Big boy's toy, II

Nowsaday, it's more beneficial to talk about car rather than ended up with some other unhealthy activities, err the one that got TW into troubles. I learned a bit more about car as I'm spending more time in workshops fixing my old car over the last few years. Don't get me wrong though, my "legend" has beaten hell of a lot expensive cars when they provoked me. One of the things that certainly will turn me off when someone flashing me from behind or tailing me very closely when I'm maintaining a reasonable speed. I would say, most of those guys were embarrassed and I think their egos were bruised when I authorized my "legend" to reciprocate rudeness. If you want to know a character of a person, give them power and see how they handle it. I would say, most of the guys in the expensive cars will not take it well when you start to rev and they will definitely trying to beat you. Well, that's not my main intention of posting how to start a pissing contest. After all, a misfiring on an open street race can cause casualties. What is the point of racing when you are just trying to prove a point that you are faster than the other guy(a line from the Fast and Furious: Tokyo drift)?

Honestly speaking, one of the cars that I like and better engineered is Proton Satria GTi 1.8-litre(not my "legend"). They don't produce this line anymore and replaced with Satria Neo 1.6-litre. The original Satria GTi engine was 4G93p originated from Mitsubishi Lancer GTi. If you asked kaki motor, most of them will give you a thumb up on this car. One of our family old mechanics who has been very stingy on praises about Proton's car was impressed by this car too. I think a used Satria GTi would cost around slightly on the higher end of $ 20 k. One got to exercise cautiousness as most of these cars have been modified heavily - could be done rightly or wrongly - you may inherit with gold or shit. I was trying to get one of these but I've not been able to get approval from "minister of domestic affair" a.k.a. Mrs. Turtle.

You will be amazed by the power generated by this little tiny machine that matching a 2-litre Perdana V6. With some tuning, they claim the car can generate about 225 hp, power that's matching those bigger capacity cars. You will definitely can smoke those of lower end of Mercedes or BMWs. I'm not trying to start car class war here but demonstrating a point of what you can get by putting another $ 20 k plus to get the similar power that those guys paying through their nose for engineering, branding and marketing activities. However, we also need to be humble to accept the fact that there is a limit we can push - it will be pretty hard to beat a Lamboghini, Porshe, Nissan Skyline GT-R or Lancer Evolution. Don't waste your money, time and energy to chase after the mirage.

I found one of the old magazines for your reference.






A word of caution, car modification "hobby" can be highly addictive - just like smoking and or gambling. Once you start, kicking this "bad" habit can be very difficult. You will normally start with some very basic stuffs like face-lift, making a few noises by modifying your exhaust systems or adding K&N high-flow filter or cold air induction. As you get thrilled with the power of your 'beast", you want more. You definitely want more. Welcome to the wonderful world of horsepower thirst junkie -- you will want to rebuild your engine, adding ECU, upgrading brakes, suspension, turbo-charged your engine, and the list can goes on. You may ended up looking for bigger capacity engine. Most of the guys that I know normally ended up selling their cars at a discount because of law of marginal diminishing return is working against them. Just two weeks ago, one my regular mechanics asked me whether I'm interested to buy from one of his customers a modified MIVEC turbo-charged V6 engine come with very nicely painted car plus body kits, 17" sport rims, adjustable suspension, etc ....... at a ridiculous bargain price. The owner basically just wants to recover some of his modification cost only.

It's getting late now, will continue the story another day. Good night.