Recently, the ER34 was involved in filming a short Chinese New Year 'greeting spot' to be aired on Astro Channel 304, Jia Yu. Jia Yu is a Mandarin and Cantonese based channel aired on Astro (All-Asian Satellite Television and Radio Operator), which is a Malaysian pay television service.
Basically what will be shown is that a bunch of people from IPC and yours truly doing a group Chinese New Year greeting in front of the camera. The cars served as a background for the shoot. It's a relatively quick shoot lasting only half a day.
A mix of cars were present comprising of Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII, Toyota Celica, Mazda RX-7, Nissan 350Z, Nissan Skyline R34 GTT, Ferrari F430, Aston Martin Vantage, Mitsuoka Le-Seyde, Honda Integra DC5, Subaru Impreza WRX STi, and two stunning stretched Hummers.
Do check it out on Astro Channel 304 as it will be aired repeatedly during the Chinese New Year period. See if you can spot the ER34 and me. Hehehe
Here's some photos from the shoot.
Pic 2: The cars on one end
Pic 3: The cars on the other end
Pic 4: Camera track for the rolling shot
Pic 5: More setups
Pic 6: The ER34 is the sole Skyline representative
Pic 1: Errr...this pic is just to get your attention. Yes, it's in Singapore. :)
I was in Singapore the whole of last week. The last time I was there was back in 2008 when I took my niece and nephew for a short tour of the island. So yeah, it has been a while since I step foot on uniquely Singapore. :)
This time round it was not so much of a leisure trip but rather for some meetings and of course the opportunity to meet up with some friends. I've got to meet Roy who owns an ER34 with the exact same bodykit as mine. It's unreal I tell ya! My ER34's Singapore twin. :P
Pic 2: Roy's IMPUL 534S kitted ER34. Love those BBS wheels
Thanks bro for spending a whole day with me going to workshops and hanging out at your place. Really appreciate the hospitality. I'll return the favour when you do come to KL ya.
Well the only "tourist" attraction (besides Orchard Road) that I managed to drop by is Resorts World Sentosa and Universal Studios. Nope, I didn't gamble but I did go in to the casino check out the place. Pretty packed I must say; gamblers from all over the world, well mostly from the Asian region. Asians are natural born gamblers??? :)
Pic 3: Yours to win in Resorts World Sentosa
I didn't venture into Universal Studios as well. Going to a theme park alone is just so weird. LOL. Perhaps next time. I wonder how would the experience be like with the hot and humid weather of Singapore. Sure ain't gonna be like going to the Los Angeles version. I miss LA!
Pic 4: This is as close as I get to visiting Universal Studios Singapore
Anyway, Singapore is cluttered with "supercars". I see Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, Audi R8, R35 GT-R, etc... everywhere. And more often than not, the drivers are pretty young in age. Damn..... :O
I did ask a taxi driver and also the hotel bell boy, "How come these young chaps can own Italian/German supercars?". Funnily enough, both of them commented the same thing. They say that these guys earn a lot of cash (bankers perhaps) and therefore dumps all of their income on a flashy car. They might have little/no savings. I dunno how true tho .....
Anyway, here's some pictures that I managed to snap. :)
Pic 5: R35 GT-R or Audi R8? Tough choice?
Pic 6: Immaculate Mazda RX3. Belongs to a Jap. :)
Pic 7: FC3S
Pic 8: Widebody Scooby with FMIC
Pic 9: Garage R
Pic 10: Did I hear HKS? Pic 11: More goodies Pic 12: Modded VR38DETT Pic 13: Impressive paint job. It's like chrome red!
Pic 14: Lovely view from my hotel room Pic 15:That street is part of the Singapore Formula 1 GP circuit Pic 16: This VW Sciroccospots a nice Oettinger bodykit with Oettinger 19" wheels!
Pic 17: Red devils? Prancing horse versus Jap "supercar"
Another couple of stressful weeks at work were really messing up my mood and life. In these trying times and lack luster economy, I need my speed fix.
Drive It Like You Stole It #13 was organized to take the group from Kuala Lumpur to Seremban via the old roads, i.e. Kuala Klawang. There were 10 cars that joined comprising of:
2 Nissan Skyline ER34 1 Nissan Skyline BNR34 1 Nissan Silvia RPS13 1 Subaru Impreza Sti V-Limited 1 Mazda RX-7 FD3S 1 Toyota SW20 MR2 1 Mitsubishi Evo 8 1 Mitsubishi Evo 6 1 Proton Perdana v6
We meet up at Shell Petrol Kiosk along Jalan Cheras on a very early Sunday morning (7:00am!!). Sorry I was running late. From here, Jason lead us in his Sti all the way to Seremban using the Hulu Langat route joining Sg. Tekali, Titi, Petaling, Kuala Klawang, Pantai and then reaching Seremban town.
Upon departing at Shell, I had a problem with my clutch pedal, after depressing the pedal, it got stuck and wouldn't come back up. Weird.......nevertheless it was ok after some pushing and pumping and the pedal popped back up. Hmmmphh...this gave me a bad vibe about this drive. The initial part of the drive was 'hampered' by crazy amounts of cyclists along the route. Were they practicing for some event or we had crashed into their route? Hehe
After clearing like a hundred cyclists, the drive was truly very exciting and enjoyable, the front runners were pushing hard like mad. I think we were going all out at 9/10th pace. At some point, I had to clock in 200km/h to chase the Scooby. Madness but a whole load of great fun.
