We’re back from the track, and after getting sunburnt and fizzed out (no thanks to the long queue waiting for the Pitwalk), we’re back to report on the situation in Sepang! Arriving on the scene early in the morning, we were greeted by ominious dark clouds over the track and wind speeds of up to 30km/h. Manuevering into one of the last parking bays located near the Yokohama drift area, the track was rather devoid of spectators, as the time and weather was perfect reason for waking up at a later time. Unlike yesterday, the booth areas around the mall were now occupied by exhibitors, with Toyota showing off their TRD Vios which is retailing at nearly RM100k, although it is loaded with TRD goodies and a warranty from the factory. More images will be uploaded later, in a seperate post containing the most-wanted images on the planet right now, the GT Queens! For now, enjoy the gallery and highlights we have setup for you after the jump.

Bibendum was caught lepaking around with several members of the fairer sex.

The first practice session for the Super GT cars gave the fans a spectacle to watch, especially with the cool weather. However, when the raindrops started falling down, the cars were having a difficult time staying on the track as most of them were running intermediate tires and others were on full slicks. It didn’t help that the rain was falling down worse than cats and dogs with the soaked track looking more like a shallow wading pool due to the huge amount of water.

The reflection of the cars make for a great image, even if some of them were having difficulties with traction, especially on these high-powered RWD machines. As you will see in the gallery below, some even had short excursions off-track into the grass! The rain was really heavy at this time, and officials closed the track for a good 15 minutes in order to drain the excess water from the surface.

- At this point of time, we were busy capturing images of the GT Queens, so we’ll just fast-forward to the late afternoon races as well as the pit walkabout, shall we? :p -

One of the eventual winners of the Aston Martin Asia Cup. These Baby Vantages were not as fast as the other cars on the track, but they do emit a great sound thanks to the unconstrained V8 power.

During the Pit Walkabout, we could get up close and personal with the mechanics, managers and even drivers. Here’s a GT300 machine getting prepped up during the one hour break.

Max Orido chilling out in front of the pits.

During lunch, we checked out the drifters which were showing off their stuff in the parking lot opposite the track entrance. Two A31 Cefiros were duking it out in a tandem battle, giving the small crowd a good show. Here’s Joe-Han from Drift House in the black car and Din Nismo in the yellow car. This would be one of the earlier events where we get to see Joe-Han’s newly-resurrected Cefiro which is powered by a Nissan V8 engine!

Here’s a gallery where you’ll get to see more Super GT action as well as other pictures taken during the Pit Walkabout. Check back tomorrow for results and stuff!!

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An update from the track for those who were at work and for those who were lazy enough to collect their pre-booked tickets to the Super GT Weather was hot with slight drizzle on the way to SIC, although at the track itself, its the usual Sepang weather which is extremely hot, sunny and windy at the same time. For those who are planning to visit the track tomorrow, bring your sunscreen and a hat! Here’s what happened from 2pm on Friday. Above is last year’s winning car, the Autech/Motul Nissan 350Z. More below!

Visitors to the track will immediately see the Mutiara Motors booth, showcasing their RX8. While the bodykit looks nice and all, visitors are not allowed to touch the cars.

Who wants some Denso Iridium Power lovin? XD

Further into the building, you’ll see the Nissan pavilion which showcases the GT-R and the latest 370Z. The booths are managed by Tan Chong Motors, so this could be a sign that you will be able to purchase these cars with a manufacturer’s warranty soon.

Some close-ups of the 370Z, which is still rare in this part of the world. Nice stock rims, I would say, although the headlamps are slightly disappointing. Blame that on my taste though.

Okay, not really a road-legal GT-R, but hey, while all other teams were preparing their cars, we spotted this specimen undergoing a tuneup on the track.

Do not cross this particular marshal! He controls right about a gazillion horsepower just by waving a puny sign The GT3 qualifying sessions were held today. Lots of exotic machinery which I can’t afford ever trashing it out and wailing at high revs on the track.

A fine Italian bull makes it way around the track. The V10’s noise is like music to the ears compared to the 911 GT3’s harsh wailing boxer. Speaking of which….    

Yeah, there’s a huge amount of 911s in a the GT3 Asia race.

Manabu Orido’s WedsSport Lexus IS350 in the pits.

An expensive race car, this Mosler is. A brand new machine purchased by Thunder Asia Racing, this is the car’s maiden race, driven by a Singaporean, Melvin Choo and Martin Short from Mosler. The price of the GT3 race car only? GBP225000 with VAT!!! That’s RM1.3 Million without anything else, and while I’m sure that the Nissans are hovering around the same price, they have factory backing (well, most of them anyways).

Yo momma so fat, she needs these rims on her powered wheelchair!!!!

Looks like a typical Japanese backyard. I don’t know why the pools are there, but here’s another one;

No, it was not filled up with engine oil or something. Below are the shots taken during the Formula V6 Asia qualifying. Check out the flame-spitting cars!

And a driver spun out for a while, resulting in a hairy miss at this infamous turn.

Outside the track, a parking area was reserved for Yokohama, who will be setting up a drift circuit tomorrow (Saturday). Keiichi Tsuchiya, Orido and wild man Taniguchi will be there as well, here how it looks!

We also spotted some drifters getting ready for the day’s offerings;

Yeap, Leona, Din Nismo and Lok Sifu were there, chilling out and testing out the track. Expect some hot action tomorrow!! That’s all for now, see you at Sepang, and stay tuned for more updates from the Super GT race when we come back!

