Lamborghini

Was walking on the Orchard Road with my family. We saw a huge crowd from far. It was these three cars.















Two Lamborghini Muciélago and one Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera. Not those normal car we can see on road everyday.

599 GTB Fionaro

599 GTB Fiorano is the newest Ferrari.

Saw it once at the expressway near Science Faculty.

Was talking about it with my HK friend yesterday at Orchard. After a few minutes, I saw it.

My cousin came from KL. She and I were going to Orchard Road to have lunch. I told my cousin about the Ferrari. Just a few seconds, I point out of window, saying, "That's the Ferrari I saw yesterday."

Amazing, just after I mentioned about that Ferrari, for two times, I saw them after that.

I said to my cousin, "Maybe if I tell you I will be driving Ferrari later, then it will be truth also."

She said, "Stop your daydreaming."

Still think that it's unbelievable.

Initial D Battle Stage

Never embedded a video before, so let's make a try.

It's from Initial D, the famous animation in Japan about car drifting.

Many people think that the movement of the cars are rather fake, but for me it's very real.

Drifting is some kind of art.

Somehow I believe that I can do those movement. (Just kidding. hehe)



p/s: maybe I should add tags like, "Please do not try this at home"

How to drive safe

Since there is someone who keep mentioning safe driving (you know it yourself :P), so I have come to decide to write a post about safe driving.

As usual, it will be in point form. All of the points are equally important, because safety is a combination of many things.

1. Know your car's limit
Please make sure that what is the limit of your car. Limit means almost everything, like the fastest your car can go without losing control, the smallest radius you can turn at certain speed without drifting, the fastest your car can response to you.

Notice that even if your speedometer limit is something, that doesn't mean that your car can run at that speed. Some Japanese car can run more than 180kmh, while the meter's limit is 180, and some European car's meter is over 300, while it may or may not reach that speed.


Speedometer from BMW 2007 M3. Please don't ever try to speed until 330.

2. Know how will your car react in different conditions
By knowing how will your car react in some extreme conditions, you can safe lives. Extreme condition is such as, when your car start to drift, what do you need to do to make it back to your control. And please do NOT think that your car will not get into extreme condition ever. Just imagine this:

At one sunny day, you are driving at a constant speed of 60 at an Expressway that speed limit is 90kmh. Then, suddenly a car of 90kmh loses control and hit you from your rear right. What do you think will happen? I think, your car will start to start to spin, or maybe worser, hit the divider or other cars. Don't believe me? Just go and do an experiment. Neither of you has over the speed limit, but yet, disaster will still happen.

So, I think that it is safer for you to try drift at once, just to get yourself comfortable in horizontal moving of your car, to make sure you won't panic if something disaster happens.


Just an advertisement: Buy Ferrari! Even if you involve in accident, you and your partner will not be harm. Because Ferrari is safe!

3. Know your car's transmission type
By this transmission type, I don't mean auto or manual, that is very obvious. What I mean is front-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive, or even four-wheel drive. Why is this important? Because when you are turning, the layout of your transmission really affects the turning a lot. In some extreme condition, it may even be totally different. And do note that even if two cars are very similar, like Mitsubishi Lancer and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, the layout of transmission is totally different. Normal Lancer is front wheel drive, while Evo is four wheel drive.

If you really want to figure out how different layout changes turning, just go and play Need For Speed, and you can get the answer.


Audi TT. This is a front-wheel-drive car.


Nissan 350z. This is a rear-wheel-drive car. They both look similar in shape, but the transmission layout is totally different.

4. Know your car's brake
Brake is one of the most important objects in car. Well, still the same thing, know how will your brake function at every stage of speed. And please know what is ABS, and check whether your car has it or not.

And one thing about brake is, please do NOT brake fiercely every time you need to brake, especially when your car has ABS. If you fail to do so, you are forcing the car behind you to do emergency brake, which is dangerous. I was suffered by this because my friend who was driving a Toyota Vios with nice ABS brakes always like to do fierce braking. And I almost crashed on her car, not once, but many times. Even if you are doing mild braking, you can always press your brake several times in advance before you really slow down, just to give the car behind you a reminder.



5. Don't try to be too friendly with the car in front of you
This is especially important when you are driving at a speed over 60kmh. Please don't think that 60kmh is slow, especially when you are driving in a car that is really stable. So, just keep a distance. I don't need to talk much, I think this is always emphasised in traffic safety advertisement. Well, I always think that they have ignored other factors that may cause accident.


Another accident picture. Just to remind yourself that, do not stick to other cars.

6. Know more about emergency brake
Again, brake. This is what I experienced. In a manual car, when you are doing emergency brake, please do not let your car gets into free-gear condition by kicking clutch. You will need the force from engine to help you brake. It's better to let your engine die than to let your whole car (or maybe even you) die. For an automatic car, it's also the same, just don't swift into free gear while you are braking. Actually there is another reason for not swifting to free gear while your car is moving (I mean auto), but that's more like technical stuff.


