Let the races begin – with the new Civic

Whether race veterans or novices, the unmistakable eager expressions in the journalists’ faces were hard to conceal as the 6th Honda Media Challenge was officially declared open last Saturday at the World Trade Center in Roxas Boulevard. It was actually a dual event as the official vehicle of the Media Challenge–the 2003 Honda Civic, was also formally presented to the media.

Inadvertently, the formalities of the event and the lunch that followed was cut short as everybody seemed all fired up to jump into those brand new Civics and try the course designed for the practice runs at the open field located just across the street, with gusts of wind with visible abundance of dust notwithstanding.

According to Belle Alba, the ever-present, hands-on head of ADBM Resources, the event’s organizers, this year’s staging of what’s now considered as an institutional motor sport event will have 14 media teams from print, radio, TV and ‘new’ media (cyberspace) participating. She also added that, "It will be run in specially designed dirt and tarmac courses to highlight the vaunted versatility of the Civic as well as to effectively put to test the media practitioners’ driving and racing skills".

To recall, the Media Challenge was first staged in 1998, the year the Honda City was introduced to the Philippine market. It was deemed by some creative and pioneering executives of Honda Cars Philippines as the most ideal activity to best showcase the City’s durability and versatility to the market with no less than the motoring journalists, regarded by the public as the best source of info about vehicles, exclusively participating and writing about the event and the performance of the racing vehicles.

With the 6th staging of the Media Challenge, Arnel Doria, one of those pioneering executives and currently the Deputy Head for Marketing Division of Honda Cars Philippines, the founding and traditional major sponsor of the event, challengingly said to this year’s participants in his speech during the opening ceremonies, "From 105 horsepower of the City VTi to 127 horsepower of the 2003 Civic, we would like you to summon all the skills learned from the past five years in the Media Challenge to unleash the extra horses of the new Civic".

Mr. Mitsunari Takano, HCPI president and general manager proudly announced in his welcome speech that, "There would be four brand new Civics that will be used for the Media Challenge". He also remarked that, "Honda’s foundations has always been rooted in motor sports and the challenge of competition and winning are the driving forces behind our motivation to succeed." But the young basketball playing Honda Philippines top executive who’s running under his firm’s team banners during the event, and who, according to my good friend Arnel, seemed to have been bitten by the racing bug after some practice runs, also daringly closed his remarks by saying, "You may have five years advance training in the Media Challenge, but I promise to give you a strong challenge".

I remember my good friend and former HCPI president Koji Miyajima putting a wager of one thousand pesos to whoever beats his time during the early days of the Honda Media Challenge.

You were saying something, Takano-san?

Hyundai–no longer in the gray market

The Philippine headquarters of South Korean automotive giant, Hyundai Motor Company was formally opened last week and what better way to mark it than to launch a new motor vehicle–the Hyundai Matrix, said to be aimed at the growing number of women and young buyers in the country.

Ms. Fe Agudo, general manager of Hyundai Asia Resources (HARI), the official distributor of Hyundai vehicles in the country, said the Matrix is a class on its own and promises to change the traditional view of Filipinos toward passenger cars.

The Matrix, tagged as the "mini-MVP (multi-purpose vehicle)" is powered by a 1.6 liter 16 valve gasoline engine with DOHC and fuel injection, comes either with a 5-speed manual or 4-speed automatic transmission. Its suspension system is composed of MacPherson struts and coil springs up front and dual link and coil springs on the rear. For optimal ride and handling, it has gas-filled shock absorbers. For safety the Matrix is equipped with Airbags and brakes with ABS.

Considering the present hard times when price plays a very important aspect in the decision-making process for buying anything, the Matrix timely popularly priced of P625,000 for manual and P680,000 for automatic transmission.

Prior to its formal entry to the Philippine market, Hyundai has been popular for the Starex vans, which all came in through the gray market and bought widely, sans warranty notwithstanding.

Formula One Update

Michael Schumacher is finding himself in very unfamiliar territory. After being the undisputed king of the tracks for 3 glorious years in a row, he finds himself tied with 5 other drivers for third place this season. Unbelievable? Believe it. He hasn’t even mounted the podium yet. It may seem like we’re in a parallel universe folks, but this is really happening. For some unthinkable reason, the Macs are forcing Ferrari to, well, eat their dust. McLaren Mercedes has been ruling the track for the past couple of races. In Australia, it was David Coulthard. In Sepang, it was Kimi Raikkonen. See an orange, silver, and black colored trend here? It’s refreshing to see a new color-combination on the podium — this is definitely great for the sport. I was starting to grow rather tired of seeing just red.

Is there trouble brewing at the BAR camp? Looks like Jacques Villenueve and Jenson Button aren’t getting along too well. Apparently, Jenson is accusing Jacques of deliberately foiling his chances of scoring points in the Australian Grand Prix when they dived into the pit lane practically at the same time. Many say it was just a misunderstanding on Villeneuve’s part, but Button is convinced that it was done calculatingly. We’re just 2 races into the season, so these 2 still have an eternity to warm up to each other.

Many were pleasantly surprised with Fernando Alonso’s marvelous performance in Sepang. Being the youngest driver to ever get pole position will of course earn you instant fame and recognition. Many people thought that Renault will not fare quite as well in the race itself as they did in qualifying since both drivers were riding on low fuel — hence many were thinking that they’d run a 3 stop strategy. The Renault drivers surprised everyone when they, like everyone else, only had 2 pit stops each. Renault F1 Team President Patrick Faure even went as far as saying that the young Spaniard just might be the next Ayrton Senna.

To recap the race for the Constructors Championship after 2 races, McLaren leads the pack with 26 points, Ferrari and Renault are merely 10 points behind with 16, and BMW Williams isn’t that far away with 14. In the Drivers Championship, the young Kimi Raikkonen leads with 16 points, followed closely by McLaren teammate David Coulthard with 10. Tied at 3rd with 8 points each are Juan Pablo Montoya, Michael Schumacher, Reubens Barrichello, Fernando Alonso, and Jarno Trulli.

I never thought I’d say this again with the last couple of seasons being extremely predictable and all, but I am looking forward to an extremely exciting season for F1.

It is said that McLaren will be unveling their 2003 car at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Will they continue their winning streak? Will there be another rift between the BAR drivers or will they manage to push their little tussle aside in the spirit of teamwork?

Next stop, Brazil. Like me, I’m sure you’ll all be glued to your TV sets come Sunday.

Happy motoring!!!!

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