A VERY empty track after several accidents and red lights all around. Last weekend’s open track day did not go as smoothly as the other trackdays so far this year; a couple of accidents happened, a car caught on fire, a F430 had an oil spill which made other cars spin out and then some. What an exciting weekend! Here are some images we whipped up in a gallery for you guys; no major post-processing as usual =D

Oh hai there! The pit lane looked like this when we arrived at 2.30pm. Several accidents already took out a few minutes from the total session and this latest wait was the longest the participants had to wait. Do I see a stock Altis in the mix? Oh yes, I do!

Amongst the participants, which included this rather rare Renault Megane in the limited edition F1 colors…the Renaultsport 230 Renault F1 Team R26 (according to Wiki) has 230bhp and 310Nm @ 5500rpm and 3000rpm respectively. Definitely cool in a car that weighs 1.3 tons (kerb).

Audi TT tuning goodness…..

Fixing your car when it’s broken is a must when you’re gathering data for the upcoming 1000km and MME! Instead of bonnet pins, this team uses duct tape to hold the hood down –________-

A mean-looking EG could be even meaner if it was finished in a camo paint scheme!

A track-attack Mini Cooper which has been extensively modified. We don’t know what’s lurking under the one-piece front end, but it sure looks huge, considering that the front tires are at least 245mm wide…

Is there a better way to spend the weekend than with a bunch of like-minded petrolheads at the track?

This SEG’s rear end does filter the air as good as its sponsor. Talk about maximum weight reduction for a track car….

Helmet on rad.

The usual upgrades to the cockpit. Deep-dish steering is great for drifting too!

A startled driver takes a break while the accidents are cleared up.

Friends always comment on situations like these; no better than LDP during rush hour! XD

Near-stock 1.3 1.6 Persona! woot! (thanks to kamilnutcase)

This baby blue FD2 is nearing its Type-R conversion completion. A real K20A resides in that bay!

Our neighbors from down South took the opportunity to release some pent-up speed.

This Swift Sport has a really nice wheel fitment.

One of my fav Forester body styles. There weren’t that many Subies this time around, although they did defend their territory pretty well.

A C21 Saga with a butt that’s tertonggeng. Surprisingly it handled well on the track. My experiences with these snap-oversteer happy machines were rather scary.

Somebody was keeping really tight leads on their times…can you guess who?

Why, its none other than your drifting royalty himself! Tengku Djan was probably preparing for the MME.

This Fiat Bravo’s owner was rather paranoid of showing his plates off, but over here at MCSB, we’ll censor your plates for you, so chill!

The fastest privately-owned machine was there too! It’s still as fast as ever, taking sweeping turn 3 and turn 5 with the gripping power of AWD…

Our boy Wan getting ready to go out; he suffered bulging brake lines and soggy pedal feel, so instead of risking it all, he retired about an hour before the session ended.

Such a lovely deep purple does not belong on the track! I’ll only get chips and scratches from slicing the air at speeds of over 200km/h on the straights.

This M3 driver’s pain can be felt. Colliding with the tire barrier and leaving them tire marks all over your precious M3 is…ouch.

Tengku Djan preparing to leave the pits in his Satria Neo R3.

You guys would probably know the owner of this car better than I do.

Leon giving me that blur stare as he visualizes the corners of the track……yeaaa right….

I love the fitment and offset of the rims on this flying vag. Perfect is one word. Intimidating it is, too…..

The EK was about to overtake the Subie, no joke!

Is that Ivan Lau in his Silvia?

This Alfa Romeo 155 is pretty fast!

The familiar M3 CSL also made an appearance and buzzed this particular blogger after the toll plaza heading towards KL when the track session is over.

DORIYA!!!!!!!!!! This Cyber-Evo kitted, well, Evo was caught powersliding out of turn 2, with all four wheels slipping.

I find this image rather striking; both the car and the track has the Jalur Gemilang motif, not that I’m overtly nationalistic.

Leon out with his KE70 riding on old-school Longchamps rims.

A Sentra with an Evo 3 bumper….hmmmm. Too bad we do not have the SE-R variants here, that would rock!

This car had quite the crash at turn 4. Both airbags were deployed, but thankfully, no-one was seriously injured. We then moved on to another exciting part of the track at turn 5 where we could see how fast the cars were when they negotiated around the fast left-handed corner. Here are more shots from our perch!

This is a normal sight at events with 150+ participants; the slow entry into the pit lane was akin to one of the infamous highway congestions that we have.

The Corona was overtaking the SEG when this shot was taken!

A stock City on the track. The driver should be having some fun on his own!

The 155 gave this Lotus Elise a real good run for its money! It was attacking from the outer line and beautifully maintained its grip through the sweeper, matching the much more nimbler car in pace! Great driving there, mate!

That’s all for now, do check back sometime later this week for even more images! Your car might be in there!

Speaking of death penalties, it’s time for the owner of this new GT-R to experience something more than the sound of high speed air at full throttle once Ah Heng is done with its stock mufflers. With the rear jacked up like that, the view is quite similar to seeing an upskirt in real life, for car engineers, that is. Such a compact 7-speed box! Intricately-designed diffusers! Coolers that tuck into the diffusers for increased efficiency, and a whole lot of cables and pipings routed in the neatest way. It’s not everyday that you get to see a GT-R on the streets, let alone peek underneath its (side)skirts!! Just another day at the workshop…