Very busy on my job recently which cause me almost abandon my blog, haaa :) But now at least im back !!!

Just found a amazing news from Top Gear, A rebuild 1925 Bugatti which was winched from lake Maggiore.

The story is like this,

Forgotten Bugatti

Once upon a time, a Zurich architect brought this car over the border of France without paying import duites. So when customs officers caught him up in 1937, demanding more in taxes than the Bug was worth, he destroyed the car by tipping it into Lake Moggiore which he attached a heavy chain so that he could drag it back out once the taxmen had gone (Very impressive).

Unfortunately the chain rusted away and cause the car sank 53m below the surface. It lay forgotten until last summer the car was winched from the lake and put up for auction by Bonhams with a price of 70,000GBP.

Now, this is what i call a great investment. I smell a lots of fishy...But luckily its for charity fund raising.

Bad news for crabs

Warm Up Your Engine Before You Regret

It's normal for people to start the engine in the morning and drive it away without any hesitation. But do you know that the engine will get hurt without any warm up.

Even our human needs to warm up before start to run, so do engine. The best time for warming the engine should be 2 to 5 mins before you shift the gear and drive.

There are many critical parts in engine which will make sure your car run smooth after warm up. Piston and cylinder wall gaps, camshaft and head gaps, crankshaft, they need some heat to gain some clearances.

Engine oil also needs its operating temperature before it performs well, this might be a couple kilometer i think. Before engine start up, most of the engine oil will return back to the bottom container aka crankage. Which means turning parts like camsahft, connecting rod are not well lubricating. So imagine what will happen if you start your engine and just press the pedal, ouch it hurts me !!! The engine operating temperature will help us to make sure the engine performs well and some said that it can save your fuel.

As a conclussion, there are no bads in warm up the engine. So next time start your engine, wait for 2 mins and engine problems will get away.

Superleggera !!!

Same peak power with Ferrari 458 Italia, introducing Lamborghini Gallardo "Superleggera" which means super light in Italian. The car is 40kg less and allowing Lambo to claim the first bragging rights.

 A total of 70kg had been reduce from the previous version of Gallardo. The parts are mainly of seats, transmission tunnel , spoiler, diffuser, sills and underbody panelling are all carbonfibre, while the rear and side screens are all plastic. Quite impressive !!!

Here're some technical details:

Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera LP570-4

Price : £175000

Top speed : 325km/h

0-100km/h : 3.4 secs

Economy : 7.4km/L

CO2 : 319g/km

Kerb weight : 1340kg

Engine : V10, 5204cc

Installation : Mid, longitudinal, 4WD

Power : 562bhp at 8000 rpm

Torque : 540Nm at 6500 rpm

Gearbox : 6 speed robotised manual

Fuel Tank : 90 Litres

Wheel tyres : 19 inches, 235/35 ZR19 (f), 295/30 ZR19 (r)

This monster is extremely rapid in speed which the e-gear box had improved compare with its previous version. The car is also equiped with better brakes but still ceramics are optional but the pedal had improved and the ABS activation point is late enough to get the most from the tyres.So it's not a racing car, but as a serious road-going supercar, even this slimmed-down Gallardo has a practicality that eludes just about anything else and the lost pounds pay dividends in handling and performance.

With a hefty price premium, this is surely one of ours dream's only car. Lastly i attached some photo here where i search around websites and hope to poison you all :)

Others than National Car

Imagine that you already boring or fed up driving along with your national car and want to buy a more comfort car than Proton. VIOS and CITY suits you, but how to differentiate them? Here’s some useful recommendation for a budget driver before purchasing.

Toyota VIOS, a famous sedan car for Malaysian which is the best choice for those who want a car other than Proton. The VIOS range from four models starting with 1.5J followed by the 1.5E and 1.5G with an interesting price of RM70K – RM90K. Here’s its details and spec

TOYOTA VIOS (1.5) AUTO

RM 88,325.00

Vios 1.5S Model 1NZ-FE

Type In-line 4-Cylinder, DOHC, 16-Valve, VVT-i

Displacement cc 1,497

Bore & Stroke mm 75.0 x 84.7

Compression Ratio 10.5 : 1

Max. Output SAE-NET 80kW (109PS) / 6,000 rpm

Max. Torque SAE-NET 141Nm (14.4kg-m) / 4,200 rpm

Type 4-Speed Automatic with Super ECT, Gate Shifter.

