The VW Touareg V10 TDI experience

On an early saturday morning, we had the opportunity to be the first few to test drive the new VW Touareg. Now, this Touareg is not your usual run-of-the-mill SUV. This Touareg has the letters "TDI" attached to it.

And these are some very special words. So special that any petrolhead will go jelly in the knees when they hear them.

Allow me to explain. The "TDI" stands for Turbocharged Direct Injection and is VW's acronym for all their turbocharged diesel engine. Yes....this monster is a diesel. Now, for those of you who know enough to differentiate between a car and a truck, you will immediately know that diesel-based cars have more low-end torque compared to their petrol counterparts. But this increase comes with the sacrifice of high-end power, noted by the 4.5k rev-limit on diesel engines.

What makes this Touareg so special is that it doesn't sacrifice on high-end power and that is why petrolheads will go weak in their knees. This Toureg has all the benefits of a diesel and none of it's drawbacks. The R50 contains a 5-litre, V10 turbocharged engine giving 850NM at a low 2000rpm and 350bhp at 3500rpm which will power the behemoth from 0-100km in 6.7 seconds and all the way to the 235km/h limit. All it takes is for you to floor the accelerator and you will be in warp speed the very next moment. Or a hefty speeding fine.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the luxury of testing the car extensively but from the short 10-min drive, it was enough for me to peg the $298,000 asking price as emotionally worthwhile. You just have to listen to the engine note and exhaust burble. Nothing like the clittery-clap of diesels!

It is not often that you can have so much power in your hands. Or in something this huge.

A wierd dream

I had a...nightmare this morning...it seems. I'm unsure because even though the dream was eerie, it didn't really make me few scared...just spooked.

The background of the dream was in some island resort (like Tioman) and a group of us (I can't remember who was in it but I do remember familar faces like ZJ and others which I obviously do not know who they are, but they are my friends in the dream). We were in a resort where electricty, water, food are provided by push carts but some how as the dream developed, there was the saying that an evil is arriving and all the push carts start to leave the island, leaving us without food, water or electrocity.

IT was a beginning of evil and the group of us hudled together in this tall tower above the resort looking pass calm blue seas and tall volcanic islands a distance away while someone in our group was fending off some evil creature with a circular shield. Then the dream shifted back to the group on the ground, this time with some girl which was suppose to be evil but in the end, she was helping us by leading us into the resort rooms to hide from the evil creatures. While that happened, me and my another friend had a need to pee but since there was no light, we decided to pee in the open so that no evil creatures could catch us while being vulnerable. The dream ended when the girl said "dun pee there" because people can see us from across the resort block.


Wierd like hell, I say.

The wonders of TV

For those of you who managed to catch me on TV, well, do not believe that all-was-ok in that few seconds of clip; in fact, there was widespread panic and furor off-screen as we tried to piece the film together - Things that you should know:

1. There were a handful of retakes because I was trying hard not to squint while reading the script
2. kudos to the producers for being able to NOT portray me as a stuttering idiot who do not know how to speak chinese, which in fact, was the case in some of the takes
3. Last but not least, a VERY BIG THANKS to damsie for helping me script the text. Without it, I think i would have literally died (a.k.a looking like an idiot on TV)

Also, don't ask me about the clip because when it aired, I was millions of meters away in Malaysia trying to find food.

And to those who do not know what i'm talking about, well, nevermind =)

ANd no, I have some strange resentment in watching myself on TV, so I did not record a single thing.