Stage SKR! are we ready? - jon

beside all the happenings on the track and the time sheets
on 23 June, there was one thing which the four of us had to
decide.
it's important somewhat, and it happens when we returned
from our breakfast @ Jusco. while waiting for the rain to
ceased completely and the track to dry out. it did dried out
quite quickly, as there was this bunch of WRX goofs who went
out again and again while it's still wet.
goofs? cos they missed the turn into the track, not once but
TWICE! first, by turning earlier than they should have.
that's fine. understandable, cos it's likely their first. then when
they do the about turn from the small road on to the main road,
they sped away 'so fast' that they missed it AGAIN!

enuff of the goofs. while waiting, the boss invited us to drink kopi
with him. then he told us we should step up one level from where
we are now. i think i have to agreed. to 100cc or 125cc. yes yes,
we wanna go faster!
and he told us, we should have a kart. our very own kart! wah...
this proposition must think liao. and think hard.
continuing, he does have one good very good condition kart which
he will be willing to sell to us at a reasonably price too.
with our own kart we can enter into race in m'sia or anywhere.
we can conquer all the tracks! *EVIL LAUGHS*
ok, i'm being unrealistic and crazy here. hahaha

good of having a kart:
can enter race. can set up kart to own preference (tho there may
be 4 setups.) can push our 'standard' a couple of notches up

bad or not so good are:
$$$ needed to buying, maintaining, racing a kart none of us had
experience in it, so it's very much an uncharted water should we
decide to buy one.
then there's a square peg cannot fit into the round hole. 4 guys, and
only one kart! wat's the other 3 going to do while one is karting?
we will miss the fun of oil splashes, spinning, and crashing!

this may need more thinking. more planning. and $$$
and commitment should we decide on the path.

in the meanwhile, let's look at the generics of what we might be
getting for SKR.

-------------------------------------------------------
A Formula A kart, with a 100 cc 2 stroke engine and an overall
weight including the driver of 150 kilograms, can accelerate from
0-60 mph in under 4.5 seconds, and has a top speed of 85 mp
(140 km/h).

and why kart is so fun!
Karts do not have a differential. The lack of a differential means
that one rear tire must slide while cornering, this is achieved by
designing the chassis so that the inside rear tire lifts up slightly
when the kart turns the corner. This allows the tire to lose some
of its grip and slide or lift off the ground completely.

Track Position or Going Faster? - jon

June 23, do marked down this day
for this is the day for me and Nic to be earlier than KP.
but it must be said that he did have his reason for being
later than us... and it is Des and ringgit.
but who cares, we arrived earlier, KP!
=P

the 'objective' of karting is always to go faster and have
a fast time on the track. it is no different yesterday as Des
& Nic had to post a good time with 390cc, 49 sec or less,
for the race on July 1 (next sunday, tickets are on sale now,
please call us for it hahahahaha)

at the end of the day, Des, with kart 456 had a good time of
48.44sec, position 11 currently. i must say kart 456 is quite
a great kart to move around in on the track. it is torquey,
good high end speed and, rather well balanced into corners
and while braking.
needless to say i had my good lap time with that kart too.

while Nic, best time after 2 sessions, is 50.50sec, and his
position is not something we want to talk to him about... it
is something of national mourning...
which is why he decided to do fun kart, not 390cc, next
sunday. therefore a non-position with 50.50sec will NOT
bother him except the fact that he WAS the fastest with
a 390cc among us the last time round..

the only significant difference in him between then and
now is that he drive a Vios now. looking at how Toyota is
doing in F1 currently, i wonder if the curse of its very
disappointing performance had being passed on to Nic.
hehehe

then for KP and myself, we already had a lap time which we do not
think could be knock off the list. while i chose not to do a timed
lap at all, KP tried to better himself. and he did managed it with
49.27sec. position 17.

for this last session, it is a race and time attack all roll into one.
since i am the only one who did not pay the extra RM2, i told
them that i will be at the tail end of the group, while they can eat
up the track with their respective kart in front of me.
order at start: Nic, Des, KP, Me.

