My life..a quarter mile at a time: Initial G : Genting Run

The car club and i finally managed to get our first major run together. The destination? Genting Highlands via the old road that cuts through Ulu Yam.

The intial meetup point was at aman suria. A hot spot for car clubs and car enthusiast gatherings alike. Ample amounts of parking space and a nice open location...
My punctuality in recent days has been over-efficient.... and as much as id like to think its a good thing, it hardly is because everyone else seems to adhere by the malaysian timing rule which is about half an hour later than stated... I used to be like that once but made it a point to be more punctual....now im having thoughts of returning to my malaysian timing ways....hehehehe

So my baby and i sat and awaited for the rest to arrive... first on time was Desmond a.k.a Deongster a.k.a Conekiller a.k.a guy who won GRA who brought along his girl friend and im embarassed to say that i forgot her name.... One by one they came and soon we filled up 2 tables, paid for our drinks, had a short spell of car watching and then headed off....

Im gonna tell you how small a world it is.... There was this guy who was a friend of desmonds who drove a super fast fire breathing proton tiara which he totaled some time ago.... and then there was this guy who i saw on the road a couple of weeks back driving a very potent looking Corolla LE sporting a paint job ala Initial D's AE86 whom i waved to and acknowledged how nice his car was....Turns out...their the same guy... and i didnt even know it till i saw his car come rumbling past where we were seated.... 20 valve silvertop.... Petrol head jargon i know, but mention it i must... Its a remarkable engine built by toyota... the guys name is Eric by the way... and at first glance, you wouldnt think he's a petrol head...

The plan was to leave by 9:30... but we left at about an hour after.... headed off to fill up erics fuel tank whiles Deongster and Tezt decided to give an Annoying Proton Putra a lesson in driving....Guess when the Putra driver saw charades and an old starlet he mustve thought .... "easy meat..."

... his funeral....

Finally... at about 11pm...we started our journey....

Traffic was heavy that night... we were all split up when it came to the toll and were divided into 3 pairs.... Myself and Deongster, Dave and Eric, Tezt and Noel in his very potent Waja....

and so the first "highlight" if i may say so...occured.....Deongster and i were crusing whiles waiting for Tezt and Noel to catch up along the MRR2 when my baby noticed a JPJ cruiser creeping up our rear end, pulling up beside us and taking a good look at our cars... Now bear in mind my car looks pretty much like it belonged to a granny with a nick for bodykits whereas Deongsters starlet had sponsorship stickers from Q8 adorning the sides of his car... his cars name is phoebe by the way...

The JPJ pulled ahead of me, and with the assistance of a torchlight, waved down deongsters car and pulled him to the side of the road...

Tezt and Noel finally caught up and the next thing i knew, blinking blue lights blinded me through my rear view mirror as i guided the rest to a halt a petrol station about 150m ahead where Dave and Eric were parked... Bummer... Deongster had been stopped...

So we waited and waited and finally he arrived... and burnt a RM50 hole in his wallet....

waiting for deongster

snapped some pics

Turbo fest...

Deongster in action

We were getting restless as the night wasnt getting any younger and i was pretty sleepy by the time, so we made haste and left the petrol station hoping that there wouldnt be a road block up ahead... i was shit scared actually...

But after that... it was pure adrenaline fuelled precision driving all the way...

We had to endure some bumpy roads as we drove through ulu yam town for a good 10 minutes and then we finally made the last right turn to start the climb...

Deongster was leading the way as he was pretty confident of the way up, followed by Tezt, Eric, Dave, Noel and Myself at the rear... i dont think it was a good position as i was getting a first hand smell of their burnt fuel and exhaust gasses.... through the early part of the climb i was taking my time when i noticed that everyone seemed to have sped up a notch and as much as i convinced myself i wasnt going to push too hard.... I had to...it was too tempting to finally test out my car on the windy uphill stretch...

Our line was broken up due to heavy traffic on the way up.... and so dave and i ended up at the back but managed to keep some pace although i didnt really push very hard coz my baby was in the car.... But hell yea it was fun...

Its good to see that even with such a modest suspension setup, i managed to negotiate the numerous S curves, hairpin turns and long sweeping corners.... But of course the rest were far ahead.... and i could see them really pushing it... Couple of ball shrinking moments for tezt pulling some risky maneuvers which i would not even have thought of pulling....there are some things u just dont try tezt..hahaha....

i think i was doing pretty well keeping it fast but not too fast at the same time... getting a feel of where charlottes limits lye....

Throughout the whole climb... the sound of turbines spooling filled the cold night air.... The pitch black surroundings were overshadowed by the sound of blow off valves and roaring engines in the distance.... The road seemed to come to life with every apex.....tyres screaching with every bend negotiated.... Heavy but controlled understeer..... sliding rear ends.....ahh... bliss...

Something of a Tokyo Drift-esque picture came to my head...only that we were driving much cheaper and not so attractive cars and we werent really going sideways....

Hair raising moments nonetheless....

Then of course there was that small setback that i faced.... All that high revving really got the engine heated and the water in my radiator had dried up.... so i pulled over for about 15 minutes, topped her up with some fresh cold water, cooled the engine down and continued to drive up where the rest were waiting....

We did some analyzing and came to realize that my radiator does in fact seem smaller as compared to the radiator on Dave and deongsters 4E's respectively.... but well, if i dont push her, theres no problem....

Finally we reached the top.... here are the pics of our line up...

Tezts Gtti Joan

Noel's super waja... proof that wajas can go fast with modest modifications and a good driver..

Daves Samantha monster 4E

My Charlotte and my baby at the back

Deongsters Champion Starlet Phoebe

Erics Corolla LE ala Initial D AE86

Had some food and drinks at the mamak and i was feeling the effects of the change in altitude...stomache wise....and head wise.... all i had was some hot water and a bit of Tom Yam soup, burnt my throat a little and then left for the drive down... by then, i was feeling much better...