Mini-Zs from Kyosho

Lots of people play with RC toys and when these get too boring or break, dump them for actual cars. For myself, that was also the case, however, I still have my Audi Quattro car from my childhood days in my dad's place.


In my case, I have gone back to RC with Mini-Zs. However, like Kyosho has written in their catalog, Mini-Zs can't be called RC Toys. They drive like mini-cars (or 1:28 scale versions) and follow the same driving dynamics because of proportional steering and the way the cars are designed. Well, not really. Mini-Z cars have much more power in proportion to their weight unlike normal cars (power to weight ratio). For example, I can easily break traction and slide on a slippery surface like the wooden floor of my living room especially with the reverse gear which has that much more torque.

A Readyset Mini-Z kit comes with a radio transmitter and a single car cover on a chassis all ready to go except for adding batteries (8AAs and 4AAAs) and screwing in the antenna.

Mini-Zs come in many chassis types -

1. MR-01 (the original config with batteries one on top of another),
2. MR-02 (different battery config and batteries side by side),
3. MR-015 (same battery config as MR-01 but with different/cheaper electronics and no brake) which are rear wheel drive cars, and
4. MA-010 which is front wheel drive.

and mounts - i.e. RM - rear mount "engine"/motor, MM - mid mount, and HM - high mount (actually rear mount also).

I bought a lovely red Lamborghini Jota MR-015MM i-Series (which is kind of like a lower spec Mini-Z for beginners) for $139 in Singapore and a really cool black Enzo MR-02MM. I also got a whole bunch of covers, a red Enzo, a black and a silver Mclaren F1, a black BMW M3 and a white VW Golf GTI - Kyosho calls them Autoscale models just for the heck of it and bcos I love the look of model cars. My plan is to get a display case for the cars plus my other 1:24 scale die-cast models - a black Porsche Carrera, a green Lamborghini Murcielago and a black BMW Z8. I figured since I am hitting middle age and cant afford any of these in real life.. what the heck..

Some links to Mini-Z guides I found..

http://mini-z.home.att.net/

http://www.dansdata.com/miniz.htm

Ferrari Enzo Test Car (Kyosho Mini-Z MR02MM)

The Ferrari Enzo is one of the premier supercars in the world today (out of production) capable of 0-62mph times of 3.6s and a top speed of 217mph. Even though others might be faster e.g. the Mclaren F1 (243mph) and quicker to 62mph i.e. Bugatti Veyron (2.5s, the Bugatti also can reach 254mph), I dont think any supercar can match the sheer looks and presence of the Enzo. Even the name Enzo sounds good. Imagine telling pp that you have a Veyron.. the looks you would get.. what Veron huh... blahaha

Well, I can boast that I have 2 Enzos... a Black Test car version and a Red one for everyday driving.. ha!

Lamborghini Jota (Kyosho Mini-Z MR015MM)

The Lamborghini Jota was a one-off make of the Miura made by one of their ex-employees. Most of the changes made to create the Jota were internal - namely the aluminium construction and the tweaked engine! I loved the Miura, one the sexiest cars ever made (especially the lime green ones) so it was easy to decide that I was going to get a Jota for my first Mini-Z. Plus the fact that the alternative was a really crappy Ford or a Alfa.

I hope the rumors of a new Miura are true, at least the prototypes look cool..

This car, as well as the new HSC concept by Honda are some of my top cars to look forward to in the coming years.

As for the Mini-Z version of the Jota, I usually drive it at home on my shiny wooden floor and the car really likes to do donuts. Cant say I complain about the power as well however full power will make the car skate over the floor. It probably will do well on a proper RCP track since then, it wont skid and slide so much and have much more traction. It runs on an i-Series board which I have not been able to get much documentation on from Kyosho. Seems fine so far.

Bowling..revised and revisited

Bowled quite a lot in Wisconsin. I remember the Point Bowl (http://www.pointbowl.com/) where I still have a yellow free game card when I hit a strike when I got a yellow headpin. People like Rico, Hwee Fung etc introduced me to the game.