before i go into the lap times, i suggest anyone thinking of doing go
kart semi seriously like us to have a full face helmet.
apart from debris and tyres bits that can hit you in the face, there
is oil splashes too!!
since i was the last of the group, i had to endure 3 karts oil
splashes from the 3 of them... things a good fren will do. but i
never imagine have petrol splashing at my face is one of them!
=P
despite having a good track postion to roll start 1st, nic failed to
use it to his advantage. in lap 1, he span at turn 8 with the 3 of us
plus 2 more of PJ staff right behind him. thankfully, none of us hit
him while he stopped dead centre of the track. left and right we
went past him. phew..
then towards the end of the session, the 'Toyota curse' struck
him again. span at turn 2. des nearly hit him then. basically we
went past him twice. that's 2 meals treats, nicky boy! hahaha

but the real interesting observation of our, KP and i, lap times
during session 3.
nic had posted the times earlier. yesterday i was too tired to
be bothered. this morning looking at it and i asked him, 'is it
correct??'
i asked b'cos i was also constantly behind KP, but i was faster
than him all along? some lap i was faster than him by 2 whole
seconds!
how can that be? i did some research, and this might be why:
<Defending your Line

defending your line is not always appropriate. You will put in
a slower lap time when you are defending. If you are in
the lead, or in a short race, or near the end of a long race,
where it's essential that faster karts don't overtake or if you
only have to hold off your opponent for a few laps, then it's
sensible to defend. However, the best way to prevent
people overtaking is to drive faster than them, and
leave a gap behind you. While you are defending, you
are not catching the people in front of you. In fact, not only
will your opponent be held up, you will be losing ground to
the whole field, which is particularly damaging in an enduro race.>

so there u have it, the why i MAY BE faster than KP while
still be at the back.
it's a big MAY BE, cos i realised a glaring piece of info everyone
had neglected.
i was not in kart 97!!!!!!!!!

hahahahaha it might be one of the guys from PJ who went out
together with us that session
of cos, there's a possibility of a typo by nic. which cannot be
verified as he had sadly or happily discarded the time sheet.

but come next sunday, we shld only plan to do one thing. that is t
go faster and arrived earlier than anyone else at the finishing line.

as demonstrated by me and nic, 8:55am on 23 June at
Kranji MRT car waiting area
=) ;)

Karting @ PJ on 23 June - AfterMath [Nel]

Today, finally for the first time, Jon and I weren't late and in fact we were on time to reach our meeting destination.

We reach Permas Go-Kart @ about 1030 hours. The traffic flow was smooth, might be due to the recent uproar happening in JB where most people are afraid of heading there. Soon after we reached, we found out there was a booking done by a group (whom we don't know where they are from) from 1130 to 1230 hours. We made our first track session before the group came. KP and I was on the Fun Kart trying out our timing. Well, it wasn't really fantastic for me with the fastest lap of 57.03 secs (can't remember what's after the decimal), and head for a small breakfast to pass that hour of booking. While having the small breakfast, rain start pouring, in fact it's a heavy downpour.

Getting tired. Jon will continue the rubbish in awhile.

The timing that was taken in the 2nd and 3rd session.

2nd Session
	KP	Des	nEL
Lap/Nr	456	34	32
1	54.95	50.37	52.28
2	50.86	51.29	51.54
3	49.95	50.07	51.10
4	49.67	50.71	51.36
5	49.27	50.24	51.03
6	49.39	50.14	51.46
7	50.60	50.28	51.03
8	50.51	50.27	51.41
9	57.94	50.33	50.79
10	Ceased	50.33	50.79
11	-	50.86	50.57
12	-	50.39	50.72
13	-	57.78	1:18.71
3rd Session
	Jon	Des	KP	nEL
Lap/Nr	97	456	34	32
1	49.94	51.73	52.92	1:30.33
2	49.23	50.55	51.04	50.50
3	48.41	48.62	50.43	51.28
4	48.60	48.44	50.53	50.99
5	50.92	49.65	49.90	51.31
6	48.78	48.46	50.44	51.36
7	48.43	48.89	50.82	1:40.41
8	49.38	49.26	51.06	51.35
9	49.89	49.82	50.88	51.37
10	50.24	51.11	51.09	Ceased
11	48.75	51.29	50.63	-

And here's the pineapple man of Permas. If you think the picture is small, please do click on the picture to view the full size of it.

