First Japanese Turbo

Before I left for UK, there was one member whose Celica had a heart attack and passed away. The owner who was preparing for an upgrade saw that as a chance and decided not to fix the engine but decided to take upon the task of transplanting a new heart. His choice of heart is non other than the Toyota 3SGTE engine found in the famous MR2, GT4 Celicas and Caldina.

The 2.0 turbo engine has always been a favourite in the Toyota world besides the 1jz and 2jz from Supra. Since it has been allocated in the Celica GT4 variants since the 5th generation, it has been the in the wish list of 7th generation Celica. This project has been done in a few places but it was the first attempt in Malaysia. Many have doubt the possibility and the possible outcome. When I left,  it was in no progress but now it is out on the road and approved by the government.

As soon as the news of its completion reached me, it was something I had to see with my own eyes. The time has finally came for me to not only see the beast but drive the beast as well. Upon researching on the engine specs, you will know it is very fast engine but I never expect the ride that it gave me. I am very rusty with my manual driving but even I could drive it easily because of its soft clutch.

The power delivery is smooth unlike other Japanese turbo car I have come across with and there is no turbo lag that is famous on Evos. Even in the 4th gear, power would come just by pressing the pedal without the need to shift gears. The lightweight of 7th generation does help too. Overall it gave me the feeling that I could drive this car daily without much difficulty. Unbelievably smooth and tame yet powerful. He sure prove many people wrong. I hope I could have this too but from a ST205 Celica instead of his ST215 Caldina..

Sightings from East Side

I have been to Sabah, East Malaysia for the past 4 days and as usual my eyes are ready to make sightings of the auto situation over there. This was my first time there but I've heard about how majority of the cars there are big car with many trucks. I brought this insight along with me and wondered what kind of big cars await my arrival.

There is some truth in that statement as I did saw many big cars from trucks like Mitsubishi Triton, Toyota Hilux and Isuzu D-Max to SUVs like Toyota Land Cruiser, Toyota Rush and MPVs like Toyota Alphard and Vellfire. However, as it is part of Malaysia, there are also many Protons and Peroduas. Smaller sedans seems to be missing though.

I am more interested in the sports car situation there. I read about members of JDM sports car club about having members there. So there should be sports car running around. My first encounter was the car seller there. There was a lot of JDM sports like Subaru Impreza, Nissan Fairlady 350z, Nissan Skyline V35 and Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X.

So, the supply is there but is there demand for these beauties ? I did not have much luck seeing sports car being driven but I did make some sightings. I saw one white Toyota Celica with nice body kit. I was surprise to see one Toyota sports as they are not popular and in the outskirts area. Then there was a Nissan Fairlady 350z with stickers and a few Toyota Caldina.

The other surprise was the amount of Nissan Skyline V35 I spotted there. It is hard to find one here but I've spotted 3 there and a few for sale. I even saw one as a wedding car. There has to be a reason for its popularity there. I did not have many chances to snap photos of the sports car scene to share. It is really too bad. Maybe the sports car scene there is more hidden than a tourist could find.