Of Love & CarbonFibre

GRID

2008-07-08T11:43:00.001-07:00

Bought this game while I was in the states.

One word. Amazing. No actually 2 words. Amazing and Unreal. GT5 pales in comparison.

You get real damage, which depending on the strength of impact and angle, height above surface, surface grip, etc, can be extremely difficult to reproduce, but Grid has achieved this. In GT5 hitting a tire wall is like hitting a brick wall, but in Grid, the impact level varies, and even the tires compress and bounce back. And you hear and see the spectators react to a crash, all in 3D.

The more damage you attain during a race, the poorer your car handles. Your car may want to always pull to one side for instance, or doesnt turn or accelerate as quick as it should. You may hear the suspension squeak or the brake disks grazing away. Your windscreen may crack badly and affect your view.

The gameplay is on another level. It is very, very real. Step on the throttle too hard during a corner and your rear end spins out. Hit the brakes too hard on a corner, same thing happens. Drop gears to early in a corner, again same thing happens, but not exactly the same, as even spin outs vary slightly. Step on the brakes too hard and the wheels lock up. Very, very real indeed.

You have grip, euro touring cars, american muscle, japanese drift, touge, tuners, le mans, open wheel, the list goes on. Grid fully utilises the processing powers of the PS3. You would have to play it to understand what I mean. The 3D spectators, live and accurate commentary, superbly real car handling, shadows, smoke, you can almost even smell the burning rubber… :)

From the Cheif Designer

Some guys comparison of Grid & GT5

I figured, I best not jump to conclusion, and get a second opinion. I invited my cousin's husband, Franciss, whom has been a die hard GrandTourismo racer ( and a bloody good go-kart racer in real life) over for a try. He will never play GrandTourismo again.

Mini Photoshoot

2008-07-08T03:48:00.000-07:00

You guys have no idea how much I've missed both the GTR and the Z over the last 3 months. Anyway, today Nic & I drove around our neighbourhood and took a few pics. Here they are..

Home at last!

2008-07-03T23:53:00.000-07:00

Firstly I would like to apologise to all of you, my faithful blog readers for not being able to update for almost 2 whole months. The truth is I didn’t have internet access for almost 2 whole months.. reason? Our bloody Mexican clients didn’t bother paying the ship’s satellite communications bill! Not only did they not pay the internet bill, but they also havent paid a lot of their staff for months! But that’s another story.

So finally the nightmare is over and I am back home. As usual Ive got heaps to blog about, but this one is about what ive been up to the past few days while the internet connection at home was being sorted out. Cleaning, eating, cleaning and eating.

Seriously, the place may look good in the pictures, but the amount of dust is unbelievable, all thanks to the renovation.

So many nooks and crannies, so much to sweep, dust, vacuum, wipe and mop!

Besides cleaning, Ive been spending quality time with Nicole in the apartment, playing games, watching movies & cooking. Yes cooking! Deep down inside, 1/5th of me has always wanted to become a good cook, and now that I have my own kitchen, Im gonna be practising at it.

The last few dishes have been kinda unhealthy and greasy, but one has got to start somewhere, right??

Deep fried chicken, fries, steak, burgers and tons of half boiled eggs for breakfast.

There’s still a bit of work to be done to the apartment, including a few blocked pipes and one wall thats been re skimmed and in need of the 10 coats of red.

But otherwise I am happy with the renovation works and look forward to 100% completion and house warming.. :)

R35 GTR Spec V

2008-05-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

If im ever going to get the new R35 (which will probably be only if I inherit a ridiculously hefty sum of money from a long lost uncle, as I don’t gamble or buy lottery tickets), it would have to be this one, the spec V.

Titus Pullo- Rome

2008-05-15T21:29:00.000-07:00

Over the last year, ive watched a few episodes of ‘Rome’ here and there, and quite liked it. But only now have I took the time to watch the entire season 1, an episode or two a day, to finish season 1 last night. The series was a little slow paced at first, but it built up as the episodes went by and only got better.

Titus Pullo has got to be my favorite character in the HBO series. Followed by Lucius Vorenus & Julius Caesar.