Pic 2: A quick stop to regroup
Pic 3: The guys sharing driving tales.....LOL
Halfway through, we stopped for breakfast before continuing our journey. Here I encountered the same problem with my clutch pedal. It got stuck and there were no pressure on the pedal. After checking the clutch fluid reservoir, it's empty! The ER34 is leaking clutch fluids via the clutch line! Thank god for Allen to have a spare bottle of clutch fluid around. After topping up the fluids, my pedal is still stuck, looks like my clutch pump got stuck as well. Sakakida had an ingenious idea to prod the cluch pump using my umbrella. It worked, you're a genius bro. LOL :D
Note: I changed my ER34 clutch pump and clutch lines to a R33 unit the day before. Why? Stay tuned for the next blog post update. :P
Pic 4: The DILYSI gang
Pic 5: The DILYSI gang from the rear
From here, we head to Jeram Toi waterfalls. This place has changed a bit from the last time were here. They added slides to the waterfall! What the hell! This is the first waterfall I've ever seen with water slides! LOL :D
Pic 6: The Jeram Toi waterfall
Pic 7: Water slides at the fall
After hanging out at Jeram Toi for a fair bit, we continued our journey to Seremban to have our lunch at A&W Restaurant. The 2nd part of the drive was not as furious but fun nonetheless. In Seremban town, some of us kinda got lost and ends up going round and round in two roundabouts while waiting for directions. It was hilarious as well and I bet we pissed off a couple folks that are waiting to enter the roundabout. Hahahahaha......
Reaching A&W Restaurant, it's great to see some of the other Skyline owners and zth forummers like semperfi, eyong, wai88, TitanRev, etc....
From here, we called it a day and departed back to Kuala Lumpur via the North-South Expressway. It was great driving with you guys again. Till the next drive.....
Pic 8: The gang
Pic 9: What's up with raising 'yer leg up in the air?
Pic 10: Regroup pic
Pic 11: A lot of white cars eh?
Pic 12: The Evolutions
Pic 13: Jason, you've parked right in front of a very apt sign
With the last drive about 3 months ago, driver rust is setting in really bad. With a free weekend, some of us went for the 11th installment of the Drive It Like You Stole It (DILYSI) session. We head to Frasiers Hill again but extended the route from there onwards to Bentong, then Janda Baik and finally Genting Sempah. From there, we joined onto Karak Highway back to Kuala Lumpur.
That’s 220km of pure twisties. Woohoo!!
A total of 8 cars met up at our usual rendezvous point before heading off. There were:- 2 Nissan Skyline 25GT-t 1 Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II
1 Nissan 180SX 1 Subaru Impreza Sti Ver. 8 1 Mazda RX-7 1 Toyota MR2 1 BMW E34 5 series (with 1JZ-GTE heart!)
Pic 2: The cars
Yeap. There was a continental. This is the second time a continental make joined our drive. The 1st one was the BMW E60 5 series before DILYSI was started way back in October 2006. The difference is that this E34 has a Japanese heart. LOL :D
The day started off with some setback. As Danial had a nail embedded in one of his tyre, we had to push off without him while he scouts for a tyre shop that is open on an early Sunday morning! Amazingly, he managed fix his tyre and catch up to us not too long after we stopped for breakfast in Frasiers Hill. He must be tearing the roads apart with his SW20. :O
Pic 3: Danial's SW20
This drive is also my getting-to-know-you session with my new tyres. I've only covered 500km in 'em and have not come to grips with it (pun intended). Furthermore, after fitting in the tyres I find the car felt a bit weird when I chuck it into corners. Can't exactly put my finger to it yet.
I was quite worried about the weather report as it predicted clouds in the morning and rain in the afternoon. We were pleasantly surprised to see glorious clear skies during the whole duration of the drive. Rain only started in mid afternoon by which we're already back in Kuala Lumpur. :)
Pic 4: The cars at Frasiers Hill
The drive from Frasiers Hill to Bentong and Janda Baik to Genting Sempah was great fun! Much like The Gap where there is sparse traffic but the corners are a little faster here as it's much less tighter. Very much still Scooby and Evo habitats. ;P
I was not pushing as hard right after Frasiers Hill when the ER34 started giving out a continuous tick-tick sound when the steering is turned. Everything else seems fine except for the worrisome ticking sound. I really hope nothing major is wrong with the ER34.
Oh, someone got himself a battle scar this trip; and was exceptionally cool about it. LOL :D
Many folks have been messaging me for pictures, so I'll keep my writting short and here's the pictures PLUS a video. :)
Man, I need to get the ER34 for a check-up soon.
Vid 1: ER34 at Janda Baik (Part 1 of 2)
Vid 2: ER34 at Janda Baik (Part 2 of 2)
Pic 5: The cars at Frasiers Hill
Pic 6: The whites
Pic 7: Butt shot
Pic 8: The whites (again!)
Pic 9: Woay Chee's mean-looking FD3S
Pic 10: Breakfast in Frasiers Hill
Pic 11: Not your 'normal' E34
Pic 12: ER34 carves some corners
Pic 13: Optimus Prime leading the way to Cybertron
Pic 14: A quick stop for a breather enroute to Janda Baik
A skyline freak since young but grew stronger in 1996 when I first lay eyes on the midnight purple BCNR33. Finally after 10 years of admiration, my dream were realised with the acquisition of the ER34. Would of course prefer the BNR34 but wallet ain't that deep.
If you have any queries, feel free to email or MSN me via eujin[at]hotmail[dot]com
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