Archive for August, 2007

Spy Photos of the new Honda Accord have been leaked all over the net.

It’s shocking. The exterior design is surprising plain, and when i say plain, words cannot describe it. Lets just put it this way, it looks like a cross between a Hyundai Sonata & a Toyota Camry (Thailand model).

Anyway exterior looks aside please. The accord is powered by a 3.5-liter i-VTEC V6 engine that produces 268-horsepower - the most ever for any Accord - while introducing a new generation of fuel-saving Variable Cylinder Management™ (VCM®) technology and achieving a Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle (PZEV*) rating. Whatever the hell that means, i’m not very sure.  But a 3.5 l i-VTEC V6 engine wouldn’t do really well in tight city conditions. Your gas/petrol consumption will cost as much as giving a bum your wallet to buy beer.

Inside the vehicle, the new Honda ’spaceship interior’ designs are evident once agian, and steering wheel audio controls are standard on every Accord. For the US market, 3 impressive audio systems are available - all with MP3/Windows Media Audio (WMA) playback capability and an auxiliary input jack. The standard system features 160 watts, a single-disc CD player and six speakers. Right…..that sounds normal.

The 2008 Accord Sedan also comes standard with 16-inch steel wheels with wheel covers, or 16 to 17-inch aluminum wheels depending on model.

Safety stuff? Pretty standard. The 2008 Accord integrates sophisticated safety technology that includes the ACE body structure; side curtain airbags; driver’s and front passenger’s dual-chamber side airbags with a passenger-side Occupant Position Detection System (OPDS); and dual-stage, dual-threshold driver’s and front passenger’s airbags (SRS). Nope, no fancy stuff like the safety ejection seat in 2 Fast 2 Furious. ABS, EBD and all that stuff come with it.

Hmmm, it’s time to report back to my military camp for the last phase of my training. Military units are boring, having a regimental standard for everything.  Sadly, the 2008 Honda accord just does that. It’s ruthlessly efficient and mechanical, does it’s job, but hardly stands out.

So you want to custom your sporty 2nd-hand coupé or a brand new hatchback.

Good on you. Now you want to start modifying and you’re confident people will like your ride because it has tons of stickers and a very fierce bodykit right?

WRONG. You’ll be laughed at, scorned, and the big boys on the road will take you out.

Well. That is sobering. Most young tuners start adding all sorts of stuff into their vehicles which is not necessary.

Lets concentrate on what 7 things you should NOT do on your new ride.

1) Do not install a GT-wing if your ride is below 2000cc and non turbo charged:

The ultimate joke I witnessed was a nissan sentra with a 1.6 DOHC engine installed with a GT wing getting overtaken and bullied by a WRX without a spoiler. I don’t feel sympathy for the Nissan. He should just leave his ride as stock or do internal instead of external mods.

2) Do not ‘attack’ corners at high speed unless your ride is tuned for it:

Everyone wants to be like the Tofu boy after watching Initial D. Bear in mind that it was only an anime, not real life. Even the Toyota AE86 Sprinter was already designed with fast corners in mind back in 1984. Hence the rear wheel combination.

If you are going to corner sharply with a hyundai or ford which has no flexible lowered suspension, stabilizer bar, or the car model is an SUV/MPV with a higher center of gravity, good luck mate.

3) Do not place too many stickers: 

Your vehicle is a tuned up ride, not an advertising billboard. Imagine having a Sparco sticker but your seats are not Sparco seats, rather they are seats with mickey mouse covers! And if your vehicle is not a honda, please, please have common sense and not paste ‘VTEC’ stickers!

4) When attempting major modifications, consult a mechanic 1st: 

I know some people wanted to pull off the muffler operation after i blogged about it here. My advice for you: if unsure how to do it properly, DON’T!!! The last thing me or other auto tuners want is a law suit. Leave the rough stuff to your trusted mechanic.

5) Other useless exterior modifications to be avoided:

You don’t need a dump valve/ BOV simulator on a Civic.

You don’t need a misfiring exhaust system unless you have turbo lag problems.

You don’t need Nitrous Oxide unless you race every night, and even that will cause harm to your vehicle over the long term.

Bodykits are nice for show cars but not a major factor in a real race, unless they are made of light material,e.g carbon fiber or fiberglass.