In Siemens, we used to bowl quite often, at Jalan Sultan at Textile center. I bought a ball to get "more serious" in the game after I left the co. Not knowing anything about buying a ball (I had only used polyester balls at the bowling alley previously), I headed into the proshop at West Bowl and the pro recommended me a Brunswick Rhino Dusty Blue. At 14 lbs, it was the heaviest ball I had used and it was made of urethane. Using a house ball, I normally used 12 lbs but as the pro explained, a correct drilling would allow me to control a 14lbs ball easily. It was the first time I had ever used a fingertip grip and the drilling gave me a mild hook shot.

Later, my wife bought me a Ebonite 8-ball and 2-ball bag with wheels for my birthday at Victor Superbowl and she got herself a Columbia White Dot. We bowled semi-often mainly at Victors or Marina Superbowl until one day, we just stopped bowling. Too many hobbies I guess.. :p

We just brought Harry to the alley at Warren last Sunday and I think we will start bowling again since he seems to enjoy it.

Planted tanks.. Aquaria!

We will be moving out of our place soon so I thought I would take a picture of our planted tank that I have had for close to 2 yrs. I still remember buying the tank from a guy who stayed in the 4th storey of a HDB block and I carried it back by myself together with the stand. Boy, was I stronger in those days... :)... only 2 yrs ago!

Its a 3ft tank with CO2 and lighting. Keeping an aquarium is supposed to keep you calm and is a good hobby that requires very little time to maintain and upkeep. On average, I replace 1/4 of the water using a siphon every week with fresh water. I wash the external filter (a Atman 3336) and change the filter sponge every 2 months or so.

As its a planted tank, the plants in the tank will make use of the waste materials from the fish to grow and in turn provide oxygen for the fish to breathe. Of course, you have to provde light to the plants in order for photosynthesis to occur - in our case we have some strip lighting that we place above the tank that we switch on about 9 hours a day. Lots of people put an air pump in their fish tank which is totally unnecessary for planted tanks. The fish in the tank dont require much in terms of food and when I am travelling, I can fit an automatic fish feeder that dispenses food every day.

We keep cardinal tetras, striped pencilfish and also corys (panda and leopard) mostly, with some otos and yamatos and a single dwarf puffer which is mostly caged since he likes to snack on the fins of the other fish. Not sure if we can keep the tank or sell/give it away when we move... life is full of decisions...

Next car up... Civic, Golf or ...

After looking at the list of cars endlessly over last few months, the same few cars stand out in my new car search:


Honda Civic 2.0 - around 80k, has pretty ok power (0-100kmh is 9.2 sec) and its the overall practical choice with enough space. Good fuel consumption too. There are tons on the road here in Singapore though... bleah







VW Golf GTI - around 125k, great car with power (0-100kmh is 6.9 sec, DSG version), handling and space but it is pricey, the GT is an option at 99k (0-100kmh is only 1 sec slower)but you will always have that niggling feeling that you should have probably have gotten the GTI.

Mazda MX-5 Miata - I have loved this car from college days. now with a new retractable hardtop, it is even more desirable (0-100kmh is around sec). However, it is hardly practical for a family with one kid and maid so I will have to put it on the backburner until Harry grows up.. It shall be mine...:)...

The pro's racket.. Wilson Pro Staff 6.0

My first racket was an aluminium Dunlop with an oversized head that my dad bought for me when I was 16 yrs old. I dont remember what happened to it only that he borrowed it for a game in Jakarta and it never came back. That was some time ago...

Later, I got myself a Dunlop Max 200g in the vein of Johnny Mac and Steffi Graf. It was was a beautiful racket, full of touch and verve.. however, the head always felt too small, the frame was boxy and boy was it a heavy racket at 13oz or more. I used the 200g throughout my college days and midway (I cant remember exactly when though), I bought a Pro Staff 6.0 to replace it.


My introduction to the Pro Staff 6.0, or PS 6.0 was during my army days while on the tennis team. I remember we were at NUS courts one day and some guy had a PS 6.0 and I tried it out knowing that great players like Edberg, Evert and Courier had used it. A guy called Sampras had not quite broken through yet. Well, my first impression of the racket wasnt good. It felt like a board and my arm hurt afterwards.

