Lunch break

A typical lunch break for almost every lagosian on paid employment in VI/Ikoyi, involves hitting the lunch room and eating some overtly expensive meal and rushing back to your desk all within ‘the hour’. When your lunch break permits you doing something else you love so much, chances are that you have the best job in the world.

My lunch break on for the last day of the 1^st month of 2013 involved reviewing a 2007 Toyota Highlander Hybrid. G.O Gbo showed up at my office around mid day after a prior engagement with his entry level spec’d Highlander. It had Toyota’s 3.3L V6 mated to an electric motor, milk colour cloth seats and a 6CD stereo system with steering mounted controls. I’d never driven a hybrid ever, so needless to say I was excited!!!!

2007 Highlander Hybrid

Hybrid logo

1^st time starting the car leaves everyone who attempts it embarrassed. Cranking up the engine a the turn of the key is made with an electric motor. It leaves you confused as you would expect from driving a conventional petrol engine at start up, some kick off noise. Slide from P-D and u aren’t even sure if the car is on, switch on the AC though, and the petrol engine comes alive. The car makes use of a drive by wire system, so throttle modulation takes a lil getting used to.

I eagerly waded through Ligali’s traffic as we left the car park letting the battery power the car; we were soon gonna be on water corporation road where at 1.30pm, I knew I’d have a few seconds to experience just how much power lurked underneath the hood. I finally get my chance and my fat right foot flattens the throttle; Gbo is thrown back into his seat and boy did that needle climb!!! **why do people hate the prius**??? This is 1 hybrid I can own. Power is smooth, linear and instantaneous.  Unfortunately, all this power is routed through a CVT box, so I panic when at 130Km/H I’m still waiting for 2^nd gear to kick in. I now understand why several Murano owners drive so ever slowly on the road. It’s a very uncomfortable and un-nerving sensation which goes against every known feeling you’ve ever felt behind the wheel or in a car. It’s a continuous long hum that never seems to end.

Hybrid Synergy Drive

My joy ride is cut short as I approach 150km’H by a sluggish Range Rover Vogue coasting at about 40Km/H. not being a dual carriage way I am mandated to call on the brakes that happen to use regenerative technology felt very spongy** like you had loads of air in the servo** for the 1^st second or there about, you get the feeling the car wont stop. Just when you’re about to freak out, you actually feel the car coming to a halt.

The on board trip computer returned a fuel consumption average of 16MPG in real hard world use*EPA ratings are 28MPG*. In comparison to a friend’s Murano with a trip computer average of 9MPG, this baby is alright.

Verdict; The Toyota Highlander Hybrid for 2007 provides a different approach to building a hybrid car. It has loads of power. Engine start and stop are barely noticeable.

Would I buy1: YES. With a return MPG of 16, it’s a nice way to join the trending Eco green party

Backstab

By the end of the year, a large percentage of migrant residents in Lagos are expected to have relocated to their villages. This is in no small measure due to our dear Governor BRF.

In BRF’s bid to ‘sanitize’ Lagos, 1^st came the new traffic laws, then the okada ban and a rumoured TV and Radio license for every Lagosian who owns the aforementioned device is expected to purchase. As much as I hate to admit it, I dare say especially the Okada ban has worked. i.e. “there aren’t any bikes left on the roads of Lagos”. It was so harsh for those of us working on the island that my very dear colleague had to go and buy a car!!!!

I have always insisted that we do things half measure in Nigeria, otherwise, how do you explain how it’s illegal to drive and eat and it isn’t for a lady to drive and make up??? Which requires more concentration? Its difficult enough to get women to drive as well as they can, which isn’t much anyway. when combined with the task of squinting into a 3” headliner mirror while driving on the ever busy Lagos roads you simply invite chaos.The bans have in no way made driving on our roads more secure or reduced the carnage on Lagos roads.

As far as this new ‘sanitation’ bro-haha goes its lip service. Its little surprise though, BRF campaigned on Lagos roads with the same bunch who massively supported him*integrity check*.

BRF and the ghost riders

If we ever had leaders and not rulers that listened, they’d know that what needs to be done is to provide infrastructure and not ban or make illegal every single item in the state.

Foundations

‘My sons teacher asked me today if I’m interested in getting extra lessons at school for him’, how does a 2 year old get extra lessons? The sentence above set the tone between I and colleague about foundation in life being extremely important and the basic building blocks for a successful individual. ‘I thought that was the job of a cell?’