6) Do not overspend:

Delayed gratification is good. Just purchase the basic mods, e.g air filter, fuel charger, spark plugs, maybe suspension tuning, stabilizer bars.

Budget, write down your costs, and see if your focus is saving fuel, power or just looks. If you overspend, when you want to purchase a really nice set of alloy wheels or exhaust you’ll be struggling even to pay off your gas/petrol.

7) Forgetting to service your ride regularly :

It dosn’t matter if the car is a Toyota. It’s still subject to the forces of wear and tear.

Send the vehicle in for servicing at the stated interval timing, do not stinge on engine oil or premium lubricants.

Unless, of course, you plan to push the vehicle to the limit then sell it to some unfortunate, gullible kid. Which is a bastard thing to do.

Ok, you got your 7 no-nos. I know some of the stuff mentioned above are common sense.

However, people lose common sense when they get excited. Hopefully these tips have gone a long way in making you a discerning tuner.

No, i am not writing a ballad. I am refering to stabilizer bars, or sway bars as most people call it.

By the way, ’sway’ in chinese means unlucky, for my foreign mates. So i will use the term ’stabilizer bar’.

Stabilizer bars (also known as roll bars, or anti-roll bars) are designed to keep the chassis or car body from “rolling” during cornering.

During a sharp turn, if you are inside the car, you will feel your body forced toward the outside of the turn. So the part of the car on the outside of the turn gets pushed down toward the road and the part of the car on the inside of the turn rises up.

In other words, the body of the car “rolls” 30 degrees toward the outside of the turn. If you take a turn fast enough, the tires on the inside of the turn actually rise off the road and the car flips over. GAME OVER.

Roll is bad and it tends to put more weight on the outside tires and less weight on the inside tires, reducing traction. You can’t control your steering. The ideal situation is for the body of the car to remain flat through a turn so that the weight stays distributed evenly on all four tires.

A stabilizer bar maintains the car’s body flat by moving force from one side of the body to another. To picture how a stabilizer bar works, imagine a metal rod that is around 2 to 5 cm in diameter. If your front tires are 5 feet apart, make the rod about 4 feet long.

Attach the rod to the frame of the car in front of the front tires, but attach it with bushings so it can rotate. Now attach arms from the rod to the front suspension member on both sides. If you’re not sure, seek your mechanic’s help!

When you attack a corner now, the front suspension member of the outside of the turn gets pushed upward. The arm of the sway bar gets pushed upward, and this applies torsion to the rod. The torsion then moves the arm at the other end of the rod, and this causes the suspension on the other side of the car to compress as well. The car’s body will stay flat in the turn. If it dosn’t you’ve just wasted $100 over on something counterfeit.

If you don’t have a stabilizer bar, you will face trouble with body roll in a turn. If you purchase an over rigid stabilizer bar, you will lose independence between the suspension members on both sides of the car.

Example: When one wheel hits a bump, the stabilizer bar transmits the inpact to the other side of the car as well, creating more handling issues. The ideal is to find a setting that reduces body roll but does not hurt the independence of the tires.

Recommended brands? Call me a Nippon lover but i’ll take Cusco anyday. it’s made in Japan and fits most Jap made vehicles e.g  Nissan, Mazda etc.

I’m not familiar with the other brands so if you guys in US/Europe/Australia have other good ones to recommend, be my guest and post your opinions below!

If you ever wondered what you get when you blend a CRV with a small Hummer, just look at Honda’s new Crossroad.

It was a sight to behold for the writer here as he strolled into the Car Mall. Honestly, i thought it was a product of terrorist attacks paranoia. Hell, it looked bulletproof!

Actually the Crossroad was launched months back in Japan before it came to Singapore. Honda apparently had the young people in mind by branding it as an “active life navigator”-a car that helps people enjoy their active new lifestyles, unbound by conventional thinking.

I think convention nowadays is to create SUV crossovers and not churn out old school sports sedans like the late Nissan Cefiro.

The one i took sneak photos of (the salesmen in this car company were rather nasty) goes for around $80,000 in Singapore. I sat inside and it felt rather spacious, however the meters did seem a bit useless in my opinion.

Steering wheel felt very heavy and strong, so no offence ladies, i doubt you’ll find it enjoyable because the feeling one gets is chunky.

