Ask Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor about all the thrilling rides he’s ever taken in his life and you can expect him to mention hurtling into the sky at 22,000 km/h in the Soyuz TMA-11, the space craft that propelled him to the stars.
“Later, they told me that my father, despite his strong character, screamed when he saw the launch. He thought that all the fire from the rocket thrusters was going to burn us all,” he laughs.
Herein, Muszaphar reveals that he nearly didn’t make it for the space program.
“To fly in the Russian Soyuz, your height from your vortex (top of the head ) to your coccyx (tailbone)
should not be more than 99cm. Mine was 96cm. I was only saved by 3 cm. Phew!” recalls Muszaphar of the close call.
His other thrill ride had been in a Hawk trainer jet with the Red Arrows, RAF’s acrobatic team at the LIMA (Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace) exhibition in 2007.
“Unlike the pilots, I did not have an anti G-suit on and I was straining all the way to keep myself from blacking out. The astronaut training came in handy then,” he says of his whirlwind ride with them.
But long before this 38-year-old became a household name, Muszaphar was already a daredevil in his own right.
At age 10, he snuck his elder brother’s racing bicycle out of the house and pedaled 8 km from Bukit Rasah to Seremban town without telling anyone. This was when Muszaphar had yet to reach his lanky height of 1.83m. If you can picture a small boy balancing precariously on a Shimano that was way too high for him with his fingertips barely touching the handlebars, you can imagine the perilous nature of this journey.
Then, at 15, without a driver’s licence, he took his brother’s Nissan 120Y for secret joy rides to an empty lot so he could do wheel spins and donuts.
“My brother eventually found out that I was sneaking his car out because the tyres were going bald pretty fast. Still, he kept it a secret from our parents for six months,” recalls Muszaphar.
Things came to a head when he came home with a dent and his brother was forced to rat on him for his own safety. Ironically, Muszaphar dented the car when he backed it into a wall while practicing the L-parking maneuver.
“My parents were very cross and they banned me from driving until I was old enough to get my licence which I did on my 18th birthday,” he says.
Still, the brushes with his brother’s Shimano and Nissan are chicken farts when you compare it to the time when he hung on to the roof of a speeding Tata while he was studying medicine in Manipal. This episode came about when another fellow medical student dared Muszaphar to the deed. The ride ended at the edge of a cliff with an abrupt stop. Miraculously, Muszaphar managed to hang on though the Tata was doing 180 km/h before that.
Nothing beats the thrill of an adrenaline rush for Muszaphar. To this former national swimmer who has swum with the great white sharks in Cape Town, Africa, and goes bungee jumping regularly, it is the rush that makes him feel alive.
“It’s better than anything on earth!” he enthuses.
This is also one reason why Muszaphar has a penchant for fast bikes and cars.
His first motorbike, an Enfield Bullet 350 which he bought at age 22, gave him a taste of what it was like to feel the wind in his hair. As the Bullet 350 only had a top speed of 100 km/h, he had it modified by changing the pistons and exhaust so that it could reach a speed of 250 km/h. After four years, man and machine fell out of favour after a bad paint job turned his green bike into a shade of pink. Still, first loves are hard to forget and Muszaphar plans to look up the mechanic and find out what happened to his Bullet 350 when he goes to Manipal, India next.
When he came home to work for UKM Medical Centre (formerly known as Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia), his first choice was to opt for a another fast bike, Kawasaki ZZR 1100, a four cylinder sport tourer which has a top speed of 285 km/h. Again, owner and bike were forced to part ways when rainy seasons inadvertently made him late for work, a big ‘no no’ with the boss.
Speaking of cars, currently, Muszaphar is having a major crush on the BMW Z4 3.0i, a two-door inline-6 roadster which has earned a reputation for being a land shark.
“I love it for its sturdiness and sleek looks. The engine purrs and is beautifully silent. You don’t feel the speed, even when you’re going at 220 km/h. And it is very spacious, despite my height. I’d love to drive this roadster with the top down because I love the sun,” says Muszaphar.
And yes, he’s had his day at the tracks, as a passenger in a Porsche.
“The tracks are the only place to speed. As much as I like to drive fast, safety must come first and that means safety belts. I’ve seen plenty of fractured spines and broken skulls when I was working at the Selayang Hospital, an area known for illegal races,” says Muszaphar.
As for his ultimate dream car, it is the red Ferrari that wins hands down.
“I’ve realized my first dream of going to space. Driving a Ferrari will be another one of my aims. Now, don’t ask me why a Ferrari. Isn’t it everybody’s dream to own one?” concludes this Malaysian astronaut with a glint in his eye.
Published in Cars Bikes and Trucks, New Sunday Times, 17th Jan 2010
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment