rFactor: Driving Simulator

The recent discovery of a simulator racing game called "rFactor" has taught me a lot about car control. As the name 'simulator' implies, cars are all made with physics as authentic or as close as their real-life counterparts. Driving each and every car can be a real challenge and fun, because you will learn about what different engines and tunings can do to one's car. This game can be downloaded from rFactor's own website. Just Google "rFactor download". Even cars can be downloaded and added into the game yourself. If you know what you want, again just Google it.

For me, I play this mainly for the sake of racing. Most of the time though, I am learning and practising drifting, putting all the drift theories that I have learned by myself to test. Playing in game also allows me drift without the need to worry about crashing a real car. It all works as I know, although some of the drift skills does not work well in this game and requires some re-think of my own to make them work.

Overall though, this is a very good game and I highly recommend it to any petrolheads out there who is looking a driving game that is real and challenging.

Some screenshots from the game.

Achilles Radial Formula Drift Malaysia 2012: Return Of The Prince!

March 19th and 20th marks the return of Achilles Radial Formula Drift Malaysia. While it may seem that the Malaysian round of  last year's race was only held in November, this year Malaysia has been given the honour to host the first round of the series. After 2 years of drifting in the heart of Kuala Lumpur at Dataran Merdeka, the Formula Drift circus moved to Speed City KL, a place dedicated to hosting motorsport events. SCKL, as it is known to petrol heads, opened its doors to the public nearly 2 years ago. Located at the car park of the Selangor Turf Club in Seri Kembangan, the place was given a thorough revamp just for this event. This year's race saw the return of Malaysia's very own Drift King, Tengku Djan Ley to the high-profile drift series after taking a year's hiatus to compete in the Thailand All-Star Drift Series. "The Prince of Drift", as he is affectionately knowned to his legion of fans, marked his comeback with a new car and sponsor in the form of M7 Japan. The 2009 and 2010 champion certainly lived up to his much-hyped return, earning the top spot in qualifying and pretty much obliterated the competition, only to be stopped by reigning champion Daigo Saito of Japan.

Although the number of competitors are smaller than last year (only 28 driver were in this race), there were no shortage of drama and excitement dished out by them. Many drivers also came with new and drool-worthy machines, including Daigo Saito's wild Achilles Radial-sponsored 1200 bhp Lexus IS250 C and a Chevrolet LS1-powered Nissan Silvia S15 driven by Singaporean Jansen Tan. Rain on race day also provided spectators with awe-inspiring races as drivers have to pull out all stops to drive as best as they could on a wet track. At the end of the day, Daigo Saito won the competition in a thrilling finale against fellow countryman Manabu Orido, which is very much like last year's final (also the same drivers against each other). Tengku Djan took 3rd to step on the last spot of the podium.

Revival Of A Momentum

Hello again guys! It's been a tough start to the 2012 year as I am not able to keep to my resolution to blog more often. But nevertheless, I'd try to write here as much as I can whenever I'm free. Life is college can be tough and stressful. Lots of assignments and quick deadlines. I failed my first semester and was lucky enough not having the need to re-sit the whole semester, as my chosen course (Product Design) is the less preferred course and thus, has lesser students (4 in total for my semester including myself, to be exact). Thus, all that was required of me was to re-submit the works for my failed subjects before semester 2 ends. I did that, and I passed both the first and second semester. Well, how's that for a revival? ;-D Hopefully I can keep this great momentum up.

2012 - End Of The World?

Happy New Year everyone! After a long period of inactivity on this blog of mine, it's time to bid farewell to 2011 and say "Hello" to the new year. Now, do allow me to do a little self-reflection of the year that has gone by.

2011 has been a pretty quiet year from me, as there wasn't many resolutions for me to fulfil. But that doesn't mean I never had much fun altogether! Fun number 1: I've finally made my way to study in college! YEAH!! The most surprising thing about attending college is that I made many friends pretty quickly on the first day itself. It used to take me a few days to get acquainted with my classmates during high school. Fun number 2: I've managed to hook up with a few real pro drifters as well as finally fulfilling my wish to meet my favourite drifter, who's also Malaysia's very own "Drift King", Tengku Djan Ley. He is a very friendly guy and easy to approach, as opposed to my initial first impressions of him. :P The other drifters that I've got to know are Ariff Johanis and his wife Jane Cheah. One of the surprise meets this year has got to be one of Japan's top racing drivers and drift legend, Manabu "Max" Orido. He was in town for the Achilles Radial Formula Drift Malaysia race, and had the opportunity to have his autograph and a picture taken with him too! Fun number 3: 2011 is also the year I start back my hobbby of collecting Hotwheels cars after many years of inactivity, and a great kick-start did I get when one of the first few cars I purchased happens to be one of my favourite Hondas ever. Fun number 4: I've finally visited Penang for the first time in my life! I was actually there for my cousin sister's wedding, but me and my family took the opportunity to visit wherever we can when our tight schedule permits.

There is a downside to 2011, though: my best friend, Mas Adrianna has migrated to Australia with her family. Although I feel happy for her that she's able to go to somewhere good and start her life all over again, I felt kinda lonely at times because I don't have anyone to talk and share my problems with. Other than this, everything's pretty much the same as before.

All in all, it's been a year that's filled with mixed emotions for me. While there wasn't as much for me to accomplish compared to 2010 (possibly my most productive year thus far), here's hoping that 2012 will be an even better year to me. And although many people believe 2012 spells the end of the world, I certainly wouldn't be sucked into such beliefs and will keep trying to achieve greatness in everything I do. So, first resolution for this year: to keep blogging more often! So here's me, signing out with the picture of me with "Max" Orido.