This article was contributed by CL7 customer, Dorian.  We were both aghast when I removed the panels to uncover a bunch of unsightly wires leading to the ECU.

In the olden days when each kampong had only one Television, experience and information shared was very limited. Almost everyone in the kampong knew each other and most certainly anything that happens, everyone will know within hours. That was information passing in those days.

Fast forward to today, we have the Internet. The place to go to find answers to whatever questions that you have. Now, but do we know how reliable the source of the answers are?

The other person commenting in your car forum might be a 14 year old secondary school kid who has just highly modded his RX-7 in Initial D Stage 5 - The Arcade Version.

Nevertheless, it is still a pretty rich source of comments and opinions, and i guess we have the ownership to verify and determine if what ever advice we get online are actually sound advice.

If I were to start a online thread about ECU management for Honda cars, most certainly the name “Hondata” will be mentioned. No doubt there are many other substitutes, but Hondata has made a name for themselves by using back the Honda’s OEM ECU and modding it till it has full standalone powers. This translates to a plug and play solution that have tonnes of ready maps to give you stock like characteristics, while you tinker and change the values to suit your mods.

Now, isnt that sweet? You plug out your stock one, plug in the new one, load a base map, tinker a little, crank, and the engine starts! Now compare this to other solutions where by you have to splice and crimp wires together to attach on a powerful piggy back, or those super powerful universal standalone ECUS.

So what bewilders me is, with the internet available, with Driven being the local distributor for Hondata ECUs, why would anyone agree to still attach a Hondata to a CL7R by splicing and joining wires? A further research would have shown a Driven ready made harness that plugs and play the DC5R Hondata K-Pro directly to a CL7R wire harness! Or even if one is too lazy to research, a quick ring to Driven will have provided the solution!

Its amazing what salesmen can do nowadays, how they are able to wrap our minds to think the unthinkable.

My car came with a spliced up wire harness, used to connect a K-Pro. Ex owner must have met a superb salesman. I wonder if he had actually saved any money at all by splicing the wires instead of buying a conversion harness.

As we go about modding our cars, let’s make sure that we mod our cars once and we mod it right.

Happy Lunar New Year to everyone.  Hoped you had a good one!

It has been a relaxing one for me and having nothing much to do, I decided to install something new to my car.

Nothing fancy, nothing too technical, just some simple 12 year old technical class tasks.

The car this time is the 2001 Mazda MX-5.  This car has a room light so dim, its basically useless.  When its dark, you can forget about tearing coupons, looking for Touch’n'Go Cards if you dropped it, or something essential like reading your map when lost.  Sure, we all know the MX-5 is not the most practical vehicle to own, but come on, Mazda could have put in a couple more lights couldn’t they?!?

Anyway, since we have a full warehouse of car accessories, I basically have access to numerous types of super bright LEDs at my disposal.  This was something that I have been wanting to do since early 2009, but well, procrastination is always good…

so that I can work on other MORE important stuff.

I chose these

Small and bright enough to fit on one of the panels on the dashboard.

Of course, just a good dose of double sided tape will work well enough to have them fully functional and connected to a on-off switch.  But if that were my standards, I’d rather die or just put something like this instead, something we use in the house.

NO!  I will not have any of those slipshod work… I just got to have them the best, the neatest and something that will make me smile every time I use it.

While surfing Yahoo!Japan, I came across this used switch.  Originally used to disable power to the windows, but it will work for my application too!

Now, time to get the hands dirty and start working.

Firstly, we drill a small hole.

Then get a hole saw the right size and drill it to suit.  Since it is the Lunar New Year, and none of the hardware shops are open.  I just have to use the closest sized hole saw I have.  It would have saved some time if I got the right sized one as I can just drill it through and have it fit perfectly than having to port the hole to get the perfect size.

After we are done with that, time to port it so that it matches perfectly and the LED will sit flushed with the surface.

Trusty Standard Abrasive Head Porting tools to the rescue.

Perfect fitment!

With all that hard work out of the way, time to wire up the car.  Since these LEDs sap very little power, I just thought that its easier to wire the 12V power direct so that I can have it working as and when, rather then having to switch the ignition to Acc.

