Spotted in Thai

I was at Bangkok, Thailand for a week due to work and spotted a few cars that are worth the mention. These cars are cars owned by employees of my customer and that is why I could take photos of these cars easily. First up that caught my attention is the previous model of Toyota Yaris. In the beginning, it looks just like any Yaris especially from the front but when I looked that the rear, I was attracted to it. It has a nice rear bumper and has a huge exhaust muffler and this leads me to wonder whether is this a TRD Toyota Yaris that comes originally with a turbo engine from TRD ? I could not confirm this fact because I have no access to the engine bay and Toyota prefers top mount intercooler. So, there is no way to be sure but in the interior, I was greeted by a pair of what I believe to be a Recaro SR3 seats. Disappointed by the auto transmission though but nice to see a set of TRD T3 rims, which is seemingly rare in Malaysia.

Next up, is a 1995 - 2000 Honda Civic Coupe SiR.  This was the first time I have seen one because only a handful made it to Malaysia and it is way way before my time. The first view of the car I had of it was the sides and it got me wondering what car has such a nice line and shape. My first guess would be some old BMW 3 series, maybe a e36 or e46. Then, the driver came out of the car and I saw nice red seats and a row of gauges. It even have a sports steering wheel that can be removed. Although it is not exactly a Type R like its sibling, the EK9 Honda Civic Type R, the red seats that mimics a must have ingredient in a Type R interior is very fitting. Personally, I prefer a coupe more than a hatchback. A coupe Civic Type R would have been awesome.

You might thought that although the Civic SiR coupe is not a real Type R, now we have a Type R entry. Well that was what I thought at first when I saw this beautiful DC5 Honda Integra. I love the exterior, the ings side skirt and rear bumper that I loved most among all the DC5 bodykit. What is special of this Integra is the add-on fender piece and brightly colored rims that holds wide tires that could see out of the fenders. The grip on this car has to be really awesome but when I look closely at the front rims, I noticed the missing red Brembo 4 pot caliper brakes. I then realized that this Integra is just a Type S. I peeked at the interior and could not locate the red Recaro SR3 that is supposed to come with every Type R. Nevertheless, it is a nice looking pre-facelift DC5 Integra.

There are other moments where I saw nice JDM sports car but could not get a photo of it. I saw a ZZT231 Toyota Celica like the one I used to drive and a R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R. I guess Thailand is not only the country where you can get parts and mod for just any car but the JDM car scene is pretty huge too. I thought only the R35 Nissan GTR is the only JDM still much alive in Bangkok. It has been years since my last visit. Maybe the streets are full with Toyota 86 too, since Toyota is very popular in Thailand. 

Long Distance Trip

The last time I travelled long distance in my Mazda 6 to Malacca, I had a rather scary incident involving the Auto Cruise (link to the story). I had to make another trip to a further state to a town named Batu Pahat in the state of Johor. The trip takes around 500 km two ways and with my problem of falling asleep in the afternoon, I decided to drive quickly at an average speed of 160 km/h. Although proven in the other post regarding the Auto Cruise that the Mazda 6 is very fuel efficient especially when using the Auto Cruise. However, I was a bit skeptical of the mileage I could achieve this time while speeding. I was surprised when I managed to clock 601 km from 53 liters of petrol at an average speed of 160 km/h. This tells me that even at a high speed and without Auto Cruise, the Mazda 6 is definitely something special. I am very confident with what kind of setting where my Mazda 6 can perform efficiently. So confident, that I miscalculated another time. 

On my second trip to Batu Pahat again, I drove like I did the last time and expect similar mileage but this time I used the Auto Cruise more often. Half tank gone and I found out I have better mileage than the first trip by using the Auto Cruise. However, my problem started when I was around 80 km away from home. The same thing that happened during my Malacca Trip occurred again. I was again in the situation where there was no bar left on the fuel gauge and the remaining trip meter has reached 0. I quickly turned on the Auto Cruise and set in at 70 km/h and started rolling. After going on what seems like a very long journey, I started to panic because I could not find any petrol station and I keep getting the feeling that my reserve fuel is almost gone. Praying for the next petrol station to appear, I finally saw a sign that states that the nearest petrol station is 10 km away. I saw hope and keep rolling forward but it seem endless and I panicked again. By the time I finally reached the petrol station, I was relieved and saw that I broke the previous record and totaled 628.5 km with 54 liters of petrol. 

Once again proven that the Mazda 6 deserves a title of one of the most fuel efficient car despite its size and engine size. 2 thumbs up. However, I really wish the "almost out of petrol, rolling to find petrol station" situation will never happen to me again. Definitely can live longer without the stress of such situation.