Super GT Race in Sepang

I think I am rather late in posting this. The event happen on Sunday, 22 June 2008. Well, one of my colleague had bought his ticket to attend the Japan Super GT at Sepang on Saturday and Sunday. He was accompanying his friends who were there to shoot the Race Queens of the Super GT and the Super GT cars too. He told me that that he would be going on Saturday and may not go on Sunday. I did not choose to join him because the cost of the ticket was rather high and I had an appointment to attend a clean-up exercise at Ulu Yam with my other colleagues.

On Sunday, I called him to check out whether he would be going for the Super GT and I was trying my luck just in case he do not want to go, I will take his ticket to see whether I can shot some photos of the Race Queens and the cars. Sadly, he told me that he enjoyed himself on Saturday and his friends had invited him to go to Sepang again on Sunday. He then told me me how exciting it was and I even saw some of the Race Queens photos he had posted in his Facebook.

I hesitated and changed my mind to go to Sepang for the photo shoot. I invited my son to join me and my daughter, Carrie over heard my invitation to his brother. She said that she would want to join me. Hearing that his sister will be going for the event, he changed his mind and also want to come along.

I grabbed by camera equipment bag and we were on our way to Sepang International F1 circuit to attend the Super GT. Nearing to the circuit there were many cars which were also heading the same way as I am. Parked the car and headed to the ticket counter.

Guess what? The cost of tickets was EXPENSIVE!! Ticket to the Grandstand cost RM150-00 each, luckily, Carrie brought along her student card and managed to get a discount on the cost of the ticket to RM75-00, another RM75 goes to the ticket for my son.

Then, the cost of the entrance to the Pit Walk where the Race Queens and the GT cars will be parked at the pit stops. That ticket will cost RM100-00 each. I thought of just buying one Pit Walk ticket while my son and daughter would wait for me at the Grandstand. Both of them were reluctant and wanted to go for the Pit Walk too. Wow.. there goes another RM300-00. Altogether, I have to foot out a total of RM500-00 for 3 Grandstand tickets and 3 Pit Walk tickets.

Off we go into the Grandstand where at the entrance was the Nissan stand. There were a few units of Nissan Fairlady and some GTRs. Nice, good looking and fast.. I LIKE IT!!

Then the time came to go down the tunnel from the Grandstand area to the pit stop. I was surprise and amazed by the number of people that have bought the Pit Walk ticket all carrying their cameras to shoot the cars and queens!!!

Once the gate of to the pit stop was opened, all of us (me and the rest of the people that are holding cameras) rushed to the pit stop where the Race Queens were there waiting to greet us. They were standing in front of the GT cars waving, smiling, posing, carrying their umbrella while all of us rushed to snap their photos. It was a mad, mad rush where I needed to pushed into other people sweating and smelly bodies to be able to get a nice angle to shoot the Race Queens. There were instances where I have even crawled my way under these people just to be as near and close to get nice shots of the Race Queens.

The result.. spectacular as you can see from the photos of the below.

After the Pit Walk session (which lasted for 40 minutes) we all have to get back to the Grandstand to get ready for the start of the feature races and the Super GT race. The first feature race was the Aston Martin race and the second was the Formula V6 (F1 wannabe cars).

Then at about 3.50 p.m. all the Race Queens were lead out on to the track and the GT cars were all fired up. The GT cars left the pit stop and took a warm-up lap around the circuit and came back to the Start/Finish line where the respective Race Queens were standing. Another round of photo session took place, this time it was called the Photo Safari (which cost another RM100), where the photographers are allowed to be on the track snapping away the cars and the Race Queens while they were "parked" on the track.

After, the Super GT race event started in a rolling start, there were so many cars which I could not count and I do not know who are the drivers and their teams. The engine sound was loud and ear piercing. Took some photos of the GT cars and I decided to go home since we did not have lunch at the circuit due to the exorbitant cost of food at the circuit. We left the circuit at about 4 p.m. where the race was scheduled to end at almost 7.00 p.m.

It has been an experience attending the race firstly because it has been the most expensive event that I have ever paid and secondly I was able to shot those Race Queens who if they did not come to Malaysia, I would have to go to Japan to have to chance to shoot them.