Titus Pullo is a very human character. Flawed and many a time misfortunate. He is a big, tough man, yet caring on the inside.

‘Rome’ was produced very well indeed. Set in the pre-christian era, it gives us a look on what it would have been like living in that time frame. The Romans at the time were religious and God fearing, but never quite associated religion with values. It was a brutal & tough time, of early civilization, slavery & war.

Warning: the following scene is the pinnacle of Rome Season 1, and the ultimate spoiler for those of you who haven’t watched it. But if you do watch this scene, I guarantee you’d want to sit down and indulge in this spectacular tv series.

Bold Endurance

2008-05-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

She was built in 1978 by Hollming O/Y, Rauma, Finland as a heavy lift/barge carrier for the Russian Navy and named Stakhanovets Petrash.

Vessel Stats: Length 139.4 m. Breadth 20.25 m. Depth 6.2 m. Gross tonnage 9802

She has the means to make fresh water from sea water and the capacity for enough fuel to give her 150 days sea endurance.

Purchased by Canadian-based Secunda Marine Services Ltd. in the mid-1990s, the ship was taken to Korea (Hyundai Heavy Industries) for extensive structural modifications. She then went to England for the installation of cable-laying gear, and operated as a 8,300-dwt fibre-optic cable-lay vessel. She now operates as an offshore installation support DP vessel for various oil companies.

The word is while she served the Russian Navy, she was actually a submarine carrier. However, I cant find any black & white proof of it on the internet.

The Bold Endurance was also known as a ro-flo ship, for her ability to flood her ballast tanks and partially submerge herself so that smaller vessels or floating equipment could be loaded aboard without lifting.

Under the deck, which has actually been built on top of 7 large hatch covers, lies an extremely large cargo hold.

And under the cargo hold lies the engine room. The sidewalls are all double walled which provide ballast. Locating the engine room below the cargo hold provides positive buoyancy, while enabling a large opening to the stern.

To give you and idea of how big the hold is, it is now used as a storage area, a gym and also used to hold a full football pitch.

But because strengthening beams have been erected recently to support the Saturation Diving system, the football pitch has gotten smaller.

But there still is half a Basketball court down there, and im loving it! :)

Im 6 foot 1 inch, and doesnt this seem like its higher than the standard NBA 10 foot hoop height??

Custom Airbrush?

2008-05-12T12:18:00.001-07:00

Hey guys, what would you think if you saw a BNR34 GTR in real life, with this custom airbrush design?

Its nothing serious, just messing around with photoshop. But im kinda liking the Japanese Katana bladed warrior chick.. courtesy of http://www.artfactory-inc.com/graphics/

Also, dont you think the black wheels look mean?

Here are some interesting pics from the Sha-do art facroty..

Oh, the missus took part in her first car show at Metropolitan college on Saturday, here is a link to her page with some pictures..

Energy Efficiency; Gas Flares & BMW

2008-05-06T16:47:00.000-07:00

Ever since the first time I came offshore and seen a flare burning from an oil platform, I wondered why they haven’t developed a method to harness all that energy. Surely the waste gas could be processed in a more refined way and used.. If not, then even the sheer heat from the flares could be harnessed to produce energy. The energy could be used to power the entire platform/rig, stored, or even sent ashore.

Just look at the size of some of these flares. Some even rise higher than the actual platforms. I’m not talking about just short bursts that last a few seconds, but a continuous burn all the time!

The non economical waste gasses include Methane, ethane, propane, butane, pentane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, helium and hydrogen sulfide (H2S).

Above: Zoomed Out, and Below: Zoomed In

H2S is a deadly gas. We have H2S sensors and drills constantly in this oil field. Read more about Hydrogen Sulfide and its deadly effects online.

So why haven’t the brainy scientists out there found a way to harness Methane, ethane, propane, butane & pentane for productive use?

And heat.. my God. Standing on the ship 400 meters from a flare, I can feel its radiating heat on my face.

BMW has been developing something called the ‘Turbosteamer’. Like a turbocharger which uses exhaust gas to power a compressor to force more air into the engine for burning, the Turbosteamer utilizes the heat from the hot exhaust gas to heat water and produce steam, which is then further used to assist with powering the crankshaft.

