Visit to HKS Thailand

Pic 1: Outside HKS Thailand

I was in Bangkok a couple of days ago (yes yet again!) for a little time off to de-stress. Besides visiting the usual places; this time round I found time to drop by HKS Thailand. Yes there is a HKS branch in Thailand!

HKS only has branches in USA, Europe and Thailand, so it's quite cool to drop by an official branch to take a look around. There were not many parts around there, and anything to do with the R34 had to be ordered in as the R34 is a very rare car in Thailand. According to the HKS guy there's only about 10 units of the BNR34 in Bangkok. And guess how much it costs? A whopping 5.5 Million Thai Baht (USD 160,000)!!

Lucky for me there were a unit of the V-Spec II Nur BNR34 and also a R35 GT-R in the facility! The R35 costs the owner 9 Million Thai Baht (USD 263,000)!!

Madness indeed!

Here is some history with regards to HKS Thailand:-
During 1998-2001, Mr. Hazegawa, President of HKS Company Limited visited Thailand and surveyed the local market for automotive accessories and tuning parts. He saw Thailand as a potential market and planned to open his business in Thailand with the same standard as Japan. In 1998, the HKS Project was initiated by a Thai team and HKS (Thailand) was planned to be setup. After four years of planning, HKS Co., Ltd. (Thailand) was formed and became one of the agents like HKS USA INC and HKS Europe. Their technicians are all trained directly from the HKS Head Office in Japan.

The location of HKS Thailand is quite far away from the city though; it will take one about 35 minutes by taxi from the city centre if you decide to visit it. Was it worth the trip? Well yea just for a look see but as for parts purchase.....perhaps not so though.

Here are some pictures of the facility:-

Pic 2: HKS Thailand shop floor

Pic 3: HKS Thailand showroom

Pic 4: BNR34 undergoing major mods

Pic 5: The RB26DETT with HKS T04Z turbine

Pic 6: R35 GT-R undergoing servicing

Pic 7: Rear shot of the R35 GT-R. Note those 20" Volk Racing TE37s

Pic 8: HKS Thailand parts storage room

Pic 9: Dyno facility

Pic 10: A track prepared Evo VII

Pic 11: Drift spec Silvia S15 with NOS

Pic 12: Rear shot of the drift spec Silvia S15

Pic 13: Engine bay of the drift spec Silvia S15

Pic 14: Stripped S15 with BNR34 brakes. Preparing for drift?

Pic 15: A shot of the HKS Thailand facility from the rear

Pic 16: Widebody drag spec S14 Silvia - front

Pic 17: Widebody drag spec S14 Silvia - rear

Pic 18: BMW E36 with 2JZ-GTE engine

Pic 19: A shot of the showroom exterior

A sneak peek of things to come..........

Pic 1: The rear bumper

Lookie what I have stashed in my store room for the past 4 months. *Grins*

I think it has had enough of it's fair share of isolation and it's time to wipe the dust off and make good use of it. :P

Can you guess what bodykit it is? Any comments on how it looked? I think it's high time to mate it to the ER34.

*Rubs hand in glee*

Pic 2: The side skirts

Drive It Like You Stole It #09 - Frasiers Hill Revisited

Pic 1: The cars for DILYSI #09

Gosh, my last drive was like way back in March 2008. That’s like about 5 months ago. Needless to say I would have gone rusty in driving and need to get the 'anti-rust' out to rid of it. :P

During this period of time, I had been crazily busy with my own personal life and of course with work. Most weekends are dedicated to the company. Sigh.....work like a mad dog, get paid with peanuts. :(

Anyway, with a rare weekend for myself, I decided to call up the guys for some driving fun to de-stress myself. Unfortunately, many of whom are busy or tied up with other stuffs. Lucky sakakida aka Jason and Mun Kit is available. So off we go with Alvin and Yap joining us for the first time to Frasiers Hill.

What cars were there? Well there were 3 ER34s and 1 Subaru Impreza STi Ver. 8 and 1 Satria GTi. Yeap, there were only 5 cars this time round. We set off early Sunday morning to avoid traffic and headed to Frasiers Hill via the usual route of:-

Batu Caves - Ulu Yam - Batang Kali - Kuala Kubu Bharu - The Gap - Frasiers Hill

All in about 200km of pure driving sex fun.

