Just the other day, on a fine early morning, me and my mates decided to have a very long overdue run up through the Ulu Yam route and man, was it completely different from my previous experiences. It has taken this long because time and time again I was pretty unlucky to have clashing schedules when my other group goes up Ulu Yam. So this time I joined some of my old VW “kakis” up the slippery slope of the mountain and drove up to Goh Tong for some curry “wan ton” noodles.
Why was it different compared to my other previous drives? First of all, its my first time driving up that route using a RWD (rear wheel drive) car. With the number of extreme bends we had to take, my first mistake was that I constantly anticipated for the car to understeer but I kept making that mistake. Another mistake I mad was that because of the new feel, I was braking like mad before every corner. Even my boss was mentioning that to me (yes my boss was following closely behind me).
Another thing I noticed was the hydraulic steering rack which BMW uses, makes it heavier compared to my previous ride which uses an electric steering rack. Good thing about it is that I get a lot more feedback from the tyres to the steering whilst the downside to it is that the steering feels a little bit heavier. That feeling seems a little bit more surreal in a sense that I was so used to the electric steering rack on a VW (ZF claims that they haven’t sold a single electric steering rack because it doesn’t break down).
Handling aside, the benefit of having a diesel engine whilst going uphill is that it is extremely fun! *cue to google up torque*. The torque delivery at such low RPM is just awesome especially when you exit a corner which then leads uphill. The pure acceleration and thrill of it is something that an NA engine can’t really deliver. And the best part of it is that I can average 800km on a full tank of diesel even whilst stuck in KL city traffic for about 2 hours on a daily basis.
After having a hearty breakfast, I then went up to the cable car station to have a quick photoshoot. Here are some of the photos I captured while I was up there.
