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.

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.

Movie Review: Experience the "Rush"

Words by June

The legendary rivalry between two great F1 racers is brought to the silver screen; juxtaposing handsome English playboy James Hunt and a brusque and almost eccentric Austrian Nikki Lauda in their race to claim the much coveted World Championship title. 

In terms of casting, we were pretty impressed with the selection. Chris Hemsworth proves his acting chops with a rather impeccable British accent, complete with mega-watt smile and swagger not unlike the real McCoy. On the other hand, it was remarkable to see Daniel Bruhl bring to life Lauda in his younger days, a mostly hard-headed and no-nonsense character that we love to hate and hate to love. 

The movie also deserves credits for the resemblance between the actors and the ones they incarnate. As seen below, while the real James Hunt and Chris Hemsworth catch the eye with their resemblance, Nikki Lauda and Daniel Bruhl could almost be mistaken for brothers.

Photo: www.historyvshollywood.com  

Action was as fast-paced as the races they featured, as the film traces back Hunt and Lauda’s roots back to the 70's, beginning from their first explosive meeting at a Formula Three Race at the Crystal Palace circuit, to the final showdown at the ‘96 Japanese Grand Prix. 

The two cannot be more different as water and oil; Hunt the wild cannon that leaves everything up to chance that at one point left him near bankruptcy due to lack of sponsorship, had it not been for McLaren. Lauda had not had it easy as well, as he turned his back on a wealthy family empire for the track, and had to meticulously plan his break into the F1 car scene and personally plan each race. It was interesting to see parallels drawn between the Lauda and Hunt at various points in their lives, much like their fierce competition that begrudgingly lead to a mutual respect towards each other. 

F1 aficiandos would be delighted to spot some legendary rides such as the blue 6 wheeled Tyrrell P34 driven by Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler, the McLaren M23s, and Ferrari 312T2s, and have a sight at how the pits were run back when F1 was still in its grassroots days.

Director Ron Howard worked his magic, seamlessly fusing shots of technical aspects of the cars in motion with refreshing new camera angles, which not only contributed to the story in an artistic way, but were also greatly enjoyable sights for us motorheads. 

If you have watched the biographic documentary of Senna like we have, you might feel that this film was a little romanticized. But then again, this is Hollywood. Although half of the air-time was emotive, the other half that was autobiographical was done justice such as paying homage to Lauda’s technical ingenuity, and Hunt's love for party and women.

While the most hardcore of us will still prefer a fact-based gathering of historical media movie like Senna, Rush is a beautiful interpretation of what F1 used to be, and of the life, rivalry and friendship of the two legendary drivers. Rush is, in our opinion, a must see for all gearheads.

Photo: http://www.telegraph.co.uk 

Paris je t'aime! Part 1 - C42 - The Citroën Showroom

Words by Ben, snaps by June & Ben

Paris, the city of romance, the city of love, the city of fashion, the city of architecture, we've heard it all. But the city of cars? Heck yeah, Paris does have something for us motorheads! The Champs Elysées isn't only a jewellery box for high fashion brands, it also houses a series of showrooms that bridge the car and the fashion worlds. As I walked down the famous avenue, my feet led me to No.42, the Citroën pad, called C42. 

The building isn't hard to spot, with its full glass front that incorporates the chevrons in its design. It's inside that things get interesting as the showroom, stretching over 4 stories (make that 5 with the basement), showcases 7 platforms giving glimpses of the past, present and future of Citroën's range of cars.

The showcased rides are changed as the seasons go by, and my trip to C42 greeted me with the C5 Airscape, a drop-top concept version of the C5 that looked rather production-ready. The open-top ride set the mood of the showroom for the summer season, as heralded above the main entrance: Open Air by Citroën.

Behind it was the souvenir shop, where you can find almost all the models that Citroën has ever build, in small scale, and some other chevron-branded items and clothes.

The basement of C42 was dedicated to WRC and featured Sébastien Loeb and Daniel Elena's DS3 WRC under an arch boasting their 2012 victory.

Going up the levels of the showroom, Citroën had the Rosalie on the first platform. The Rosalie first rolled out of the factories in 1932. It was a lightweight racing car that set a few track records at the Montlhéry racing circuit and was the chevron brand's bread and butter between 1932 and 1938. This particular model, like the Airscape beneath it, followed the open-top theme.

Half-a-storey above, the DS3 Cabrio set on an accessible rotating platform, was being swarmed by adults and children alike.

The youngest even had the opportunity to set their eyes on what could be their own DS3. I could hear the moans of kids bugging their parents for one of these.

Above the DS3, Citroën had me take another step back in time with the 2CV Spot, and its retractable soft top. I've always loved the 2CV, and while this one looked well maintained, I always prefer hearing them zoom about the streets, leaning ridiculously in the corners, like no other car can.