The idea is brilliant.

A huge percentage of energy the energy made by burning fuel is wasted away in the form of heat. This system will use the same wasted heat to transform water into steam to help power the car, just like a steam engine. With the help of a small pump, water is passed thru two heat exchangers mounted on two different locations on the exhaust pipe, heating up the water and converting it into steam. This method utilizes over 80% of the wasted heat and relays approx 14 horsepower to the crankshaft (approx 15% power increase to a 1.8 liter 4 cylinder BMW).

If you look at these pictures that I’ve found (courtesy of the worldwide web), the temperature at the exhaust tip is brought down to a mere 50 degrees Celsius, half the temperature of boiling water, while the temperature right at the exhaust manifold is approx. 800 degrees Celsius.

The technology will be put to mass production in about 10 years, and will be compact enough to be installed onto existing models.

Surely the geeks in white coats can apply this technology to the flares before all the oil from the planet is burnt away, right??? :P~ *giggles*

Mexico Oil field pictures

2008-05-04T19:55:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

Ive been on board the Bold Endurance in Mexico for Pemex now for exactly 1 month. Here are some of the pretty good pictures Ive taken while being on board.

If any of you like the pictures, I'd be more than happy to pass you some high-resolution ones..

Have a great week ahead, cheers!

Nismo & Carbing Braces (lower arm bars)

2008-04-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

Before I left for Mexico, project BNR34 V-spec was intensified further by some chassis strengthening braces. The BNR34 V-spec, at the time of production, possessed amongst the highest chassis rigidity in its class. The Nismo R34 Z-tune achieved an even stiffer setup, yet keeping the weight of the car at stock. Nismo (Nissan Motorsports) accomplished this by reinforcing the chassis with carbonfibre.

This type of wizardry requires specialized skill, utilizing men in white coats armed with clipboards, workers in blue chemical suits, colossal baking ovens and a nice fat price tag. I however decided to opt for the more cost effective method using bracing members, aka lower arm bars.

Nismo make great little transverse bits that fit snugly under the car. Altho they look light & compact, they could have been made a touch lighter.

The front brace comes in a single piece and sit under the gearbox, right behind the front wheel arches. This brace should eliminate most of the flex at the front.

At the rear, you have 2 transverse bits located just before the rear wheel arches.

Another upgrade was the Carbing longitudinal braces which run parallel to the sides of the car along the front and rear wheel arches.

I like these bars A LOT as I couldn’t believe how light they were, being made of aluminum.

These flat washer bits go under the floor carpets, securing the braces beneath the car.

In this pic, you see the tip of the bracket which is slid under the existing holes, where the bar is bolted onto.

I wonder what sort of increase in chassis rigidity the blue beast has received. The cons of a stiffer chassis include a slightly harsher ride & increased tire wear, but for the gains in handling, I think its well worth it.

He are some pics of the existing Carbing strut tower brace (with intergrated brake stopper) under the hood..

Here is an overall picture of the undercarriage.

Here’s one where you see Desmond in the pic. It’s also a good shot of the ARC Titanium exhaust. At the time, he was inspecting the aluminum welding of a worker as a bracket had to be fabricated and welded onto the bar, as the rear diffuser also connects to the same points.

Speaking of Titanium Exhausts and rear diffuser, here are some more pictures of the ARC exhaust and ARC diffuser. They go so well hand in hand... ARC now actually advertise the diffuser on their website, as I wasn’t able to view any picture of it from their website before.

The stuff from ARC is beautiful. So far the ARC bits on the car include the exhaust, rear diffuser, radiator and oil catch tank. Soon there will be another goodie from ARC bolted onto the Blue monster, so stay tuned.. :)

Carolina & the Bold Endurance

2008-04-25T18:02:00.000-07:00

(The following pictures were taken at a later date as I was too sick to take pictures on the actual day)

The pickup was at midnight, so I didn’t have much sleep. When we arrived the dock, the boat wasn’t there yet. So I ended up waiting a good 3 hours before the boat arrived. I should count myself lucky to get a few hours sleep at the hotel, some of the local Mexicans slept on the floors of the dock for over 10 hours.

