NA Brawler

Words & Snaps by Ben

The Honda Jazz, or Fit, as it is called in certain markets, is wildly popular for being an amazing grocery-getter. It's small and easy to park, fuel efficient, and zippy enough for everyday traffic, and has enough room to haul a small family.

Yet while most see a common econo-box, others see potential.

Laurent is one of the latter, and inspired by the potential showcased by Spoon Sports' Fit, he started his new quest for power with this Jazz GD1.

SMSA Carpark Rally

Words & snaps by Ben

The 8th of May marked a special milestone in the calendars of local motorsports: the revival of the Kallang Carpark Races.

The Kallang Carpark races were first installed in the 70's, picking up as the lead local motorsports, after the Formula One Racing left the Thomson Road Circuit for good.

The Carpark races were all the hype then, and many teams competed around the 250m long gymkhana-style tracks organised on Kallang's Sports Hub carpark.

While the revival race was not held at its historical Kallang location but at Changi's Aviation Park Road, the spirit was there, with 27 cars taking part.

POWAA Build Part IV - POWAA Garage X RZCREW Garage - The Finale!

Words & Snaps by Ben

If you've been following this thread, you'll know the parts we got (POWAA Build Part I), how we assembled the engine (Part II), and how we got the first results with a traditional intake design (Part II).

149hp and 166.7Nm of torque was fun, but we still had an ace up our sleeves to squeeze even more power out of the 1.5L mill of my Vios NCP42.

Death of a Phoenix

Words & Snaps by Ben

Every now and then I hear from the owners of cars I featured on POWAA Garage. It's always good to catch up and hear about their latest mods and new plans for their beloved rides. 

Except when they tell you their car is about to get chopped in half.

POWAA Build Part III - POWAA Garage X RZCrew Garage

Words & Snaps by Ben

We've been hard at work, as you would have read in the Part I and Part II of this high compression NA build for my Toyota Vios' 1NZ-FE. But the work wasn't over yet. 

Luckily, with JC from the RZ Crew providing the build with affordable original parts, but also helping me with the engineering needed to turn this engine into a monster, things went smooth and we were getting nearer to putting the car on the rollers.

The next steps of the build were to install the new engine head, optimise the intake and exhaust, bring some improvements on the drive train and tune the powerplant.

POWAA Build Part II - POWAA Garage X RZCrew Garage

Words & Snaps by Ben

If you've already read the Part I of this build, you would know that thanks to the RZ Crew Garage, I've kept the delivery guys busy hauling over parts for the build. (If you haven't read it yet, do so!)

With the parts in and the head back from port and polish, it was time to bring everything together. I was hoping for a smooth build, but those of you familiar with custom builds would know how eager Murphy always is to help. (Murphy's Law: "what can go wrong will go wrong").

CAR-ROUSEL - The Feel Good café

Words By Ben, Snaps by June and Ben

Passion is, to me, the best reason to live. It’s what gets me up in the morning and gives me the strength to deal with life’s issues. it is what drives me and what powers POWAA Garage.

Ever since I started this site, I’ve had a clear vision of what I wanted it to be: an avenue to share my passion, and the stories of the people who share that same drive in heir lives.

Aside from tinkering and racing my own car, finding the story behind other motorheads’ builds energises me. When I find a car with a story of passion, I can’t help but want to immortalise it in pictures and share it on this blog.

Recently, I found this passion in something entirely different: a café. A car café, to be more precise, which why it makes sense for me to share it with you, reader.

POWAA Build Part I - POWAA Garage X RZCrew Garage

Words and snaps by Ben

Ever since I started POWAA Garage back in 2012, I’ve been writing about other people’s stories. This one is special. This is the story of me and Hagane, my 2006 Toyota Vios NCP42.

While the full story of the build will be for another time, I am just going to focus on the latest happenings, which had me jumping around all over the place for about two months now.

Second Best

Words and Snaps by Ben

Initial D is one of the foundations of many motorheads out there. At some point, we all rooted for Takumi and his understated AE86 to win, and he never failed to disappoint. And then as he made friends, so did we, and we learnt to love more and more iconic Japanese cars.

Most got to follow the main heroes as icons of our passion, yet some were moved by the other characters, the supporting roles that trade the lack of genius with other skills to get by.

In Joseph's case, it was Itsuki, Takumi's best friend and the comic relief of the series that caught his heart. Itsuki bought a Corolla in the hopes of following Takumi and his AE86's footsteps, but ended up being laughed at for buying an AE85 Levin, the downtuned, SOHC version of the Corolla.

Nevertheless, Itsuki never faltered. He decided to hold on to his AE85 and hone his driving skills after Takumi showed him that the driver skills can make any car fast. Later in the show, he turbocharged his Levin, and although he knew he'd never be as good as Takumi, he never gave up on his dream to be the second best.

This determination and passion to forge on with a lesser car struck a chord in Joseph's heart. Since he was not able to get an AE86 here in Singapore, he settled for second best: an EP70 Starlet.