No idea why I bought the Pro Staff then a few years later. I bought a pair of PS 6.1s with a 95 sq inch head b4 that and good as those rackets were, I never felt comfortable with them. I sold them on Auction and bought a single PS 6.0 to try out. What a revelation. I must have been too used to the 200g's flex beforehand but the PS 6.0 felt perfect after the 6.1s.

The headsize of the PS 6.0 is really small at 85sq inches. Also, the frame is really thin and manoeuvrable. You cant find a racket like this anymore. I added some lead tape at 9 and 3 oclock and it felt even better on groundstrokes. There was a definite lack of power before I did that. Of course, the weight of the racket did go up to nearly 13 oz again.... but I hardly feel it. I am so used to heavy rackets, whenever I am tempted to get a new racket to replace the PS 6.0 e.g. like the Babolat Aeros or a Wilson K-factor, I give up the idea bcos these rackets feel like plastic toy rackets. I refuse to use the K-factor 90sq incher bcos that is the "Federer" racket and I just dont feel gay enough to use it. :p

Update in Sep 2012 -

I am not sure whether you guys know this but Tennis Warehouse has reissued  the PS85 for a while at http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Wilson_Pro_Staff_60_85/descpageRCWILSON-W6085.html. I grabbed two so my personal PS85 stash is at 6 now.

All time classic songs (occasionally updated)

I always love songs with a great intro.. here's a list some of fav and truly classic songs:

Alphaville - forever young, big in japan, sounds like a melody (1984)
Barry Manilow - mandy
Beach Boys - god only knows
Bee Gees - too many to list e.g. i started a joke, you win again, immortality (not the celine dion version!)
Billy Idol - eyes without a face, sweet sixteen
Bonnie Tyler - total eclipse of the heart (1983)Brenda Russell - piano in the dark, get here (1988)Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music - avalon, slave to love (gotta love those trademark pukka sticks!)
Chemical Brothers - hey boy hey girl
Cowboy Junkies - sweet jane
Cutting Crew - i just died in your arms (1985)
Cyndi Lauper - true colors
Dire Straits - money for nothing, romeo & juliet
Duran Duran - rio
Dave Matthews Band - one sweet world
Eurythmics - again, too many to list e.g. sweet dreams (1983), there must be an angel (1985), angel (1989), no more i love yous
Everything But The Girl or E.B.T.G. - all tracks from "acoustic" (1992)Fire Inc - tonight is what it means to be young, nowhere fast (1984 - from streets of fire, great movie starring diane lane and michael pare)
John Lennon - woman, imagine
Joni Mitchell - both sides now (2000)
Michael Jackson - billie jean
No Doubt - don't speak
Queen - bohemian rhapsody, under pressure
Paul Oakenfold - starry eyed surprise
Prince - when doves cry, purple rain (great great guitar intro..)
Roxette - it must have been love (1990 - from pretty woman)
Richard Marx - endless summer nights (1988)
Simple Minds - don't you forget about me (1985)
Spandau Ballet - through the barricadesSuzanna Vega - luka (1987 - gotta love luca.. my dear nephew)
The Beach Boys - god only knows
The Cardigans - my favorite game
The Eagles - hotel california (only for that guitar/percussion solo opening..)
The Pretenders - i'll stand by you (1994)The Verve - bitter sweet symphony (1997)
Tracy Chapman - fast car, baby can i hold you tonight (1988)

here's a plug for Yahoo's Launchcast, one of my favorite music services which allows you to personalize the songs that you want to hear by rating the music. give it a try!

Photo Organizing Strategy

I've been struggling with this for some time now on my old PC, but with the new one here, I am doing a migration of all our family photos and boy is it ever tough. The problem is, like a lot of people, I have files all over the place in several different hard drives and there are duplicates. I also have several backups and those arent helping. I have problems deleting backups!

