Meet the Neo, one of the rare breeds of our highways as no one will bother spending their money to buy a 2 door car nowadays, except for Ah Bengs and racer-boy wannabes (yours truly).
Now the Neo you see up there is different as it spends most of it time sucking in exhaust fumes, and spent its first 3 months of its life crawling along the LDP highway.
I have decided to give this car the proper treatment it deserves, and transform it into a proper street legal track car. But of course this will be done in a very long time span as the owner has no immediate cash to burn.
Before I go down the list of what I have in mind to mod this Neo, I will tell you the damage that is already done by the previous owner.
It is just sad that most of the drivers out there treat their cars as solely cars, some magical being that feeds on dinosaur liquid and can get them from point A to B. They forgot that cars, like humans, consists of 'internal organs' that drives it forward. If one component fails, it will no longer be a car. Take out the liver out from a human, he will no longer be a human.
Now below are the things I have discovered so far (hopefully no more):
1: The Neo started its life as a RED car. Well, I am okay with the color change but some of the interiors are not properly touched up and that is why I know it was a red car.
2: Previous owner fed the car with tap water instead of proper coolant, which caused the radiator to rust inside out. Things were not bad at first, but when we brought up the rusty water issue with the car dealer, they offered to do a radiator flush and things went downhill from there. The mechanic did a half-assed flushing job removed the thermostat and he insisted that it is useless. The next day, I have noticed the car took longer time to warm up and I ranged my uncle for his opinion, which he then said that the mechanic that took the thermostat out should not be a mechanic at all. To cut story short, I installed the thermostat back with a different mech, but another new problem arise. The radiator fan now runs constantly after reaching optimum temperature, but will not go overheat. Somehow the ECU thinks that the car is overheating and constantly instructing the fan to work overtime. BUT when I remove the thermostat again the fan behaves normally. What I suspect now is that the coolant are circulating too slow. Now this could mean: A CLOGGED RADIATOR due to BAD FLUSHING, or my water pump is going out.
3: Previous owner changed the alarm system. I mean what the hell. Why go for those fancy silent alarm system when the original one have immobilizer and all. I don't understand. Because of that I got a bootleg key which says "ITACO" on it. Apparently my car is the ITACO SATRIA NEO. Did I mentioned I only got A key? Yes, I only got a key. Just one. Previous owner sure have a bad habit of losing things.
4: Previous owner installed Ah Beng Exhaust, Rims, Stereo system, Steering. I can live with the exhaust and the rims were pushing the limits but I ripped the goddamn tweeters off and changed the steering to the 14 inch Nardi I had for quite some time.Trust me if I upload the old steering wheel your eyes will bleed bricks.
..and I changed the knob as you can see as the previous knob is damaged. There is an accidental discovery when I install the gear knob. Now, as you can see from the picture above, the shifter actually sits off-center in neutral position, so the black base plate will be off-centered by logic. But I found out that the base plate was installed backwards (which I suspect might be a installation error back at the factory) No wonder the gear change was spongy and stiff from 4 to 5th, the plate was limiting the movement of the shifter!!! Popped the plate back in place, and the shifter is now free to go wherever it wants to go. But from 1 to R only lah trololo.
5: Previous owner did not change lubricant, transmission oil, spark plugs, filter and all the vital consumables. I found out about this when I had the Neo serviced for the first time. The air filter is clogged and dirty as hell, and the lubricant is darker than black. The car was given a new lease of life when driven out from the workshop. How can one be this ignorant on basic car maintenance?? It is like feeding peanuts to a horse and expect it to run all the way to Siberia. And when the horse died of exhaustion, he will then curse the horse for being unreliable.
And so, starting from next month, I will give this car the proper treatment it deserves. Below are some of the things I think is enough for this year's satria neo track car project kick start.
1: ADVANTI 15 Inch Rim and 195/50/R15 RE001 Bridgestone Tires. I actually planned this to be the last upgrade for 2012, but my fellow colleague is letting go of his advanti rims and fresh tires at an unbeatable price. Can't say no when he agreed to accept my installment payment offer. HehHeh.
Heres a rough idea of the rims and the tire.
2: Grounding wires and Voltage Stabilizer. The Neo is famous for its pubertal hormonal imbalance so this might push the car faster towards adulthood. I am now eyeing at a particular DIY Voltage stabilizer and grounding wire over at the LowYatNetwork Forum.
3: Timing Belt Service, Bosch Platinum Spark Plugs with Cable. This is actually a mandatory service, and also an upgrade opportunity. But I'm still researching on what spark plug cables to go for but currently I have the R3 model in mind.
Lightened Crank and Water pump pulley. With this the engine will be relieved of parasitic drag, as these pulleys are a whopping 70%~90% lighter than the original pulleys. Less rotational mass, less effort needed to rev up. Will either go for Works Pulley or generic lightened pulley and R3 for the water pump pulley.
Torco Sr-1 lubricant and RedLine transmission oil. Torco lubricant is the jesus juice of all lubricants. The Neo is hungry for the juice. And the RedLine will keep the gears happy with all the years of abuse.
And last but not least a complete radiator upgrade to:
Forged Racing Aluminium Radiator. I am a little heat-phobic. I do not like my rice served hot. Therefore I want the Neo to be as cool as possible. Maybe the fan will be upgraded to a more durable one. We will see how it goes.
Goal is to make the car ready for a track day next year. With few more upgrade will try my luck in Saturday Night Fever series (fingers crossed).
Well, if you think the upgrades I've made above have better alternatives please let me know as well!
Mengenggam Sanubari Lahir Dalam Lara..............