Be it a coincidence or not, the Starlet's front end design resembles that of Itsuki's Levin, and as a tip-of-the-hat towards the hard-headed character, Joseph placed an Akina Speed Stars decal above the right headlight, where Itsuki placed his.

Like the anime character, Joseph then started modifying his EP70 to put up more of a fight.

This is where Joesph and this Starlet's story began.

Muscle-Flexing

Words and snaps by Ben

When Sylver was out looking for a new ride to sit next to her apex-carving Impreza, she was aiming for an entirely different breed of car. Something quick, of course, but also much simpler to use than her fully-built STI for her daily commute.

Her mind was set on a 335i convertible, which ticked all the right boxes, with the additional benefit of letting her enjoy the wind in her hair during cool night drives.

But then a 135i caught her eye. While it didn't have a drop-top, it had the advantage of having a smaller wheelbase and a lighter frame, while sporting the same N54 biturbo inline 6 engine as its bigger sibling. And this sealed the deal for Sylver.

Tools of the Trade

Words by Ben, Snaps by the POWAA Crew and friends

Every now and then I get asked what it takes to be a car blogger, and what equipment you need to do it, so it figured it was about time I wrote about it to share with you guys.

Who knows, maybe this will motivate some of you to get out there and start your writing your own features! (If you do, tag me, I'd love to read your words!)

So here are 9 things you need in order to run a motorhead blog.

First Love

Words & Snaps by Ben

We all have a first love. A special one who made us discover new things, and learn more about ourselves. In some cases, it's love at first sight, but other times it's unexpected. She would come about casually, promising nothing more than friendship; just someone to accompany you on your journeys.

And then before you know it, you are in love. Addicted. To you, none other can make the cut. You love her strengths and adore her weaknesses. She is your first love. The one with whom your adventure starts.

I am, of course, talking about cars.

Pushing the Limits

Words and snaps by Ben

Limits. To some, they are goals, objectives to reach before stopping. To others, they are made to be broken; they are a rung of the ladder that only leads to the next step.

Pushing these limits is a constant work, a passion that makes one go beyond himself again and again. This is Keith's addiction, and his weapon of choice in this never-ending fight is the purpose-built DC5 that you see here.

Lady Racer

Words & snaps by Ben

Meet Chloé, the lady who was tearing up the asphalt during the latest round of the Grassroots Autotest.

Seeing a lady pitting herself against the guys, and putting up quite a fight, piqued our interest, and we had to ask her a few questions to know more about her, find out what got her to try out autocross, and maybe even find out how we can motivate more ladies to join the scene!

Grassroots Autotest 2015 - Round 1

Words & snaps by Ben

April 12th marked the new season of one of Singapore's most resilient autocross/gymkhana event: the Grassroots Autotest!

The Reason

Words & snaps by Ben

We make our cars less comfortable, loud and often unpractical. We have to crawl sideways over humps to clear them, endure spine shattering rides, noisy interiors, unpractical bucket seats, our 4-seaters suddenly lose the back seats in favour of roll cages and harnesses. People understandably do not understand us.

Why put ourselves through this daily torture? When the heavens open, some of us have to cruise at turtle-speeds, because the semi slicks are slippery on wet roads. And of course, we all experience cold sweat every time the authorities drive by.

Why do we do that?

Homologation Special

Words & Snaps by Ben

Born back when the WRC required to have "Homologation Specials", the Celica GT-Four is among the rare cars that were brought to the roads as detuned competition vehicles. 

When Yoshi encountered this ST185, the second generation of the Celica GT-Four and second-last model Toyota ever pit in the WRC, he knew he found a unicorn. A unicorn with pop-up headlights. Who would say no to that?

The Singapore Motorshow 2015

Words by Ben, Snaps by June

Detroit. Paris. Tokyo. Shanghai. Bangkok. All these cities have one thing in common: They are hosts to some of the biggest motor shows on the planet. Millions flock to these shows, eager to see the innovations and new models that the car manufacturers and industry supporters are releasing.

Motor shows are the best avenue to have a glimpse at the future of the car industry, and for the millions of motorheads and automobile consumers around, they are "must see" events.

LMS Autotest Round III

Words & Snaps by Ben

So last year's seen a rather good support in terms of local motorsports events, with the Singapore Motorsport Academy giving some driver training classes, Driverite organising some gymkhana events, and LMS Motorsports running 3 autotest events.

The third round, held mid November, had its own share of happenings, both for the drivers and the spectators.

Beetle Spotting - Volksjohore VW Jamboree 2014

Words & Snaps by Ben

April 1934, Adolf Hitler ordered Ferdinand Porsche to build a "Volkswagen", literally, a "people's car". His requirements were simple: it had to be basic with a reasonable fuel consumption, easy to fix, and would need to be able to run a high speeds (100km/h) on the Autobahnen.

Little did any of them know that this order would see the birth of the world's most mass-produced car 7 years later, in 1941.

What they would never have imagined, is that the Beetle not only became one of the most recognisable cars on Earth, but it also became a real cult classic.