More Site Statistics

Let me list down here some of the interesting statistics about ItaliaAuto Club and italiaauto.net

Alexa (http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/italiaauto.net) shows that italiaauto.net users come from countries as below :

Malaysia : 72.1%

Singapore : 18.6%

Australia : 5.8%

Hungary : 1.2%

Spain : 1.2%

Hong Kong : 1.2%

Protrackr (http://www.protrackr.com/track/www.italiaauto.net) shows only a google page rank of 1 although a lot of other page rank sites give it a 3.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!!!

With just a few days left of 2007, let me recap on behalf of the committee members of ItaliaAuto what a great year 2007 has been!

Looking back at the past 1 year of ItaliaAuto, together, the club has grew tremendously!! The new ItaliaAuto forum was re-created in October 2006 and to date, there are 2009 registered members, 127 thousand posts, 6019 topics with an average of 251 posts per day!! That said, ItaliaAuto is highly searcheable on all search engines, wikis and websites available today.

The year 2007 also marked the biggest grand trips, most runs, most trips, most activities and most events in ItaliaAuto history! Also stronger partnerships with the mothership Torino and SDAI has been built upon throughout the year. All these contributes to a strong and active club and its members; only others would envy of. All this wouldn't happen without YOU. Let's give a big hand to each and everyone here. Kudos! Keep it up and we'll continue to build ItaliaAuto and our favorite marquee to greater heights!

Looking forward to another great year ahead, thanks for the friendships and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

See you all this Sunday's Kuala Kelawang run!

Fiat Coupe Gathering & Photoshoot

On a early Sunday morning on the 2nd of December, ItaliaAuto had a Fiat Coupe Gathering and Photoshoot session at Putrajaya. The group got together at Shell along Jalan Damansara opposite Eastin hotel and convoyed to Dataran Putrajaya for the photoshoot.

A total of 16 Fiat Coupes and 7 other cars showed up for the photoshoot.

For more pictures and future events, go to http://www.italiaauto.net/

IA East Coast Expose in Pictures

ItaliaAuto East Coast Expose slideshow. Enjoy!

Pictures contributed by ItaliaAuto members.

ItaliaAuto East Coast Expose 2007

Recently, ItaliaAuto made a trip to the east coast of Malaysia from 2-4 Nov 2007. A total of 50 pax, 40 cars joined the 3D2N event. Started from the Sungai Buloh RSA to Fraser's Hill GAP to Kuantan, Cherating and finally Kijal.

The group stayed at the Strawberry Resort Kijal.

Field Report as posted by Redd @ ItaliaAuto.net:

Day 1

day started at 730am and we didnt arrive at the hotel til 730pm. 12 hours on the road! a lot of it was from waiting for stragglers at collection points, and of course in true IA tradition, getting lost. even with GPS mapped pace notes and in-car GPS units we managed to get hopelessly lost. the Get Lost Champion was Vio who lost his way by over 70kms at one point. but the mad driver still managed to catch up and overtake everyone. hahahaha! after Raub, we got lost looking for Jerantut and happened upon this beautiful back road! it was lovely! undulating terrain with lots of elevation changes and sweepers. there was one hill that if u had crested too fast u'd have caught air; and there was a left hand curve right after the crest! it was like a rollercoaster ride. by the time we got to the resort, everyone was tired, hungry and grumpy. so it didnt help that the hotel wasnt fully ready for us. some of the rooms had no a/c. there was no towels and soap to shower with. and the yellowpansy insisted on having hot water or it would be bad for his skin. or something equally gay like that. most of us crashed early on the first night but the hardcore gang stayed up to play blackjack.

Day 2

the resort definitely looked a lot prettier in the daylight. after brekkie, we arranged a quick autokhana course in the large parking lot. a lot of cars ran the course but top honors was taken by our resident angmoh Alexxx in his 1980 Porsche 911. the RWD monster demolished the course with untouchable times. second and third were thkc and vio, respectively. after the autokhana, we went into town for lunch and came back to relax at the beach and pool. the beach was beautiful! it was a bit of a walk, but the beach was pristine and we had it all to ourselves. after horsing around the seaside for a couple hours, we went to the pool to de-salt ourselves. that's when we started a new IA tradition - tossing people into the pool! we tricked and threw ballerina, may and d320 into the water. so girls, when we say come in swimwear, we mean come in swimwear. and oh, dont wear white so much. lamoo took us to kemaman town to eat stuffed crabs. after dinner, some of the guys went to see kelip-kelip and the rest went back to prepare for the grand opening of Casino de Kijal. we gambled into the wee hours of the morning playing blackjack and in-between. the in-between game was the most stressful, and that was where the screaming of "TIANG! TIANG!" came from. one particular pot lasted almost 2 hours and went from as low as RM8 to nearly RM400 at some point. everyone was shitting bricks as we were paying double if you hit the tiang.

