Farewell Greddy Toyota MR-S

I was invited by my uncle to drive his beloved MR-S before it was sold. He told me to help him drive his vehicle up to Puspakom in Gopeng, which is 10-15 minutes drive from Kampar town.

This is a remarkably nice car to drive. I would say, this could would definitely whoop my Satria Neo. I haven't driven on a manual for ages, but I still have the touch! Anyways, this car is pretty worth it. The next lucky owner gets to own it for RM88,000 (USD1 = RM3.5). It's a beautifully balanced car, although at a smaller 1.8 litre engine. I wish I had the money to buy this beauty, but sadly, not for now. Enjoy the pictures! MR power!

Mercedes Benz Driving Experience 2008 - Part 6

At the end of the ceremony, we were given out Certificate of Attendance for participating and learning throughout the day. There were three lucky prizes given out to three people who performed pretty well on that day. There was the best male, best female and most improved participant award. I was not one of them, but I was more than satisfied with the experience I had and what I have learnt in order to prepare myself on the road when driving my own Mercedes-Benz vehicle. We drove off into the sunset and I would say, this Driving Experience is definitely fun and worth it. In case that you might want to be the lucky few to join this event, you could either sign up for the next one around in May or just book a Mercedes-Benz sedan with one of the authorized dealers. I highly recommend service and support of sales representative Mr. Edmond Ooi (012-5151700) and Ipoh Motors’ manager, Mr. David Lim (019-5560077) for getting me into this wonderful event.

Mercedes Benz Driving Experience 2008 - Part 5

Before we end the day, we were given a chance to drive around the full F1 Sepang circuit in the E class sedans. We were briefed in the paddock, that we should drive and follow the instructor in his B170 around the track, known as the duck and drake system. When the instructor turns on his emergency lights, the car behind the duck, in front of the other cars will pull back and move behind of the car other cars, so that the drivers are able to follow and learn something from the instructors when going around the course. This was my first time around the Sepang F1 circuit itself and I was very happy to be able to shown around the course by professional drivers, by guidance over the walkie-talkie. . Theres a video of us going around the track, however it was limited to 2 minutes and 50 seconds due to the limitation of my digital camera.

Mercedes Benz Driving Experience 2008 - Part 4

We proceeded to the next part of the exercise, where we learnt how to brake properly when approaching a corner and avoid an obstacle up ahead. We were able to practice on the part of the track, where Felipe Massa spun out during the F1 session in Malaysia this year. We had a go on all cars. The E230 Avantgarde turns out to be most scariest car, as the 2.5 V6 provides so much torque, that it’s probably the hardest to brake and maneuver around the cones. But no doubt, I finally mastered it and Lincoln was definitely most happy with my improvements.

We moved on to the next part where Dean was there to teach us on how to take on one of the corners in the F1 circuit properly without overspeeding. We were taught to be able to enter slowly and exit a corner fast enough so that we are able to catch up to the next car ahead, in case that we were in a race. This was definitely important to learn, as most people aren’t able to properly gauge how fast they are going when they are approaching a corner.

Finally, we approached the last part of the course, where Chow wanted us to maneuver over a slalom course and brake within the box again. This was probably a way to benchmark us and time us on how well we learned and perform today. This was definitely an inter-group competition, to see who times the fastest over the slalom. If you brake and park outside of the box, you will be penalized 1 second for exceeding each cone outside of the boxed area. I did not know my time, as Chow wanted to keep it a secret.

Mercedes Benz Driving Experience 2008 - Part 3

After finishing the slalom course session, we moved on to the other part of the course where we learnt sudden lane change. This was to simulate an emergency in order to avoid a car that cuts into your lane without spinning off the road. We were told to drive through the cones and brake at the first set of cones to swerve right and left hard without braking, to avoid collision with the cones. If we are able to swerve violently, it would activate the PRE-SAFE system, where it tightens the seatbelts, turns off the air-conditioning and winds down the window by an inch, to prepare the driver and passenger in the case of a collision. The window is wind down, so that the airbag can be deployed and gas is escaped through the window gap. Most of us did it without any hassle, but some just plough through the cones.

We moved on to the next part of the track, where we learnt to avoid hitting a barrier in front and braking at 70 km/h and swerve right to avoid the barrier. Chow showed us how we could do it in a B170. We then finished the first half of the event for the day and headed on for lunch back at the paddock. Lunch was again remarkably nice, where Hilton Hotel were the caterers for the buffet lunch we were having.

After lunch and a short rest, we find ourselves back at the pits again and hopping into the cars again. Nathan was there again in the same place we had our first exercise. This time, he wants us to turn off the ESP system in our car and experience over steering and correcting our exit angle while in the wet. Nathan told us that the B170 would not experience over steering, as it is a front-wheel drive (FF) car, so we were told to get into the E-class sedan. Each of us had a go, while some eager seniors were so trigger happy that they spun 360 degrees a couple of times. I had a few times on and did not spin out after a few tries. I was happy to experience to know what over steering was like, since I’ve never spun like that before!

Mercedes Benz Driving Experience 2008 - Part 2

We were told to get into our cars of our choice, while several others will join us as passengers. We were given different choices of cars such as the B170, E200K, E230 Avantgarde and S300L. Nathan explained to us that the ABS and ESP technology, works hand in hand to help us stop our car without skidding, when encountering a wet surface on the road. He drove a car over the skidpan and demonstrated to us how the technology works. Later, he told us to get into our cars and start driving through the skidpan, where the left tyres are on top of the wet surface, where the right tyres are on top of the dry surface to simulate half-wet/half-dry conditions to simulate uneven tyre grip and braking force to simulate a spin. However, thanks to the safety technology, we are to drive off safely without skidding. Each of us had a go on the skidpan. We swapped drivers and cars every here and then, to fully maximize our driving experience.

We later drove off to another part of the Sepang F1 track. We came out of our cars to meet and greet Lincoln. The other participants of the other group colour (Green) swap cars with us and they will drove to the other part of the track to do the same exercise we did. Lincoln explained the importance of how we can experience the stability of the cars by going through a slalom course, with a bunch of cones positioned around to simulate such situations where we have to constantly swerve left and right. Lincoln drove the B170 and demonstrated on how we will imitate what he does on the slalom course and then park right back at the four cones which is an area we shall stop and not exceed outside of the boxed area. After the short briefing, we set out to try and beat Lincoln’s 51km/h average speed around the slalom. I was able to imitate Lincoln’s speed with the B170. However, I was beaten by a E200K at 52km/h.

Mercedes Benz Driving Experience 2008 - Part 1

Mercedes-Benz is a century old manufacturer which devotes itself on creating an automobile that focuses on safety. They were the first to invent and implement the ABS (Anti-lock braking system), traction control and airbags systems in automobiles. While their cars are equipped with such safety systems, not all customers actually are able to tell what benefits this system does. Therefore, Mercedes-Benz Malaysia has invited its customers and fellow enthusiasts to come join them for a real-life driving experience, known as the Mercedes-Benz Driving Experience. This participation fees for this event costs RM1,800 , although some lucky people who booked a Mercedes-Benz vehicle with the dealers are invited to this event for free, on limited slots basis. I was one of the lucky ones around, as my parents have just bought the new Mercedes-Benz C200K Avantgarde with Ipoh Motors, one of the Cycle & Carriage dealers for Mercedes-Benz.

Starting off at 8 A.M. in the morning for registration, we were given out a backpack, containing goodies such as Mercedes-Benz cap, a book on safety and a Mercedes-Benz jersey. We were told to change into the jersey as the clothes are more suited for the hot weather that we are about to face. We were provided breakfast buffet early in the morning. While we have our meals, Mr. Florian Mueller of Mercedes-Benz Malaysia, has given a brief presentation about the innovations and technologies that have been available in Mercedes-Benz vehicles for the past few decades. He explained that ESP (Electronic Stability Programme), a technology that detects and prevents skidding, has been around for almost 13 years. He mentions that the current Mercedes-Benz lineup is equipped with the ESP system and we will experience driving simulations, where the cars with ESP are turned on and off.

We were then introduced to four driving instructors who were wearing coloured lanyards, Nathan Pretty (Blue), Lincoln Burns (Green), Dean Fiore (Red) and Chow (Yellow). Each instructors are highly qualified and have raced in various racing scenes around the world and have gained top 3 spots in racing, notably a second-place in the Carrera Cup this year and first-place in Australian Supercar Championship. They explained the importance of under-inflated or over-inflated tires, as an under-inflated tyre would wear the threads on the side wall faster and the over-inflated tyres can cause the threads in the middle faster. This would cause the tyres to lose contact on the road when driven at higher speeds. They have provided a series of illustrations by the tyres sponsor, Michelin, discussing that bald tyres are less likely to grip the road compared to a good condition set of tyres, when travelling at 100km/h. After the briefing, we were divided into groups of the same colour lanyards.