“Chief, esok Ahad 10am Klawang Ride. Pastu ke rumah mertua Aril pekena Sup Gearbox LSD Full Lock. Pls confirm number of person joining as Aril needs a headcount. Happy Wilayah Day…”

I received the above SMS from Botak on Saturday night; a day after my new ride came into my possession. I was itching to try the car out to see if there’s any underlying problems that may give me headaches in the future, and I was not really disappointed, unfortunately.

I met Botak at 9am at his house and we met the rest of the equally crazy drivers at Bukit Hantu towards Kuala Klawang.

After a few short hellos, we took off for a full touge session of Kuala Kelawang. I came because I wanted to see the car’s performance and to check whether the handling is all right, not to really ‘layan’ so to speak. Well, I was not disappointed as my temperature went up fifteen minutes into the drive, as the previous owner did not change the radiator to accommodate the 1.8 4G93 engine, which requires more cooling power.

The single core radiator was struggling to keep engine cooled and I was forced to slow down to a crawl, often staying behind lorries or other slower vehicles for a while to let the engine cool down. The automatic transmission helped with the heating up as well.

As for the rest of the cars it was a smooth sailing as Ariel’s EVo 3 lead the rest followed by Oreedo’s four throttle Corolla and the yellow Starlet (sorry bro.. I keep forgetting your name… my bad!) picking up speed and managed to get Botak and the rest struggling to keep up with ‘em.

As for me, it was not entirely in vain, as a P-sticker grey Myvi and a Honda Jazz kept me entertained at the back, and I learnt that the car’s handling is perfect.

The ‘Sup LSD Gearbox’ turned out to be ‘Sup Tulang’, mainly because the ‘Gearboxes’ were sold out at the nearby market. We didn’t get to enjoy the renowned ‘LSD’, but the ‘Sup Tulang’ was out of this world. Add that with cold watermelon, ‘langsat’, rice, mee and mee hoon and also orange juice to quench the thirst.

We finished everything, all because Ariel said if we didn’t finish it, the whole house will have only ‘Sup Tulang’ for the next three days. Even if he didn’t say it, we’d still be licking up the plates anyway. It was that good.

We cleaned up the table a little bit, and started our engine for the journey back. We didn’t touge anymore, as everyone didn’t want the food to bounce around in our stomach and exit the way it came in.

It rained on the way back, and Botak had it worst as his aircond stopped functioning again and his windows were stucked halfway up.

Lesson learnt then. I need better radiator, and a friend told me he has a 1.8 LSD gearbox for sale… now.. now.. that’s really tempting aye?

text: Al-mu Syahrisyawal Ahmad pix: Hage’, Al-mu Syahrisyawal Ahmad