My plan now is to create a single master photo repository in my new 320gb hard drive and create a single sync backup on my 200gb USB drive. Now how am I going to organize them and have a good strategy to ensure I can find a photo after a few years. Some of my current thoughts...

a) For events that happened e.g. a party or a vacation,

d:\photos\year\yearmonth_subject (e.g. d:\photos\2007\200701_harrysbirthday)

b) For miscellaneous snaps,

d:\photos\year\subject (e.g. d:\photos\2007\auctionshots)

c) For subjects that I want to track over time,

d:\photos\subject (e.g. d:\photos\harry)

Obviously, for some of these folders, a good naming strategy for the filename needs to be in place - to make the file name unique within the taxonomy. I am going to look for a good batch renaming software. Will keep you guys posted..

Bought my new [photo editing] computer.. at last!

After agonizing over the past month.. reading up on the hardwarezone and vr-zone forums, visiting Sim Lim Square numerous times and poring over price lists from Fuwell, Bell etc.. I finally took the plunge on a new PC.

My old machine - a Pentium 3-733 with 512MB ram had lasted me for some time (7 yrs!), so I wanted to build a machine that would last for quite a few years mainly to manage my photos and run Photoshop. The major consideration for me was the graphics card and since I dont game too much (except for the occasional Tiger Woods golf game or Diablo/Guild Wars slash), I decided to get a low end graphics card that will support DX10 for longevity. My final config ended up like this.... purchased from PC Themes on the 4th floor of Sim Lim Square -

• CPU - Intel C2D E6750 2.66Ghz (with Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro heatsink/fan)
• Motherboard - Asus P5K-E (comes with wireless!, been using Asus for years)
• RAM - Crucial Ballistix PC6400 DDR2-800 (decided to splurge on some nice bling bling ram even though they were double the normal ram :))
• Hard disk - Western Digital 320GB Sata2 16MB cache blah blah
• DVD Writer - Asus Lightscribe DRW-1814BLT Sata 18x (cheap lah..)
• Graphics - Asus EN8600GT 256MB (a tough choice but I decided to go with nVidia because I am not sure how ATI will fare under AMD control)
• Casing - Lian-Li PC-A05B (small and cool case.. with 120mm fans)
• PSU - Silverstone Element ST50EF-Plus 500W
• Monitor - HP w2207 22inch LCD (coming from a 15 incher.. this is bliss!)
• Keyboard - Logitech Classic Keyboard Plus
• Mouse - Logitech Mx518
• Speakers - Bose AcoustiMass 5 (hooked up to an old Technics amp)

Installed it all together with my wife (love u b!)with minimal screaming.. :) Took 4 hours.. what with all the reading of the manuals and with Harry interrupting... Vista and Photoshop CS2 here we come!

My old PCs (drumroll please... tatatataaa!!)

DREWHOME - 2000-2007 (moved to Dads place)

Pentium III-733Mhz
Asus CUSL2 motherboard
512MB SDRAM
Asus ATI MX400 32mb graphics
Creative soundcard
Maxtor 80gb & 40gb + HP CD-writer
Enlight case
Compaq Proliant keyboard + Microsoft optical mouse
Compaq 15in LCD
CH Flightstick Pro
Fav games played - Warcraft 2&3, Starcraft 2, Icewind Dale, Diablo1&2, Tiger Woods golf, Guild Wars etc

DREWII - 1995?-2000 (status - retired)

Pentium 1 200Mhz
Asus MB
128MB EDO RAM
Diamond Stealth 64 DRAM PCI graphics
Turtle Beach Monte Carlo sound (big mistake!)
IBM 16GB hard disk
4x CD reader
Viewsonic 15inch CRT
Fav games - Warcraft, Starcraft, Sims

DREW1 - Pre-1995 (status - retired)

Aris brand
Intel 486-66
32MB RAM?
Mag Innovision 17inch CRT
2.1GB, 4GB hard disk
Fav games played - Microprose Xcom UFO Unknown, Doom

Pre DREW1
Amiga 500
Apple II clone - 64MB

Drew Simpson...

Had fun with this... hehe. Get your own Simpsons Avatar at http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/main.html?cid=us

Choking in Golf - Take 2 (aka a letter to Sergio Garcia)

Golf is the most pressurizing individual sport that you can can play.

