There really isn't a contest if you pit an automobile against a jet plane in a 300+ kilometre race.
But throw in highway speed traps, a two-hour wait at the airport, a lengthy commute from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), rush hour traffic, plus an island-wide search for an elusive terror suspect, and you've got a decent fight on your hands.
91.3FM DJs Rod Monteiro and Andre Hoeden, otherwise known as "The Married Men", embarked on the first-ever "Fly-Drive" challenge last Friday, with Rod hitting the road in a BMW X3 and Andre taking to the skies.
The race was officially "flagged-off" at Singapore Press Holdings' News Centre at 3.00pm, and AsiaOne Motoring hopped into the X3 to chronicle the experience.
HARDLY TYPICAL
Typically, driving to Kuala Lumpur will take about four hours if you travel well within the speed limit, with a stop or two along the way.
This wasn't a typical drive, and the X3 isn't a typical car.
With 218 bhp on tap, and a race on our hands, the 'Hot Rod' pushed the 2.5 litre 'Sport Activity Vehicle' - BMW-speak for Sports Utility vehicle - to the limit.
Based on the 3-Series platform, our striking white 4-wheel-drive proved to be a steady, planted ride despite being fairly tall.
Space was never an issue, with the X3 swallowing Rod's 1.83 metre frame with ease.
The ride was somewhat stiff though, with uneven stretches on the highway resulting in the backseat passenger a.k.a. yours truly, being bounced around.
Power-wise, the X3 had the horses to pull us past all the slow pokes with aplomb, but we were left wondering how much more fun it would be if we were driving the X5 instead!
One of the few cars to emphatically outrun us was coincidentally another beemer - a Singapore-registered 630i that flew by like we were standing still.
How fast was he going? We figured about 250km/hr.
But before you assume that we were speeding too, we couldn't have been - because the highly vigilant Malaysian highway police never stopped us at any point in our journey.
UNSTOPPABLE
And so we didn't stop at all, save for slowing down to pay our dues at the highway toll booths.
No refuelling was needed after our sole pit stop at a Lornie Road petrol station, with the full tank taking us all the way to KL.
But that also meant no stretching, no warm food, and most importantly, no toilet breaks.
The last bit resulted in the 'Drive' team practically sprinting into the first public toilet we came across, which happened to be an exclusive RM2 toilet at KLCC. (Watch the video to see what luxury RM2 can get you!)
FLAT-OUT
Traffic was light throughout the journey, with only two minor slow-downs due to road works.
The great thing about driving in Malaysia, observed Rod, is that "Drivers give way when you want to overtake."
By simply signalling right whilst in the extreme right lane, we watched in wonder as drivers in front of us pulled to the left to allow the X3 to pass - even the Singaporeans!
330 kilometres worth of oil palm plantations, rubber tree plantations, quarries and asphalt whizzed by, and before we knew it, Rod was paying the final 40 ringgit toll at the fringes of the Malaysian capital.
RUSH HOUR
The Petronas Towers came into view at about 6.00pm, and it seemed like 'Drive' had indeed triumphed.
But then we saw the only potentially serious delay - Friday rush hour traffic.
There was a snarling queue of cars as we made our way down Kuala Lumpur's giant drainpipe - the SMART tunnel.
For the uninformed, SMART is short for "Stormwater Management And Road Tunnel", and is designed to reduce incidences of flash flooding, and improve traffic flow along Jalan Sungai Besi - the main artery into KL city from the North-South highway.
Fortunately the gridlock wasn't as fatal as we thought, resulting in a 15 minute delay before we entered the cavernous Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) carpark.
We found a parking space fairly quickly and were soon hustling our way towards the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas, located at the base of the Petronas Towers.
There was no sign of Andre when we arrived, which meant that 'drive' should have triumphed over 'fly'!
A phone call to our competitor confirmed the win, as he was still sardine-packed with the rest of KL's rush hour commuters on the train system.
Andre eventually emerged an hour later, and the duo happily hammed it up for the the camera and bemused shoppers.
