Mini Enthusiasts Malaysia (MEMAS)

Hello everybody

Departing from Kerinchi, at around 7.45, I warmed up my car on the road, till I reach Jalan Duta, where I met a slow-cruising Volvo 1800 "The Saint", the only one in Malaysia with a left hand drive, owned by bro Michael "Simon Templer" Sundram. We stopped for a while, together with a black vintage MG car, and waited for Col Elias to arrive 5 minutes later with his light blue Cooper S. Then we head straight for Projet Gombak together.

Two or three minis were already there, and later several more arrived. There was even a Perodua Kelisa, a Daihatsu Mira Cuore variant, with Sportspack and 7x13inch wheels fitted, to cope up with Minis I assume, driven by Jack Alsaari. There was also a Bufori Madison, the first generation Bufori car, and more.

We were then joined by much newer cars, several 2 door Fiats, Mazda Miatas, and several Peugeots, even a BMW Z3. Read all about their version of the drive at their website

At 9.15am, we depart after a nice little briefing. turns out that Col Zaki really had a different thing in mind. Instead of turning to the Karak highway interchange, he went straight ahead, back to Ampang. At first I thought he was to follow a different route to Karak, but he actually wanted to follow the full
reverse route. In other words, anti clockwise. Our group consists of Col Zaki, Sam, Imran & partner, Ismail Bahari, Kassim and daughter, myself, Michael Sundram and Jack & Rose, and another member (name unknown) using the mini plated cbf44.

We reached Ampang underpass in no time at all. A brief stop at a Mobil petrol station in front of Ampang traffic police building to make sure everybody is following us. There were nine or ten cars altogether in our slower "fast" group. The faster group, with new cars making up most of the number, I'm sure, is following the exact clockwise route, so we expect to meet them somewhere along
the way. Then after everybody has parked, we drive again. the route is somewhat unfamiliar to me, but as soon as we reached Nirvana memorial park, a Chinese burial ground, then it becomes quite familiar already. Suddenly I felt that I was last. Driving a standard 998 (see my car) I sure couldn't keep up with all the other 1275 minis, including "The Saint" Sundram's 1800cc Volvo. Ever so
suddenly, I'm at the rearmost, while we do fast paced cornering at the winding road near Semenyih dam.

The T junction at the end of the short drive, everybody has stopped. We stop too. Then Jack instructed me and bro Michael to go first, since we are so slow. I jumped at the chance, but seeing bro Michael already accelerating, I felt bad already. I sure can't manage to overtake him, even at all those long straights, but I try to not think about it. This involves a short 3-4km road beside the Semenyih dam lake, and then back to uphill and downhill winding drive. At the short drive, bro Michael Sundram's car, which has a funny siren sounding horn, did shock to two riders of two small "kapcai" bikes, which the leading bike is so shocked, he lost his balance. Luckily he managed to really slow down before throwing himself sideways onto the side railing. He must have been very angry with us. Lucky I saw him not having any injury, only shocked.

While driving, there's this daredevil white proton Wira, who tried to overtake us at all those corners. He tried very hard though, but I though it was useless, coz in no time should he encounter a bigger traffic, so better drive relaxed.

In around ten minutes, I saw Jack's group who earlier stopped, and they merged with us, the other eight cars already overtaking me and bro Michael. What to do, let them overtake.

We stopped at Jelebu, for our late morning snacks, at around 11.00. The car CBF44, which Sam had attended to at Projet earlier, had problem again, once at projet station, and again the problem arises at Jelebu stop, just before Kuala Klawang. Sam told us it was the problematic carburettor jet being the culprit. That same car also throws out lots of petrol from the petrol tank, especially when cornering. At around 11.45, we departed again for Simpang Pertang.

In this drive, we encounter several long straights, which we took to the fullest the opportunity by driving very fast, at around 130km for me, but the others are even faster. Can't imagine, everybody else is like doing 140 or 150 at that long stretch beside the rice field. even the rice planters turned their heads quite fast also, which makes me think, damn, we are quick!

Sam, as always, remains the fastest of all, while both Col Zaki and Kassim seems comparable to each other, while the others seems like normal 1.3 Minis. Me and bro Michael became the slowest, as usual, wish I had a 1480 Richard Longman engine! Some of Sam's antics are several overtaking stunts with his 300-degree cam car, while going uphill and at the same time while cornering, overtaking several cars at once, and reenters just before a corner. He did this countless times.

We stumbled upon Col Elias' group at around 12pm, several kilometers before reaching Kuala Klawang. Me, being a prolific horn tooter, toots my air horn. They replied as expected. I did saw around 5 cars first, then another 2 or 3 cars way at the back. I didn't happen to see Col Elias though, but Col Zaki later told me, he's leading the group. I must've missed him.

We reached Bentong in around 1.30pm. we are already expecting to eat lunch, so we wasted no time. Bro Michael was already poking fun at rose's selection of fish, to be exact ikan patin, saying it wasn't handsome enough. I ordered nasi goreng kampung, which was quite hot and spicy, but nice nevertheless. Then we went for Bentong Ice Kacang.

After the ice cream treat at Bentong, we drive back to KL, except for Sam Daud, who I think, went shopping. We went the other way round, and this time, the disappearing act began again. I was outrun big time. I saw no one in front of me anymore. this persisted even until we reached Karak highway. I got quite upset, and my car was 3/4 in the temperature gauge, while I was doing 130kph. Lucky it stays there. I felt that I want more action.

At the Bentong toll booth, I did saw The Saint's Volvo, but as I was far behind the queue, he disappeared again. My mind was deciding already, whether to continue the Karak highway or to do cornering exercise again, this time alone. I decide the latter, when I saw myself entering MTD Rest Area near the Sempah tunnel, and went straight up to Jalan Bentong-Gombak Lama. Being very short on gas, as according to the petrol gauge, and I did want to fill up later, I gambled and drove the 20km winding stretch. the road felt new, not like I used to drive here, last July 2002. In no time, I reached the uphill bridge, where we can see a very panoramic view of Karak highway. I decided not to stop, thinking that I will come this way again someday. I drove relaxed this time, aware of my
petrol shortage. in no time, I reached the cement factory, and then the aboriginal village at outer Gombak. Actually I did drove slower this time as the left cornering makes the 13inch right tyre scrapes out the wing like nobody's business.

I drove very leisurely at Gombak until I reached the UIA junction, and turns towards UIA, then enters Middle Ring Highway. I stop just before entering the highway, took with me a flashlight and opened my gas tank, taking care to switch it on first before removing the cap, and look inside. Actually there's around 5 liters or something still inside (I think) and went straight to my office in Wangsa Maju for prayers. Reached office at 4.10pm

Out from the office, it's around 6pm. I went straight for the Wangsa Melawati Petronas, and filled around 22liters of gas. I calculated around 290km of driving with a single fill up, thus I got fuel consumption of around 13km per liter, which I think was okay for an old, 29 year old clubman. What's more, we are not driving relaxed, we are fully pushing our minis.

That's all my write up for the trip. It was a nice one, albeit quite incomplete, and I'm hoping to plan one trip of a similar vein, sometimes later.

Muaz CK