Initially I wasn't feeling too confident with the car after my lug nuts experience and what more with relatively worn tyres at the rear. I guess after a while along the Ulu Yam road, the devil in me got to the head and all hell breaks loose.

Here we go again tearing down the twisties to Frasiers Hill. Hahaha :P

Pic 2: The twisties of Frasiers Hill

The roads were a crazy mix of smooth and rutted surface. Throw in patches of water, wet leaves, fallen branches and sand; we have a great recipe for disaster if one overcooks it. Am glad everyone drove within their own safety margin. Phew....

We reached our usual RV (Rendezvous) point at The Gap at 9:00am sharp. Great timing as the gate opens at 9:00am to 9:40am for the one way up to Frasiers Hill. The one way up to Frasiers Hill was very interesting for us as we managed to even overtake other vehicles in this narrow one lane road. Madness. Hahaha :D

Pic 3: The cars...

Up in Frasiers Hill, we were kinda surprised to see our usual mamak joint closed for renovation (relocated?) but we found a cosy little restaurant called "Hill View" for some excellent and very fulfilling western style breakfast. :P

Pic 4: Breakfast at Hill View Restaurant

After our chit chat session over breakfast, we headed downhill at 10:40am; right before the gate closes for the traffic uphill at 11:00 to 11:40am. Traffic downhill has begun to fill up and we travelled at a slower pace. Had a quick pitstop at the Sg. Selangor Hydroelectric Dam before we continue our journey back to Kuala Lumpur.

Alvin and Yap left the convoy to head back home via the Rawang North South Expressway toll. After they left, things got a bit more interesting. We bumped into a A31 Nissan Cefiro (goldish green bearing the registration plate JXX 8923; anyone knows him?) with a GTR and twin turbo badge at the boot lid. Could it be running a RB26DETT heart? After we overtook the A31, that's when it started to go crazy.

The A31 chased us all the way back to Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur. Jason, Mun Kit and myself were gunning it like a madman. Overtaking traffic even in blind corners and in the middle of the road (in between the car being overtaken and an on passing car on the opposite direction!). Come to think of it, I was like a possessed mad driver. Lucky thing nothing untoward happened and I really hope I won't be as crazy next time. Hahahahaha

Pic 5: Alvin's ER34 with the Impreza STi Ver. 8 at the background

Pic 6: Yap's Subaru Impreza STi Ver. 8

Pic 7: Mun Kit's Satria GTi

Fun? Hell yeah it is super fun and this is the best de-stress session I could have hoped for. :)

Thanks guys for the drive and am glad everyone drove home safe. Till the next drive....here's some videos of taken off the ER34. Somehow it looked slower in video. Oh well....shrugs...

Anyone here interested in the next drive? *WINK*

EJ's ER34 Frasiers Hill Part 1/2


EJ's ER34 Frasiers Hill Part 2/2


EJ's ER34 on The Gap (single lane up)

HKS Super Filter element change

Pic 1: HKS Super Filter element

It's time to change the element on the HKS Super Power Flow DD (Direct Drive). My last change was 4 months ago and it looked really dirty now. I have a couple of spares at home and with a rare weekend where I was free and not working or running errands, it's time to scour my store room to get the HKS Super Filter element (size ~ 200mm) out. :)

The process is very simple really. Remove the 'holding cage' via unscrewing the bolt. Remove the filter element from the 'cage' and chuck it away. Clean up the 'cage' with a wet cloth, fit in the new filter element and screw it back onto the the car. There you go, you're done and ready to go.

My spare HKS Super Filter element is red in colour though. How I wish they came in dark blue. :P

Pic 2: Dirt after 4 months of usage

Pic 3: Remove the 'old' element from the 'cage'

Pic 4: Filter element removed

Pic 5: Comparo between the new element and old new one

Pic 6: The new HKS Super Filter element installed

ER34 rear spoiler on a VW Beetle

Pic 1: ER34 rear spoiler on a VW Beetle

I've gotten kinda sick of the factory ER34 rear spoiler appearing in various cars in Malaysia. Damn the guy who made a mould out of the rear spoiler. He is to be shot! It has appeared in Toyota Vios, Toyota Corolla, Proton Perdana, Proton Gen.2, and many many other various cars......