Her argument was thus, a good foundation sets the tone for an individual to make it in life and is always a plus. Being a beneficiary of a good foundation, the evidence is forensic. A 1^st class graduate at the age of 22, an employee of a top 1^st generation bank taking on tasks at her age that took me years to master.

Her line of argument gave me a eureka moment that has bothered me for a dastardly long time. Why are women such bad and terrible drivers? The answer is simple and direct: Foundation. Driving a car overtime has grown to be seen as a fairly mundane task. A driver is among the most poorly paid jobs in Nigeria. In actual fact, however short the duration of a journey, the lives of the occupants of such vehicles rests in the competence of the person driving the vehicle irrespective of the social or financial status of the occupants. 

Driving a car is far more demanding than it is made to appear. For women which this piece is centred on, 70% do not have any formal drivers training. 95% have never seen a highway code let alone open one. A more abysmal 99% only learn how to move a car using an automatic transmission; they never get learn to drive a manual transmission. If you ever dare ask why they choose to ‘move’ only an automatic transmission car? You’ll definitely get this response, ‘a manual car is way too complicated’. 

‘Moving’ a car isn’t complicated, driving one is……’ the faulty foundation of taking an easy out approach to driving comes to play through the life of 99% of women drivers. Terrible drivers are a menace on the roads. ‘Moving’ a car goes beyond taking the car from point A to B. it involves steering, changing directions, braking as well as accelerating and obeying certain rules and regulations that govern road use as is documented in the High way code for which every driver in the committee of nations observe.

Get the ladies back on the test track, no fancy cars just the basics. A rickety beetle!!!!!!

Style Star

The long break I have had from blogging has given me d opportunity to go into a venture my wife encouraged me to selling cars. ‘You might as well enrich the lives of others by helping them acquire good cars since you have a vast knowledge about cars and get off on them’, those were her words precisely!!!

From my little experience Japanese cars sell like hot south African hookers and d golden egg among the japs is Toyota.A dead beat Toyota will sell  much faster than an A spec BMW of comparable age and price. In Nigeria, the Camry is Toyota’s most popular model and its greatest rival is the Honda accord. In the brand new car segment the Camry has mostly had the upper hand in terms of sales numbers haven sold 440,000 cars in 2012 against the accords 330,000 in God’s own country *source www.motorintelligence.com *

  
However in the styling dept d accord has always been miles ahead( Honda halla is still being purchased in decent numbers till date in Nigeria, the Camry equivalent is dead and extinct just like our good old  dinosaur friends from Jurassic park).
This disparity in styling is ever more evident in the latest offerings from the greatest rivalry from the ancient fareast nation.

2013 Honda Accord

2013 Honda Accord interior

2013 Toyota Camry

2013 Toyota Camry interior

As is evident from the pictures above, Toyota maintains its philosophy of focusing on reliability and usability rather aesthetics and visual cues.  The current edition of Toyota's Camry is a vast improvement from the fifth generation*aka Big for nothing* which was as interesting as a baboons Butt.

2003 Toyota Camry interior

An African proverb says ‘when the elephant fights, it’s the grass that suffers’. In this case, the grass has gained a great deal. Hyundai and kia have in the last decade, closed the gap on the big Japanese two. The Hyundai Sonata offering superb styling, improved handling and no longer the whooping boy it once was for the Japanese, the Korean’s have their heads out of the sand.  Its no news that Hyundai and Kia are sister companies and as such share parts. The top of the line sonata offers a Direct injected, turbo charged 2.0L 4 cylinder engine delivering 278Hp that thwarts the best efforts from Toyota and Honda’s equivalent engines in the form of 3.5L V6’s that put out 268Hp

2012 Hyundai Sonata

Point, if you keep doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting a different result, its known as madness.

Last of the Meheecans

Its no secret i love cars. It’s a family tradition,Niyi recently interrupted the journey home to see his paternal grandfather when he insisted on taking the wheels on 3rd mainland. It was a battle to get him off the steering wheel and into the backseat where most kids would rather be. So when the opportunity arose to embark on a 400+Km trip I advised we have a road trip rather than fly to Atani as the last single member of OMTIS took his traditional wedding rites.
The trip had the usual Omtis appeal, lots of alcohol, pretty girls(my sisters) and high speed for some parts of the Journey. Ada his wife hails from Atani in anambra state and departure was lagos. Painfully we didn’t roll out in the green Hornet. In hindsight it was a good idea as Benin-Ore road is littered with men of the Nigerian Police that constitutes a mess with their numerous road stops, quite often the distance between each stop is less than 2 kilometers. It’s a nightmare for private cars on the road. The driver of the Hiace that took us to Atani was a speed Demon and we at some point deliberated on setting up an eastern branch for Omtis. We however declined as he was just too wreckless and as such wouldn’t be a worthy member of Omtis. I do wonder though how Toyota engineers the Hiace, as I’m sure its less than 200hp in output but accelerates with so much ferocity off the line when pushed hard.
The worst section of the highway to the eastern part of Nigeria resides in Ondo state (I wonder what that state is for). It’s virtually impassable. The picture above shows just how badly Nigerian’s will go to ensure their personal safety.

