Project Hagane

Here it is, I have finally got my own set of wheels and thus have just started a build project. I decided to call her Hagane (pronounced Ha-ga-neh), mostly due to her colour. For those of you who don't know about the language of the Rising Sun, it means “Metal” in Japanese.

The Toyota Vios is a subcompact sedan made for the South East Asia, China and Taiwan markets, introduced in 2003 as a replacement of the Tercel. It stands beneath the Corolla in the Toyota family hierarchy, and sits on equal grounds as the Yaris, offering a sedan option for those who do not like the little hatch, or just want a small car with a boot.

Hagane is a 2006 model; a first generation face-lifted, and is powered by a 1.5 litre In-line 4 DOHC VVT-i, 16 valve 1NZ-FE producing 110bhp and 141Nm of torque, mated to a 5-speed manual transmission. It is not a sports car, but it does the 0-100km/h and also has a top speed.

I will now take you for a stroll around Hagane, and point out a few immediate and long-term modification plans.

First of all, seen from the outside, she is a respectably well maintained car, and other than a few distasteful stickers that the previous owner had stuck here and there in an attempt to attract members of the opposite (I hope) gender, such as a Hello Kitty on the gas trap and some small yellow go-go dancers on the rear fender that were probably sourced at the bottom of a box of cereal, the car looks, body-wise, stock. You will not get to see the amazing sticker job as I made sure that the dealer would remove them before I picked up the car.

As you can see, this Vios is also equipped with very cool grandpa-style wind deflectors, which will be ripped off very soon. Window-tinting is very common here in Singapore, as it helps protecting from the sun, thus keeps the interior temperature lower and saves on the air-conditioner, but honestly, who puts a dark purple film on their car? This is yet another line in my To-Do list, and it will soon be changed to a proper dark black tinting.

Hagane currently sits high enough for me to smuggle illegal immigrants under each wheel-well, so this will be addressed in due time with something that hugs the road properly, and that gets the wheels filling the wells properly. The rims have been changed, and will be changed again as soon as I find what I am looking for.

Inside, everything is quite close to stock and was well thankfully well maintained by the previous owner, with the only hint of the car’s age being a small tear on the driver’s seat, probably caused by in and outs. The car is mechanically sound and gives a good drive, the only flaw being the dashboard. I wonder who was in charge of designing the dashboard, but I sincerely wonder which planet he came from. I think the only way I can share what I feel is by showing you – this is what I see when I drive.

Anything missing? 

Yeah. No dials. If you want to see them, they are in the centre of the dash, very much out of the way of the eyes. Is that smart or what? The first time I sat at the wheel, I immediately started my To-Do list with a set of gauges, which will find their way behind the wheel, where they should be, stay tuned for more on that.

Oh, and check out the radio; it's a CD player! And it can load... One CD at a time! Amazing! It doesn't have any auxiliary in at all, so I cannot plug in my iPod, which means that I had to rediscover how those flat circles work and am now limited to 17 songs at a time. What a change, I really need to upgrade that!

Last but not least, Hagane is equipped with some aftermarket blue LEDs under each door to make the ground look like an alien world every time I step in or out of the car. Tacky. That is scheduled to go. And when I thought I was done with the little gifts left behind by the previous owner, I was once again surprised. I was innocently driving, when I went in a tunnel; as a normal driver, I turn on the headlights and then... WOOOOAAAHHH! Blue light filled the foot wells like in some super duper 21st century sci-fi-like show.  Ultra tacky. Blue LEDs bumped up to the top of the “To Remove” list.                                                        

Well, that will be all for today, you now know all about my Hagane, and I’ll invite you to stay tuned on Gordini’s Pit Stop to follow the build of what is set to become my gymkhana/ autocross partner, and maybe even track toy in due time. Just bear in mind that this is still my daily drive, meaning that it will remain street legal and still cater to some (relative) comfort, and be build on a budget.

Volvo Owner’s Club Singapore Desaru Breakfast Drive

On Sunday 10^th June, the first stroke of sun rays broke in the horizon to find a conspicuous group of cars as they assembled at the petrol station after the Tuas Checkpoint. Those 20 cars and their owners have not assembled there by sheer luck or coincidence: as heralded proudly by their cars, they are all members of the Volvo Owner's Club Singapore (VOCSG), and the reason they gathered on this fateful morning was to have breakfast in a change of scenery. 

Desaru Malaysia was deemed as a nice place to go to, garnered with the sheer motivation behind the breakfast was the splendid drive to the resort itself.

At 7:15am, all members were gathered and the convoy comprising of Volvos ranging from the C70 convertible to the mighty XC90 SUV and a fleet of S40, S60 and S80 hit the highway, accompanied by more friends driving cars from other makes. I quickly jumped into the silver C70 driven by Alex Hong, and with the top down, we lined up in the convoy heading to Desaru.

The well organised convoy leaders and sweepers, co-ordinated by walkie-talkies, ensured no one was left behind during the whole drive, and everybody was able to enjoy the road and scenery without fear of any incident. Driving at the break of dusk was the perfect combination for low traffic and reasonable temperatures that allowed the engines to suffer less from the sun’s heat, gas conservation by not overloading the cars' air-conditioning systems, but also allowed me and Alex to enjoy the fresh, cool morning air of the uncluttered Malaysian roads as we cruised from East to West in the only convertible car of the convoy.

