May 31 Trackday

More pictures to come later today

The People














If you need the full resolution or unedited shots, please post a comment and a way to get them to you. Email is NOT an option as full pictures are 4+ mb each. Pictures copyrighted, used with permissions for non commercial/private use.

New camera mount for the Satria

So today, having decided that I will actually attend Sunday's track day, I thought it might be a good idea to mount a camera and record some on track antics.

So after work today, I headed over to my friendly metal fabricator and see what they could cook up.

Keong, mounting the custom fabricated mount. You can call him at 016 5530950 if you have any metal fabrication work including custom roll cages and welding work.

Completed Mount with a small Canon IXUS 80IS

We will see. I did a short test and it seems the Image stabilization helps a lot ironing out the bumps. Now the only thing I really need to fix is the (loudly) rattling auxiliary wideangle mirrors on my wing mirrors.

Given this is MK I, there are some improvements to me made. Keong is already working on MK II to improve clearence for larger cameras/camcorders.

Why positive castor?

It just occured to me that some people might not have understood the last post.

So why is positive castor good?

Camber is a static setting, which means it doesn't change with steering angle (it does change with suspension load). Positive castor will allow dynamic negative camber increases when you turn the wheel. Meaning just this, as you turn the wheel, you get more and more negative camber on the outside wheel (and less on the inside wheel)

Excessive negative camber will lead to poor straight line and braking grip as well as high tyre wear so there is a limit on how much static camber you can run.

Having positive castor will allow you to "have more negative camber" where and when you need it most. During the turn on the outside wheel. The tighter the turn = more steering angle = more negative camber. If your car does not have an LSD, it will also reduce inside shoulder tyre wear on the inside tyre.

Its easy to notice the effect of positive caster on camber. On some big german sedans, notice when they turn the wheels full lock, the wheels almost look like leaning out of proportion. This is what castor does.

The cons?

You do lose a little turn in response which you will need to compensate by increasing toe-out. Your steering effort will also increase somewhat as well.

New allignment settings

Finally stop procrastinating and installed the Caster bush on the Satria. Hopefully, now the car will eat less front tyres during hard cornering.

A positive caster will increase the negative camber of the outside wheel as steering angle increase.

Current setting
(after pushing front caster up 1/2 inch)

Front
Camber : -2.2 degrees (Increase from 2.0 due to the castor bushings being offset)
Toe out : 0.5 degrees (Increase from 0.1 to compensate for the reduced turn in when positive caster is added)

Rear
Camber : -1.3 degrees
Toe out : 0 degrees (my old setting was 0.2 - makes for a very fun ride when you want to go sideways but gives a nervous ride when u don't want to)

The ISOFIX black hole.

Saying that the Malaysian automotive public lacks a notion of safety is a gross understatement.

The Wife and I sent out for a preliminary round of MPV shopping and we looked at several MPV's in the market

The Budget offerings,
Proton Exora
Nissan Grand Livina
Naza Rondo


The "like to have but probably too expensive" category
Toyota Wish
Honda Stream
Mitsubishi Grandis


To the typical banter between the salesperson and I.

Me : Does this car have ISOFIX or LATCH attachements?

SP : What is ISOFIX?

Me : Er, an attachment for child seats? You have not heard about ISOFIX?

SP : This car doesn't have it.

Me : (pointing at the LATCH), ah yeah, there it is. The car has LATCH. (To Salesperson) This is what LATCH is.



Wow, not a single ONE of the salesperson knew what ISOFIX/LATCH is. It might be forgivable for Proton et. al. sales people not to know when the cars do not have them (hence not being trained) but for Toyota, Honda, and Mitsu, all with CBU units being already factory equipped, I just don't have words for them.



So what is ISOFIX?

"ISOFIX (International Standards Organisation FIX) is a new standard for car seat installation that's being adopted by car seat and vehicle manufacturers worldwide. The system operates through ISOFIX points on the back of the child car seat that plug into ISOFIX fittings in the car, creating a solid link between your child's car seat and your car."

This is what a proper ISOFIX attachment is, in this case a Golf.

And what is LATCH?

LATCH stands for "Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children" and eliminates the need to use seat belts to secure the child car seat to the vehicle. However, your vehicle must be fitted with the anchor system. Starting in the year 2002, most new vehicles began to be manufactured with the LATCH system installed.




Now, that said, why don't Proton, Naza and Nissan have ISOFIX for thier suposely "targeted at Family(ies)" MPVs? Your guess is as good as mine, but these attachments don't cost more than a few bucks, so leaving them out is unforgivable, considering ISOFIX is/has been standard mandated by almost all countries as standard safety item.

On top of that, our prime candidate, the Naza Rondo, somehow managed to get an idiot of a designer to cut cost, re-designing the 2nd row bench seat in such a way that makes the 3rd row completely unusable (ie. not being able to get to it) after you fit a rear facing child seat in the 2nd row. Wow, nice job alienating your market demographic. 7 seat MPV, with 2 useless seats....which leads me to this old adage. "Don't fix what ain't broke"

A Frustrating day no less, but then again, we have time on our hands to wait for the right MPV to come about.

Next round, Peugeot 307 SW, Mazda 5, and the new Perodua MPV codenamed D46T (aka Toyota Sette)

UMID M1.

With "netbooks" encroaching into Ultraportable's (12" Notebooks) teritory, there is one company that seem to think that going the other way seems to be the greener pasture.





It somehow manages to end up smaller than the already dimunitive Vaio P.
And Yes, it does come in black




As usual with these sort of things, the compromize is performance and usability. But given this thing is the size of a PDA or a large smartphone that can run Windows XP and your usual array of standard apps, is it quite impressive. More so the rather excelent connectivity (wifi, HSPDA, optional WiMAX) and claimed 5 hour battery life

More here
http://www.pocketables.net/2009/05/review-umid-mbook-m1.html

Adrenalin pumped.....

This is a few weeks late, but better late then never.

First Impressions

Tenacious grip.
For a street tyre, this is one of the best gripping tyre I've used. Outright grip is almost comparable to Yoko's own extreme performace AD07s, and much better than the Toyo T1R and F1 GS2 (I 've not tried the GDS3 yet), and light years ahead of the more budget offerings. Sidewalls are slightly softer than the AD07 but it runs a lot quieter and offers much better wet grip. What is amazing is that even with sidewalls much stiffer than the outgoing Parada Spec II's the ride is more comfortable. The lateral stability is also very impressive. I have not been able to break the front loose yet so I can't really tell its behavior past the limit.

The question remains, How well this will hold up under track conditions? We will know at the end of the month as I put the tyres through its paces. It would probably shave a few tenths off my PBs, that I am sure about. Since I got only a pair, and them being mounted on the front, I will have to be extra diligent to keep my rear in check...they could really get lively with so much grip at the front.

However I have a nagging feelign that it might not hold up as good as the AD07 and might not like a hot track very much since the compund feels very soft. But we will see.

Trackday 12 April Pictures

I don't like to put tacky watermarks so please have the courtesy to link back to this blog if you are going to use these pictures. Enjoy. Click on pics for wallpaper sized pictures.














The People





And last but not least, before I get another tongue lashing for not taking any of her pictures during the last track day....here she is :p




And this is what you get after one too many hot, high G drift runs...



If you need the full resolution or unedited shots, please post a comment and a way to get them to you. Email is NOT an option as full pictures are 4+ mb each. Pictures copyrighted, used with permissions for non commercial/private use.

If you don't see your car here, please drop a note, but in all probability, I was on the track the same time as you were. Perhaps during the next track day you can request for your pictures to be taken.