Found: ER34 half-cut

Half-cuts of the ER34 are extremely hard to find. The vehicle is still very much popular in Japan and if there's any half-cuts, it'll probably go to Australia, New Zealand or United Kingdom where they can afford to pay higher prices for it.

Well, I chanced upon a unit recently with some nice parts in it. The half-cut I found has:-

1) Aluminium radiator
2) Silicone radiator hoses
3) Nismo radiator cap
4) Apexi bubble tank
5) Blitz oil cooler with oil filter relocation kit
6) Blitz LM intercooler kit
7) Blitz SUS power core type LM air filter
8) Apexi N1 coilovers
9) Nismo tension rods

I am interested in a few of the items but too bad, the owner of the half-cut isn’t particularly interested in taking off parts from the unit. Everything will go as a whole for a cool asking price of RM 15,000 (USD 4,440). :O

Here are some pictures of it....

Pic 1: The ER34 half-cut. It was involved in a front end side collision

Pic 2: Blitz Oil Cooler. Love the side mount. Should have ordered this instead of my GReddy/Trust one.

Pic 3: Blitz LM front mount intercooler. One of the intercooler pipe and silicone hose is torn from the accident.

Pic 4: Engine bay. Note the aluminium radiator, silicone radiator hoses, apexi bubble tank with Nismo radiator cap

Pic 5: Nismo tension rods

Pic 6: Apexi N1 coilovers

Proton's new MPV built with Chinese technology....?

There have been talks of a partnership between Proton Holdings Bhd and Chery Automobiles Co Ltd of China in assembling the models from China in Proton's smacking new high tech plant in Tangjung Malim. In addition, there were also talks about the possibility of Proton to use the technology from the Chinese automaker into producing a MPV of their own.

Ain't that interesting news? Yes....but that has been in the talk since uhm....about September 2006. So what has transpired since then?

I chanced upon a test unit yesterday and managed to snap some pictures of it. The badges and emblems have been covered though. Interesting eh?

Pic 1: Front view

Pic 2: Rear view

Bandung, Jakarta and a BNR32?

Pic 1: Nice statue in Bandung

I was in Indonesia last week and thought I'll share some snippets of my travel there.........

Upon touching down at the Soekarno-Hatta Jakarta International Airport, I bought a bus ticket to Bandung. The ticket is very cheap at IDR 60,000 (USD 6.50) one way. Bandung, located 180 kms away from Jakarta is the capital of West Java and Indonesia's third largest city.

So what's in Bandung? Nothing much actually. Some of the 'attractions' like the Cihampelas Walk (Ciwalk) and Braga City Walk are not interesting at all. There were quite a few factory outlet stores though. :)

Moving around in Bandung is kinda fun. The local transport is called angkot which is a modified minibus that's able to squeeze in up to 18 passengers!! Crazy eh? But one got to be very careful as many muggers/pickpockets operate on these angkots.

Some of the interesting rides I saw in Bandung are a Honda CR-V and a Toyota Frontier with 22 inch wheels and 265mm width tyres!! Madness eh?

Oh yea, Bandung is constantly raining! I've never experienced heavy rain 5 times a day!!! After two nights here, I took a bus back to Jakarta where I spent a night before flying back to Kuala Lumpur. Now Jakarta is a city of extreme contrast.

Pic 2: Jakarta city view from my hotel room

Pic 3: Welcome Monument built in 1962 by President Sukarno

Here you find posh shopping malls selling designer items but outside the main door you find the other extreme, i.e. the poorer folks loitering around the dirty streets. Here, either you are rich or you are poor. The gap in between is so huge in comparison that it's beyond comprehension why there exists little or no middle ground.

The city of Jakarta is not a safe place to be in. Cases of mugging and robbery are so common even the taxi drivers themselves can be muggers!! My advice is to travel only in the most reputable taxi provider, i.e Bluebird. Any other taxis that you travel are a risk in terms of safety and cut throat fares.

Pic 4: A typical bajaj in Jakarta

Besides taxis, bajaj (a form of motorised 3 wheel rickshaws) operate every nook and cranny of the city. These are interesting transportations not unlike those used in Thailand (tuk tuks). But I will not recommend anyone to try them due to the high mugging cases on board.