Unlike tennis, you can't shake off your nerves by hitting harder or by showing emotion or by taking a break on the sidelines. You don't even have the luxury of having your support team at the side of the court egging you on.

In golf, emotions run how you play the game.

I just watched Sergio Garcia lose in a playoff to Padraig Harrington in the 2007 British Open. Garcia definitely LOST the tournament, but Harrington WON the tournament. Anyone who can come back after that disaster on the 18th with hitting 2 horrible shots in the water and shooting double bogey deserves it in my book. Hats off to Harrington's wife for releasing his son on the 18th green and in turn released all the pressure on him.

Much as I would have loved to see Garcia win, I have to admit he didn't deserve it. Although others have done worse i.e. Jean Van de Velde in 1999, looking at Garcia's ball striking and putting over the first 3 days, it was his tournament to win. A par or a +1 for the day would have won him the tournament.

To Sergio, chin up man! You are one of my heroes in golf. No one else in the game looks like they enjoy the game. That's the key - enjoy your game, especially in the last round of a Major when all the pressures of the world seem to be on your shoulders.

My advice is not to work on your golf for a few days. Your ball striking at the British Open these last 4 days was fantastic. Don't second guess yourself. Trust your putter and your putting stroke, you should since you are rolling the ball beautifully. Don't take too long over the putt and trust your first look at the line. Reconsider your course strategy, although you can hit your irons a long way, your ball flight was too low and didn't hold the greens. Hitting a 3 wood into the 18th green would have taken pressure off your second shot e.g. instead of a 220 carry, you probably would have a shorter short onto the green.

More importantly, recover your fighting spirit. If you believe in yourself (we all do), you will win in the Majors. Take heart.

Singapore Duck Rice Awards

Recently, my wife and I completed our first "tour of duty" of duck rice places in Singapore. after much lip smacking and flossing (boy does duck meat stick to your teeth!), this is the final list of podium finishers:

1. Sin Huat Duck Rice (Lor 35, Geylang) - lip smacking good. I would have no problem finishing off 2 plates of this rice which is consistently tasty each time i visit. unfortunately, i dont think they have noodles or kway chap.. scores=rice (9), duck (8), sauce (9), soup (7).



2. Lim Seng Lee Duck Rice Restaurant (38 South Buona Vista Road) - great sauce. i would rate the duck here as the most tasty. unfortunately, again no noodles and the tau gua isnt as tasty as the rest. quite expensive too. scores=rice (8), duck (9), sauce (9), soup (7).



3. Rochor Duck Rice & Mutton Soup (327 Beach Road) - without doubt, the best choice of stuffs to accompany the duck. the rice is good, the noodles are fantastic and the kway chap isnt bad as well here. the best herby tasting soup of all. scores=rice/noodles (9), duck (7), sauce (6), soup (9).



4. Newton Duck rice store (Newton Circus, facing the car park) - this is pretty much a run of the mill duck rice. the duck noodles are pretty good though, if a bit oily, of course, its the fried lard that makes it taste so good. will do to fill the stomach! scores=rice/noodles (7), duck (7), sauce (6), soup (6)



5. Yu Kee Duck rice (many branches islandwide) - very much the run of the mill duck rice. average quality, saved by the chili which has ikan bilis bits in it. scores=rice/noodles (6), duck (6), sauce (6), soup (6)

IWC Pilot's Watch Mark XVI mini review

This is the first "serious" watch that I have purchased for myself. To date, the only watches that I have bought and still keep today are my 18yr old G-Shock.. (amazingly, I have never changed the lithium battery on that watch and it is still keeping decent time), a couple of Swatches and a Seiko Black Monster I bought recently over Ebay.