Day 3

Day 3 was the trip back. after the photo session at the resort, we headed off to town to buy snacks and lekor. lunch was at pak su seafood restaurant. after lunch we headed back home towards KL. mid-way on the ECE, tezza called on the walkie to complain about bad vibrations coming from the car. we stopped over at the R&R and determined that it was caused by a badly bulging front left tire. the IA pit crew came to the rescue and we changed tires on the spot and were quickly on our way, albeit at a much slower pace. thkc, stevo and gilaman paced tezza all the way back at 80kph. by the time i reached home, it was 830pm and i was unconscious by 1030pm. all in a great trip! day 1 was definitely one of the longest drives ive been on so far. it was nice that we had the whole 2nd day to relax at the resort. i think we should it this way more often as it gives us more time to enjoy the location we're at.

ItaliaAuto Grand Trip 2007 Field Report

Field Report as posted by Redd @ ItaliaAuto.net:

It was raining. No, that wouldn’t be entirely accurate. Rain would imply droplets of water falling from the sky. This wasn’t so much rain as it was the great big river in the sky breaking its banks. The heavens were flooding and I had nowhere to run.

This was clearly four-wheel drive territory. Twenty inch rollers with big, chunky rubber would have been handy in traversing that last mini-river I had just crossed. As much as I hated SUVs, I dearly wished I had one right then. Instead, I was stuck in my Alfa 156, its wipers painfully outmatched by the torrent of water from the heavens, praying that all those myths I had heard about Italian reliability didn’t decide to become facts just then. How do I get myself into these situations, I asked myself for the hundredth time that day.

As far as beginnings go, the day started innocuously enough. I had joined the Italia Auto Car Club for their first Grand Trip of the year. Italia Auto is well known for its driving excursions, and this trip would take us over the northern half of Peninsular Malaysia. The event, jointly sponsored by car distributors Torino Motors (Fiat) and Sime Darby Auto Italia (Alfa Romeo), was going to be huge – forty cars, sixty members, and a thousand kilometres, in a three-day test of driving endurance. We would be transiting through larger towns like Grik and Cameron Highlands as well as long forgotten smaller ones, with a mix of both highway and trunk road driving. There probably are better ways to see rural Malaysia but I’d be hard-pressed to tell you what they were right now.

The main contingent of twenty-two Fiats and Alfas took off from Kuala Lumpur and made its way north to Penang to meet up with the northern chapter. At Juru, we were joined by another eighteen cars from Penang and Perak. After a quick drivers briefing and a stop to top up the tanks, we were back on the road heading south towards Bukit Merah.

Which was where I found myself in the middle of the largest downpour I had ever experienced in my thirty odd years on this rock. As we got off the highway and headed into the old trunk roads, the sky turned a threatening grey. Undeterred, we went on, thoroughly enjoying the back road drive. I was told later that the scenery was quite fascinating but all I remember is a green blur. Then, the skies opened up and instead of dodging roadkill and potholes, we were dodging fallen trees and small lakes which had formed on the roads.

That was when it happened; as it has happened since the beginning of human history. Despite our best preparations, detailed pace notes, and handheld GPS units, we got lost. Whenever a group of men get together and try to go somewhere they will, inevitably, lose their way. It happens to even the greatest of expeditions – Columbus got horribly lost on his voyage to find Asia. The fact that he discovered America only made it less embarrassing, but it didn’t hide the fact that he was half a universe away from the Orient. Now, if someone like Chris – who has more than a few nautical miles under his belt – couldn’t avoid it, we were doomed from the get-go.

I blame it on the rain and poor visibility. Yup. That, and the horribly inaccurate Malaysian road signs. I think there was a full moon out that night, too. This was bigger than any of us – it was masculine destiny. Still, through the frequent U-turns and stops to check crumpled roadmaps, spirits remained high. These Italia Auto boys were clearly used to not knowing where they were going. As we tried to find our bearings in the boondocks of Perak I was entertained by the chatter on the walkie-talkie. Cow warnings interspersed with jokes crackled across the network as we finally found our way to a recognisable landmark.

When the sun finally came back out, we found ourselves between Bukit Merah and Grik on the loveliest bit of mountain road I had ever seen. It was the sky on one side, the mountain on the other, and perfectly curved tarmac as far as the eye could see. As it turns out, driving in good weather with this bunch was even more stressful. As the roads opened up, the lead cars quickly disappeared around the bend. I worked the wheel furiously, hell-bent on keeping up. The cars behind me were a constant reminder that if we got lost again, it would be entirely my fault this time. Before long, we arrived in Grik, and from there it was just a short hop to Banding Island Resort and a warm bed.