During my stay in Indonesia, my icthy hands bought another car model. Yes, what else, it's another Nissan Skyline. I came across a 1:18 scale model of the BNR32 that were potrayed in the Japanese anime Inital D. Yes the very one driven by Takeshi Nakazato of the Myogi NightKids. The model is made by Jada Toys and impulse buying got the better of me. And hey, it was on 30% sale!!!

The quality was kind of bad actually, can't compare at all to my rest of my Skyline models by Kyosho and Autoart. Oh well.....

Anyway, here are some pictures…..

Pic 5: Yes it rains and rains in Bandung!!!

Pic 6: Small time traders in Bandung offering their expertise in sign making

Pic 7: Funny statue in my hotel lobby at Jakarta. No durians OR durians encouraged?? :P

Pic 8: Another funny statue in my hotel lobby. A crab bit a women's toe?

Pic 9: Poor living condition of some Jakarta folks

Pic 10: Dirty muddy clogged river/drain?

Pic 11: This bajaj think it's sexy?

Pic 12: A morning market in Jakarta. Felt damn uneasy here...

Pic 13: My NightKids BNR32

Pic 14: Quality and details can be better

Aquarium headlights ?!?!

Pic 1: The ER34 looks kinda good without headlights ya??

Oh shucks!! I don't know why and I don't know how but one fine day my headlights decided to leak water in. Every time the ER34 is washed or it rained, the passenger side headlights will leak water in.

I've found quite a number of used headlights for sale in Japan and the price is astronomical!! These xenon headlights are not cheap at all!! I've been guilty of delaying this fix and in the process has gotten some pretty weird stares from friends, colleagues and some business associates. A leaky Skyline headlights? How embarrassing!!

Luckily, my buddy at Aeroclear, the guys that refurbishes and repairs aircraft windows are here to rescue me. :P If you recall, they have helped to polish and restore my dull yellowish headlights in July '07 (refer blog entry here).

Anyway, my ER34 was handed to Aeroclear's trusty hands to fix the leakage. Since I'm taking out the leaky headlight, I might as well fixes the other one as well (just incase!).

What was done is incredibly extensive. Both headlights are removed from the ER34 and are taken apart. Yes, literally broken down to individual pieces! All the factory silicone sealants are removed and new ones are applied in providing a fool proof sealant against any future water leakage. The headlight covers are sandpapered and polished like new. These tedious processes took 48 hours to complete! Amazing!!!

Here are some of pictures.....

Pic 2: A flooded headlight?!?!

Pic 3: The reflectors

Pic 4: Headlight covers

Pic 5: Sandpapering the headlight covers

Pic 6: This is how the headlight covers looked like after sandpapered. The red circles are stone chips on the covers.

Pic 7: Polishing the headlight covers

Pic 8: Squeaky clean eh? Just like new.....

Pic 9: Front view (right side)

Pic 10: Side view (right side)

Pic 11: Front view (left side)

Pic 12: Rear view (left side)

Drive It Like You Stole It #03 - Cameron Highlands

Pic 1: View of the tea plantations

Drive It Like You Stole It #03?? Shouldn't it be #07 since the last one was #06? Hehehe, well actually DILYSI #03 was planned long time ago but kept on getting postponed. So here it is finally.....

We finally concluded it even though in between, the ER34 made a few trips to Cameron Highlands alone. This was an impromptu drive, thus there were only two of us. Sakakida in his yellow ER34 and myself.

We basically took the same route as I always does, i.e

Kuala Lumpur - North South Expressway - Tapah - Cameron Highlands - Simpang Pulai - Kuala Lumpur

We departed quite late in the morning around 11:00am-ish as we slept really late (2:30am!) the night before for the Malaysian Skyline Club meet-up. The drive along the North South Expressway heading up North from Kuala Lumpur to Tapah was the usual. Speeding in some sections while on others were hampered by traffic.

Pic 2: The ER34 going uphill

Pic 3: Sakakida on my tail

Upon reaching the Tapah exit and heading up Cameron Highlands on its twisty backbone, it dawned upon me that it has been a long time since I have a drive with another like minded enthusiast. Sigh....really need to plan a drive to Frasiers Hill and group up the gang again. :(

Going up was really fun with the short straights and sharp bends of the Tapah route up. Traffic was minimal and the echo of the exhaust and blow-off valve resonating off the mountain hills were terrifically addictive. The SLIP warning light of the TCS (Traction Control System) was going nuts!! It's blinking on most sharp bends as the rear naturally tends to step out on on-throttle 2nd gear corners.