Above the 2CV was the Méhari, which was celebrating its 45 years. The topless ride was well known for its plastic body which was easy to maintain and made it the perfect little off-roader. Tipping the scale under 600kg and powered by a flat twin engine, this car could get about anywhere, and became a popular army vehicle in the 80's.

The 6th platform was showcasing the original DS (DS19), once again in its convertible variant. From the mid-50's to the 70's, this car was one of France's most beautiful creation. Not only was it gorgeous, but its 18 years of secret development made it push the ride-versus-handling boundaries of cars back then. The DS (pronounced as déesse [deh ess] - goddess in French) became and instant classic and branded Citroën as an automotive innovator.

Finally reaching the top floor, I came face to face with a box, apparently hiding a new car. Was it heralding the future of the chevron brand's cabriolet range? 

Hopefully Citroën cut slots in the box to let curious minds see the content. So I peeked. After all, they did say "be indiscreet", so I did.

Yeah. The DS4 cabriolet. or with a glass roof, I wasn't sure. In all honesty, I was expecting a stonking hot drop-top concept or something along these lines, and the sight left me a bit disappointed.

No worries tho, the Champs Elysées had a few more showrooms along its stretch which, I hoped, would fully satisfy my motorhead cravings.

Stay tuned for the next Parisian experience: Mercedes' showroom!

POWAA Kartin'

Words by: Ben - Snaps by: June

Ray Motorsports, one of Singapore's rotary-specialist garage, has been running the Ray Motorsports Karting Challenge 2013 since the beginning of the year. The championship, open to anyone and everyone who can gather a team of four drivers, was a three-part competition, with its final round mid of October.

I first heard of the competition during the 911's 50th Anniversary Event, when a friend of mine talked me into joining this second leg of the challenge. The race format for all three rounds was the same: a 2-hour, 4 drivers endurance race. From this point I busied myself into gathering three other motorheads willing enough to take it to the track with me. After a few calls and messages, the team was set: Bernie (the owner of the Black Fibre Evo X), François and Ian joined me to form team POWAA Garage.

While we were all hyped up about taking part in the race, we had one major issue: out of all of us, only Bernie had ever been on the Changi Karting Circuit's asphalt and, unfortunately, busy work schedules did not let us have enough time to go for a practice round. We thus had no choice, we were going to have to get straight in the fight on the race day. Hopefully, we thought, we'd have some warm ups or qualifying laps to help us get a first feel of the track before the actual race. We thought.

The calendar quickly flipped forward, and we were all showing up at the Changi Karting Circuit, with little to no experience of the track, readying ourselves for an epic and fun race. As we reached, pro-karts were running some open laps. While waiting for the driver's briefing, we examined the track from the sides, trying to mark out certain features of this terra incognita in anticipation to our time behind the wheel.

We were called in for the driver's briefing where we were told that there would be no qualifying nor practice laps, but instead that the teams would be arranged on the grid according to their weight, with the heaviest team starting in pole position and the lightest team lining up last. Furthermore, the heaviest driver of each team would start first, for a stint of 15 minutes minimum. Each driver had to have at least 2 stints behind the wheel, which set the race strategy to a simple 2x15 minutes for each driver.

The briefing finished, we headed back to the pits to know which go-kart we would be given, and decide on the racing order. François was starting, followed by myself, Ian and Bernie, who would thus have the honours of racing past the chequered flag. Our attention was then directed to the screen where we saw our kart number being displayed: No. 9. We quickly went to it and François got ready to drive... Until we were told the order was changed and we had kart No. 13. While it meant that we were going to start further back in the grid (whatever happened to the weight rule?), we saw the silver lining in the form of four brand new tyres on each corner of our kart.

With smiles on our faces, we settled with the lucky (or unlucky?) number 13, only to be held up once again by yet another unexplained change in kart assignment. The final change had us given kart No. 6 which, to our annoyance, had bald tyres at the rear. Chalk one up to the difficulty level. Anyway, since we had missed the first round, we were already out in terms of racing points, so we were here to make the best of it and have some fun.

The grid finally formed on the track, and the green light was given, marking the start of 2 hours of intense racing. François  led the dance for team POWAA Garage and clocked 15 minutes-worth of consistent laps, an awesome run for a first time on the track.

I was up next, and I had to remind myself to go easy for the first few laps to get used to the track.

My resolve to take it slow lasted approximately the length of the straight, following which I threw myself waaay too fast in the first corner and spun out. Lesson learnt, I really had to block out the excitement and focus on learning the track slowly...

Until the first corner of the second lap, where once again, my over-zealousness had me eat some gravels. Third time's the charm, as they say, and I finally got to stay within the width of the track. My eagerness had the team lose some precious time, and I had to make it up - until I saw the guys wave frantically by the side of the track to signal me to pit in and let Ian drive.