Think stuck in a jungle at night in one of these, 3 of your mates firing rounds at the enemy outside. You get the picture.

But if safety and security is what you are looking for, congratulations. The Honda Crossroad makes use of strong, lightweight, high-tensile steel which contributes to increased rigidity and weight savings.

The design of the rear frame features a large cross-section along with two internal impact-absorbing frames. The frames have a polygonal cross-section to enable them to effectively absorb the shock of a rear-end collision.

In layman terms? You won’t get knocked up from the front or the rear.

Ok, technical terms. This car won’t impress petrolheads. It is powered by a choice of 1.8 or 2.0 SOHC i-VTEC engine. Max Output is estimated at 140/6300 (bhp/rpm), and Torque is 174/4300 (Nm/rpm). Currently only the 1.8 engine was on display. Disappointing.

What you will get, however, is fuel efficiency. According to autoblog, the ‘The 4-wheel-drive 20Xi features fuel economy 10% better than Japanese government fuel economy standards for 2010, and it has 75% reduction with respect to emission regulations for 2005.’

Nice. It won’t make the vehicle any more fun to drive, other than the fact that Al Gore (or any other tree hugger) might run for presidency in one of these.

The 4WD model, by the way, has 2 specially added functions:

1)Vehicle Stability Assist system, which includes an Antilock Brake System, Traction Control System, and sideslip control.

2) Hill-Start Assist—a Honda first—which temporarily maintains brake pressure after the brake pedal is released when starting on a hill to ensure smoother starts.

I can’t think of any one who needs the 2nd function except two situations: The old lady who lost her glasses while driving up a slope or the clumsy man who dropped his mobile phone and bent over…

I’ll leave the final judgement to you guys. Are Auto giants going the way of the dogs by producing SUV/MPV crossovers or do you see this as a passing trend?

I seriously hope this trend ends fast.

Dear all:

I will be on compulsory military service from the 20th of August -31st of August for the Republic of Singapore.

You see, (to my American & foreign mates) this is compulsory service for every male Singapore citizen. Like it or not you have to do it.

Therefore there may a blog posting lag during this period. Occasionally i may be allowed to return home or to go out for a short period of time, before scurrying back to camp.

Therefore if you do see a blog post between the period of 20th August -31st August, I managed to re-appear in the civilian world. Somehow.

Many of my fellow countrymen complain about the 2.5 years of military service and subsequent yearly callups.  I will not get political here because i know big brother is watching closely…but i have a message to those who, like me, yearn for freedom:

Where you are right now, endure. Be strong.  I managed to survive 2.5 years of military service because i had a vision.

I saw myself in Sydney, Australia. I saw myself living in a nice suburb house, owning my own business.

I saw myself going to church in hillsongs, coming back with a smile on my face.

I saw myself enjoying winter, spring, summer and autumn with my family.

I saw myself never having to struggle with high inflation rates, cramped living conditions, and I saw my future generations free. Free in a country where they will never be told where to go, what to study, or what occupation to take up.

I have not given up the vision of being an Aussie. To my mates down under, I see myself drinking Victoria Bitter, watching aussie rules and munching Fish & chips with my left hand.

I see myself driving a Holden Monaro.

I have not given up on my dream. Neither should you.

This is amazing. For the 1st time, a Hyundai model actually made it to my news page! Haha!

Alright, kimchi jokes aside, it looks like Hyundai has finally made it. Announcing the arrival of the 2008 Hyundai Genesis V8: A 4.8l DOHC V8 engine, 300 over bhp monster on rear wheel drive (Drifters, take note). Has Hyundai finally found the key to making the big boys quiver in their boots?

I don’t think so. Lets take a look at the design.

Do you see ’Lexus GS300′ and ’mazda 6′ stirred, shaked and melted in together? So much for design originality. What you have to give credit to Hyundai though, is for the specs that accompany this beast.

Yes, the V8 engine. It’s called the Tau, and it’s a 4.6-liter V8 engine mated to a ZF 6-speed automatic transmission with SHIFTRONIC® manual control and a limited-slip differential. Just for light reading, ‘Tau’ in chinese means soy bean.

