S90 THROTTLE BODY
The more air your engine takes in, the better it can perform. Enlarge your engine’s air intake volume by first adding this Super 90 throttle body. These are available for applications to most Japanese cars.

Tel: 6289 4188

AUTOBAHN 88 INDUCTION PIPE
Replace the stock induction pipe of your turbocharged car with this enlarged item from Autobahn88 for pronounced performance gains. The larger diameter and smooth design allows better airflow and less turbulence, essential for heavy breathing turbocharged machines!

Tel: 6844 4640

SONAX Rim Cleaner Full Effect

Sonax’s new range of grooming products offers sophisticated Do-It-Yourself cleaning junkies the ability to meet the highest standards, and are given top marks when compared to other products in independent tests.

Getting Down and Dirty
Whether one owns a classic beauty, or a modern work of technological fury, the ethic of getting down and dirty to clean one’s own vehicle should not be lost. When the time comes to get down and dirty with one’s prized possession, be sure that a Sonax grooming product isn’t far away.

Shine that wheel!
Sonax’s SONAX Xtreme Rim Cleaner Full Effect provides maximum cleaning power for even the toughest of stains on your wheel. It is highly effective, yet acid-free and anti-corrosive to protect your precious alloy. This special cleaner is also suitable for all types of steel and light alloy wheels, and easily removes even the most stubborn dirt such as burnt-on brake dust, oil and rubber residue and other road dirt. A test conducted by our own staff showed that when compared to wheel cleaning agents from other manufacturers, Sonax’s product was much less corrosive, registering a neutral result on our litmus paper test while the other registered a highly acidic one. Clearly, to prevent your precious rims from early corrosion, Sonax’s Xtreme Rim Cleaner Full Effect is the obvious choice!

Sticking the Shine
Sonax’s Xtreme Rim Cleaner Full Effect also uses a unique adhesive compound that allows the cleaning fluid to stick onto your wheels effectively, maximizing its cleaning effect. Even on matte-coloured wheels, this product will bring out that dull shine!

Roll up your sleeves!
Available in an easy application spray-on bottle, the Sonax Xtreme Rim Cleaner Full Effect is the perfect product for keeping your car’s shoes in optimum shine. Its fast and powerful characteristics will make sure your car looks good in no time!

ATS Twin-plate Carbon Clutch Spec II

With more power on tap, the next most important thing for any car is the ability to transfer all that torque to the wheels effectively. We examine Active Traction Service’s Twin Plate Carbon Clutch Spec II this issue to highlight the features of effective power transfer.

A Gripping Introduction
Active Traction Service (ATS) is a Japanese tuning house that started out producing Limited Slip Differential (LSD) systems for racing applications. With more than 10 years’ experience in building traction holding systems, ATS expanded its operations into manufacturing high quality carbon race clutches and brakes. Harmonizing comfort and performance is one of ATS’ main philosophies, and to this end they have provided clutches with light pedal effort as well as LSDs that operate noiselessly.

Carbon Compositions
Carbon clutches have several advantages over their metal counterparts, mainly because of the nature of their composition. Carbon is a soft compound by nature, but carbon clutch pads are produced by synthesizing with carbon with resin and other fibers, and then heated until a strong, heat-resistant and wear resistant material is produced.

Carbon clutches have melting points up to 1000°C higher than that of steel clutches. This means that carbon clutches will work much more effectively under high stress and high heat conditions; where steel clutches start burning and slipping, carbon clutches will continue gripping.

The second important advantage carbon clutches possess is its resistance to weat and tear. Because its melting point is much higher, the wear rate of a carbon clutch is also much lower than a conventional clutch. The result is a clutch that transfers power more quickly and effectively, with less vibrations and a longer lifespan.

Holding on for dear life
Equipped with the newly designed pressure plates & middle plate(s), ATS’ Spec II range of carbon clutches provide very comfortable driving with much less pedal effort than before, while still maintaining significantly higher torque.

Specifications for the new version also offer more choices on the clamping rate: from 1,100 kg to 2,300kg. The Spec II twin carbon clutch w/ 2,300kg clamping rate is rated at a whopping 900 hp, while maintaining optimally light pedal effort.

