EPIC DRIVE: Bukit Putus
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 10, 2015
The last time where an A6 was pitted against a Cayman and a Tiguan on the stretch of Klawang, it was in the hottest summers where the grip of tarmac was assured. In this venture of taking on the legendary Bukit Putus, we went through sunshine, rain then the sun once more to find out what’s what. The year is now nearing the end where downpours are frequent, the VW has been swapped for a Carrera S in the equation which led to an outcome that couldn’t have been more different.
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The Cayman was fuelled with no other than juice rhyming with hell derived from the prancing horse’s formula one team. Scissor-ed out the roof liner that decided to come off on this day instead of any other day. Had its Bridgestones overly inflated to 31 and 33 PSI respectively to the front and back to keep understeer at bay based on little to no scientific research. Taking advantage of every little detail will be needed for this exciting road trip that was about to take off.
Launching at about 4,000 rpm would get you off just about fine in the 987, any more would add seconds to your run. There were dry leaves lingering along BP which made our cars struggle for traction. There was a deadly turn entered at speeds higher than anyone should have and a crash is almost inevitable. Fortunately, my stars were aligned to make the greatest save of the year by directing the steering to the right and at the same time applying throttle to regain traction.
The A6 is just so far out of its comfort zone on such roads suffering from body roll and buckets of understeer although being in dynamic mode. On narrow strips of Bukit Putus, the A6 had to use up both lanes to iron out kinks in the corners. Having the traction control tuned to its mildest setting, tackling this route requires more effort over the two breeds of cars due to having a larger steering ratio which requires more turning behind the wheel. Despite that, it had more traction in situations of such (being front driven) does help keeping up with the Cayman more easily.
While at BP, another thing to be aware of or let’s not be aware of is monkeys. There are a total of four good spots for photography littered throughout the hill climb. Since Putus wasn't a long run, we punched the address to one of our favourite routes, N32. To our surprise, it isn't faraway so we headed in its direction for some comparison. As it turns out, Kuala Klawang was every bit as good as we remembered but Bukit Putus presented us with terrifying surprises which is also no bad thing.
As for the Carrera, life was easy with no drama in order to keep up with the other two cars. To my surprise, there were neither tyre squeals nor a hint of oversteer throughout the chase play. I’m sure it has quite the chassis and together with a clever locking differential to do the job but most of us find that the car was doing it all which robs the driving experience. Despite that, we cannot deny the fact that the other two could only dream of breaking away from the 991 in those conditions.
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We find that Bukit Putus was a tight, technical run while N32 aka Klawang (for us, at least) still is king. The existence of such roads is a great motivator in search for more driving roads. At the end of the day, it got me wishing I were in an S model which is not only more powerful and louder or a 997 for the full Porsche effect. Then again, having a Carrera would leave you wanting a GT3 and eventually an RS model.
Bukit Putus (Route 361)
Length: 6.5 kilometers
Address: 70400 Seremban, Negeri Sembilan
GPS: 2.728697, 102.063100