ER34 versus Genesis Coupe

Eu Jin recently blogged about the Genesis Coupe:

"The Hyundai Genesis Coupe has been gaining headlines throughout the world since its launch end of 2008. This is the first rear wheel drive sports coupe from Korea."

"The 3.8 V6 does the century sprint in less than 6 seconds while the smaller 4 pot engine does it in less than 7 seconds. Mighty impressive I must say. Interior wise is pretty well equipped too."

"Interestingly also, the aftermarket development is picking up for the Genesis Coupe. Rhys Millen is driving one on drift events in the United States. Great marketing/promotion I must say."

Read the fill post at his blog.

How Big Is Your Jap Car Scene?

Now I have quantitative proof of why Singapore's streets are filled with R35s, Evolutions and WRXs, not to mention Corollas, Sunnys and Lancers...

We are the second largest car market for the Japanese in Asia, importing 36,234 cars in 2008 alone. Largest by a far margin is China at 159,480 cars and Indonesia is in third place at 29,277.

Find your country's Japanese vehicle import data from the comprehensive list above.

Source: Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (the same people who bring us the Tokyo Motor Show)

Carbon Clad Cars On The Go

We have set up Carbon Clad Cars On The Go (CCCOTG), the mobile companion to Carbon Clad Cars over at http://carboncladmobile.blogspot.com/

Visitors can also view mobile excerpts through the Mobile Post widget on the right column.

Reason for doing so is that I often find myself snapping pictures of great cars and other motoring related content on my N95 but forgot to upload them by the time I reached home.

CCCOTG will also feature non-car related odds and ends from my life, I promise to keep them infrequent and painless :)

In summary, CCCOTG will have more timely mobile posts while Carbon Clad Cars will continue to do featurish pieces.

What do you think about this new arrangement?

Update at 12.54am, 28 Jul: I have decided to upload my mobile posts direct to this blog after readers' feedback saying they prefer only one blog.

MJ's Dream Garage

Charcoalx posted his dream garage.

This is mine:



On the right is the Nissan R390 GT1 powered by Nissan Twin Turbo 3.5L V8 engine.

Power: 410.1 kw / 549.9 bhp @ 6800 rpm
Torque: 637.2 nm / 470.0 ft lbs @ 4400 rpm
0-100km/h: 3.3 seconds
Top Speed: 350 km/h

I will be happy just having this car in my garage.

There is just one small problem. Nissan only produce 2 R390 that is road legal and they kept one in their own warehouse in Zama (And I do not know where is the other one. If you know where is it, please let me know).

Back From Bali

Just back from Bali. Partied hard at Legian's numerous bars, check out the Bomb Memorial which was sobering and couldn't resist going to Hard Rock which turned out to be very disappointing due to an infestation of old Caucasian tourists. Love the Beatles quote outside though.

Millions of scooters there, but in the whole week there I only see a grand total of one Ferrari and one Porsche. Definitely not a place for car fans but Bintang was only about S$3 for a large bottle so I can't really complain.

And where else can you find Ronald McDonald surfing?

Normal blogging on cars will resume from tomorrow. Thanks to MJ for holding the CarbonClad fort with race queens and sexy female mechanics!

Baller of All Ballers

Definition of "baller" according to UrbanDictionary.com

(N) A thug that has "made it" to the big time. Originally refered ball players that made it out of the streets to make millions as a pro ball player, but now is used to describe any thug that is living large.

Forget the Lambos I have posted, this here is THE baller of all car ballers in Singapore. This guy owns the one and only street registered Zonda F in Singapore as well as the only Enzo in Singapore. Other lesser cars in his collection includes an F50 and an M3 CSL.

Having a garage like that is the only reason why I want to get filthy rich beyond imagination.

The Recession and S15s

I still remember when I bought my S15 almost three years ago. The economy was booming and I took a long time before securing the car at a reasonable price. Back then, sometimes there wasn't even a single S15 listed on sgcarmart.com.

Nowadays, there's anything between 4-6 S15s on sale, which is a lot considering that this number represents more than 10% of the S15 population in Singapore.

As they say, it's a buyer's market now and if you have the means, it's a great time to be snapping up one of these collectibles at historically low prices. Some of the S15s are going for S$6k depreciation per year, a 50% (!!!) drop from the prices two years ago.

For that price, you get a slow slung JDM sports coupe from the golden age of Japanese sports cars, where RX7s, Supras, Silvias and GTRs rule the Wangan.

Oh yes, did I mention the exclusivity? No more than 50 S15s in Singapore means you won't be seeing every Tom, Dick and Ah Beng driving past in one.

If you are in the market for a sports car in Singapore, go get a S15 NOW.

Let us be silent...

Warning: Long poignant post ahead.

Sport Compact Car is one of the car magazines that I read regularly. The people who write and produce the magazine are circuit racers, speed junkies and car geeks. In other words, they are our kind of people .

So its with great sadness that I read the March copy as its their swansong issue. They have been around for 15 years and have been covering the modified Japanese car scene before it was even a scene, where it started with the drag wars where impossibly fast Hondas broke into the 10s, 9s, 8s and 7s. Through the Fast & The Furious-created hype where every man and his dog wants to be 'JDM'. And finally drifting and time attack.

And now what?

I read with pride Jay Chen's words that 'If you are reading this it means that you are a true car geek and a survivor. If you are still driving your tuned import, you're not just some kid out to chase tail and look cool.'

And with sadness when he lamented that 'import tuning will never be the same again. Say goodbye... to being part of the mainstream... One day your kids will look at you as we once looked at hot-rodders, old men and women obsessed with a bygone era fixated with antiquated technology.'

I still remember the look of pride my dad has on his face 20+ years ago when look at his original Mini. It was painted a fiery red and looks impossibly tough with a custom fab roll cage.

I didn't understand his emotions back then. I do now.

Perhaps my future kids will too, if they could pull themselves away from Gran Turismo 8 long enough to appreciate real cars.

Matt Black Malaise

The American rat rods started the matt black style way back in the day, as the general idea was to focus on the engineering and racing aspects while giving the finger to looks.

In recent years, the Japanese revive the look with Rauh Welt being arguably the workshop most associated with the style. If you have been following the Japanese car scene, you would have seen Rauh Welt's matt black Porsches and S15 at one point or the other.

I like this look to a certain extent and some people have carried out the look well in Singapore, such as:

The local R35 photographed by Vanq that caused a storm in Singapore, percolated over to NAGTROC and even Speedhunters.

I even have a friend that sprayed his S15 matt black a la Rauh Welt and given that the guy thrash his car regularly at Sepang, you know the looks are suitably cool.

This Porsche Carrera isn't half bad either.

Performance cars going fast, looking tough and incognito. That's all good.

But when I see Kia Ceratos, Honda Crossroads and other econoboxes doing the look, with CHROME RIMS adding to the insult, you just know that it became just too much of a good thing.