Err... Lack of picture... So just put a random picture. Nissan GT-R Proto Concept. Looks cool.

7. Watch more than just the car in front of you
This is also from my own experience. Please watch more, like the car around you, and the area in front of the car in front of you. Better to know more details on the road than to know nothing except the car in front.

My Philosophy on driving and cars

As usual, a Hamann to start. Hamann M6, one of my favourite BMW ever.

Today topic is about my philosophy on driving. So just let me say my story using BMW cars photos.

1. Why auto while there is manual? Why manual while there is semi-auto?
I simply hate to drive auto-transmission cars. Don't ask me why, I can't really tell you the reason. There are actually many types of transmission, but most of them are in three categories, manual, automatic or semi-automatic. Manual transmission is the simplest, and semi-automatic is just complicated that one may not even have the chance to know all of it.


The gear box on AC Schnitzer TENSION BMW 6 Series.


BMW Individual 760Li Yatchline Concept. Note that there isn't even a gear stick there.


BMW M6. Strange gear stick, only available on M series.


BMW Sauber F1.07. Obviously this is a F1 steering with all functions on it. Maybe this is most attractive streering for me.

2. Why drive slow while you can drive fast?
This one is rather simple. I just believe that every guys in my age that drive will have some passion in driving fast. Well, if there is any guy who hate driving fast, I can't say he is not usual. Just that, maybe he haven't discover the wonderfulness of driving fast. But of course, by the mean of driving fast here, I don't mean that fast enough to make yourself harmful to the others.


BMW Le Mans Classic. It sure is classic enough.

3. Why 4 doors while there are 2 doors cars?
This is some kind of strange thoughts. Even if there are two same cars, I will prefer the one with just 2 doors instead of 4 doors. Well, car with just 2 doors simply look cooler and better than 4 doors car. And I really love 2-door sport cars.


BMW 3 series coupe.


BMW 3 series WITHOUT coupe.

4. Why roofed while there are convertibles?
Convertibles are best. I love convertibles. Many said that, "Hey, in a world that is full of air and noise pollution, convertibles are not suitable." I don't care, I just want a convertible.


BMW M6 WITHOUT convertible.


BMW M6 Cabriolet. Here, cabriolet means convertible. There are still a lot of convertible cars that name differently like spyder or roadster. There is still some different between like spyder and roadster, however, they all mean "roof-less".

5. Why four seated while there are two seated cars?
You know what is the benefit of two seated cars? Simple. Imagine you with your boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever, will you want others to get into your cars interrupting you two? Of course not. So, here comes the importance of two seated cars. OK, two seated cars are designed more for stability and weight purpose, because 2 lesser seats means that it is lighter. But who cares? What I want is a car that just can fit in my girlfriend (if any) and me, and that's enough.


Hamann BMW Z4 M Roadster. It's two-door, two seated, roadster and more importantly, it's from Hamann.

6. Why unmodified while there is Hamann or AC Schnitzer?
Well, I have probably said that modified cars are usually look better than original ones. For BMW, there are some major modify companies, like the very famous Hamann, AC Schnitzer and Alpina.


BMW M6 on the right. The left one is M1, and the middle one is older version of M6.


AC Schnitzer ACS6 Sport.


Alpina B6. This is actually modified from 6 series, not M6.


Hamann BMW M6 Widebody.

7. Just car
After talking all the craps, I still need to note that, given the points I mentioned, I love to drive no matter what car. Even if you want give me an auto, 4 doors, 5 seats normal car that cannot go fast, I still want it.


BMW M5. Almost forget to put this one, because M5 just looks very common. I don't really like M5, and I think you should know the reason after the points I mentioned.

Roads that I love to drive

Photo before the starting of the post. Hamann Porsche 997. I am a huge fan of Hamann, and Hamann means wonderful-looking-sport-car.

This continue my story of cars and driving. Today, my topic is that the roads that I love to drive at (or hope to drive at but no chance at all).

1. Paddy field
Driving at a road along the paddy field is always my dream since I was very young. I don't know how this dream came into my mind, but I am sure that among other types of roads, I love this most. Driving in some no-traffic road along the paddy field, is just so wonderfully enjoying. What I even wanted is in a convertible car, then I can taste the smell of the paddy field while enjoying the sight of the field. Well, it certainly is my best dream ever.


Porsche Boxster S at some paddy field.

2. Highway that goes toward end of the world
Maybe you can only find a highway like that in the US. Even though I never drive before in such a highway, I can imagine the greatness of it. Think about it, on such a track, you can accelerate to your car's limit, and you won't need to worry too much about crashing into something. How wonderful it is!!


Porsche Carrera GT, the most powerful and famous Porsche ever have. I wanted to show some pictures that show an endless road, but I failed.

