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.

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!

ATracS Challenge 2015 Round One

Words & Snaps by Ben

On the 25th April 2015, a host of cars gathered at the Johor circuit. Within minutes, the pits opened to a human and mechanical frenzy that could only mean one thing: it was time to race.

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.

Japfest 2 2014

Words and Snaps by Sam

Japfest 2 is a celebration of Japanese performance cars, held annually at Donington Park circuit in the UK. Introduced in 2010 in order to supplement the now monstrously huge original Japfest show which is held earlier in the year at Castle Combe circuit, Japfest 2 now also promises to be an event well worth attending for all those into Japanese cars.

Motoring Heritage Day

Words and Snaps by Ben

If you are a motorhead and have never heard the Bosch moniker, you have probably not been living on Earth since the 1890's.

The relation between cars and Bosch is nothing short of a symbiotic bond. Almost every step of cars' evolution, Bosch was there with an innovation, and thus all the way since 1897 with the Magneto ignition, the very first engine starter. This device changed the life of car owners, who did not have to crank engines manually, saving time, efforts and even injuries.

The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride 2014

Words & snaps by Ben

Dapper suits, bikes and a worthy cause. Bring all 3 together and you have yourself the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride.

The first Ride took place in 2012, and gathered 2,500 riders across 64 cities. With such a success, the organisers decided to give a worthy meaning to the event, and last year's ride was run with the goal of supporting the prostate cancer research.

Perfect Power Drift 2014

Perfect Power has been, since end 2012, one of the last remaining supporters of the drifting scene here in Singapore.

LMS Autotest Round II

Words & Snaps by Ben

Three months after the first Autotest, Lifestyle Motorsports (LMS) stayed true to their words and organised the second round of their series.

For those of you new to the Autotest concept, it is a timed race on a small track usually defined by cones, which focuses on car control at low to average speeds. Opponents go head to head on mirror tracks, with the fastest of 2 rounds winning the race.

BMW World Singapore 2014

Words & Snaps by Ben

BMW World is back!

After 4 years of waiting, the German marque is back at Marina Bay Sands' Convention Centre to showcase its past, present and future.

Bug City

Words & snaps by Ben

In 1938, after 4 years of development, Ferdinand Porsche released what would become the most sold car model in the history of cars - the Beetle.

The Beetle doesn't just owe its success to its affordability, it also owes it to its robustness and its looks. Even after trying to reboot the Beetle twice, Volkswagen will never be able to match the success of its first iteration, probably due to the current times and today's consumption society.

Formula E Pre-Season Testing 2014

                 Words & Snaps by Sam 

Electric cars... A topic which strikes fear into the majority of those with a passion for cars, a concept which many loathe. Unfortunately we cannot disguise the fact that oil supplies are depleting and it’s hard to ignore the negative effects conventional engines are having on the environment. It’s because of this that we know it won’t be so long before they begin to take over from our beloved petrol powered machines. Many of us dread this day and car manufacturers know all too well that if they are to succeed with replacing oil based fuels with electricity, they will need to do something to entice the public. So how are they going to persuade us that silent electric motors can be just as fun as a petrol equivalent?

Stratford Festival of Motoring 2014

Words & Snaps by Sam

My first event in the UK takes me to the town of Stratford for the Stratford Festival of Motoring; an annual event which takes part in the closed off streets of the town centre every Spring. Stratford is a town famous for being the birthplace of Shakespeare and for its traditional, period architecture. It now serves very much as a tourist town, attracting visitors from every corner of the globe. Seemingly a perfect setting for a classic car show then. There was just one slight problem... My knowledge of classic cars can be described as mediocre at best. So I’ll now attempt to guide you through some of the highlights of the show, with as much knowledge as I can muster!

Assault on Johor Circuit!

Words by Sam & Ben, Snaps by Jin, June & Sam

Many of us attempt to build our machines with track driving in mind, be it competitive events, or just fun track days.

The track is the one place where we can really test how well the often thousands of dollars and countless hours we pour into our rides have paid off. It’s also the one place where we can (legally) drive our cars to their limits, or in most cases, our own limits.

After all, let’s be honest, as much as we hate to admit it, our cars are able to take much more than most of us are able to give!

The track is our little piece of heaven, for those few hours we’re let loose, free from the constraints of public roads, we would rather be nowhere else.

DriveRite Gymkhana + Auto-X Day

Words & Snaps by Ben

A few weeks back, I wrote about how local garages and organisations were taking on the role of keeping motorsports alive in Singapore in their own hands.

A few weeks after LMS Motorsports' event, DriveRite joined the group of the local "motorsports saviours" with their Gymkhana + Auto-X Day, with the support of FUCHS Lubricants Singapore, MotorVac by Bynergy Asia, Whiteline (SP Line Trading) and Wolf's Chemicals Singapore.

Lifestyle MotorSports Autotest

Words & Snaps by Ben

With the main motorsports organisers in Singapore becoming eerily quiet, the local scene seems to be slowly dying.

While there are still race days at Sepang and at the Johor Circuit, local drift, gymkhana and autocross events have become scarce, leaving people wonder, once again, about the future of local motorsports. 

Luckily, some garages have not lost faith in our scene, as Lifestyle MotorSports (LMS) has recently shown us by organising the Autotest.

Driver training

Words & Snaps by Ben

When local drifters & racers Ken Ang, Leonard Lee, Timothy Ngui and Vincent Ng decided to get together to share their knowledge with other motorsports enthusiasts, the Singapore Motorsport Academy was born.

Their modus operandi is straight forward: their curriculum is spread over a year of lessons happening every month, with the aim of having the participants ready to compete in motorsports events by the time they graduate from the academy.

Because Race Car

Words & Snaps by Sam

I’d like to start off by thanking the guys at Because Race Car- BRC for organising and hosting this event. It was a great evening with lots on show and without any of the recklessness that too often spoils public meets. A quiet car park within the beautiful grounds of Sanctuary Cove was to play host to BRC’s first big meet, which had an impressive 80+ rides come down to celebrate!