Hang on if you got fists of steel



L-R: Snakey, Vas1, D popo, Jigga, Charlie Manson, Macrosoft, Lord flat head
For the few confirmed dude’s that made the trip from all over Nigeria, it was a worth while effort as there was too much to eat and drink. “Drew” spread a rumour that the only person who finished up his food was Mr ELemide , I won’t say which, 3 Mr Elemide’s were present. A nice part of the Ceremony was the Pole Dancer on the Scene
Chei Nna what is dis girl trying to do?

Happy Married Life Mr&Mrs ELemide

The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport tearing down speed records!!!!!!!!!!!

Topgear's own Capt. slow mans the BVSS as it eats up land speed records!!!!!!!

Vas1's Car of the Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Traditionally, I always get my blog posts off with "my best" car from the preceding year. For the year ending 2010, it's going to be a whole lot tougher. On my way home sometime around Christmas, i was listening to Cool Fm. Freeze was on the show and he was talking about the Govt's decision to reverse the age limit of used cars being imported to Nigeria. The new rule now says you can import cars under 15years into the country. Being a radio, TV or print media personality, ethics demands that care be taken when airing your views. Freeze was of the opinion that it was better to drive a used car( tokunbo) from a reputable brand as against being made to drive what he called a 'car that had a name from an under wear company, had its engine from Mitsubishi and the interior was hoisted from a Toyota). The car he described above happens to be Chinese.
Freeze aside, lets look at the bigger picture. Range Rover, prior to it being taken over by Tata had its Engines being supplied by BMW, today Range Rover's engines come from Jaguar. The Audi R8 (used by Iron Man in the sequel) has its engine supplied by its sister company Lamborghini. The Rolls Royce phantom has transmission being supplied by its German owners(BMW). A Car is made up of several components, and its not un-common to have parts being supplied by different companies from varying continents. A 100+ years ago when Carl Benz and Gotlieb Daimler started working on the Internal Combustion Engine, little did they know that someday their cars would become the De-facto standard in Luxury cars. Thanks to Technology, the Chinese that Our Intelligent and Highly educated Freeze chose to run down have so very well employed the technique that car building nations employ, "Start from building something"!!!!!
About a decade ago when the Chinese tried to make an incursion into the European market, they failed woefully. The Brilliance car being tested got 0 Stars on its Euro Ncap crash tests, today i can confidently tell you, they now have 3stars on a brilliance model. GM, Toyota, BMW and every major Car manufacturer now has a production plant in China. What did China do, they started building something!!!!!
The Chinese technique works. They simply employed the principles which other car building nations employed.
Now to GEJ, who reversed the Ban, i shake my head. That is not the path for a country that ever hopes to build cars to take. OK, that's even pushing the envelope, its not a step for a country that hopes to ever assemble cars to take. With the Global meltdown a few years back, it was the perfect time to get the likes of Chrysler, GM and all Car Manufacturers that struggled globally to come to Nigeria to build and sell their low cost cars which they could even export to the US and other parts of the world. Please.. please do not tell me the lack of power would have made them fail. The reason no one at the centre thought of such is most likely greed and its that same greed that is driving the need to reverse the ban. The huge duties going to Neighboring countries is definitely a tempting factor, as these cars will now come through Nigerian ports where there'l be more duties for our customs men to collect.
The truth is this, you cannot hope to become a force among the committee of Nations if we keep doing things in half measure and it doesn't look like its going to change anytime soon!!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

The month of December is often characterized with a lot of vehicular and Human traffic especially in the city of Lagos. Lastma is Lagos state Govt's solution to the managing the chaotic traffic situation commuters experience here in Lagos.
Like almost every conceived initiative by Governments in Nigeria, the idea is always terrific, the roll out and implementation leaves a rather disturbing feel about if we can ever do anything right in this country.
While shopping for a Christmas gift for my beautiful wife, i was shocked to find Lastma officials(at 10am) shopping for Perfumes in the same shop as i was!!!!!!!!!!