When the boat arrived, it looked tiny, and there were easily 80-100+ people dressed in orange coveralls, all waiting to board the boat. Then and there I pop a seasick pill, not wanting to take any chances, as I was hot, hungry and tired, all the ingredients required for seasickness.

When I boarded, there were already bodies lying across the back deck. I quickly headed indoors with my laptop backpack and my big ass trolley bag. I needed to find a place to lie down as I knew this boat was gonna rock & roll big time- all the way to the oil field. I get seasick a lot easier if I sit down, as I think your abdomen muscles are struggling to keep you upright and you get all tensed up. You really wanna lie down so you’re muscles are relaxed and you just ‘go with the flow’, literally.

The estimated 8 hour crew-boat ride ended up taking 12 hours. Some guys were throwing up after 2-3 hours. I didn’t start spewing till after 9-10 hours, mainly because I was lying down. There was no food or water on board. I wished I had packed away a sandwich or at least had a larger bottle of water. I slept most of the way stung across the middle of a walkway in between a wall and rows of seats. In my half conscious state, I recall people fumbling in the dark, as they walked over me trying not to step on me.

When the engines eased off everytime the boat reached a location (oil rig platform or vessel), I would drag myself up to the main deck and peep outside the window, looking for the words ‘Bold Endurance’ engraved on the hull of a big ship. One time I peeped out and saw the same Spanish name on the side of the same ship, several hours later. The sea was choppy and it was difficult to transfer people to and from the boat by personnel basket (or Billy Pugh). Whenever the boat got too close to the ship, it would go full ahead to avoid collision and we'd have to start over again.

Everytime I went to the one and only toilet on board for a pee and to rinse my mouth, I was greeted by the stench of crap, piss & vomit. The toilet bowl was clean, but above the bowl was a sign in Spanish, and beside the toilet bowl was a little waste paper basket filled to the brim with shitty toilet paper. It was disgusting. After a few trips fighting the roll of the boat and hanging on to the handrails for dear life, just to get to the stinking toilet, I couldn’t bare to hold it in anymore and just had to puke. So I dash out to the open back deck and step over sleeping bodies to make my way to the side of the boat. I bent over still clinging on for dear life and after a few waves wash over me I let out an orangey colour vomit. It tasted very orangey as well. I seldom drink orange juice or eat oranges, so it was very weird indeed.

After 12 agonizing hours of pure suffering, some Mexican dude announces, “bolen duren, bolen duren!”.. that’s me, Bold Endurance! Quickly I get my shit together and fumble up the stairs and out into the sun. I couldn’t believe the size of the ship. She was huge! The main deck stood 30 feet above the water line, and I was so relieved coz I knew she was going to be stable.

And so the billy pugh lifted me onto my new ‘home’, at least for the next couple of months that is…

Mexico

2008-04-18T16:43:00.000-07:00

Boy, its been a while since ive updated. This time im not gonna try and cram everything that happened since I last updated into one long winded entry but instead, break it up into little bits and pieces.

As some of you may recall, I was waiting on a job in Thailand to start and that I was also on a retainer for standing-by for the job which eventually got cancelled in the end. Well, the good news is I did get paid! Yes, all 14 days standing-by at home while doing f all work on 50% my offshore day rate. Kudos to the company for honoring the agreement eventho it was all verbal and via email with no actual contractual agreement signed. I hope they get their issues sorted out and look forward to working with them in future.

I knew I had something lined up in about 2-3 months time, but I needed about a months job to keep the bank figures healthy as my monthly expenses so happen tp be pretty astronomical for normal Malaysian living standards. I sent emails out to every company I knew of on the very hour I found out that the Thailand job was cancelled and got a reply straight away from Hallin Marine based in Singapore. I’ve worked for them once on a 2 month job back in 2004. Hallin have got a lot of work, but since Katrina and the offshore boom, the rates have been sky rocketing left right and centre. I have been freelancing since, pretty much going where the money is. Ive been getting heaps of calls (my mum has too) from Hallin Marine, but it just so happened that they always call me up at the wrong time because as I was always working or just about working, for another company. So far, every time Ive needed a job, Hallin Marine have been there for me, but sadly most of the time Ive never been there for them! Kinda sad when I think about it.