>.<

Karting @ PJ on 23rd June - K[p]

Ok, looks like after the last few weeks full of events, the 4 of us should make it to kart at PJ on the 23rd. Who ever wants to join, you are more than welcomed.

add on by jon:
normally aim to reach PJ Track by 11am.
which means we drive to meet at Krangi MRT waiting
area at about 10+am.
OR if only the usual party of lunatics are going, we meet
there directly at about 11am.

Karting will take as long as it takes... we need some good times
this weekend for next week 'race'
then off the either one of the Jusco for makan (read: S.R.)
and some grocery shopping then home sweet home.
nothing complicated... nothing dramatic....
only pure fun.

88,378 km & 6038 liters - K[p]

Talk about going green, its exactly 3 years since I drove my N16 out of the showroom and have already clocked up more than 88,000 kilometers. Putting it in perspective, the circumference of the earth at the equator is 40,075 km as can be found here

http://geography.about.com/library/faq/blqzcircumference.htm

That would mean, in those 3 years, if I have kept going straight, I would have driven around the world. TWICE!!!

I keep a detailed records of my petrol usage as well, and the total is 6,038.32 liters of mostly RON92 petrol. That works out to 14.63 km/l. The rated fuel consumption of the new Honda hybrid is 22 km/l, if I were using that car, I would have only used up 4,017 liters of petrol instead, a huge 33% reductions! But when converted to $, i would have only saved $2,400 which does not cover the high cost of the car. Economics still rules.

I still think it is a catch 22 situation. If making hybrid cars so economical that everyone is buying it would mean less petrol used. And petrols are taxed. Which would make it a double whammy. Economies still rules.

going green? NAH!!!!

actually, i do have a soft spot for Mother Earth.
you dun have to be a genius to understand why the
well being of the environment ultimately will affect
our very own being..
global warming, havoc weather, earthquake, tsunami etc
it's terrifying to think what would happens if one of these
day when Mother Earth decide enough is indeed Enough!
shuddering...

in fact, it's the same dread when i watched in horror
while BMW F1 driver, Robert Kubica, hit the concrete wall
at the Canadian GP at a speed of ~180Mp/h (~288km/h)
on lap 27. the Blue & White car then rebounded across the
track, rolled, and finally stopped against the guardrail on the
outside of the hairpin.

miraculously, he is fine. reports said that he only had sprained ankle.
i sprained my ankle playing football, while he can afford to crashed
heavily! all thanks to modern strict safety standard of the FIA.
hope to see u back in action soon, Robert.

on 9 June, i did something shocking too. i woke at 5.30am!!
for a 'treasure hunt' organized by AA Singapore with Des's
silver car. it's shocking cos i can wake up on time with only
3 hours of sleep earlier. shocking also..... because we did not
win anything at all!!!
boooooooohooooooooooooo
but Des did dress his car up nicely, well done, bro!
also, much thanks to Nic who is our home based internet
support! we woke him at 7.30am via phone and pester him
non stop all the way to 11am or so!














after the event, when we arrived back at the Old Police Academy.
Nic (black car) and KP (silver) arrived too to join us.
we stayed to watch our fren, Colin, drift and burnout his tyres
with red smoke with his cool red S15 to show... also there was
motorbike demo (yawn.... cos too many of the similar)
guys from PJ karting were there too to showcase what karting is
all about. always seems easy looking from outside, but as most of us
will know it is not...
so, how can we go Green? there's no Green coloured cars to begin with!
=P