I was always told that supercar owners are cocky and don’t give a shit about you unless you drive an equivalent car or better, that they think they own the road and that all other drivers should move aside when their bi-xenons appear in your rear view mirror,
but what we all encountered over the weekend was both humbling and entertaining.
The guys at Porsche Club Malaysia are even friendlier than my neighbor, even when we had our cameras right up their faces for most of the day they happily posed for us and were sporting enough for drive by shots. It was a great experience driving on great roads with great drivers in equally great cars.
After everyone gathered at BHP Gombak, we headed towards the east coast highway and were on it all the way till the Gambang exit after which came the great coastal roads of Malaysia, famous for their narrow twisties and potholes in the middle of your line. And not forgetting the occasional suicidal bikers coming from the other side of the road without helmets, almost makes you feel like you’re in a different country.
We stopped by and rendezvous at Gambang town to replenish our petrol tanks and for quick visit to the loo before heading off again.
We did great time covering the coastal roads but ended up getting caught in the middle of a traffic jam caused this time by bikers as well, but of a different kind. We were caught in the middle of Le Tour De Langkawi and suddenly the Porsche’s were out of place. Supercars should never be subjected to traffic jams, it’s just cruel. It’s like caging up a lion in this case, over 300 horses per car times that by 10 cars, a minimum of 3000 horses caged!!
But with some skillful maneuvering and respectful sense of direction, we were once again on our way to a great drive. Some of us got caught in the middle of a Porsche Turbo vs. BMW M3 CSL battle, but I don’t mind getting caught in such battles all the time, it was nerve wreckingly fun, all in the name of great driving.
Rompin is a quiet town, too quiet for some but great for some R & R and that’s what we did, at first. The resort is everything a resort with a golf course next to the sea should be, comfortable and relaxing. 3 chalets were allocated to the Zerotohundred crew.
The rest of the afternoon was quiet, short drives for dinner, some swimming for the kids, and ultimately, a small party attended by everyone in the convoy, chatting, joking and laughing by the side of the beach with 15km/h gusts of wind, suddenly KL didn’t seem very homey.
The next day started early, without any hangovers surprisingly, after a filling breakfast at the hotel we were supposed to get our hands on some ATVs only to find out that all of them had broken down, just our luck. Not being ones to be let down and after some creative thinking, we ended up driving to a nearby hotel to use their facilities; Buggies, Futsal court, Table tennis, Badminton and the sort. Now believe me when I say that we are not the sporting type, never were and I guess never will be unless its motor sports, but on that particular day, we were all over the Futsal court pulling our own version of Cristiano Ronaldo tricks. The table tennis was subjected to tremendous abuse as all of us had our go, we cursed and laughed and sweat like no other time before, it was quite fun considering we never do such things.
After a good 2 hours there, lunch was served and we went on to check out an airstrip not far from our resort, where a bike drag race was taking place. It was also the place where a car drag race was going to happen but I’m not going to reveal that as yet because what we saw there deserves its own space in this article. It was Mat Rompins at their best!
They were dragging their naked (literally) bikes like there was no tomorrow. It was pretty scary watching them because their bikes looked and sounded like it was going to blow up at any seconds, takes some big kahunas to race them.
We even managed to get our car stuck in the sand on the way out across the sandy ground but it’s all in the name of great journalism and to bring you guys exclusive coverage. We then made our way back to the hotel only to come back out again, changed and fresh.
This time we were heading to a local primary school for the greater good; the members of Porsche Club Malaysia were going to hand out ‘ang-pows’ to the local children and to single mothers and also to give them rides in their supercars.
As soon as we reached the school, chaos erupted, children screaming, cameras clicking, smiles, laughter, it was an event to behold. The kids were going wild at the sight of their dream cars, I was actually worried that one of the 8 year olds would attempt to bugger off with one of the Porsches, but I have to admit to not doing anything to prevent it, I just clicked away.
After handing out the ang-pows, it was time to hit the streets, with Porsches full of kids, teachers and mothers. I smile while writing this because it was truly funny, and we are glad to be able to be there to cover the event.
Naturally the kids asked for more rides and the Porsche Club members admirably obliged, very commendable and a total contradiction of what supercar owners are said to be.
The next day was drama filled because it was the day that the Porsches were scheduled to participate in the local drag scene and they were up against the locals in their EGs, EKs, Turbo Satrias & Wiras and you can just imagine the type of cars the Porsches were up against, even the mighty Cayenne Turbo was challenged.
The drag strip is made out of about 800 meters of abandoned airstrip that has been repaved with tar, though it’s not very wide because its primary use seems to be for bike drags but it was good enough to accommodate two cars. It was truly like a scene out of a movie, the drag strip runs vertically towards the beach of course with enough space for cars and bikes to slow down, the final 350 meters consists of unpaved sea sand, very Hollywood.
The drag race was exceptional, the organizers lined up Porsche vs Porsche, Porsche Turbo vs Honda EG Turbo, Porsche Turbo Cabriolet vs Satria Turbo, Cayenne Turbo vs Honda EK, but sadly for all you Japanese car fans out there, the Germans conquered effortlessly. Nevertheless it was all for good showmanship and 20 bucks side bets by the locals.
Right after the tyre burning drag session, Datuk Seri Jamaluddin Jarjis dropped by the resort to meet us, in a cool black chopper! We pretty much took charge and managed to get the Porsches to line up and pose with the chopper. Quite a unique experience as it is not everyday you have a chopper in the picture and the line up was really expensie, like 8 figures expensive, so nothing could go wrong.
So after the photo-shooting session, we from zerotohundred decided to call it a day and head back to KL while members of the Porsche Club headed to Pekan for lunch. We chose not to join them and relied on our GPS system to get us safely back to KL. Safely we did reach but the stupid GPS thingy brought us back through the coastal roads instead of highways.
The roads were nice, with bends and very minimal traffic, but the road condition was painful, with stiffer suspension and a short wheelbase, our ride back home was a 3 hour roller coaster ride of dips and bends, our heads banging against the head rests and windows and all sorts of things, we got home safe only to get sick the next day but it was all worth it.
