When drifting goes wrong

Thanks to Babyys who sent me this link.

Definitely not an easy skill to master since a car is not meant to drift in the first place.

Alan Smithee

Alan Smithee, Allen Smithee, Alan Smythee, and Adam Smithee are pseudonyms used between 1968 and 1999 by Hollywood film directors who wanted to be dissociated from a film for which they no longer wanted credit. It was used when the director could prove to the satisfaction of a panel of members of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers that the film had been wrestled from his or her creative control. The director is also required to keep the reason for the disavowal a secret. The pseudonym cannot be used to hide a director's failures.

In 1997 the comedy An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn was released, in which a director wants to disown a film but cannot because his real name is Alan Smithee. The publicity around this movie, and especially around the fact that director Arthur Hiller asked for and got an Alan Smithee credit for it, made the Directors Guild decide to discontinue using the Alan Smithee credit.

Via Wikipedia.

Alan McNish at Lime Rock in an RS4

Via Autoblog.

Talks about driving the R10 and the differences with the R8.

The Matrix XP

Extremely well done parody. Make sure to watch the end.

More fun and games

Visual Pattern Test
Number Pattern Test

Result:

Sir Francis Galton, the cousin of Charles Darwin, first popularized the notion of measurable intelligence in the late 1800s. Charles Spearman later discovered that all mental abilities tend to correlate together when statistically analyzed. He called this G. Modern researchers tend to agree that there are two kinds of intelligence, crystallized intelligence (learned knowledge) and fluid intelligence (abstract processing ability). Most non-verbal intelligence tests measure the latter. Some research suggests that fluid intelligence may correlate best to G.

Your overall percentile is 79% which means you scored higher than 79% of the people who have taken this test. The internet population tends to be more intelligent so your percentile might be higher if the test taking sample was perfectly random. Keep in mind, taking this test more than once will render your percentile score inaccurate because the percentile score assumes these questions were fresh to the test taker.

The point of this test is to challenge you and show you how you compare to other test takers on a set of novel questions. Consequently, I need to keep the answers secret to protect the integrity of the test.

In other words, I'm stupider than 21% of those who took it :'( The number pattern test was fairly close at 77%.

Leader test results

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Via Ben.

I don't have a good track record so if you're in my neighborhood and wake up one day to find a smoking crater, that would be me. Heh.

Mazda 787B

Hmm.... at idle it sounds similar to race cars with aggressive cams, only that it's camless by design.

McLarenF1 On board at Le Mans

Astonishing...

Mods are:
Stock ECU tuned by Alfred at Tuning Technologies with ECUFlash: No AEM, No Speed Density, no piggy back.
Stock head
Stock intake manifold
Stock throttle body
Stock ignition
Stock MAF
HKS 272 cams
Vishnu cam gears set at 0 (stock)
AMS 2.3 without balance shafts
AMS 35R kit
AMS 880 injectors
Tuning Technologies affordable 700whp fuel system
Nisei Intercooler and upper IC pipe
Vishnu Signature 3 inch exhaust
C16 fuel @ about 30psi

Original thread on evom.

The lines in red are on 91 octane pump gas.

Bruce Lee Animation

I like how the animator managed to reproduce all of Bruce's mannerisms. :)

Evo 8 MR R/C Edition!

Evo 8 MR R/C Edition!

Spent last evening helping Ching with her new car... an Evo 8 MR R/C edition! Heh... was great fun, this model has got all the details right. The fitment is incredible, I would say it's better than even the real thing!

So I spent the next couple of hours just setting everything up for her... this included fitting on the Chargespeed body kit, miniature ADVAN RGII-lookalike wheels, changing the rear suspension to harder settings for some drift action etc. The final touch was to add the lights which made it look really cool :D There's also some accessory to add undercarriage lights but that was too over-the-top so we decided to just leave it as it is.

As is common with R/C models these days, practically all parts of the car can be modified e.g. higher RPM motor, 4WD setup, better suspension, better bearings, better tires etc. The list goes on, just like the real thing. What impressed me the most is that this is by far the most detailed Evo model I've seen to date, and being an R/C is a bonus. Really tempted to get my own. :)

For a slideshow of the car, follow this link. Or view the photoset with comments.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Listen to this! Here's the dude's website.

2pac's new single

Check it out... it's hilarious.

Idiot driver

#1 Don't know why the person who posted this tagged it with "Type R". That's definitely not a Type R. The dashboard suggests a Subaru. Based on the low speed, probably a 1.6L TS.