Some simple wiring work, and everything was hooked up nicely.

Factory style switch.

Super bright footwell!

A shot at night, man, I need shades!

Now, this was how the MX-5 should have come right from the factory.

Suzuki Swift Sports Custom Pistons and Rods

Custom made Low Compression Wiseco Pistons

Custom Crower Rods.  The stock rod is on the left.  A simple visual inspection shows how much beefier the Crower rods are.

ASR Subframe Brace

Beef up your rear subframe with the ASR subframe brace.  The EGs/EKs/DCs are prone to breakage whenever a larger rear swaybar is installed.  Stocks available now!

Odyssey Lightweight Batteries

Small 680 cranking amp battery with metal jacket and optional SAE automotive terminals.
Also available without the metal jacket for low temperature applications.
Battery measures 3.11″ wide x 7.27″ long x 6.67″ tall with the metal jacket and weighs 15.4 pounds.

• Excellent starting battery where high reserve capacity is not required.
• Great lightweight racing battery for shedding extra pounds.
• Can be mounted upright or flat.

Ferodo DS2500 Brake Pads

The main characteristics of Ferodo DS2500 Pad are:

• Race developed
• Performs equally well on heavy and light cars
• 20% less pad wear than competitive products
• Minimal bedding-in. Supplied ready to use
• Disc friendly
• Consistent friction level with changing temperatures and speeds to give optimal pedal modulation
• High friction level at low temperature (good cold braking)
• High friction level at very high temperatures
• 35% less compressibility than competitive products (racing pedal feel)
• Less noise for increased driving comfort

Now available for most popular applications and custom orders welcomed.

Carmate/ELF Octane Booster

ELF Formula Tune tested to increase octane ratings in your high compression or highly boosted vehicles.  Definitely a must to reduce knocking with Malaysian newly revised fuel octane supplies.  Even comes with easy to pour spout.

 PLEXUS Plastic Cleaner

The best there is!  Plexus was originally developed for use in the aviation industry; specifically for cleaning and protecting aircraft windshields and painted surfaces.  Particularly good for polishing hazy polycarbonate headlamps that has suffered from continuous UV exposure!

Engine upgrades and Turbo Kits for Miatas / MX-5s

Been working on a lot of Miatas lately, mostly hardcore stuff.  Engine swaps, transmission upgrade/swaps, turbo kits install, plug and play engine management systems, etc.  Please send us your queries if you need any help with yours.

Replacement Earl’s Oil Cooler for Nissan GT-R R35

A completely bolt on solution to an upgraded oil cooler for the R35.  All mounting tabs are designed to re-use original rubber mounts.  Location is also similar which allows the incorporation of the use of the stock air ducts for maximum cooling.  A slighlty larger sized, 25 row oil cooler core was chosen for the task of keeping the oil temperatures under control.

JDM MOMO Competition 350mm

Only available in JDM Land.  Legendary MOMO Steering available with distinctive MOMO emblazoned right across the top of the steering.

Innovative Billet Engine Mounts for DC5s/EP3s

GoFastBits (GFB) Stealth FX Blow Off Valves for R35

You can watch a very detailed and informative review on the Stealth FX below.

Please email racing@driven.com.sg for any queries.

We have acquired a brand new dyno machine.  It is a MainLine Dyno and is a retarder type.  It is very similar to the Dyno Dynamics and has a lot of nice features that I never knew existed on a dyno before.

As we have known all along, the dyno is an indispensable tool to proper, precise tuning.  The addition of this instrument is an invaluable asset to the workshop.  Some of the features include advanced data logging through the vehicles’ OBD2 port, and could even tune certain engine management system by itself.

Pictures of the Dyno Room

Cars on the Dyno

Learning how to use it

Some Screen Shots

Now available, full range of Wiseco pistons that suits most of the Sport Compact engines.  One of the best forged pistons available in the market, and definitely a necessary power upgrade for high horsepower gains.

All pistons have skirts coated for reduced friction and better heat management.

We stock custom pistons for newer cars like the Mitsubishi Colt 4G15T, to the older Toyota 4E/5E Engines.

We are your solution for the best price on Wiseco Pistons!

Good enough for Tsuchiya, good enough for me.