Mega Convoy for Super GT 2009 - Part 1

This is gonna be a wordy blog post. Pics will be uploaded in another post.

A week has passed since the Super GT 2009 event in Sepang. Our MLOC President organized a really huge convoy of Japanese sports cars to the Super GT. Kudos to the Club Presidents and the committee members of MLOC, Subaru Club, Silvia Club, Fairlady Club, Integra Type R Club and Caldina Club for the success of this convoy. Many thanks to PDRM, especially Ketua Polis from IPK Shah Alam who led our convoy with 2 PDRM Mitsubishi Evolution X and also the outriders who helped to control the traffic.

This was my first big convoy and it was really fun!!! I think there were about 180 cars that morning. MLOC KL members was to gather before the Seafield toll plaza at 7:30am to wait for members from Melaka and Johor. This meant that I had to drag my lazy ass off of my bed at 5:30am in the morning to meet Kepong/Damansara members for breakfast at SS2 Pelita at 6:30am. I looked like a zombie, needless to say when I reached SS2 for breakfast.

MI's car had a radiator leak which we couldn't identify where was the leak. He had already top up 2 bottles of 1.5 litre but the water seems to just disappear. Anyway, we all agreed to behave and drive slowly to Seafield to meet the others. We were there at 7:30am right on the dot and MI had to open his bonnet to top up the fluids in his radiator again. Of course, being the monkeys and assholes that we are, we all teased him for opening the bonnet and showing us his engine bay. LOL!!!

Other MLOC KL members started showing up followed by the southern members. As fate would have it, only ONE toll booth for ticket was open. Imagine the queue of about 40 of us, all waiting to take the ticket. Anyway, once we all cleared the toll, we headed towards the USJ rest area (near the USJ Go-Kart circuit) to meet up with the other car clubs.

After a safety briefing and also some "reminders" on the rules that many of us are breaking (fancy number plates, dark tinted windows, noisy exhausts), the weather decided to screw with us by pouring for... 10 minutes. Fuck!!! It always rains when I wash my car. Anyway, we were all lining up and getting ready to start the convoy. I'm not too sure which club went out first but we were the last car club to exit from the rest area right after the Subarus. There was even a photographer taking pics of every car that is rolling out into the Elite highway.

Then it came to my turn. I was pretty nervous as the Ketua Polis was right at the exit, flagging us off and due to my twin plate clutch, I had a hard time to feather the throttle lightly so I don't stall my engine and look like an idiot or look like I'm showing off by revving up right in front of him. Anyway, I couldn't afford to have my car jerking like it's gone berserk so I went heavy on the throttle and power out into the highway.

This is when it gets interesting. The Evo 5 in front of me probably had about 10 to 15 seconds head start max before I was out on the highway AND IT WAS NOWHERE TO BE SEEN. Wow!!! Bearing in mind that my turbo couldn't hold boost properly as my actuator seemed to be jammed, I had already set a lower boost warning to 1.1 bar so I don't blow my turbo and blast shrapnel from my exhaust into the car behind me.

I gave chase and shifted around 5k rpm, way below the redline of 7k rpm and in no time I was in 6th gear. I watched the speedo rise from 140 to 160 to 180 and right up to about 220 but THERE WERE STILL NO SIGN OF THE CAR!!! WTF??? How fast are those guys going? I figured I had held 210-220kmh for about 5 minutes or so before I could see those guys in front. These guys are really having a lot of fun flooring it!!! Ok, I had fun flooring it also. And then came the first chesticle experience.

Have you ever felt so much fear that your balls shrink like all the way up to your chest? I call that the chesticle experience. When I caught up with those guys in front, I had lifted off the throttle and we were probably cruising around 180kmh and I maintained around 10 car distance as I'm a bit paranoid and don't wish to merge my Voltex front into the Evo 5 rear ahead.

Suddenly, the Evo 5 in front of me started to get real close. Either I'm suddenly gaining speed or the car in front of me is rapidly losing speed. I jammed on the brakes and in a frenzy, downshifted furiously to stop my car from turning into a halfcut. Thank God for ABS as I didn't lock up any of the wheels. At the same time, I was praying that the blue Evo behind me don't slam into my rear as well!!! I think I was probably an inch away from the Evo 5 when my car had fully stopped. The guy behind me must be pretty close to my rear bumper too, judging from the fact that I can see his wide eyes and his face clearly from my rear view mirror. A few Evos had to take evasive measures and they swerved to the middle lane for more braking room. I could feel the sweat on my palm and realized that I was breathing heavily. I had no idea why they suddenly braked so hard but it was a very close call.

Being a little more paranoid than ever, I made sure I was driving a little bit slower this time, below 180kmh and kept the same distance and like some D grade movie re-runs, it happened again. Suddenly everyone was braking hard and this time, I was better prepared and managed to stop with a safer distance of... a few inches. A few more Evos shot past on my left side, braking like crazy. I could hear them downshifting hard to cut the speed also. This time, it was due to road works. A 3 lane highway turned into a 2 lane and to make matters worse, a truck had overturned, turning it into a 1 lane road.

Godamnit!!! Are those guys for real? Its Super GT weekend and there will be A LOT of cars using that road. How could they close it off for road works? It even caused the accident and nearly caused a long pileup of Evos. Fuck the idiot who gave the order to do the road works on that day. Later on, I heard that there was a kid who was lying by the roadside covered with blood. The poor kid must have been in the truck, a victim of the stupidity of the idiot who gave the green light for road works.

The rest of the journey was uneventful and we all arrived safe and sound at SIC and all of us queued up to park our cars in the mall area near the grandstand. Apart from the chesticle experience, it was a really fun convoy and I'm really looking forward to the next big one and according to our Mr P, they are already planning the next big one!!!