3. Mountain road
Mountain road is good for the taste of detail driving, and I love detail driving. Many may think that I prefer drive fast, but that is not what I really care. What I care, IS detail driving. What I meant by detail driving is that you have to control your steering and pedals exactly and accurately.


Porsche 991 Carrera on some kind of mountain road. The speeding effect is so wonderful, isn't it?

4. Highways with sharp turns
Well, this one is a bit weird, but I love highways with sharp turns. Again, it is about detail driving, that you have to control your car so that it will not fly out of the track.


Porsche 911 GT3. I don't think I need to convince anyone that this is a sharp turn.

5. Road that is covered by snow
This is something that I never had a chance to try before. Can't really imagine how to control a car on snowy road, but I really hope that I can have a taste of it.


GEMBALLA GTR 650 Evo Orange based on Porsche 997. What a long name, but I love the name. Isn't the white snowy road beautiful enough?

6. coast ways
This is pretty the same as the paddy field 1. Also, if I were driving in a cabriolet or convertible or even spyder, I will definitely enjoy it. Imagine the wind from the sea, and the salty smell of it.


Porsche Cayman S. Nice scene.

7. Road that higher than other part
This looks the same as the mountain road part, but what I want to mean is totally different. Mountain road is about detail driving, this one, is just about show off. Ya, I mean show off, as driving in some really nice car, then go to the top most road in the area, so that everyone can see your car, and you feel like above everyone else.


Porsche Boxster S. Isn't the view fantastic?

8. Drive your own way
This is the slogan of Ford Ranger, sorry for borrowing it here. Well, imagine driving in some place that no road is ever existing. You can drive anywhere, any direction you want. Such a freedom, is what I want to taste. Too bad, I never had a chance, because I don't have a powerful SUV that can conquer any type of roads.


Porsche Cayenne Turbo in some dune-like desert. Just think about it, drive with the style you want!


TechArt Porsche Carrera GT. Isn't that attractive as Hamann's, but I put it here because TechArt is another big company that has modified many of Porsche's car, including this one, the almighty Porsche Carrera GT.

Why I love CARS

Just now, I saw a car that looks like Ferrari from the window of my room.

So, lets say why I love cars.

Well, don't feel like doing in point form.

The first thing is that, nice cars always look beautiful and very attractive. Looking at those cars will make me think of speed, and thus I will start to think about driving.


Lamborghini Diablo. The famous Lamborghini.


Lamborghini Gallardo Nera


Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera


Hamann Lamborghini Murciélago. Yet another Hamann's car that I love.


Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 Roadster

Actually everything that is on a car, especially sport cars, can draw my attention easily without any reason. I like to discuss with my friends, just saying some thing minor like rims, and we can discuss about them for a long time.


A sport rim from Lamborghini. Can't figure out which Lamborghini is it. Well, any Lamborghini car can fit this in.

The internal parts of a sport car often look nice, but may not that comfortable inside. At least what I know is that the seats are not comfortable for safety and stability reasons. For super sport cars like Lamborghini, sitting inside is like sitting in a warm room, because of the heat from its super-powerful engine that is placed just behind the driver seats (and it is named "mid-placed engine"). In older model like Lamborghini Diablo, no power-steering is provided, so driving it is just not that pleasure. That's what Lamborghini is famous in, namely "Men's car". A more thing to note is that, for Lamborghini, you can't really see anything behind from the rear mirror (that's the mirror in centre). The company has said something like, "We don't really need that kind of things, because no car is able to chase us on the road." Well, good or bad, I don't have the power to judge.


Interior of Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 roadster.

Dashboard, which includes speedometer and tachometer, is another thing that I really love. For a sport car, a tachometer sometimes is more important than a speedometer, because it tells you exactly when to swift up your gear. The car that I drove is not a sport car, but still, I look at tachometer more often than speedometer, because it is really useful to tell me the engine activity. Of course, for an auto-transmission car, you can just treat the tachometer merely as some nice looking object. One thing interesting about normal car engine is the concept of maximum torque and maximum horse power. Of course, talking about them is really technical, so I have to avoid them here.


Tachometer in Hamann Lamborghini Gallardo

Tachometer - from Wikipedia
A tachometer gauges the speed of rotation of a shaft or disk (from Greek: tachos = speed, metron = measure), as in a motor or other machine. The device usually displays the rate of revolutions per minute on a calibrated analog dial, but digital displays are increasingly common.

Actually, the most interesting parts of a car, is its heart, the ENGINE. For a guy who love to drive like me, sounds from engine can certainly make my blood burns. Engine makes good sound only at high rpm, and you can tell the smoothness of an engine by hearing how it increases rpm. There are really a lot of things to talk about engine, because it is one of the greatest invention that man ever built.


Engine of a Lamborghini Gallardo. V10 5.0L, 368kW (500bhp) at 7800rpm, 510Nm at 4500rpm


Engine of a Lamborghini Murciélago. V12 6.2L, 433kW (580bhp) at 7500rpm, 650Nm at 5400rpm