was next and Sylvester says this exercise is 包吃, as its so easy everyone can do it. Just turn the steering wheel in one swift motion, no brakes needed. If you are good, you can change gear (from R to 1 or D) while your car is turning and speed off when you car is facing straight. This is heaps fun.
The day ends with a little friendly competition to complete a mini course in the shortest time. The course consist of the Slalom, Handbrake Turn, then Slalom again before stopping at the designated area. Sylvester shows us a demo of how its done.
When you put a few simple stuff together, things begin to complicate. As I wasn't prepared mentally, I found my hands in the wrong position after the last Slalom cone. So my Handbrake Turn looked more like a U-Turn. This is how a noob like me do it.
Overall I find the course heaps fun, doing things you normally do not do on everyday driving yet at the same time, knowing more about your car and its own limitations. Now to find a suitable area to practise it, safely.
It's the time of the year to renew car insurance and road tax. I was slacking this year, as I was last year, until a mistake by my usual broker and an anonymous sms by another agent promoting his service prompted me to do my homework on the car insurance premium.
So here is my findings. AXA and NTUC premiums are on the high side. The new comer, DirectAsia, shows potential in their pricing but I finally narrowed down to MSIG and Aviva. Both Aviva and DirectAsia are online offerings so you have to apply online on your own instead of going through an agent. The quotes are instant and most information are readily available online. You can use it as a gauge and compare them to what your agents are offering. The rest however do not offer instant quotes and the information are not so readily available. Probably easier to go through an agent who can help compare the different companies for you.
I have tabulated my own findings between MSIG and Aviva on this link. Will probably settle for Aviva this year. The online quotation system makes it very easy to customise and compare the features and options available as well as how much the premium the features will cost. Then you can decide if you wanna pay for it or not. One of the questions you might wanna ask, in view of the recent flooding and falling trees, is whether the insurance cover it and if your NCD is affected if you do a claim for flood and falling tree.
Update 02/10/10: There is a new online car insurance comparison portal call CompareXpress.com. Try them out and let me know how good are they.
F1 Singapore Grand Prix is happening this weekend. I'm not a big fan of F1 but I thought I post something on speed. There was a report in August 2010 of a Swedish man facing what is to be the biggest speeding fine in the world, £650,000.
He was caught travelling at 180mph (about 290km/h), two and a half times the speed limit, while driving in Switzerland. Unfortunately for him, speeding fines in Switzerland are calculated based on the wealth of the traffic offender and the speed. So what car was he driving? One that looks almost like a mini plane, Mercedes SLS AMG. It will be the safety car for the F1 Singapore Grand Prix.
I went to Singapore Import Night 2009 (SIN2009) with Keith and but dunno why, wasn't in the right mood that day. Maybe it's because I had "Tuesday Blues" since its back to work the next day after a long weekend (Monday was a holiday).
And it reflected in my photos. In fact I was so frustrated with them that I deleted almost all in a rage. What's left were only 7 photos of the drifting event happened outside the exhibition hall.
I attempted panning technique, where you deliberately slow down the shutter speed and pan your shot, following the object that is moving. What this achieves is a relatively sharp object (that you focus on) with streaks of blur background, implying motion and at the same time, causing your sharp object to "pop out" of the sea of blur.
I had a certain image in mind that I wanted to capture (like what I seen on the Initial D animation) but somehow I didn't catch it due to the fact that I was unfamiliar with the course they were taking and I was not at the correct area. Below are four better shots of the event. Enjoy.
The last two shots are of the two cars doing donuts around the guy holding a cone over his head.
Lamborghini Reventón. Many people would have heard or seen a Lamborghini. It's a pretty common sight at Raffles Place area (man where do these people get so much money?!?). But not many people heard of Reventón. And who would blame them, given that only 21 were made (and none in Singapore).
What made this car so unique is the design of the whole car, which was inspired by the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. From the paint work to the strong styling to the aircraft cockpit like dashboard and display, this is one unique car that one might not be able to own even if he has money to buy.
Well I dun have the money to buy even the steering wheel so the closest I could get to was an Autoart 1:18 die-cast model. When Jacky emailed that the new stock for it is in, I went down that very day to buy it. Below are some photos I took (more at my Flickr).
I am satisfied with the attention to details by Autoart. Jacky prefer the MR version (which is limited to 500 pieces and are already sold out), but that brand of handmade die-cast is out of my league.
I started collecting die-cast car models some years ago. It all started with Peiling gave me an Autoart Die-cast car model as a birthday present. It was the Subaru WRC model.
Though I'm not a fan of Rex (preferring EVOs and GTRs), I can't help but admire the detailing on this model. The metallic blue paintwork, the almost real texture of the materials used on the seat and the carpet, it was a really well made model.
Then on, I've been a fan of Autoart. In fact, other than the Merz SLR McLaren, all the 1:18 die-cast models I have are from Autoart. I had stopped the hobby for sometime already partly because the price of the models have been rising and partly I had no space to keep them and I could not display them the way I wanted. They were kept in boxes for fear of dust.
But that has all changed today (2.5 years after I moved in to my present place). I recently found a vendor who is able to customise Acrylic displays to any dimension. Gave them the measurement and 1 week later my Acrylics are ready. Finally I am able to display my models with fear of them losing their shine to dust.
I love the Initial D series and even bought a toy model 2 years ago as Autoart did not make them. So when I chance upon the news that Autoart will be releasing a Japan exclusive only AutoArt AE86 Initial D ver., I knew I had to get my hands on it. Drop an email to Jacky from Motorsports Model Collectibles and he was able to get me a piece. Now I'm just keeping my fingers cross that they would release a ver. 2 of the AE86. They did make a tuned version of the AE68 but its ain't Initial D ver. 2 if it doesn't have the 4A-GE 20 valve twin cam engine under the bonnet.
For those of you who have no idea what AE86 is, its the 豆腐 (tofu) car from the initial D series (driven by Jay Chow in the Initial D movie). Still have no idea? Its the white car on the extreme left on the last photo.
