New Suspension: Tein HA Driving Master

How I dreamed for this day to come, the day I could change the aging suspension of my beloved corolla. I´ve been building this car for a good several years now. Changing bits and pieces here and there. Modifying stuff, upgrading, or just getting oem stuff from a higher trim model. Now, I got hold of Partially threaded coilovers from Tein.

Here is my old springs (Tanabe Sustec Super H):

And my old shocks (Tokico - gas type):

To this:

The set I got has front camber plates installed, wish it had rear camber plates too so I just used an old method for adjust camber without grinding. These are partially threaded so the lower I go the less stroke I get, meaning bottoming of the shocks. Also, a nice thing with this set is it´s 16-way adjustable (although I counted 23 or was it 24) for damping. The springs are rated at 7kg/mm for the front and 5kg/mm at the rear.

When I first installed these babies I felt adventurous and placed damping at 8 clicks from hard at the front and 12 at the back. The car could turn, but.... It also bounced!! And the wife didn´t find it the least bit amusing so after a few more trials and errors I settled on the softest setting. Even though it is still hard compared to your average lowering springs, it was a compromise. Although there are a few shakes and rattles that came out, i´m now in the process of eliminating those rattling sounds. I guess it came mainly from the stiffer suspension so something else has to give. Well, the money spent is well worth it. Until a fully threaded coilover crosses my path i´ll stick with these.

Review: The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

*may contain spoilers

Well, it´s the third installment of ¨The Mummy¨ series. This time they go to china where Alex, Rick and Evelyn O´Connells´ son, has uncovered the tomb of the first emperor of China known as the Dragon Emperor. One thing leads to another. A Mummy has been awakened, his army, then all hell breaks loose.

I noticed that Jet Li´s character, the dragon emperor, was unbelievably strong in all aspects. He could control the five elements (earth, water, fire, wood, metal). When he became immortal, he could shape shift into anything he wanted. Above this, he is a superb martial artist. Now, my question is how the heck did Rick (Branden Fraiser´s character) defeated Jet Li in a fist fight? Wherein the first part of the movie Jet Li defeated 3, count them three, trained assassins without breaking a sweat. They could have thought of somehow to bring him down to mortal status or disable some part of him to make it believable. Here, a mortal with above human strength defeats a superb martial artist? I guess that is Hollywood. Anythings possible.

*picture came from wikipedia

2nd Phil International Motorshow: Drive the Future

It was my first time to attend PIMS and to enter the World Trade Center. It was a new experience for me. The hall was huge and there was another hall exclusive for suppliers, retailers, and shops. The main hall displayed cars from different car makers like Audi, Porsche, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Kia, just to name a few.

Most of the car makers had a display of hybrid or a car that runs on alternative fuel. One of which that caught my attention is one of Kia´s small suv, the Kia Sportage. It runs not on fossil fuel but as I understand on HHO or 2 parts Hydrogen and 1 part Oxygen. I think the concept is it produces its own Hydrogen rather than filing it with Hydrogen like Honda´s FCX. It seems that Kia has already a prototype running. I would like to have a chance to drive one or any hybrid car for that matter just to experience the difference.

On the other not so eco-friendly side. The first thing that I saw at the PIMS is the oh-so-sexy Audi R8. A sexy piece of machine. I couldn´t even touch it for the bodyguard of the car was very protective not to get any scratches or smudges on the car. Must´ve been a tough few days because when I was there kids were touching it as if it were just another run of the mill mass produced car. What I would give just to take it out for a spin on a track. Of course I wouldn´t dream of owning one, the maintenance of that car would buy a small car (plus I couldn´t afford getting the R8 either let alone even a pedal).

Anyways, click the link for some of the pics I took at the show. No models though. Sorry.

Click Me For Pics

Rant: Philippine Jeepneys

The Philippine Jeepney, the so-called ¨King of the Road¨. These are I think the most used public transport here in the Philippines. They are cheap, everywhere and there is almost one that could take you to your destination. But!! Yes, there is an undeniable but. During the night, these damned things are disasters waiting to happen. Why you ask? Well, for starters, they don´t friggin turn their headlights on!? Is it so big a deal that they don´t turn it on? Will they cease to operate if their own? So what the hell´s the use of those damn headlights? Decoration? If had a lot of encounters where you could hardly see one of these on the road.

Another question is, why won´t the cops stop and arrest this insignificant good for nothing bastards? They are a threat to motorists during the night. They should give these sonuva-you-know-what fines plus I guess a few days in jail just to ingrain in their heads that they should friggin turn on those headlights during the night. I´m just so sick of this crap. I hope somebody from the PNP do something about this. Itś a simple issue that could cause serious injury. I hope someone from the PNP reads this.

¨King of the Road¨? Not anymore, more like hazards of the road if you ask me. On driving? That´s a whole new issue.

*pics courtesy of wikipedia

Tanabe High Performance Brake Pads

Of course with a new set of rubber the occasional "spirited" driving comes in to play. I noticed that my pads were not cutting it anymore. With inspection, lo and behold, the pads were almost gone. I called up Autotech to ask what pads they had in stock and Tanabe Pads for Street Use were available. Went to them the next day and had them installed.

After the bedding in period I tried hard braking and brake feel were over-all improved (comparing from Bosch pads). Brake dust was reduced a lot and squeaks from braking are almost gone. And the life of the pads compared to OEM (according to manufacturer) are almost the same.

I'm still looking forward to trying these on the track. I still some gremlins I can't find on the suspension but as soon as they're sorted out plus extra dough for a track day I'll see what these pads can do.

TOYO Proxes T1-R

My old and almost "racing slicks" Bridgestone GIII's had got to go. They don't grip the road as much because the threads are almost non-existent, the roads here are getting slippery because of occasional rains so the grip on the rain is much worse, i had the tires for the longest time and I guess it is time to say goodbye.

Enter my new Toyo's. I searched through car magazines both local and international for a new set of rubbers and Toyo keep poppin' up. I've used Toyo's before but the T1-s model. Since the stats of the T1-R are good plus it just manages to be in my budget, I got my self 4 (r15/55/195) new rubbers for my ride.

Initial use got me noticing the grip. It's enough for me to handle plus it became more predictable on the road. Cabin noise are reduced compared to my GIII's. I seem to notice that the sidewalls of the Toyo's are quite stiff contrary to what people tell me. Treadware is rated at 280 so these babies will last me a long time even if i take these to track days or the occasional autocross.

Overall this is the best balance for my budget and spirited driving itches.

PSP 2000: S-Video Cable

On neat feature on the PSP Slim is that you can output videos from your PSP to a tv, lcd, or hi-def tv set. I opted to get the s-video/av cable combo since i don't have those oh so sexy hi def lcd/plasma screens. The other reason is that i could hook this up to the AV head unit in my car. What's good about this is you could directly display through the tv or lcd what practically is being shown on your PSP like videos, settings, or audio equalizer. The con of this connector is you could display the game you would like to play or other applications you may have stored. The games/homebrews could only be displayed if your lcd tv is 1080p capable or you have one of those vid boxes that converts the signal to be displayed on regular tv sets or even pc monitors.

If you ask me, this connector suits me ust fine as I only hook my PSP to the head unit of my car to play some tunes and to my tv set at home to watch a few videos that are converted to be played on the PSP. As long as I don't have money to burn for a new 1080p lcd screen, i'm sticking with this one.