Permas Go-kart Club

Yesterday was the day I abandoned my love for 2 wheels and hopped onto a 4-wheeled vehicle for some adrenaline pumping fun! Go-karting in Malaysia! I woke up at 8am for a quick shower and some preparation before Eric drove his A1 and picked me up at 8.30am. We went to his office and exchanged the A1 for the Audi Q5. The A1 looks like a toy beside the massive Q5, but it's naturally our weapon of choice for our trip to the Permas Go-kart Club. Bumpy plantation roads leading to the circuit definitely calls for a SUV!

By the time we got to Rafie's place, everyone was already there. Rafie, Edwin and Yi Yang climbed on the back of the SUV and off we go, in search of our 4-wheeled track session. Clearing the Singapore Customs at Tuas was a breeze, until we saw the queue at the Malaysian Customs. That was a bitch. We were stuck in the jam for more than an hour, all the while bitching about how it would have been faster if we went on our bikes. But then, our bikes are not fitted with GPS and do not have shelter from the weather. So we changed subjects and went on to talk about how Rafie made a profit from the Vespa he sold. 1 hour stuck in the traffic jam is easy to endure if you have good company like this.

After about 40 minutes of driving, we arrived at our destination. Well not exactly. You see, the GPS only brought us to the vicinity but we had to find the entrance into the circuit and none of us knew how to get there haha. We searched around for 10 minutes and decided to screw it. Hungry men could never get anything done, we found a nice cosy place for breakfast. It was about 11am when Eric's and my Roti Prata arrived at our table, the rest ordered Maggi Goreng. When it was time to pay for our meals, Rafie asked the lady how to get to the circuit with his 'excellent' command of the Malay language. The lady told us to go straight then turn left, sounded easy enough.

We hopped onto the SUV and set off. 10 minutes later, we concluded that we were lost again haha. Eric was busy checking the map on his phone while Edwin and I got off to ask the cashier of a convenience store. He told us to go back to Permas Bridge and ask the staff at the Shell station. Got back into the car and Eric still had no luck, so we took the cashier's advice. We backtracked to where we came from and did not see any bridge or any Shell station. I think it was Yi Yang who saved the day, he spotted a small brown and white sign that read 'Permas Go-kart Circuit'. As we continued further down the road, we hit a T-junction and saw another sign that directed us to turn right. We were back to the street where we had our food and guess what, the entrance to the circuit was just opposite the place we ate. Either the lady was trolling us or Rafie misunderstood her haha. We followed the signs and finally reached the pits. Mind your driving on the plantation road though, there are a lot of potholes and cows. Yes, big fat cows along the road. Even in our SUV, I think we rarely exceeded 50km/h.

Each session lasts 10 minutes, which equates to about 10 laps on the circuit. For 35rm, you get to drive the 160cc go-kart or if you're feeling daring, you can opt to pay 55rm for the 390cc go-kart. Trust me, unless you're hitting lap times of below 1m 5s, there is no need to opt for the bigger capacity go-kart. There was already a Singaporean group of 5 guys there. We joined them for our first session. After the session, the older one of the group made a remark, "Play 1 time where got enough, I think I play at least 5 times ah!". He was right, go-karting is addictive. The kick comes from trying to counter-steer to control the go-kart in a slide after accelerating off the apex of a turn. The go-karts have no suspensions and there is no power steering. You experience the full brunt of G-forces and vibrations as you struggle to use your aching arms to steer the go-kart around a turn. Every successful turn is very satisfying!

Eric only played 2 sessions while the rest of us went for our third and last session. Good because we finally had someone to take photos haha. Taken with an iPhone 4 and a Samsung S2. Enjoy the (grainy) photos!

The circuit's security guard.

Exiting the pit.

Race!

Yi Yang fell in the love with the greenery at the side haha.

After that session, we headed for the Tuas Checkpoint. These are the cows I warned you about. We had to stop and wait for them to finish crossing the road.

We made a stop at the Second Link KFC for some food and drinks. Pumped the Q5 up to a full tank and went back home. Oh, and this is what greeted the Singapore Customs officer when he asked Eric to open up the boot. I swear his eyes dilated when he saw that haha.

That's all for this post. I'm currently looking at the Arai Corsair V Cal Crutchlow Replica, maybe my next post will be on my new helmet purchase heh. But for now, ride safe!