Here are the photos of the Race Queens that have the most number of views at my Flickr Photo Album:

Ferrari 430 Scuderia

The new Ferrari 430 Scuderia will be unveile at the Frankfurt Motor Show by none other than Micheal Schumacher. The new Ferrari is a 4308cc V8's 510 hp at 8500 rpm and has all the F1 software with a new traction control system.

Ferrari 430 Scuderia has the same 510-horsepower V8 engine as the 430 coupe and spider models.

Ferrari's latest, the 430 Scuderia.

New Ferrari 430 Scuderia will be presented by racing champion Michael Schumacher at the Frankfurt show in September.

Ferrari 430 Scuderia is a lightweight model, 220 pounds lighter than the standard F430 and intended for "passionate and sports-driving-oriented clients."

But the technology is intense, including Ferrari's Superfast F1 software that cuts gearshifts to 60 milliseconds.

The cost of the new 430 Scuderia will likely be in the USD200,000 range.

Ferrari 430 Scuderia is a minimalist version, with few interior "trimmings," says Ferrari.

Ferrari/Maserrati Showroom

There are many rich people in Shanghai. Why would I say that? By the cars they drive. I have seen many Audi A6, BMW 7 Series, Mercedes S-Class, Honda and Toyota on the street on Shanghai (especially in the financial district of Pudong).

They even have a showroom selling Ferrari and Maserrati which I discovered at Nanjing Road West.

No, this was not from the showroom. I shot this outside a plastic model shop.

Some interesting facts about Formula 1 Car

The Formula 1 season will start off with the Australian Grand Prix on 18 March 2007. This time around we would be seeing my hero Micheal Schumacher who has since retired gracefully from Formula 1 last year. In his place in Ferrari, we will have Felipe Massa and the iceman Kimi Raikkonnen.

Before we start on talking about the teams and the racers here are some interesting facts about Formula 1 car:

'F1' is not only just 'F1'

F1 car is made up of 80,000 components, if it were assembled 99.9% correctly; it would still start the race with 80 things wrong!

When an F1 driver hits the brakes on his car he experiences retardation or deceleration comparable to a regular car driving through a BRICK wall at 300kmph!!!


F1 car can go from 0 to 160 kph AND back to 0 in FOUR seconds!!!!!!!

F1 car engines last only for about 2 hours of racing mostly before blowing up on the other hand we expect our engines to last us for a decent 20yrs on an average and they quite faithfully DO....that's the extent to which the engines r pushed to perform...


An average F1 driver looses about 4kgs of weight after just one race due to the prolonged exposure to high G forces and temperatures for little over an hour (Yeah that's right!!!)

At 550kg a F1 car is less than half the weight of a Mini.


To give you an idea of just how important aerodynamic design and added down force can be, small planes can take off at slower speeds than F1 cars travel on the track.

Without aerodynamic down force, high-performance racing cars have sufficient power to produce wheel spin and loss of control at 160 kph. They usually race at over 300 kph.


In a street course race like the Monaco grand prix, the down force provides enough suction to lift manhole covers. Before the race all of the manhole covers on the streets have to be welded down to prevent this from happening!

The refuelers used in F1 can supply 12 liters of fuel per second. This means it would take just 4 seconds to fill the tank of an average 50 liter family car. They use the same refueling rigs used on US military helicopters today.


TOP F1 pit crews can refuel and change tyres in around 3 seconds. It took me 8 sec to read above point

During the race the tyres lose weight! Each tyre loses about 0.5 kg in weight due to wear.



Normal tyres last 60 000 - 100 000 km. Racing tyres are designed to last 90 - 120 km.

A dry-weather F1 tyre reaches peak operating performance (best grip) when tread temperature is between 900C and 1200C.(Water boils boils at 100C remember) At top speed, F1 tyres rotate 50 times a second.

And that's not Magic…. Its only the Power of Human Imagination…

2008 Acura NSX

Less than a month after I post the Honda Accord coupe Concept, now comes the 2008 Acura NXS with Advanced Sports Car Concept which was debuted at the 2007 North America Auto Show. For those who are not familiar with the name Acura, it the luxury arm of Honda where most of the cars are sold in the US (Just like Lexus which is also the luxury arm of Toyota).

