Tengku Djan

We left the hotel at 630am and it took us 1hr 30mins to get to Satonaikai Circuit situated up in the hills some where in Shikoku. We hitched a ride in Nishimiya’s Celsior (LS460 equivelant) while the mechanics drove up a 2 car loader. It’s really cool. This is the first time i’ve seen a twin deck transporter. Apparently JPJ wouldn’t approve it here in Malaysia.

It’s an awesome little track, and the first corner approach identical to Ebisu circuit but in the opposite direction.

The track was booked for a private function in the afternoon, so we had the morning to carry out testing. I went out for a couple of slow laps, familiarizing myself with the track layout. The car still felt “stiff” which made the movement of the car abrupt. So I decided to make a spring change on the rear axle trying to reduce the stiffness, allowing the car squat on load & potentially increasing mid-corner grip.

Couple of laps into the next session, as I was accelerating down the main straight, i heard a loud bang that came from the engine bay. I got off the throttle immediately, switched of the engine, and coasted back into the pits. I was thinking to myself, “Thats it! how are we gonna fix a blown engine in time for the weekend!”

The guys from Quartermile inspected the engine and lucky enough, found that the exhaust rocker arm on the first cylinder broke. Again, we didn’t have spares, so we had to call it a day and head back to the shop. Looks like we will have to comeback tomorrow morning to continue testing.

Once back at the shop, the guys started work immediately, replacing the rocker arm and this time, installing the rocker arm stopper too. The engine fired back to life later in the evening and was hooked up to the dyno to make sure we had a healthy engine for the weekend.

The stickers were also stuck on later that evening. We didn’t have much time left as we had one last test session in the morning, then final preparation (oil change etc) before the car was transported to Tokyo. It’s a 10 hour drive for the transporter.