So anyway, the personnel’s people at Hallin gave me a choice of not 1, but 2 jobs to choose from. One offshore east coast Malaysia, and the other one in Vietnam. Vietnam sounded good as Ive never been to Vietnam. The Malaysia job was starting about 2 weeks sooner though. Having not worked in Malaysia for quite some time, I thought I might as well go for it. As at least if the Malaysia job got delayed or something, I could always opt for Vietnam, but if I turned down Malaysia and waited for Vietnam and the job gets delayed (or cancelled) I’d be pretty much f’ed. So there I was, waiting to go offshore Malaysia in about 10 days. The very next day another personnel lady from Hallin calls me up and asked me if I could fly to Mexico tonight or tomorrow morning! Bloody hell. Lets go! Then we realized I had to have an FM3 work visa to work in Mexico. So instead I had to apply for the Visa in KL Malaysia on Monday, got it approved, collected my passport with attached visa on Tuesday and flew for Mexico on Wednesday.

The flights were alright, I flew SIA along KL-Singapore-LosAngeles, then Continental along LosAngeles-Houston-CiudadDelCarmen, and all that took just over 25 hours including airport transit time.

Some pictures from the airplane.

Landing at Ciudad Del Carmen.

Ciudad Del Carmen is no Miami beach. Its more of an industrial type shipping / offshore / oil company area. I didn’t have much time to check the place out. It was more like airport to office, get documents sorted out, office to hotel, rest for 5 hours, hotel to wharf side then on to a crewboat heading offshore.

Hotel at Ciudad Del Carmen.

It wasn’t 5 star but all I needed was a place to crash for a few hours and at that time, even the office floor looked tempting. Hope no dive company managers read the last bit! Well, I didn’t get much sleep on the airplanes... :P

The crewboat ride ended up taking a shockingly horrendous 12 hours. I think I almost died on that boat due to severe seasickness. Twice. But that’s soon to come in my next update. In the mean time, stay out of trouble you fellers & get back to work! :)

Top Secret GTR 34 Carbon Fibre Hood

2008-04-05T19:16:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pics of the CF hood & clear blue paint. I wanted the CF to look different from the regular black CF..

Just got internet sorted after 2 days onboard. Will update soon about this ship and the crewboat journey from hell... ;) *pukes*
Have a great week ahead all you lucky fellers on firm dry land!!!

Too ‘Ricey’?

2008-04-02T23:32:00.000-07:00

Hello all! Im currently at LAX, signed up for a few hours worth of wifi and decided it was time for a quick entry.

Here is the first decent (hopefully better ones soon) picture of beauty & the beast side by side. Do you guys (& gals) think the GTR looks too ‘Ricey’ with all those stripes and stickers? Never really noticed it before till I had the Z for so long and not driven the GTR for a while. Somehow Ive gotten so used to the Z’s more grown-up posh appearance. The GTR not only seems a lot older (although it is) but it seems like its ‘trying’ too hard to be young again. Don’t you think it’ll look much meaner, more mysterious & stylish if it lost the stripes & stickers? I think so. Getting Nicole to agree with me however is no simple task. Opinions anyone??

SARD Surge Tank Part 2 & the Honda RA807E

2008-03-24T09:05:00.000-07:00

I got a positive email from a diving company whom ive worked for once in 2004 for a job early next month. I might not be out of work after all! What good news. I have something good (real good) lined up in June but needed a job to sort of ‘fill-in’. And that’s not the end of the good news.

I dropped by at Desmond’s today and to my pleasant surprise, not only did all the fittings arrive, but the new fuel system has been fully plumbed and leak checked! I might be able to drive the beast sooner than I expected! Here are 2 more pics of the boot install.

You can also see that the 2 fuel filters have also been installed with another supporting custom bracket. Better detail pics once I remember to bring my decent camera. Note: It does look better in real life I might add..