Pic 4: Going into a corner

Pic 5: Some of the aboriginal houses along the roadside

We stopped by for lunch at T-Cafe in Tanah Rata as recommended by cameronhighlands.com (thanks for listing me in your Travellers Blog section!). Foods were not bad and love the homely decor. Really cool place and will definitely try its Western selections on my next trip here. :)

We put up a night at Hotel Equatorial and did a bit of shopping for veggies the next morning before heading back downhill via Simpang Pulai. The journey down and back home was one of great excitement.

Shortly after entering into the Simpang Pulai route downhill, we came up to a black Audi TT (first generation Typ 8N) and had quite a bit of fun. We were also joined in later by a red Sil80 (Nissan Silvia RPS13 with S13 front end conversion). But too bad, the Sil80 had to stop by the roadside after about 15-20 minutes of keeping up with us. Not too sure why he stopped though.

Anyway, so there were 3 of us all. The Audi TT, followed by myself and then sakakida. Observing the Audi TT, I realise it handled very well. The vehicle were pretty well balanced through corners, thanks perhaps to its quattro all wheel drive system. Power wise were adequate as it was pacing itself quite well. I had loads of fun tailing the Audi TT and watching it overtaking cars, trucks, etc.....

I must say the driver is a driving enthusiast as well. He tried to shake me off for a quite a while but I was a bit devilish as I kept on pressuring the Audi TT and sticking up close to its rear end. On some straights, I drove up next to him and then braked and tucked the ER34 back on its rear end. After a loooong while, the Audi TT gave me a few indications to overtake. He kept the car on the leftmost and slowed down, but the devil inside me decided not to do so. I was having loads of fun placing the ER34 on rear of the Audi TT; sometimes right behind, sometimes to its left and others to its right. I bet sakakida must be having a blast watching the two of us from the back. LOL :D

Reaching, the bottom of the hill, we were quite surprised to run into a police road block. Luckily it was nothing serious, just some checks on the road tax validity and off we go. Immediately after the road block, we were already going all out. 1st gear till red line followed by a quick up-shift to 2nd. On the rear view mirror, I saw the coppers staring at me chasing the Audi TT. LOL :D

Upon reading the highway entry, I honked and gave a friendly wave to the Audi TT. The driver waved back and gave a smile. Think he was pretty pressured; he gave me a smile and friendly shake of his head. Hahaha.....

Unfortunately (or fortunately!) we went off into separate ways. I head down south while he headed up north of the highway. If so happens by chance you are reading this, it was great driving with you. Cheers mate!!

So off I head back to Kuala Lumpur beaming with satisfaction of a great drive while sakakida made a detour to Ipoh. Along the highway, it was the usual, high speeds on certain sections and slower on others. I stopped at the small town of Bidor for its famous Duck Drumstick Noodles at the Pun Chun Restaurant. And guess what? I saw the Sil80 passed by the restaurant I was in!!! Such a co-incidence!

Pic 6: The 996 Porsche 911 GT3 RS

After my meal, I entered back into the highway. Enroute, I got bullied to the max by not one BUT two Porsche 911 GT3 RS! Both were travelling 15 minutes apart from each other with trade plates.

The first unit was a green 911 GT3 RS (997) that hardly gave me any chance to follow. The driver was swerving in and out of the fast and slow lanes giving me a hard time to keep up. Slower traffic that didn't give way soon enough was overtaken on the slow and/or emergency lane by the GT3 RS. Madness!!!

Soon after, I saw another unit coming up real fast via my rear view mirror. This time, it's a white 911 GT3 RS (996). This driver is a bit more restrained and I managed to keep up with it for a slightly longer period before it disappears way up ahead. These machines are capable of 310km/h top speed out of its 415bhp engine. There are NO WAY I can keep up. But I bet the new 2008 R35 Nissan GT-R with its VR38 twin-turbocharged 3.8 litres V6 will be of equal standings with the 911 GT3 RS.

Ahhhh......another satisfying weekend drive. Just what I needed to de-stress from my crazy workloads.

