Trivia : How Many Ferraris Could You Spot In A Day?

This is a trivia posting just for Sunday. I was driving the Kia Forte SX and heard a loud rumbling behind me.

"Now what kind of sports car could that possibly be?", I asked aloud as a Ferrari soon overtook me.

As there were quite a fair bit of loaded car enthusiasts living in my area, I have seen many sports cars in the vicinity including the Elise, Fairlady, TT, R8, Panamera, Cayenne, 911, 355, 360, 460,etc. I then thought it would be interesting to see how many Ferraris can I chanced upon on a weekday?

And so, I started counting...

 

And the answer was 3 Ferraris on a workday. If only my neighbour's Ferrari was parked in his car park spot, then it would have been rounded into a 4 Ferrari day. But alas, he had an Alphard parked there instead; so for the interim period, the most Ferraris spotted in a day stays at 3!

And what about you?

An LS460L Owner's Take on the Forte SX

I must admit that the Lexus LS460L is a luxurious ride!

My FIL was in town and it would be interesting to note his take on Sharlotte's Kia Forte SX given that he's more used to the finer things in life. His daily rides at the moment consist of the luxurious Lexus LS460L and the huge Toyota Highlander.

And his Highlander is a full-size badass SUV that is surprisingly easy to live with!

I have driven both his cars consistently whenever we visited my parents-in-law; but given his haughtiness and his love to share his opinions of all things under the sun, it was just natural that he would have lots to say about the Kia Forte.

Our Kia Forte SX waiting for the Jury to sentence- gulp!

Thank goodness we got the SX guise as the ride comes with more bells and whistles compared to the less-complicated EX version; so perhaps he would be less critical of this "cheap car" as he professed over the line before seeing the car in skin.

And the day of reckoning soon arrived and after seeing the Kia Forte SX in the skin and riding as the front passenger over the next few days, he was ready to deliver the verdict. Surprisingly, he was not as harsh as expected on his take regarding the Forte SX, rendering it as an "acceptable" car instead of his initial thought of this being a mere "cheap car".

Face-off...

Ride and comfort was of course nowhere in comparison compared to his LS460L, which had the dual-suspension setup at a touch of a button (Sport or Comfort). The Forte SX was found to be rather bumpy, although at high speed, the car was relatively more well-behaved and poised.

He also found the car a little bit cramped; but being just "a little" when it was a comparison between a C-segment and an E-segment was actually a brownie point in the Forte's fort.

Spacious interior with the push-start ignition.

He liked the Push-Start button ("Hmmm, same push-start ignition as my cars eventhough yours costs 10 times lesser?"), the keyless entry and the remote-enabled trunk control. And he thought that the rear lights at a 45" angle looked pretty much similar to the LS460L's.

Spot the similarities, anyone?

 "Altogether, not a bad car- kind of like a mini Lexus of sorts!", he concluded before flying off.

Differences in sizes become clearly visible when parked side-by-side.

And the pressure is building up as Sharlotte shared with him on my plan to get a Toyota Harrier in the near future, although I am only just starting to save up the extra pennies now. Gulp...

Harrier vs Highlander @ next round.

A Tale of Moving Your @r$e Like A G6, and Then Meeting A Real @$$ Forte

Woah, found a parking right in front of Popeyes!

Last night, wifey wanted to have Popeyes; so we drove over to TTDI to have Louisiana's juicy fried chicken and fillet. The franchise in TTDI was a nice choice- there was parking aplenty (yup, we parked right in front of the restaurant!) and on seeing that we had a toddler and could do with a bit of privacy, the staff opened up the upstairs section (previously closed) so that we could all enjoy dinner minus the hustle and bustle of the crowd downstairs.

Like a G6!!!

So Alex and Sharlotte enjoyed a round of G6 dancing in our "VIP section" and it was a funny sight to behold- a toddler of 1+ year jumping along while seated on his baby chair as his mummy swung her seductive body to the grooves of G6 playing on the radio in the restaurant. Haha, had it been a full section, there was no doubt that this would not have seen the light of the day. Even the staff serving us joined in the fun and we all had a good laugh over dinner.

(Look out for the video on Youtube, if you can find its heavily-layered file :)

After dinner, we drove back home. The traffic light near the Naza TTDI showroom showed red, so we stopped our car (on the inner left lane) and so did the other cars on our right. As soon as the traffic light turned green, all the cars started moving along. And thank goodness that I have had defensive driving courses and always checked my rear mirror, for I saw a car racing along zig-zagging between several cars behind me.

Almost an accident if not for the drivers' quick responses!

As it passed by me, it was a very tight spot between me and the car on my right, but the idiotic driver decided to give it a go anyway. I braked and swerved to whatever spaces there were left on my left (no pun intended) while the chap on the right did an emergency brake; and the idiotic driver swerved past in between us by a cat's whiskers. I was wondering what Ah Beng car this was and alas, it was a slap on thy own face as it was an ebony black Kia Forte with an outstation no. plated *AS 848.

The driver on my right gave me a shrugged look and pointed at the idiotic Kia Forte; and I was initially all for going after the arse for endangering my family's life with its dangerous driving. But if I start driving like an arse like him, on a public road with my family in the car, then it would make me nothing but a shade of him.

High beams on the Forte's arse!

So I eased off on the throttle and saw the car continued zig-zagging in between cars with many cars high-beaming him/her and sounding their horn.

To the driver of the Kia Forte no. plated *AS 848, there is a fine line between driving enthusiastically, and driving like a nut and endangering the general public. And you looked very much like the latter.

