The Car, The Road, The Weather

Jeeez.. would it ever stop raining..and such heavy one too. Fortunately the rain dont last long but it leaves its mark with leaves scattered all over the road, tree branches fallen and mini flood of water on the street all over the place.

Back in 1997 when I got my first Kanchil 850 I was exhilirated for being able to join in the jam from Pandan Indah area to KL Sultan Ismail where I work.

But very soon my joy-ride was turned into a bumpy one becos there are just too many potholes in Pandan Indah as well as KL!! Can you imagine your brand new beautiful car running over potholes as big as your Kanchil wheel size???

So I thought, wont it be more appropriate for our national car to produce ONLY 4 wheels drive since driving round Pandan Indah and KL is like participating in a rally across the most treacharous mountain site in the world.

You not only have to look out for fast driven cars that zap in and zip out from nowhere, daredevil motorist that only need 1 cm of space to squeeze their way thru but you also need to be sure your car dont land into one of the potholes camouflaged as an innoncent looking pool of water.

But today I changed my mind. After the frequent flash flood we encounter in and around KL - I think we have to restrategise and instead of just producing 4 wheel drive we should incorporate the amphibian features into it.

Imagine the scene.

In your beautiful amphibian capable 4 wheeler, you plough your way out from Pandan Indah to KL, dislodging the daredevil motorist that is trying to squeeze past between you and the slow moving container on your left. Next you came across a pothole the size of 45cm wok but becos you have tyres fortified with silicon and suspension fitted for rally - you go over the potholes without being bounced around like a ball.

Come 4.00pm - suddenly the sky pours and pours - 5.30pm - you got to leave the office and unfortunately you got stuck in the middle of the mother of all jam of KL. (which often occurs anyway) and our famous flash flood occured at exactly 1 hour after you have sat in your car in the middle of the road at the same spot.

On your right you saw the water rising rapidly from the big monsoon drain which dont seemed so big now...what to do? where to go? back and front you have cars piled up and some of them is ignorant of the rising water....

Worry not. At the flick of a switch, your 4 wheeler is sealed air/water tight. The exhaust is turn into propeller and from your wheels 4 powerful paddle extruded to assist your car to stay afloat.

Now, you can slow drive onto the rising water in the monsoon drain and slowly propel your way home.

Isnt it neat? We dont need to spend millions and billions to design flash flood mechanism which may not work afterall - if our highway is anything to go by.