ER34 got booked by the coppers

I was caught for speeding last month when I was heading up North to Kulim, Kedah to visit the Inokom Assembly Plant. The plant assembles the Atos, Getz, Matrix and Santa Fe models. Midway, I was stopped by the coppers along the North South Highway and given a ticket for speeding.

I was given a month to compound the summon, failing which I'll have to appear in court. With the deadline a couple of days away, I took time off from work and went to the Traffic Police Headquarters to settle it.

To my horrors, they print out a couple of other summons linked to me. Darn it, this is going to be a costly affair. All in I have 4 traffic summons and they are all for the same offence. SPEEDING!!

Gosh....there goes my RM900.00 (USD 265.00). Luckily they accept credit card. But those nincompoop they called cops are hopeless in the administrative department.

When I went in to check my summons, there is an officer called Raymond that prints out the offences under me. After which I went to another counter to pay. So here I was at this second counter to contribute a chunk of my wages to the country when I was told I needed another print-out in order to pay. So I returned back to see Raymond and he has to cheeks to tell me in a stern voice, "You have to tell me if you want to pay. Then I print out your statement for you". I was like wtf!

Pic 1: I hate traffic summons!!!

Anyway, after Raymond prints out the statement for me, I went back to the payment counter where this one officer with the name Yaacob (93830) entertains me. Now this guy is a joke. I paid via credit card and he has problems with:-

1) Keying in the details into the computer (requested help from a colleague)
2) Using the credit card terminal (requested help from a colleague)

3) Can't differentiate which slip I should sign on (requested help from a colleague)
4) Printing the receipt (requested help from a colleague)

Sigh.....what a joke. The Royal Malaysia Police should at least train its employees better. I hope my payment for the summons can go into their training funds instead of being utilized to buy coffee and cakes for their mid afternoon tea daily.

110km/h speed limit sucks!!!

ER34 revisits Cameron Highlands

Pic 1: The winding road beckons in Cameron Highlands

Well this Cameron Highlands drive was supposed to be the next Drive It Like You Stole It (DILYSI) but many aren't able to make it thus the ER34 went up by itself. Oh well......

I departed early Saturday morning onto the North South Expressway heading down South from Kuala Lumpur. After travelling on the mundane highway for an hour or so, I exited at the Tapah exit. Now this is where the car is in it's elements. The way up to Cameron Highlands via Tapah is the kind of roads that I love. Short straights, tight corners and shuffling between 2nd and 3rd gear most of the way.

Pic 2: My kinda roads

Luckily, it was a relatively quiet morning. There were little cars and overtaking them was not much of a problem. Err....except for one crazy overtaking manoeuvre that involves overtaking 3 vehicle at one go; a 16 wheeler truck ferrying an excavator, a petroleum tanker and a pickup. Mad move indeed. Hehehe :P

Passing Lata Iskandar waterfall and then Ringlet I reached Tanah Rata. Tanah Rata is situated 1,400 metres above sea level. The temperature here gets a wee bit colder. Great to get away from the bilstering hot Kuala Lumpur! After Tanah Rata, the drive uphill continues till I reach my accommodation of the night at Hotel Equatorial. The great thing is I got to park at the lobby. Safety guaranteed. Woohoo!!!

Pic 3: The view from my hotel room

The next morning, the downhill run begins via Tringkap, Kuala Terla, Kampung Raja and down Cameron Highlands via the Simpang Pulai route. I don't particularly like this route as fast sweeping bends aren't exactly my cup of tea. Anyway, I took it easy downhill and came across a couple of groups of bikers and a trio of Lotus Elise as well. A Ferrari F355 Spider was also spotted.

All in I clocked in 500km from Kuala Lumpur to Tapah and down via Simpang Pulai back to Kuala Lumpur. A great way to spend the weekend away from the stresses of the city. Hopefully, the next drive the regulars can make it...... *wink*

Here are some of the pictures from my drive.....

Pic 4: Beautiful roads eh?

Pic 5: Charging uphill via Tapah

Pic 6: Warning!! Winding roads.....

Pic 7: Uphill via Tapah

Pic 8: Shopping at Kea Farm

Pic 9: Veggies!!

Pic 10: Downhill via Simpang Pulai route

Pic 11: Glorious bends!!

Pic 12: And more corners!!

Pic 13: King of the Road in Cameron Higlands