One of the highlights of the drive was a magnificent new road that the group coveted to experience, which might have been, in my opinion, the main motivation behind the whole episode, was the new E22 highway to Desaru.

The two-lane wide expressway was made readily for a faster ride, although some of the drivers commented that when experienced through stiffer aftermarket suspensions, the E22 was a bit too bumpy to be properly enjoyed.

About an hour after leaving the meet-up point, the bridge that crosses the Sungai Papan was in sight and all drivers began to decelerate to enjoy the breath-taking view of that magnificent sky-scaping suspended bridge that added life to the scenery before their very eyes.

A quick quarter of an hour later, the convoy reached the Pulai Desaru Beach Resort and its sumptuous buffet breakfast with a scenic view on the sea.

There, the members of the VOCSG indulged in an International-cuisine Breakfast, relaxed and exchanged stories about their love for cars and each other’s valuable life experiences.

Once everybody had their blissful and filling breakfast, the group of non-Volvo owners headed off first, leaving all 20 Volvos and their owners through an exercise of being described as “car-contortionism” to fit all the cars in the minute car-park space available in the hotel vicinity for the group photo. The vehicles were slotted in place, and, after the moment was immortalized, all got behind the wheel of their Swedish rides, all set to head west back to the small, sunny island of Singapore.

A few grey clouds threatened to ruin our top-down ride, but the sun seemed to have taken a liking to the Volvo convoy and made sure the trip back was basking in its golden light.

Once again, the bridge over the Sungai Papan carried the cars across the river and then waved a last goodbye to the Volvo Owner’s Club as it disappeared into the horizon, leaving the Swedish rides raving over the open roads and taking the E22 again, the opposite way this time.

There was a clear difference between the way to and the way back from Desaru as the drivers, now fully awake and satiated, let their Volvos stretch their strong legs on the still empty roads. This allowed me to experience not only the stability of Volvos at high speeds, but also the power that lurks under the hood of these modest-looking cars. 

Even when riding with the top down, the C70 was shielding us so well from high-speed winds that me and Alex could have a conversation without screaming at the top of our voice to hear each other.

Without me even realising it, the Volvos ate the kilometres back to Singapore with a bigger appetite than their owners preyed on the breakfast buffet earlier, and within a bit over an hour, the group was stopping at the last petrol station before the Tuas checkpoint for one last fuel stop, before parting ways to reach home in time for lunch.

Shifting in 9th Gear

Dear friends and readers,

I believe this is the first time I am writing something that doesn't directly concern cars, but Gordini's Pit Stop is going to undergo some changes.

After six months of hard but oh-so-enjoyable work bringing this blog to life, my skills have caught the attention of a car magazine, and I am now moving to be the Assistant Editor of 9tro and BLACK magazine.

Fear not though, even if most of my write ups will be published in print, I will still find time and events to fuel these pages, although at a lower rate.

I also wanted to thank all of you that I know and that I don't know for your support during all these months, and I will now move up in the Automotive Media World to continue bringing you the best I can about our common passion.

See you soon in print!

Ben

Mid-May Mini Meetup with M Commodities

The mid-may Mini meetup was somewhat different from the usual car meetup as this time M Commodities decided to step in the organization of the gathering and treat the Mini Club of Singapore with a special dinner at the Seafood International Market & Restaurant at East Coast to kick off the beginning of the import of a new range of exhausts.

M Commodities is a company catering for aftermarket needs of conti brands, but with a special dedication to Mini, as it is one of the main provider for Original Factory Mini and JCW parts in Singapore and Malaysia

With they own dedicated zone in the carpark in front of the restaurant, a selection of 14 Minis made it down, bringing together people from all walk of life whose definition of a good car includes fun, go-kart handling and pocket size. The colorful gathering featured all types of modifications, from sane, stock Coopers to insanely but tastefully enhanced pocket monsters, and all the degrees of dementia in-between.

When the stomachs began to rumble as loud as modified exhausts, the small crowd was ushered to the Seafood International M&R's specially reserved dining room, where everybody enjoyed a tasty seafood dinner, during which M Commodities revealed the reason behind their sponsorship of this meetup. 

M Commodities is now bringing in Innotech Performance Exhausts. These aftermarket exhausts can be fitted on a wide range of continental cars including, of course, Mini, but also Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Lamborghini and more European supercars (with an exception made for the GTR R35), have two very specific features that make them all the more interesting: the first is the F1 Valvetronic system, a remote activated bypass valve which helps freeing more power (power gains backed up by dyno testing) by allowing the exhaust gases to take a shorter way out of the piping, which leads to the second feature: a high-pitched exhaust note reminding of the F1 cars scream. These exhausts come in stainless steel or titanium and their design architecture is such that you could hang one in your living room as a decorative element, although that would be a total waste as it would be much better to keep it under your car, where its form meets its function. Then again, that's just my humble opinion.

For those of you who legality is an issue, M Commodities is has currently submitted the Innotech exhausts for LTA approval, so don’t hesitate and check out M Commodities for your high-pitch exhaust fix, MINI goodies and more!

Enjoy the gallery!