Looking at the watch (its on my wrist as I am writing this), I feel that I am owning a slice of history. The International Watch Company or IWC is one of the watchmakers that has stayed true to its origins, mainly as a maker of classic dress watches that are slim and imminently wearable. I shot the picture to the right in B&W as the watch is black and white, it has a beautiful matt black dial with striking white hands.
It is a stainless steel watch equipped with an automatic mechanical Calibre 30110 movement with 42-hour power reserve. Apparently, it runs at 28,800 v.p.h. (this stands for vibration frequency, wiki it to find out what it means), convex sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating and secure against drop in air pressure, water-resistant to 60 metres and most importantly, it has IWC's classic antimagnetic characteristics due to its soft iron core. For more specs, check out https://www.iwc.com/collection/collection_detail.asp?l=en&mid=408.

The watch itself isnt too big - about 39mm and it feels very light on the wrist. Some people might say that this is the poor man's Big Pilot and they are right! The Big Pilot is too big for most people to wear as an everyday watch at a whopping 47mm!! The Mark XVI is nice & slim too, so it can fit well under long shirt sleeves. The crocodile strap that it comes with is the only slight disappointing thing about the watch - it is too thin and some of the stitching has started to come out! Besides that, it is a great watch and a piece of horology. How many people can boast of wearing a true "pilots watch"? Make sure you get a catalog when you buy the watch. It is a great read that describes IWC history and how their great watches came about. Hmm.. that Portugese 7 days on pg 170 looks quite appealing... haha!!

Which metering to use on Nikon DSLRs

1. Matrix metering - I use it most of the time unless there are areas of high contrast in the picture. Might not work well when the image has mostly light or dark areas.

2. Center weighted metering - I understand what center weighted metering is (i.e. it takes the exposure reading from roughly 70% at the center of the scene) but I have never understood why it still exists in modern Nikon DSLRs. It seems like a legacy mode (pre-FA) before matrix metering existed. People suggest to use this for portraits or when the target is in the middle of the frame but Matrix metering isnt dumb anymore and wont give you those black faced/bright landscape shots often anymore. You should activate your fill-in flash in these situations anyway. One explanation when this mode still exists is to use it when the matrix meter tries to be too smart or is fooled to giving the wrong exposure you want. My solution is to use spot metering in these cases.

3. Spot metering - use it when you want to tell the camera which area of the scene you want to take a reading from. On most Nikons, this still relies on the center sensor. IMHO, this mode is the most important of all and all cameras should have it together with a manual exposure option. It should be possible to take all your shots using spot metering. You just have to select a target that is middle grey (18% grey) to get a balanced exposure. A good tip I use is to meter from the blue sky as often as possible.

Why I buy Nikon over other camera makes

1. Nikon is one of the only camera manufacturers to have retained a common lens mounting system throughout all these years, the venerable F-Mount (ever since 1959 with the Nikon F. For more info click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-mount). I would stick to Nikon for this reason alone. This means I can use lenses dating back to the 1980s such as the E-series 75-150mm f3.5 on my 3-year old D70 (yes, of course you will lose metering but who cares with the ability to preview shots instantaneously). Which makes a huge difference in preserving the longevity of your system.
2. Nikon is one of the only camera manufacturers that still innovates and produces great film SLRs such as the F6. The legacy of photography is film. All photographers should remember this.
3. Nikon is the one of the only camera manufacturers who still persists in innovating with their products. As an example, check out the Nikon SU-800 and SB-R200 Macro Flash system (available as a set as the R1C1 http://www.nikonusa.com/template.php?cat=1&grp=4&productNr=4803) which replaced the slightly clunky Sb-29s.

Fourth Gen BMW M3

This is the concept model of the new M3 coming out in 2007/2008. Well. Officially this is a concept but in reality, the production model is nearly identical.


Looking at the shape of the car, I would guess the first reaction for most BMW-petrolheads would be to welcome the move by the designer to make this M3 much more distinctive looking compared to the standard 3-series coupe. According to BMW, only stuff like the doors and some inconsequential stuff like the petrol filler cap are the same as the coupe.


That being said, this M3 looks like a lame duck. The power bulge on the bonnet is too big and conspicuous and to be absolutely frank - it still does look too similar to the standard 3-series coupe. Seems like all they changed were the wing mirrors - these are ugly!, and the body kit, and the quad exhaust at the back. The basic E92 3-series coupe is not as elegant looking as the previous E46 version. Whereas the E46 looked taut and lean, the E92 basically looks fat and has weird proportions. It shows a basic lack of good ideas at BMW and dont get me started about the cabriolet version.