Driver change done, Ian sped off to discover the track. Another quarter of an hour passed and it was Bernie's time to do his first stint. At this point, the already worn out rear tyres were starting to struggle, and the kart was becoming trickier to handle, as Bernie realised. His 15 minutes fight with the kart seemed epic, and ended when François took over for his second and last run.

Once again, François humbled us with his consistency, and brought us higher up in the standings - in 10th place, fighting for 9th.

I then took the wheel again, and managed to clock some faster and more consistent laps. I was finally getting in the groove of the track, yet I was not able to improve on our standings.

Ian then went for his final stint, but with with 90 minutes of racing taking its heavy toll on the tyres, the kart began to be more and more tricky to control, and the other teams started catching up.

When Bernie got behind the wheel for the final laps, his main focus was to stay on the track without the rear kicking out.

By then, the pits were in effervescence with the non-running drivers staring at the standings shown on the screen.

As the chequered flag was waived, team POWAA Garage crossed the line in 14th position... Out of 14 teams.

Still smiling as we had made it through the 2 hours, we then headed for the prize ceremony. There, we had the surprise of being 12th in the rankings, as two teams were brought down due to penalties incurred during the race.

All in all, we had a great time, with its fair share of joy and fear, excitement and disappointment, and, well, everything that makes a team endurance race worth it!

Our minds are set, though, we'll definitely do better next time!

Mama Mia Vespas!

Words by: June - Pics by: June & Ben

Sometimes the best things in life just come to you unexpectedly. Like a nice day out at Kampong Glam lane found us right in the middle of a scooter meetup. Or more accurately, a scooter pageant. Each scooter was modified to a certain look and style, where the sky’s the limit for creativity.

Christened ‘Mods May Day cum Street Scooter Pageant‘; this pageant was organised by the Scooters Owners Group Singapore. The winners get to take away some attractive hampers and a trophy to add to the mantel place, proudly sponsored by Kampong Glam Café, IPolish the nail spa and SMR. They had rather fun categories such as ‘Antique’, ‘Standard’, ‘Modification’ and even ‘Ugly’ (cue bruised ego) in which their scooters could compete for.

1. Categories Mods: 1st – 3rd placing + Cash for Champion

2. Categories Antique: 1st – 3rd placing + Cash for Champion

3. Categories Standard: 1st – 3rd placing. + Cash for Champion.

4. Categories Modification: 1st – 3rd placing + Cash for Champion.

5. Categories Scooter Side Car: 1st – 3rd placing + Cash for Champion.

6. Cat Lambretta: 1st – 3rd placing + Cash for Champion.

7. Best "Overall Mods" Trophy

8. The most "Ugly Scooter" Trophy

9. Best "Mods Dress" Trophy men and ladies: 1st – 3rd

10 Lucky draw Prizes

A bit of history regarding one of the most iconic scooter brands in the world; the Vespa is the mechanical brainchild created by Piaggio after the World War II and the subsequent economic downturn. With the goal of producing a inexpensive mode of transportation, Vespa scooters leveraged on Corradino D’Ascanio’s mechanical engineering knowledge of the aeronautics industry.

A slightly lesser known scooter brand Lambretta, were also in the running. Also an Italy-produced line of motor scooters, its Milanese factory and rights were later bought over by the Indian government, and subsequently rebranded as Scooters India Limited (SIL).

And boy did they give their 4-wheeled cousins a good run for their money! Lines of the Scooter brand showcased a plethora of models, ranging from some older Vespa 150 GL, Vespa Rally 180, as well as some sweet young things like the T5 Millenium and a few PX series.

Quite the popular theme was the retro style in of the era which the Vespa was first known for, distinguished by its familiar pastel colours, classical full engine cowling and flat floorboard, complete with matching half helmets and riding goggles. One could almost envision Audrey Hepburn in the movie ‘Roman Holiday’ as she rides of into the sunset, scarf and smile trailing in the wind.

I particularly enjoyed looking at these cute big curves of this pristine white one with attached sidecar. It was probably a head-turner on the roads considering it was a rare sight, and I would have loved to have taken a spin in it and take it all in.

Others opted for a more dramatic flair, adding some grunge edge with darker hues of burnt orange and forest green, front wheel guard embellishments and elongated back handles. Harley Davidson bikes are so last season, I’d have me a bad-ass looking Vespa with attitude anyday!

Of course, some of the pieces were unfortunately a little more questionable; mismatched scooter parts and just way too over-embellished that one barely notices the ride anymore. One in particular had huge ostentatious cluster of headlights that looked more incredulous than functional.

As the day wound down, winners were announced and beamingly collected their much-dued prizes. But judging from the look of pride and adoration of owners, just being given the opportunity to display their prized rides to like-minded scooter fans were, in fact a win in itself.