Here’s a little something I encountered a couple of days ago at 1Utama.. Honda was having their F1 roadshow. Yes, just like BMW Petronas (and perhaps others) did prior to race day. No, this isn’t a post about the race queens, for that please see here..
http://www.hot-screensaver.com/2008/03/23/honda-f1-car-and-race-girls/

The car had what seemed like GoogleEarth for paint and heaps of carbonfibre.

Check out the ducts for increased brake cooling.

And the Honda RA807E was also on display.

90 degree Naturally Aspirated 2.4 litre V8

Over 700 horsepower, and over 20,000 rpm (limited to 19,000rpm)!!!

Even the electrical connector bits are carbonfibre..

Check those injectors out!

Curiously I was surfing the web and came across this Mega Awesome video of a Renault F1 engine at work.. you must see (and hear) this!

Note the nozzle spraying fuel into the throttle, the mist it creates, the glowing exhaust pipes and the shooting flames.. now that is a hazard and a masterpiece all at the same time.

SARD fuel Surge Tank

2008-03-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I may have seemed a little bit too much of a worrywart to you all, stressing out over something unlikely... like being out of work. Well guess what, the company I was supposed to work for decided to pull the plug and cancel the job due to some unforeseen circumstances! Great! And since I already told the previous company whom I was working for to look for someone else as I have gotten a better offer, they have! Argh!! Well, I guess sometimes things just wont go your way, no matter how much you want them. But whats important is that I don’t give up. But that’s for another day. Today I wanna talk a little bit about my workshop mechanic buddy cum local custom fabricator Desmond Mah.

We purchased a 7.5 liter Sard Fuel Surge tank capable of housing 2 additional fuel pumps to ensure the beast’s fueling needs are taken care of.

For those of you who don’t know what a fuel a ‘Surge Tank’ or ‘Swirl Pot’ is, try picturing a little fuel (petrol/gas) tank next to your cars bigger standard fuel tank. The bigger fuel tank may get close to empty, but the little tank always stays full. When you subject your car to hard cornering, the fuel in the big tank sloshes around and the fuel could move away from the pickup point and starve the engine. Kind of when like you’re sucking a straw from a cup of iced coffee and the sound it makes when you start to suck air when the cup gets empty.

You’d be surprised that during hard cornering or even rapid acceleration, you may be able to cut off the fuel supply even when the tank is ¼ full. This could lead to serious leaning issues that could be fatal for your engine.

One of the main reasons why a lot of enthusiasts try not to install external surge tanks, is due to the fuel smell it creates in the cabin. Obviously fuel vapors escape the little pipes, hoses and fittings. Another reason is because with an external surge tank, you’d have to make more holes in the chassis to run additional fuel lines from your boot to the underside of your car.

To minimize these negative points of the install, Desmond ingeniously come up with simple measures to reduce these negative points.

Firstly the location of the tank needed to be decided on, and the right side of the rear boot was chosen as it was closest to the main tank outlet point, keeping the fuel line lengths to a minimum.

Secondly, an aluminum bracket was fabricated as the base of the tank, to ensure it was secured firmly.

Then an aluminum box was fabricated next to the surge tank under the GTR HICAS computer. The reason for this piece was to keep the flexi steel braided hoses under the box and thus the possible excess fuel smell away from the cabin. Under this box is a layer of windshield adhesive to seal the box onto the chassis. Ingenious huh?

Next came the tedious work of hard plumbing the 10mm pipework in the boot area. As you can see, Des has done a pretty good job so far, running the lines next to the HICAS computer power lines under the black frame you see 2 pics above.

Here’s a pic of the additional line that runs under the car next to the existing fuel lines. You can also see one of the newly installed undercarriage Nismo brace, but thats for a different topic.

Up front there are 6 of these blue babies, making sure the Beast has more than enough fuel to match those big blowing turbos.

The Beast should be ready in a few days but is yet to be properly tuned. Only once the GTR has gone thru proper ECU fine tuning will I be able to up the boost and floor that throttle. Stay tuned for more updates.

Updated: Please view final pictures at
http://ofloveandcarbonfibre.blogspot.com/2008/03/sard-surge-tank-part-2-honda-ra807e.html