Don't get me wrong - I love Beemers. But something has gone wrong with the design team at BMW and my advice for all potential M3 owners is to get a Audi RS4 and enjoy that car for 7 years until BMW get their act together.

2007 Ford Focus mini review

A car is a symbol of how a guy wants to be portrayed.

This statement is true. The classic way to see how a guy thinks about himself is to look at his car: BMW- aggressive, show-off, the ultimate yuppie machine, Audi -boring, pretentious, mechanical, a style freak, Merc - symbol that you have"made it", French car - trying to be different, Italian car - masochist, Japanese car - boring, etc...

Then how would you label the guy who chooses a Ford? Well, Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson seems to have soft spot for British cars especially Fords so I would say... a Ford is a car for the middle aged man who knows about the above and doesnt want to buy the makes listed bcos of it. Ok, he doesnt want to be typecasted. That sounding exactly like me nowadays, the other day, my wife and I stepped into the Ford dealership and asked to try out the Ford Focus.

The Ford Focus 1.6 is an interesting car. It will forever be in the shadow of the VW Golf but yet, desperately tries to show that it is different. The previous version, for example, was rakish looking, was designed with lots of ovals, and a zig zaggy interior that gave me an instant headache. It was supposed to be a really good drive though but had a buzzy engine that lacked soul and Ford sold tons of them. I think Ford knew about the zig zaggy headache I had because the current Focus has a exterior styling that is safe, a little too safe - kinda boring. The interior does look much better than the previous car - especially the Ghia version with the auto climate controls and the soft touch plastics.

At around 65k SGD for the non-Ghia version (the Ghia version has uprated bits like sunroof, leather trim and better plastics), it is certainly affordable for a 1.6l car. Amazingly, the sedan is cheaper than the hatchback, an admission that the sedan shape hasnt caught up in terms of looks. On the test drive, the salesman encouraged me to drive enthusiastically to test out the cars dynamic handling. Disappointingly (to him), a corner taken at 60kmh from Queenwsay to Commonwealth was all that I could muster but the car does handle very well. The same buzzy engine is still there though and that is disappointing. The basic spec is also very good, with all disc brakes and the boot is a decent shape. Sound system isnt too great though.

My conclusion for the Focus - I might consider it if the Ghia version was cheaper but the VW Golf still has it beaten when it comes to overall comfort and refinement. The ST version is a stunner though and is a great and cheaper alternative to the VW Golf GTI.

Best color for the car: Dark Blue

Naim 5i/CD5i

The sound of Naim is easy to recognize. "Good tempo" is a classic comment. More importantly, the Naim sound is not an electronic sound. Of course, it cannot compare to the soulfulness of tube acoustics but it is truely an audiophile sound..

My first encounter with Naim was with a Naim 5 that I bought secondhand from someone from Echoloft. When I first heard it, it made my previous Rotel and my demo set of Roksan sound decidedly crappy. Unfortunately, I got conned and the set started malfunctioning (the volume control was whacky). Fate will make sure that $%$#%$@ person who sold me that set gets his just punishment in the future. I found out later from Acoustic Sound the distributor in SG that that set was faulty and had been repaired several times and had many previous owners before.

Luckily (or unluckily) the Absolute guy allowed me to trade in the Naim 5 for his demo set which included a Naim 5i and CD5i. I can say, the sound of the 5i isnt as warm as that of the 5. But it isnt bad, and the extra 20W probably drives my B&Ws better. Unfortunately, my 5i volume led has died recently, leading me to conclude that Naim QC is not the greatest. Also, the much vaunted rule of using NACA cables seems to be a marketing gimmick. The sound isnt much improved over my previous run of bi-wire cables.

I was tempted to get a NATO tuner but I might hold back and wait for a good deal on a DAB set. The Tivolis dont appeal to me though..

The below pic is of my Naims with B&W speakers.. listening position isnt ideal though at the PC though... :)