With the soy bean engine (uh oh, here i go) comes Electronic Stability Control (ESC) with traction control, eight airbags and active headrests. 8 Airbags. Hmmm….good idea for bumper cars of the future.

The Rear wheel drive system comes with Limited Slip Differential (LSD), which distributes torque to the wheels evenly & makes oversteer easy to manage.

Other gadgets that Hyundai threw in include:

• High Intensity Discharge (HID) headlamps with adaptive leveling
• Push-button start
• Navigation with backup camera
• Electric parking brake
• Bluetooth technology USB / Auxiliary input jack
• HD Radio Receiver
• XM Satellite Radio
• Infinity Discrete Surround Audio System

Not bad at all. Hyundai is heading straight for the throat of Lexus, Audi and BMW. Should they have reason to sweat?

Although it is a very good attempt by the Korean giant to strangle the above mentioned competitors, branding is still key to pushing the sales.  People still have a funny perception that made in Korea = junk (Not really, except for Daewoo).

But Hyundai has a lot to do on the branding side. And for goodness sake, name the engine with a really stylish name like HRS or something, not ‘Tau’!

So you want to make your ricemobile look fierce with a spoiler or GT-wing. You think, well, it’s just an ornament, right?

*BEEEEEEP* Wrong! There is a principle behind how spoilers work. It’s quite simple ( except for the brainless Asian riceboys aka ‘ah bengs’ who mod their rides because it looks ’stylo’)

Spoilers are generally used by sports cars to maintain balance when traveling at great speed. Spoilers are not, however made for sports cars only. Basically, a spoiler is an aerodynamic device optionally attached to a vehicle that is designed to literally ‘spoil’ air movement across the body of a moving vehicle.

As a result, the vehicle will have grounded stability by decreasing the lift and decreasing drag caused by accelerating at high speeds. The main purpose of the spoiler is to break the air flow going over the car’s body & reducing the amount of lift generated naturally by the shape of the car. The result? An increased amount of force pushing between the tires to the road surface that provides greater traction. The increased traction enables the moving vehicle to effectively turn, brake, and accelerate with excellent stability and control.

There are a few makes of spoilers in the market depending on vehicle type. One popular type of spoiler is the GT wing. Usually, wing spoilers are firmly mounted at the rear of a vehicle. The purpose of the wing spoiler is to create down force that provides the car an increased stability when accelerating at high speeds. Ridiculously, there are GT wings mounted on underpowered vehicles in my area, such as the Nissan Sentra 1.6 family sedan (the owner must have been on marijuana when he installed it). Other spoiler types include rear spoilers (the most common, seen them even on half-f*** Chevy Aveos) as well as tailgate spoilers (for UTES and pickups).

Spoilers are commonplace nowadays because it provides a unique and aggressive look to a ho-hum vehicle. Sadly, most vehicles spruced up with spoilers in reality do not even have enough torque to save their owner’s lives.

I know i’m gonna get screwed by some riceboys out there but i don’t care. In fact, i want everyone’s comments. Guys, lemme hear what you have to say: Are the people installing spoilers & GT wings posers or does it add function to the vehicle?

People think Ford vehicles are either family cars or sports car wannabes (think Ford Focus ST170).

Well after the Transformers movie in 2007, most non-US people must be wondering, what the heck was that model used as a police car in the movie? Let me introduce you to the Ford Mustang Saleen 281 Extreme.

Ok a bit of history lesson. Saleen and Ford go a long way back. Saleen had always tuned performance vehicles for ford, and in recent years, they have become somewhat of the principal tuner for Ford, e.g Mugen for Honda, Nismo for Nissan and TRD for Toyota.

Ford Mustangs go a long way back too, in the heart of American popular culture and hollywood movies. But faced with competition in recent years from European and Japanese performance makes, they had to come up with a true muscle car with appealing styling.

The Saleen Mustang seems to have suited the bill (Well, it was chosen for Transformers). The current Saleen extreme runs on a 4.6L, 3V, SOHC V-8 engine which churns out 550 bhp @ 6100 rpm worth of power.

Note that this engine is about to be phased out as we speak with a 600bhp @ 6100 rpm engine chassis known as the 302. There are 2 other variants, 3-valve & supercharged, but of course with lesser torque than the 281 E model.