For example, the stock pedal effort for depressing the clutch on the Nissan 350Z is around 13kg. ATS’ twin plate Carbon Clutch Spec II will achieve a clamping rate of a whopping 1,100kg, but pedal effort is less than 13kg. Such ease of movement while maintaining high power transfer rate will definitely be on the wish lists of performance enthusiasts everywhere.

WestLake SA05

West Lake Tyres launches its new sports-oriented tyre this month. We take this new entrant into Singapore’s tyre market for a long, torrential spin to see how it measures up against other long-established tyre manufacturers’ offerings…

OUTLOOK
These aggressive good-looking asymmetric tyres caught my attention when I first laid my eyes on them. If I weren’t told that this was a Chinese-made tyre, I would have thought that Pirelli or Continental produced it; but this is WestLake tyres’ Ultra High Performance series, the SA05. Apart from being made in China, I don’t see any other discrepancies that discount the performance of the tyre. This tyre performs both in the dry and wet. The big outer block reduces aquaplaning, enhances cornering grip and enables the tyre to stay on track. The only gripe I foresee is the large outer block that will produce loud noise when travelling at speed and a seemingly uncomfortable ride. Last but not least, the continuous center rib on the SA05 allows better on-road feel of the tyre, and enables it to stay on track with high-speed stability.

WET TESTING
Asymmetric designs are traditionally known for their good wet grip in stormy weather. Yes, and most of us would agree that these few months, the weather has been rather chaotic, with the occurrence of the first-ever flash flood at Orchard Road. But since we are to do a proper job on tyre testing, we might as well make full use of the crap weather! The tyre was able to withstand some of my hard braking, sudden and sharp turns, efficiently dispatching typical duties of an asymmetric tyre. I’m not surprised as asymmetric tyres are meant to provide you with the proper grip in the wet, speedy recovery from slides so that drivers have a worry-free ride. I was surprised, however, at how the SA05 somehow feels feels more expensive then its humble provenance, feeling instead like premium Japanese branded tyres, and this gave me some confidence for this little known brand, and allowed me to push hard to almost 120km/hour on most of the journey. It may not be the best tyre I’ve driven for absolute wet performance; however, it does raise the bar for hard driving especially if it is made in China.

DRY TESTING
As it was raining almost everyday, the test was delayed with no suitable location for testing. The SA05 took sometime to scrub in (approximately 380 km), which made me worry about getting too frisky with the tyre at first. However, after the scrubbing period, the tyre took on a totally different character, featuring more stable and secure feel at the helm, and keeping a delightfully sharp steering response. As mentioned earlier, the asymmetric tread pattern of this tyre, coupled with center groove gives it a better on-center feel and enhances high-speed stability. Surely enough, the SA05 (pardon me) was trashed through corner after corner, but the bite never faded, and the tyre really started to shine. It became explicitly obvious that cornering grip was the strong point for the SA05, ranking among the very best for a normal street tyre. Handling was also relatively safe as SA05 neither oversteered nor understeered, so it should give drivers confidence to even push it to the limit.

COMFORT & NOISE
I knew from the start that this was not an area that SA05 will excel in. As mentioned earlier, my suspicions with regards to the noise level was unfortunately on the money, as the SA05 emits a loud humming noise not many may be able to tolerate. This is especially acute if you, like me, are running on 18” wheels with high rolling resistance. Then again, if you’re riding on a higher profile tyres, the feel might be different.

CONCLUSION
WestLake is the leading brand by Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co., founded in 1958, and is known as the largest and fastest growing manufacturer for automobile, motorcycle and bicycle tyres in China. Ranked No. 13 in 2009 Global Tyre Company rankings, this company will breach the Top 10 in no time, given its high performance and great value. Even though the tyre is made in China, we must shrug the prejudice against products made there; in no time, China’s tyre manufacturing technology will eventually catch up to their more advanced Japanese and European counterparts. Given that SA05 belongs to the entry level budget tyre range, this tyre is highly recommended for the price one pays, no doubt about it.