It's still in the conceptual stage but its a sure knockout car with sleek lines and a very aerodynamic body. Feast yourself on the images and the video of the launch.

Honda Accord Coupe Concept

I have posted some futuristic pictures of the Honda Accord on 9 December 2006. Before I knew it, Honda unveiled it's Honda Coupe Concept at the Detroit Motor Show 2006. The Honda Accord Coupe Concept carries Honda’s new trapezoidal grille on it’s nose. This new grille style first appeared on the new Honda Stream, and then a variation of it appeared on the new 3rd generation Honda CR-V.






Being an ardent Honda fan and a proud owner of an Accord, the concept car looks very sleek and futuristic. I think I can now start to save enough money to buy it when the sedan model is officially launch which by then my current Account will be due for replacement.

Is this how the Honda Accord will look like in the future?

The Honda Sports 4 Concept is built on the Honda Accord platform. Here are some photos of the car. Could it be the design direction for the next Honda Accord?

A1 GP Malaysia

Hah, got a complimentary pass to go the A1 GP at Sepang courtesy of Johan (who? never mind some of you would know who he is).

Off I go to Sepang and reached there at 9.30 a.m., no many cars yet because the feature race only start at 3.00 p.m.. When I reached there, the Integra race was on the way. Took a few shoots of the cars.

The next race of was the A1 Sprint Race. It's a 20 minutes race where all the A1 cars would race based on their pole positions set on Saturday. Positions that are set during the Sprint race will determine the positions of the cars in the 70 minutes Feature race later in the afternoon.

The Sprint race started at 11.oo a.m.. Wow, the sound of the cars when they leave their grid position was so loud that it pierced through my ears. The car from Switzerland who was on pol position lead from start till the end of the race. While the Malaysian team , which started at 7th position improved its position to 4th place at the end of the race.

It was quite difficult to shoot the fast moving cars until the shots I taken during the Asian Festival Of Speed. I felt bored and would want to wait for the Feature race at 3.00 p.m.. I decided to go home instead and watch the race on TV if I wanted to.

Click here to link to my photo blog to see the photos (since my photos are blocked when being access) More picture to come later on.

The new Toyota Camry Vs the new face lift Honda Accord

WARNING: Toyota car owners or fans do not proceed to read this posting.

You would know that I am a Honda fan and writing a comparison between the Camry and the Accord would a very bias one. Still I would want to write about my opinion about the new Camry vs the Accord.

The Accord was face lifted on it's back side with new LED lights. Looks kind of a Mercedes. The change in the design was to suit the US market. Read more of the test drive and opinion of the new Honda Account from Paul Tan.

The Camry was just launched in Malaysia just less than 2 weeks ago. The car was fully "imported" from Thailand because it is not locally assembled like the other Toyota model. I managed to view the car at a nearly showroom. My comments on the car is as follows:

• The back looks like a BMW 7 series.

• The front grill looks like an Audit A4 or A6

• The centre console separating the driver and the passenger was hugh. I guess it is used to hide off the air condition duct and blower which caters for the rear passengers.

• The air condition comes with Plasmacluster, the same concept used in refrigerators to keep the food fresh. What are they trying to imply? The car is a fridge to the passengers or if you want t be fresh stay longer in the car while switching on the air condition.

• The gap between the front grill and the radiator and air condition grill was hugh with nothing covering it (The Accord has a cover over the gap to keep a good look of the engine compartment).

• The air intake to the carburetor/fuel injection unit was exposed right in front of the engine compartment/

• The price... huh.. the lower version which is the 2.0E was RM139K (OTR) while the 2.0G is RM149K (OTR). More expensive compared to the Accord.

Overall, the Camry did not impress me at all. The design and the pricing was not able to entice me to have a second look or consideration for a change of my car.

The Accord is still my favorite. (I was planning to post a photo of the new Camry here but after much consideration I decided not to).

See how bias I am to Honda compared to Toyota!!

P/S Follow this link to a nice Honda Accord Site Made in Thailand.

Honda Jazz Tetris Commercial