Honda CITY, a high technologies car with affordable market price range from RM70K – RM 90K which is a perfect sedan car for most of the people in the city. The basic information of Honda CITY (Grade E) is as follow,

HONDA CITY (GRADE E)

RM89,980.00

Engine: Inline-4, 16V, SOHC i-VTEC, PGM-FI 1,497cc

Fuel Supply System PGM-FI (Programmed Fuel Injection)

Bore & Stroke (mm) 73.0 X 89.4

Displacement (cc) 1,497

Compression Ratio 10.4:1

Max power: 118hp@6,600rpm (88kw)

Max torque: 145Nm@4,800rpm

Drive-by-Wire (DBW) •

Transmission Type 5-Speed Automatic with Shift Hold Control

Gear Type Rack & Pinion with Electric Power Assist (EPS)

Overall Ratio 15.89

Turning Radius (m) 5.0

Safety features: ABS, EBD, BA, dual front airbags, G-CON body

The others details information such as dimension, interior or accessories you can search it easily at web.

So, let us start now. I would like to remind you that I can’t say which one is perfect but this is base on a budget driver who just needs a comfort car and willing to pay a bit higher price than Proton.

Engine horsepower & torque

VIOS and CITY are the same which is 1.5 with a horsepower and torque of 80kw/141nm and 88kw/145nm respectively. You can’t feel the difference among them so I suggest you all ignore this.

Engine fueling system (VVT-i & i-VTEC)

VVT-i will be better because the fuel consumption is low than i-VTEC, who care about the engine power. The more power an engine the more fuel consumption, this is the theory.

Gear box

The problem here is the maintenance, who want a huge price for servicing or replacing the gear box can proceed to buy CITY. The price for a gearbox like CITY roughly is about RM20k, this is funny. I mean who want to save RM200 per month for at least 8 year and then pay for the gear box (If you are lucky enough to drive with it so long). At least VIOS gear box is far more cheaper than CITY.

Interior

Ya, I had to agree that CITY is more comfort than VIOS. Its back seat is more wider than VIOS. Inside VIOS, let say the driver leg is long enough and he pull the seat to the back, I guess it’s only for kids at the back, CITY perform well in this situation.

Safety features / Accessories
They all are just about the same, you can add on aftermarket accessories on it. Stuff like airbags, ABS, EBD, BA and etc are standard features.

Conclusions
I would suggest a budget driver choose VIOS instead of CITY, although some of you can get a lower price/discount price for a more high technologies CITY, but you must think further about the maintenance’s expenses in the future. Again, I can’t say which one better and perfect, the final decision is still base on driver himself.

Fluids Inside Your Car

Do you know how many types of fluid exist in your vehicle? Make sure you dont mix the fluid as they have their own working function. The most headache for mechanic is oil leakage cases, as they are not easy to track.

The first thing you should care is the engine oil which is really important. I know nowdays there are plenty types of engine oil on the market. Somes engine oil even  is half price compare with the others but the truth is how much you are willing to pay equal to how much you will get. Never buy cheap oil as it will hurt your engine day by day. This is also apply with auto transmission oil and manual gear oil.

Brake fluid - Standard car with factory settings are equiped by grade DOT 3 brake fluid. Normally you should change replace your brake fluid at least every year. Boiling point for DOT 3 fluid is about 205°C, while DOT 4 is 230°C and DOT 5 is 260°C which means you should choose higher boiling point fluid because brake fluid itself will vaporize during high temperature when you hit the brake pedal at high speed.

Others fluids like radiator water/coolant, power steering oil and clutch pump oil, just make sure they are enough. Normally they wont drop too much if it isn't then you should check for leaking at somewhere else.

You can discover the leakage at your car's parking slot with some dirty oil at the floor.

Gasoline - A fluid which you will always contact with and is danger when you are not handling it properly. Normally it is hard to find out where will the gasoline leaks because it will vaporize away quickly. But you can sense it while you are in the middle of driving by a hard gasoline smells inside your car or you can smell it when you are just about 5m away from your car. Check the gasoline rubber hose from the entrance of filling to the tank. I strongly suggest you send you car to the expert as this is dangerous and flammable.