It’s a new world here in Malaysia. A new governance, a new change, a new hope therefore for this year’s Merdeka Day celebrations, we at Route Hunters decided we too should do something new and break away from the norm. And for the first time, we opened our drive invites to the general public instead of inviting from within our Facebook group. What happened next was possibly one of the most memorable drives we have ever had!
You know how the general public stereotype? That Malaysia has no suitable roads to drive high performance cars like Porsche’s and Ferrari’s? We strive to change that by documenting the best driving roads in Malaysia and showcasing them via our drives. It’s a mission born out of both a passion for driving and national pride. And since our national pride spirits were on an all-time high, we wanted to make the drive extra special. We roped in a national motorsports icon, Karamjit Singh, to head our maiden drive which was open to public.
So on the day after the Merdeka Celebrations, on the 1st of September 2018, we set off on a 120km high octane road trip
Morning Flag Off
We had limited the number of cars to 20 for the convoy, so safety reasons. That said, the turnout for the day was pretty spectacular. A lovely green Lotus Evora, a newly purchased Cayman S with carbon ceramics, a stage 2 tuned Megane, BMW F30s and an ulta rare Z4 Coupe were some of the cars that made up the convoy.
Like all our drives, we begin with a hearty breakfast and a detailed safety briefing prior to the drives. Since the convoy consist of high performance vehicles on some of the most challenging roads in Malaysia, both the safety of the convoy and other road users are our top most priority.
With the ground rules and the consequences of breaking them firmly enforced to the participants, we divided them into manageable groups of 5. To manage the convoy, we had 4 performance vehicles form Kia and Peugeot Malaysia respectively for the drive. The formidable 208 GTi would perform the lead car duties for the convoy while the two Kia Cerato Coupe Turbo’s would be the marshal’s for group 2 and 3. The Optima GT would perform the sweeper duties and it proved to be a good choice, as you will see later.
We rolled out from Kelab Darul Ehsan, our meeting point in the morning, and proceeded towards a quick fuel stop before crossing over the Ampang Lookout Point towards Pekan Batu 14
Pekan Batu 14 to the Semenyih Lake
The small trek across Lookout Point was just an appetizer of what was to come. After regrouping at Pekan Batu 14, we proceeded towards the first true driving stretch, Jalan Sg Tekali. We plot the drive after our Episode 3 route, which takes you past the scenic Semenyih Lake.
Once we entered Jalan Sg Tekali, the driving started to take a more serious pace. The pace was rising steadily and the corners and inclines were begging to become more serious. Jalan Sg Tekali is a shortcut to reach the Semenyih Lake and descents as steep as it gains altitude. Aside from one landslide the view was amazing as we slowed towards the exit of the road to a T junction which would take us around the lake towards Kuala Kelawang.
Semenyih Lake to Titi
This stretch is the equivalent of the chocolate center in an éclair. This is the payoff, the one stretch we were waiting for. You can read more about the technical details and the layout of this road in Episode 3 of our Route Hunter’s Episodes.
For this event though it was quite the site to see a string of sport cars filling up the side mirrors of the Peugeot 208 GTi lead car. It’s not every day you see a Cayman S, Evora, and a Megane RS barreling down at you on what’s arguably one of the best driving roads within the reach of the Klang Valley residents.
Of course Karamjit Singh was having his own fun on this stretch of road, getting excited at each tightening apex and each bump and crest. Needless to say even the Cayman had its hands full at times trying to match the pace of the Karamjit piloted 208 GTi on this beautiful piece of road. Only the responsibility of lead car duties kept our man at bay from leaving everyone in the dust. By the time we hit our next stop just outside the town of Titi, it was safe to say that most of the participants were grinning from ear to ear.
Kuala Kelawang to Bukit Putus
The route from Titi towards Kuala Kelawang is mercifully mild compared to the intense earlier section. That gave us and the participants to catch our breath as we drove past the town of Kuala Kelawang.
For every Route Hunters drive we always have a lead, marshal and support / sweeper cars for our drives. Reason being, it’s an open road with unpredictable conditions with cars belonging to individuals. So it’s hard to say what type of issue one may face during a drive like this. Which is precisely what happened to one of the drive participants, where their car suffered a power loss mid-way just outside of Kuala Kelawang.
Normally, they would be left stranded with their car until a tow truck showed up. With the Route Hunters team, our fallen comrade still made it to the lunch spot in style thanks to the brilliant Kia Optima GT which was on sweeper / support duty. The Kia Optima GT, along with two units of Kia Cerato Coupe Turbo’s were graciously provided by Kia Malaysia for our Merdeka Drive.
Lunch at Bukit Putus
From the sweeping roads of Route 86 from Kuala Kelawang we proceeded until we reached the Senawang exit of the LEKAS highway. A short stint from there was the foothills of the old Bukit Putus road, made famous by Malaysian drift pioneer Ser Ming Hui A.K.A Ah Fai.
We had a lovely lunch waiting for us at the Starfresh Agro Park in a mercifully air-conditioned dining room. The menu was truly extensive with farm fresh vegie dishes, a full siakap, chicken and more. After nearly 100km of hard driving over 2 hours, this is exactly what we were looking for.
As everyone swapped stories of their experience and accounts from the drive to other participants, some of us took the time to explore the Bukit Putus stretch a little more in our cars. It was also a perfect place for some of the other participants to test the brilliantly engineered Kia Optima GT.
Despite being a well-appointed D Segment sedan, the Optima GT features a really talented chassis that allowed it to keep up with some of the faster cars that were present in the drive with ease. We highlighted this in our initial review video of this car, but we felt this car deserves more exposure than this so we decided to do something more special to honor it. Watch this space!
The Finish Line
After a thank you speech and distribution of merchandise courtesy of our sponsors CS Euro Auto and Euromotive Parts, we took the obligatory group shot before dispersing. The participants had a lovely time and so did we.
The whole idea of this drive was not to race on the public roads or to be a nuisance for other road users. Rather it was a way to enjoy what’s arguably some of the best driving roads in the nearest proximity to our nation’s capital in the safest manner possible. As the Malay proverb goes; ‘Tak kenal maka tak cinta’, we felt more enthusiast should get to know more about the hidden motoring gems our country has in store.