Day Two dawned to the burble of engines warming up in anticipation of the day’s adventure. As I rubbed my bleary eyes waiting for the breakfast caffeine to kick in, I was given the day’s pace notes – directions to our next destination – and reminders to drive safe. It was going to be pure B-roads today – over three hundred kliks of trunk roads – taking us from Banding to Jeli, on to Gua Musang, and finally to Cameron Highlands where we would stop for the night. I should have had that third cup of coffee.

The sight of forty Alfa Romeos and Fiats snaking out of the resort carpark was breathtaking, but it didn’t last long. As soon as each car cleared the last speed bump, the throttle was firmly mashed to the floorboard and it disappeared in a howl of metallic frenzy. The noise was addictive, and soon I found myself trying to coax the same cacophony from the six pots in front of me. Cocooned in the cabin of my Alfa, the roar of the engine in my ears, and twisty roads in front of me, it wasn’t difficult to picture myself as a driver in the Italian Mille Miglia (One Thousand Miles) road rally of the early-20th Century. Truly, if that famed endurance race had existed this day; it would be run on roads like these with cars like the ones we were driving today.

The atmosphere of being in a road race somehow filtered over to the places we passed by as well. As we shot through each small village, the local kids would line up by the road side to wave and cheer us on. Some of us honked appreciatively as we drove by – I waved back a few times – and this seemed to elicit even more passionate displays from the gathered spectators. It was an eye opening experience and racing fuel for the ego.

After a quick lunch in Gua Musang town, we proceeded on the last leg for the day, heading up towards the hill-resort town of Cameron Highlands. Fifteen minutes away from town, we turned off the wheel-killing Gua Musang road and onto this beautiful stretch of motoring nirvana. If any road could be called gorgeous this one certainly was. The surface was racetrack smooth, nearly a hundred kilometres of flowing sweepers disappearing into the hills. I was gobsmacked. Here was the evidence that our road tax money wasn’t just being wasted on toll booths. We were two minutes from nowhere, and here was this exquisite highway just begging to be driven hard. So, drive hard we did! When we finally arrived at the Strawberry Park Resort in Cameron Highlands I was flushed with the afterglow of the motoring equivalent of great sex.

The third day started lazily with a late breakfast followed by Ferrari announcing its early dominance of this year’s Formula 1 season by neatly trouncing rivals McLaren in the Australian Grand Prix. Elated by the Italian victory, passions were high as we made our way down Cameron Highlands towards Simpang Pulai. In hindsight, that was probably not the best condition in which to be driving. Passion, Italian cars and downhill roads seem to mix with explosive results. Somehow, on this particular leg of the journey, I found myself as the lead car of the convoy with the two very determined club presidents hot on my heels. For some reason, despite my usually mild character, I decided that today, damn it, I was going to stay in front!

Thus began what I would consider the most exciting drive for me on this trip. In every holiday, every trip you make, there is always that one moment that you remember best. For me, this was that moment. I used every trick I knew to stay in front of these two maniacs as we quickly outdistanced the rest of the pack. Hours spent at the racetrack were condensed into the forty short kilometres between Kampung Raja and Simpang Pulai as I utilised my collective driving experience to stay ahead. Corners were eaten up in heartbeats, slower traffic dispatched with brutal efficiency. My temperature, as well as that of my V6, rose as the car went into a small tail slide when the outer rear tire went a little wide onto the dusty outside of the road. Control was quickly recovered but the lead was lost as the pearlescent Fiat Coupe grabbed the opportunity and passed me on the inside. Damn, it was a good scrap while it lasted.

We – my Alfa and I – survived a thousand kilometre drive at speeds too illegal to print. We drove through scorching days, pitch black nights and storms of biblical proportions. The car was covered in three day’s worth of road grime, and I doubt I looked much better. My hands are shaking as I type this, but I’m not sure if it was from exhaustion or the leftover adrenaline in my system. This drive has been one of the most grueling tasks I’ve ever undertaken. I can’t wait for the next Italia Auto trip.

You can find out more about the Italia Auto Car Club at http://www.italiaauto.net

ItaliaAuto's Main Page

You can almost bookmark ItaliaAuto's main page

http://www.italiaauto.net/main.html

Main ItaliaAuto Site is back up!

The main ItaliaAuto site is back up! You can access if via

http://www.italiaauto.net/

http://www.italiaauto.net/

italiaauto.net

:)

Main Site Down

Note:

The main ItaliaAuto Site, http://www.italiaauto.net/, is temporarily down - Issues encountered, lemmings have been deployed. *cracks whip*!

