Largest Supercar / Performance Car Gathering at Super GT 2011

Pic 1: Preparing to enter into SIC

During the Super GT 2011, JPM Motorsports organized the Largest Supercar / Performance Car Gathering. Their aim is to gather the most number of supercar / performance car in Sepang International Circuit at the same time. They managed to create a new record in the Malaysia Book of Record at 405 units of cars. That is all great and mighty fine but I had an unfortunate incident during the event.

Pic 2: At the holding area

As we were waiting in the holding area next to the back straight of turn 14, I noticed that my front tyre had a flat. Oh man, that really sucks. Running my hand around the rubber reveals there's no nails/screw that have penetrate the tyre. Really weird. It must have leaked slowly too as just an hour ago, I was barreling down the highway at speeds which is best not to be revealed publicly. LOL :D

Anyway, as the rest of the cars are making their way into the track, I had to ditch the ER34 behind and hop into one of the cars there (Thanks Colin for the ride!). Why leave the car behind? Well I don't have a 19mm wrench with me to remove the Rays Engineering lug nuts. And the best place to loan one was where the rest of the cars are going to be parked, the main straight of Sepang International Circuit. Amongst the hundreds of cars there, I'm sure there must be at least one chap with the tools.

Pic 3: At the holding area

Pic 4: All 405 cars on the main straight of SIC

My plan to narrow down the search was to ask owners of cars that spots the same lug nuts as me. Smart move BUT funnily enough, most of the owners that I've asked either do not have the wrench or do not carry tools at all. Oh man!!!

Thankfully, Dennis had one in his beautifully kitted Reckless MR-S (Thanks a bunch bro!). Now, with the tool in hand, I had to get back to the parking area. This is where Jason (sakakida) came to the rescue with a loan motocycle from Alex. The ride back to the back straight is a journey in itself as we potter along outside the track proper to get to the area.

Jason helped with the tyre change and it was done in a jiffy. Thankfully too as there is a grandstand facing directly where we were changing the tyre. Not exactly a sight to be proud of. Hahaha

This is where the problem starts, the threads on the Rays Engineering lug nuts got worn while tightening; and as such, only 3 of the lug nuts can be somewhat tightened. Somewhat tightened? Yeap! Just realized that the smaller dimension of the Rays Engineering lug nuts means that it ain't gonna be sitting flush and tight with the space saver wheel.

Pic 5: My old worn and well-used Rays lug nuts

Lucky thing is that the ER34 managed to be nursed back home all the way from Sepang International Circuit. We were only doing 60km/h all the way! Man that really sucks!

Couple of days later, I got replacement Rays Engineering lightweight Duraluminum lug nuts for the ER34 and she's now all fine and dandy. Oh btw, beware of fake Rays lug nuts which is flooding the market. Those are selling at a small fraction of the price compared to the originals. Don't be stingy on safety!

Pic 6: Brand new Rays lug nuts


Pic 7: Brand new Rays lug nuts


Pic 8: Brand new Rays lug nuts installed