But what bites the cake is I saw it mounted on a Volkswagen Beetle. Yes an ER34 rear spoiler on the new Beetle! Gosh, what is the owner thinking? Have he not seen the bodykit for the new beetle by Caractère. Now that befits a car like the beetle.

Am totally loss for words...

Pic 2: Another angle of the ER34 rear spoiler

Pic 3: The Caractère rear spoiler

My Work Emotion XD9 almost flew off the hub !!!

Pic 1: The circles indicates the missing lug nuts. Missing lug nut stud in the green circle

A couple of days ago, I heard some sort of scraping sound coming from the right rear wheel whenever I move off from standstill. After speeds of about 15km/h, the sound disappears and that’s it.

Yesterday somehow, the noise started to get more audible. I thought it was just due to some bushings on the suspension that is worn or something along that line. Peeking under the car reveals all is fine. Boy was I wrong when I inspected the ER34 more thoroughly.

Three of my Rays Engineering Duraluminum lug nuts were missing. Yes it was gone! My immediate reaction was someone stole them when the ER34 was parked in a shopping mall over the weekend. Then it dawned upon me that I could have possibly be hurt IF the remaining two lug nuts did not manage to hold the wheel in place. Worst case scenario is I could be been dead if it flew off while I was barreling down the highway. The wheel could have flung into a motorcyclist or a pedestrian. They would not have stand a chance for survival.

Anyway, that night I took a couple of spare lug nuts from my store room to fit it back in. Only then I realise what could have caused the lug nuts to fly off from the studs. One of the lug nut stud had broken and thus the vibration and stress could have over time slowly unscrewing the lug nuts off the wheel.

Pic 2: Replace missing Rays Engineering Duraluminum lug nuts with ordinary ones

I can only think of 2 possibility of why it happened:-
1) Someone stole off some of the Rays Engineering Duraluminum lug nuts and thus the stress caused one of the studs to break (which I doubt!).
2) The previous shop that removed the wheels failed to tighten one of two of the lug nuts properly and thus the stress caused one of the studs to break.

Pic 3: Can you spot the broken lug nut stud?

Anyway, I thank my lucky stars that nothing untoward happened to me and the ER34. Today I went to my regular mechanic (those who knows me would know where is this place) but are kinda pissed. They don't seem to be interested in fixing 'small' and trivial stuffs like this. I was told to wait until they are free.

C'mon I also have time constraints ok; as I stole some time off my lunch hours. Called up another mechanic I know that specializes in Nissan and drift cars and off I left for the place without a goodbye. Over in the new place my problem was fixed within an hour and off I go.

Now my wheels looked kinda crap with mixed Rays Engineering Duraluminum lug nuts and normal lug nuts. Anyone know where I can source 3 pieces of Rays Engineering Duraluminum lug nuts with M12 X P1.25 thread size??

Pic 4: What is left of the lug nut stud...

Pic 5: The broken lug nut stud will be replaced with a new unit

Pic 6: The Work Emotion XD9 now looks kinda crap with mismatched lug nuts

Some shots of Singapore

Pic 1: Night shot of Singapore skyscrapers

Well, this post is not really related to the ER34 but I was in Singapore for a meeting and took the opportunity to visit some places and snap some shots. Not many pictures as I was only there for a day.

It's crazy to drive in Singapore. Everywhere in the city you go, there goes SGD$2.00 for ERP (Electronic Toll Pricing) and every carpark is freaking expensive. But one thing is really good are that all the carparks, basement carparks included, are very very lowered car friendly.

I also got to see how the lighting system are erected for the world's first night Formula 1 race in Singapore thats taking place from the 26th - 28th September 2008. Driving along some of the roads that would be part of the street racing circuit is interesting indeed. Can't wait to watch the race on TV. :P

Here goes some pictures........

Pic 2: Night shot of Singapore skyscrapers

Pic 3: Ministry of Sound!!!

Pic 4: Damn creative Mini advertising. Cheap too I presume...

Pic 5: Clarke Quay along the Singapore River

Pic 6: Clarke Quay: Check out the old shophouses along the river