Apologies for 2 Weeks of Absence : Let's Talk About Golf (the car, silly!)

Well, here it is then... from the e-mails that came in, you would have thought that I was the President of US of A and lost somewhere in the Pacific Ocean or so. So, thanks for the well-wishes and no, I am not missing in Banting, yes, I am still alive and no, I have not sold off the Kia Forte and switched over to the Golf 1.4 TSI.
 

The new faces of Volkswagen Das Auto!

Speaking of the MK6 Golf 1.4 TSI, anyone reading this blog would most probably be a car lover, or at least a car user, so you could do well to give the Golf 1.4 TSI a test drive to see what the hype is all about.

Make no mistake, this is not the MK6 Golf GTI that looks and takes-off like stink and costs some RM200k with the stupendous car import tariffs that Malaysians enjoy (the same GTI goes at GBP23k or RM118k in UK).

Without the horrendous taxes, you can have this GTI for a mere RM118k, less than what you would pay for a Camry 2.0!

The MK6 Golf 1.4 TSI, in retrospect, costs app RM150k locally (or although, had I still lived in UK, the same spec would cost a mere GBP13k or RM65k after conversion). For RM65k locally, you can't even get a re-badged Kia Forte 1.6 EX at the home front.

And the 1.4 TSI at RM65k would be a no-brainer decision!

The Golf 1.4 TSI is the more serene-looking and family-approved model in the Golf stable, yet fast-like-shite given that it is powered  by Volkswagen’s award winning EA111 1.4 liter TSI engine, making 160 PS and 240Nm of torque. That's serious ponies coming from a mere 1,400 cc "puny" engine and this is made possible by the engagement of twin-charging. How exactly does that works? Well, let's sample what Paul Tan explained :

"Twin-charging uses both an exhaust driven KKK turbocharger and a mechanical supercharger to operate at different engine speeds. The turbocharger is tuned to provide maximum boost at the upper rev ranges, but when you do this normally low end will suffer with turbo lag and slow boost kick in. How Volkswagen solves this problem is by employing a second forced induction device – a mechanically driven Eaton Roots-type supercharger."

What it all means that this Golf 1.4 TSI has plenty of torque at even low rpms, and is fair game for your everyday stop-look-go driving. And Kia Fortes, even in 2.0 SX guises, may well steer-cleared of this fire-breathing little monster.

Fast yet comfortable, the Golf 1.4 TSI provides another new entrant into the competitive C-segment car choices in Malaysia. Had only Proton secured the JV with Volkswagen last year, the Golf 1.4 TSI could have been another Forte-ed ride with a local price tag of app RM75k, competing squarely with the Kia Forte 1.6 EX.

The EX still looks good from all angles!

And had that happened, the Kia Forte 1.6 EX could no longer be as smug as Stuart Baggs in Week 7 of Sir Alan Sugar's Apprentice.

Stuart Baggs is so full of himself in Week 7!

Just for Laughs : Do you know your golf partner well?

Two old friends were just about to tee off at the first hole of their local golf course when a guy carrying a golf bag called out to them, 'Do you mind if I join you? My partner didn't turn up.'

'Sure,' they said, 'You're welcome.' So they started playing and enjoyed
the game and the company of the newcomer. Part way around the course, one of the friends asked the newcomer, 'What do you do for a living?'

'I'm a hit man,' was the reply.

'You're joking!' was the response.

'No, I'm not,' he said, reaching into his golf bag, and pulling out a beautiful Martini sniper's rifle with a large telescopic sight. 'Here are my tools.'

'That's a beautiful telescopic sight,' said the other friend, 'Can I take a look? I think I might be able to see my house from here.' So he picked up the rifle and looked through the sight in the direction of his house.

'Yeah, I can see my house all right. This sight is fantastic. I can see right in the window.' 'Wow, I can see my wife in the bedroom. Ha Ha, I can see she's naked!! Wait a minute, that's my neighbour in there with her...... He's naked, too!!!

He turned to the hit man, 'How much do you charge for a hit?'

'I'll do a flat rate, for you, RM1,000 every time I pull the trigger.'

'Can you do two for me now?'

'Sure, what do you want?'

'First, shoot my wife, she's always been mouthy, so shoot her in the mouth.'

'Then the neighbour, he's a friend of mine, so just shoot his d!ck off to teach him a lesson.'

The hit man took the rifle and took aim, standing perfectly still for a few minutes.

'Are you going to do it or not?' said the friend impatiently.

'Just be patient,' said the hit man calmly, 'I think I can save you a grand here.....'

Woohoo, we get to drive the new Forte SX police car first..!!!

Just for Laughs : New Forte Koup Owner

A new Forte Koup owner was out on an interstate for a nice evening drive. The sunroof was down, the breeze was blowing through what was left of his hair and he decided to open her up.

As the needle jumped up to 120 kmph he suddenly saw a flashing red and blue light behind him. "There ain't no way they can catch a new Forte Koup," he thought to himself and opened her up further. The needle hit 130, 140, 150 and finally 160 with the lights still behind him.

"What in the world am I doing?" he thought and pulled over. The cop came up to him, took his license without a word, and examined it and the car. 

"I've had a tough shift and this is my last pull-over. I don't feel like more paperwork so if you can give me an excuse for your driving that I haven't heard before, you can go!"

"Last week my wife ran off with a cop," the man said, "and I was afraid you were trying to give her back!"