ItaliaAuto Grand Trip 2011 : Avventura Costa Orientale

On 23rd September 2011, ItaliaAuto made their annual Grand Trip 2011 for a 3 days 2 nights fun at Rompin. The event titled "Avventura Costa Orientale" will set to a drive to the east coast of peninsular Malaysia.

Below is the trip report (edited) written by one of the founding members of the club, Gtfan.

9 cars turn up on an early Friday morning for the Kuala Lumpur leg of the ItaliaAuto grand trip drive. Also accompanying is 1 car from the official distributor of Alfa Romeo's in Malaysia, Sime Darby Auto Connexion (2 representatives) who was there to meet us and flag us off the grand trip. Later, 2 member cars from Singapore met us at the Lanjut resort itself.

The drive, I think among all ItaliaAuto trips, this is the most saint drive. Everyone convoy together. As usual, Yellowtaxi and Zainframe got lost during one of the leg. Even though there was some Wiralution which try to challenge the boys, nobody took the bait while we were cruising along Karak highway. I guess we misses Uncle Botak (Lustful_69) hahaha.. he will sure challenge the wiralution.

Along the trunk road after Karak town heading towards Gemas, we were actively looking for durian stalls but alas, tada. Seems like out of season. The boys only manage to savour the durian on our trip back. We stopped in Segamat for lunch and Didi in her 156 was there to meet us up. Even though it was a short brief session as she need to rush back to work, it was great meeting up with her.

After a hearty lunch, some were complaining no bak kut teh, we drove off in convoy again along the trunk road. Luckily with the walkies on, we manage to joke about property prices in remote areas and where to retire. Not only property prices have gone nuts in KL city, the virus had spread to remote town too. Some of the project we pass thru was laughable for the price they are asking. Even our banker says, crazy.

Before we reach the resort, we stopped at the last checkpoint for regroup and realise Joe was missing. I had to backtrack to seek him out but luckily spotted him a few km down the road where his car appears to have christmas light. It's due to bad battery connection. Luckily the car is driveable till the hotel where we re-tighten the connection again. Zain red slut suffered a cracked idling valve but luckily i had a spare unit which i charge him RM1k for it (ah long price). Interest of RM50 per day if he don't return my idling valve

After the usual check in, most of the IA folks hit the swimming pool to cool down or should i says, gay bonding session Some wanker banker decide to go jogging instead

Dinner was BBQ and the food is so-so at the resort. Xavier decide to turn the tempo up by mixing the grape juice dispenser with some vodka. We got a warning from the hotel for that coz they says, they want to charge us corkage fees. The finale of the evening was the lucky draw. Every driver is guaranteed a prize to go home with (sponsored by Liqui Moly). The grand prize a set of 17" tyres sponsored by Quick Save was won by....yes....ME That gives me more reason to buy 17" rim again. Yeah, some of you out there still very sour about it....hahahaha... Some want to complain to MACC.

After dinner, some folks decide to retire to room to make babies, some decide to 'tembak cicak', while the rest decide to hit rompin town to check out the pub. Jing hao manage to convince the hotel gal to bring us out to party. We found a pub....kinda crap if compared to KL standard. While we were happily boozing, karaoke, playing pool, a few policemen decide to check the pub patrons for IC. After a lengthy 30 mins, everything is good. Some of us decide to leave while the rest still party and i heard even the police who came to check ic, joined the boozing party session too

Next day, it was free and easy, most of us decide to laze around. Some play golfs, some were sleeping like pigs, some were playing brokeback (psst...Taxi and Zain), some were hitting the beach. Lunch and dinner was in rompin town. Nothing fantastic except the fresh sotong which V8 sponsored for dinner. Night time was mainly casino time and boozing again. Some lost, some win the equivalent of 2 rounds in Cititel Pity sam room, look like warzone after the party.

Next day, everyone depart in the morning, some only check out late, i have to goto Kuantan to run some errands, the SG boys was planning to head down to JB for a wedding function.

Overall, it was a good trip without any major issues. Everyone arrived home safely and a memorable experiences.

A very special thanks to our sponsors, Sime Darby AutoConnexion, Liqui Moly, Quick Save, GT Radial, Emech and some individual private ItaliaAuto member sponsors for making the grand trip even more exciting.

To those who participated, thank you all for your comradeship. For those who missed this, there's always next year.

More photos and report at: www.italiaauto.net

IA Grand Trip to Penang, 30 October to 1 November 2009

Hi all,

The once a year Grand Trip is back. This time we are heading to Pearl of Orient for a smashing 3 days 2 nites trip. Do not forget to wave at us if you see us around. Sponsors are welcome.

More information here.

ItaliaAuto Grand Trip 2009 in Photos

Below are some photos from the grand trip. For more pictures, go to www.italiaauto.net or specifically www.italiaauto.net/viewtopic.php?t=13490 for trip report and pictures.

ItaliaAuto Grand Trip 2009

So what's special this year for the Grand Trip? Since we didn't have a grand trip in 2008, a early 2009 grand trip was organized. The excitement brought in about 30 over cars for the trip held on the 27th February to 1st March 2009.

The day started with a gathering at Petronas on MRR2 just before the Karak Highway-Gombak Tol. Shortly after breakfast at Burger King and a short briefing and door gift handout, the group blasted off following pace notes that uses B-roads and passing through towns like Bentong, Rauh, Kuala Lipis, Gua Musang, Jeli and finally Pulau Banding, overlooking Temenggor Lake.

The final 80km drive from Jeli to Pulau Banding was just beautiful roads and sweepers! And what's more, the arrival at the Belum Rainforest Resort gave a great welcome from a long drive since the morning. The resort was absolute beautiful compared to our last visit 2-3 years ago. It has been taken over by Emkay and they renovated it totally. Beautiful rooms and landscaping. Certainly a must see for all.

That night saw us with fantastic buffer dinner at the resort. After that, followed by a lucky draw with prizes from sponsors like OCBC, AutoConnextion, E-Mech, Jeff Chua, and more. It was a fun filled night and everyone got something.

The next day, it was a drive from Pulau Banding to Lumut using towns like Gerik, Lenggong, Cangkat Jering before arriving at destination. The resort that the group stopped and rested was in Swiss Garden Holiday Apartments Damai Laut Golf & Country Club. Not too bad of a place and certainly no comparison to Belum Rainforest Resort but the rooms was huge!

All checked-in and the group headed out to the beach to have some fun in the sun and water. The beach was ok and not the greatest but it was clean enough to play around. The group then proceeded to the swimming pool where some had beer, underwater competitions, "water polo" and anything else you can think of!

The next day, the group headed back using the fastest route possible from Lumut to Teluk Intan to Bidor where some stopped for lunch before heading back to Kuala Lumpur.

Certainly a great grand trip and tons of fun. A good start to the year of ItaliaAuto 2009!

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 Grand Trip 2007

Photo Slideshow from the recent ItaliaAuto Grand Trip 2007.