ItaliaAuto On The Web

If you are an ItaliaAuto member, we are now in a few web applications groups!

ItaliaAuto Club in Friendster : http://www.friendster.com/group/tabmain.php?gid=187738

ItaliaAuto Club in Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2401039751

Motorsports Media Channel and ItaliaAuto

There's a upcoming joint event organized by Motorsports Media Channel for ItaliaAuto Club, Audi Club Malaysia and BMW Club Malaysia held in Genting Highlands on the 5th of August 2007 - The Car Club Rendezvous!

See plenty of Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Audi and BMW at the event!! It's gonna be a huge event!!

ItaliaAuto Club is planning to field at least 50 Alfa Romeo and Fiat!!

For more info, check out The ItaliaAuto Forum

Kuala Kelawang Drive!

Recently, ItaliaAuto Club had a join drive with AROC SG. Approximately 50 cars showed up for the drive to Kuala Kelawang beginning from Ampang Jaya. For more info and pictures, visit the official ItaliaAuto website : http://www.italiaauto.net/

Video of the beautiful bellas zooming by by:

Feature Member's Blog : BenO

This post feature one of the ItaliaAuto members, BenO who has a blog online. He loves his Alfa Romeo 156 too!

You can check out his blog and postings here : http://benong7.blogspot.com/

Another 155 Gathering video

This is another 155 gathering video held recently on the 1st May 2007 in Putrajaya Malaysia. Mostly pictures taken by adamgrapher!

Alfa Romeo 155 Gathering 2007

Recently, we had the biggest 155 Gathering in Malaysia organized after many years in the planning. About 25 Alfa Romeo 155s showed up!!

Look out for next year's 155 Gathering!

More ItaliaAuto Video

Recently, there have been a fair bit of new ItaliaAuto videos for you to check out!!

Vio and DJ driving pass

Lustful69 Doing the Hills

Lustful 69 Doing a Madman

Uncle Lustful Chases Redd up Camerons

Violence666 and Lustful Run to Gerik Town

ItaliaAuto Grand Trip 2007

Photo Slideshow from the recent ItaliaAuto Grand Trip 2007.

Wikipedia Writeup

As published in Wikipedia and reposted here :

ItaliaAuto Club is an unofficial Italian car enthusiast club located in Malaysia. Formed in the year 2000 by a group of light hearted and passionate Italian car lovers, it has grown by leaps and bounds through the years; and is regarded as one of the most active car clubs in Malaysia. For now, its members mainly comprised of Alfa Romeo and Fiat automobile owners.

As of 2006, more than a thousand members have been registered with ItaliaAuto. Registration is done exclusively via an online internet forum on the same name. The majority of the members reside in Malaysia and Singapore.

ItaliaAuto promotes the spirit of brotherhood through the sharing of motoring knowledge and experiences, responsible car ownership and social camaraderie among its members. This has brought about a web forum which was in existence since the first day the club was formed.

The ItaliaAuto forum is the primary means of communication between members. It is viewable publicly, but has certain sections exclusive to members only. An elected committee governs and moderates the forum and oversees other matters such as policies and affiliations. Due to the nature of localized areas where members meet and live, parts of the forum are dedicated to members located in the northern and southern regions of the country.

One of the forum's special features is a comprehensive list of Alfa Romeo and Fiat workshops in Malaysia and Singapore, which is commonly used by members in their respective regions and as well as travellers to obtain more specialized support for their cars.

The culture of discourse within members is fairly casual, as with most enthusiast forums. However, it has served as a useful resource by newcomers and experienced drivers alike.

Different types of activities are organized by the club. A regular feature is a weekly gathering at local coffee shops (known as mamak stalls in Malaysia). Other activities include road trips, known as "runs", both in and out of state.

The official distributors of Alfa Romeo and Fiat have loose affiliations with club members, and occasionally host events and activities for the club

ItaliaAuto in Wikipedia

Great news!! Italiaauto is not in Wikipedia!!

Check it out at :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ItaliaAuto_Club_Malaysia

For those who can contribute more, kindly message me or edit the wiki. Thanks!

IA Ulu Yam Run

The recent Ulu Yam trip caught on video. Thanks to Nik for the video.

2006 Member Awards

Recently, ItaliaAuto gave out awards to forum members to recognize them as voted by the other members of the club.

Below are the results:

Most Technically Helpful Member - Pistole
Most Entertaining Member - warped
Craziest Driver - Lustful_69
Member Most Likely To Get Lost During Runs - Yellowtaxi
Get A Life Award (Member Most Frequently Online) - warped
Lord Alottaporn - Khalil76
Most Frequent TT Attendee - dzul