This shows that all claims of bribery and corruption about this agency is true, or how do you hope to explain the ability of these men to buy perfumes from such an expensive shop with the salary which they are on?
While Fashola and Hitech prepare to milk the residents of Lekki with the Shortest Toll interval in Africa, Lastma boys are preparing for a wonderfully scented smell for Christmas.

Pearl Harbour

It was Pearl Habour all over again, only this time it wasn't the Americans the Japanese bombed to smithereens, it was the Germans. The convoy that represented Omtis and Co. that headed for Ibadan to Attend Sheriff Opeloye's wedding took the Epe-Ijebu Ode route. 4 cars, four different types of drivers all with one purpose, be in Ibadan on time to join their very good friend Shevshenko in celebrating as he leaves bachelor hood behind.



Shev and Zee

Point man was the CEO of LAY records Layi Oke Salako, driving a 1.4L Skoda Fabia a 5 speed manual putting out 75bhp, cleanly followed by Jigga driving the Green Hornet, a 1999 Toyota Camry V6 with 197bhp, Okufi who had as his Co-Pilot; Mad man Dapo Adisa drove a Skoda Octavia MPI, with Tip-tronic transmission putting out 101bhp. whiplash Olasemo dipo drove the Coja BMW 3 series 1.8; BMW's Horse power values are irrelevant because they're so well built a straight 6 BM will out manoeuvre and then out run many V8's.
Such was the convoy line till we got to Epe, where the gas guzzler of the group; the Hornet had to fill its belly. we were pulled over several times by the 'Capable' men of the Nigeria Police who insisted we shared some of our Beer fortune in the trunk with them. we definitely declined and opted to pay a fine of 200card per car.
As we left the coastal town of Epe, Doc. Okufi took point as the fuel sipping Fabia could not just take the pace of the cars behind it. much to the apprehension of a few in the convoy Okufi did excellently well. He was so good that i had to flag him down to slow the pace as the other two cars, the Fabia and the BMW were struggling to keep up. The reason being the road between Epe and Ijebu Ode was really rough and as such there was a lot of braking going, this didn't go down very well with the Fabia and the BMW as they had to shift gears frequently.
The Ijebu Ode- Ibadan leg had a much better stretch of Road, and soon it became a two horse race between the Octavia and the Hornet. The fuel gains Layi experienced during the week in traffic could not compensate for the lack of power on the open stretch of Road. I was Jigga's Co-pilot and i soon became bored and i guess a few others too, Layi took Jigga on the outer lane and was now in pole position 2, we dropped to third. Layi was hungry for bragging rights and soon overtook his bigger and much powerful sibling the octavia to take pole position.
At that point i knew the prefect scene had been drafted to show "there's no replacement for displacement", (though the oldest, Jigga's car had the biggest engine) a tiny stetch of road opened up and in 1 clean swoop JIgga opened the taps and cleaned out the octavia. Layi had gained a little advantage but the lack of real power from that miserly engine failed and with very little effort the green Hornet was back at in front.
The CEO says he was doing 150KM/h when we blew past and at the time i begged Jigga to ease up a bit so we don't get lost as we didn't know the way, he'd clocked 185Km/h.
At that point, there was no rattle and no obvious sign that this green baby could not attain its 220Kmh limit.....
What ever the Japanese have done, they've definitely done very well!!!!!!!
Yo-ishnai, yo ikangnai


From L-R: Jigga, Sheriff, Okufi, Olasemo, Dapo Adisa, Vas1, Jide Nigwo

4 against 2

Ever since my Power bike experience I've developed a new respect for these beasts. This prompted a heated argument between I and a few friends when Kelli showed up in his cruiser. The beef, would the fastest bike in the world outrun the most power production car in the world?
These video's might help make things clearer.

Ducatti Desmosedici vs Ferrari 430 Scuderia


Nissan GTR vs Kawasaki ZX-14

I can make out 1 thing from these videos, on a track (twisty roads), if the power to weight ratios of both bike and car were similar, the bike stands a much better chance of out pacing the car for the simple reason of quicker acceleration. Flat out, the car will eat the Bike up. The reason, Cars always have higher end speeds than Bikes.

The solution to this debacle depending on where you stand is to see a comprehensive test against the fastest and most powerful production car(the Bugatti Veyron) go up against the Kawasaki Ninja ZX -14.
All Bike loving fans shouldn't expect much though as the GTR in the video above has about 1/2 the power output of a Veyron.... pretty sure that wouldn't be a battle!!!!!!!!!