This monster of a vehicle costs over $70,000 in North America. I’m about to say something really cheesy: It’s a fantastic vehicle. It’s MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE.

The Mugen Civic S.I for the US market is going to debut. By right, I should feel sorry for the Asian region, we do not have this uniquely tuned, exclusive VTEC machine.

WRONG!

After studying the specs of the Mugen Civic, i was shocked to realise it is actually a below par version of the type R available in South east Asia! In fact, even the VTEC engine type used in the Mugen version is weaker than the type R! Ok follow me now, wipe up your tears you VTEC nuts, and read on…

What mugen has done to an ordinary 2.0 Civic is simply this:

1)It has tuned its suspension, tested in Japan, and the vehicle is lowered by 0.6 inches with aggressive spring and damper tuning for enhanced handling performance.

2)It has thrown in Lightweight 16.98-pound 18×7.5-inch forged aluminum wheels and high-grip BFGoodrich® g-Force KDW 215/40ZR18 summer tires for those idiots who want to play ‘gum tape death match‘

3)Other stuff include a front spoiler with a sports grille, side spoilers, a rear bumper diffuser and rear wing. Oh, the mugen power shift knob for a more sporty feel.

And…erm….the engine should be powerful right? After all it’s 197 bhp @ 7800 rpm.

Lets go to the Civic type R (JDM FD2). Lets see, the engine torque is 222 bhp @ 8000 rpm. Hmmm. Sounds good. 17-inch disk brake with Brembo 4-pot aluminum front calipers? Check. Special lightweight 18-inch aluminum wheels? Check. Drive-By-Wire (DBW) technology for finer tuning of throttle response and power output? Check!

Everything else, e.g bucket seats,  sports pedals, rear wing is a given. Yes, it may cost $100,000 in Singapore, but take away all the heavy taxes and the price range should around $30,000 if it makes it to the USA. And the Mugen Civic is supposedly retailed at $30,000 in US!

My North American friends, my advice: Save the cash, forget the Mugen Civic. You’re better off with a Scooby (WRX) or an EVO IX. Unless you can import the Civic FD2 to US, this Mugen power really has no power appeal at all.

 

A petrolhead asked me on sunday if his Mercedes Vito turbo diesel van could be customed with a Blow Off Valve (BOV). He was really, really excited.

I burst his bubble with a simple ‘NO.’ Of course being a nice guy i explained why. And because i’m a nice guy, i’m explaining it in this post here as well.

You don’t need a BOV for a Turbo Diesel, unless you are running huge amounts of boost. The way a diesel turbo and a petrol turbo engine work are very different. It’s like saying Cantonese cooking & Sichuan cooking taste the same.

Okay, this is how diesels run:

Air is drawn into the cylinders and is compressed by the pistons at compression ratios around 18:1, much higher than those spark-ignited (petrol) engines. Near the end of the compression stroke, diesel fuel is injected into the combustion chamber through an injector (or atomizer).

The fuel ignites from contact with the air that, due to compression, has been heated to a temperature of about 700–900 °C (1300–1650 °F). The resulting combustion causes increased heat and expansion in the cylinder which increases pressure and moves the piston downward.

The vehicle needs all the air that it’s turbo can supply. It essentially compresses air in the cylinders, so no combustion occurs until the diesel is introduced.

Having a BOV will make the compressor work a lot harder to build the pressure. There is a loss in performance when the gears are shifted. After the 2nd & 3rd gear, you may find yourself losing even to a Kia Picanto.

Diesel engines do not have throttle plates to control engine speed (unlike a gasoline/petrol engine which has a butterfly valve within the throttle mechanism). Engine speed is controlled by regulating the quantity of fuel injected into the cylinder during the power stroke, regardless whether by indirect injection or common rail injection.

Truth is, any modification that raises the amount of fuel and air put through a diesel engine will increase its operating temperature, which will shorten its life and increase its service interval requirements.

Most modern diesel engines have their fuel injection rates electronically controlled, so their torque is more or less equal, if not better, than petrol/gasoline driven cars.

Well, my good friend still wanted to hear the ‘PSSSST’ of the BOV. Talk about Audio porn for a petrolhead. The solution is here, at Saber. I’m not gonna write about it because it’s a dump valve simulator and it’s pretty self explanatory.