#2 Journey starts from former Mowbray Camp at Ulu Pandan Road heading towards town, making an off-camber left turn into Sixth Avenue. Hilarity ensues.

Crackdown on illegal racing

So the Malaysian police finally cracked down on illegal drag races in Gelang Patah. Malaysia's New Straits Times concentrated on reporting the facts while the tabloid New Paper focused on the innocent bystanders who were caught in the dragnet.

New Straits Times article
New Paper article


I learned about Gelang Patah some time back in 2003 from a friend. Back then it was just a place to have some impromptu fun away from the public. It was also where I made some friends like BK, Kelvin etc.

Over time, word spread about this sleepy little town near the Malaysia-Singapore border playing host to night-time friendlies. And it reached the usual bunch of losers who started using GP as another platform for demonstrating their lack of self-esteem and self-worth.

Soon all the car clubs knew about GP and that's when I knew it was time to stop going there as it would invariably lead to the usual one-upmanship bullshit.

It's one thing to have an occasional "friendly" in a remote area that's unlikely to pose a danger to others; it's quite another to go to the same hotspot night after night, on the same mods, against the same driver! If anything, the competing cars are just going to get slower due to higher wear and tear on the parts.

Drag races were going on every night now. It had become an purely ego-boosting platform. Or maybe it was the "promise of sexual favors" LOL.

These regulars never learned their lesson, despite having their cars damaged while trying to outrun the police. They know that no matter what, they could treat the police with impunity since the only variable was the size of the bribe. Police chases only added to the "thrill".

So it's no surprise that the big stick finally came down hard on all the people gathered there. Hell if I'm a resident of GP, I'd get pissed off too. For those who were truly innocent, my sympathies. If there's anyone to blame, it's the usual bunch of idiots who give all performance car owners a bad name.

Pasir Gudang holds legal races and all in it's less than 100RM (inclusive of fuel!), yet these people choose to race illegally and prefer to pay off police to the tune of hundreds of ringgit. If you fail to understand the logic of it all, you are not alone.

Slow Motion Racing

Check out the tire deformation.

Subaru fanboys

SUBARU overated? As long as its handles much more better than an overated EVO. I dont think so its quite common at the moment. Its all about enthusiasm, knowledge skills and most important is the driver. -- Sabelt

Original post on ZTH forums.

Let me start off by saying that I have nothing against Subaru cars. They are decent cars for the price. Some of the fanboys simply have no clue about the competition though.

The vast majority of drivers (this includes professional drivers, press and motoring public at large) have always given the handling edge to the Evo in head-to-head comparisons with a similar STI of the same model year. Just last month Best Motoring (a popular Japanese automotive show) conducted various comparison tests among some 4WD cars.

One segment had the cars travel on a course with a banked corner followed by a straight with cones forming a slalom. The idea is to test the top speed and slalom clearance timing. Weather was clear. Here are the results.

Vehicle	Mode	Top speed	Slalom time
997 Porsche Carrera 4		227.21 km/h	6.5 sec
997 Porsche Carrera		228.84 km/h	6.675 sec
2006 Lamborghini Gallardo		236.55 km/h	6.469 sec
2006 JDM Subaru Impreza STI (2L)	DCCD locked	214.36 km/h	7.108 sec
	DCCD open		6.684 sec
	DCCD auto		6.623 sec
2005 JDM Mitsubishi Evo 9 GSR	ACD Tarmac	216.13 km/h	6.518 sec
	ACD Snow		6.247 sec
2006 Audi S4		211.76 km/h	6.433 sec
2006 Honda Legend 3.5L V6		174.96 km/h	7.025 sec

Even in its "worst" mode, the Evo 9 GSR clears the slalom faster than the JDM STI in its "best" mode. The Honda Legend puts out 300PS @ 6200 and 36 kg/m @ 5000, is a 5 speed automatic and weighs 1780kg. And yet it clears the slalom faster than the STI in DCCD locked mode. Ouch~!

A subjective test had Keiichi Tsuchiya drive the cars around Tsukuba Circuit and rate them on their drift ability. For the Carrera 4, he gave 95. Gallardo, an 80. The Evo 9 he gave a 68 and the STI dead last at 65.

I shall refrain from posting the track timing results as the STI had to retire from the race.

Evo overrated? Guess the results speak for themselves while fanboys can continue blowing smoke.