The vintage cars came in mint

The Fort at the Global City virtually turned into a museum of vintage Ford vehicles last Saturday as Ford Day was celebrated together with an exclusive multi-balloon fluttering motorcade of Ford vehicles of all makes and ages and a highly personalized photo exhibit of prized Ford cars and their owners.

The event dubbed, "Ford Day 2003: Celebrating 100 years of Forever Real Drivers" also had on spotlight a contest, "Search for the Best of the Oldest Ford Vehicles", which included an array of mint Mustangs from the sixties and a couple of Model A’s from the 1920s and 1930s plus a classic Thunderbird ("Port Hole" model) among the participants.

Henry Co, president of Ford Group Philippines was on hand together with his two sons, who looked like bona fide car buffs, to welcome the sizable crowd who came to appreciate the different Ford models lined up with many gazing mesmerized at the sight of the vintage Fords that came real mint condition.

Christmas Parties Galore

Like everyone else during the yuletide season motoring journalists are watching their waistline as party after party are held by auto companies and firms peripheral to the industry.

Although the Caltex party held last Tuesday at the Westin’s Siete Pecados was more of an awards night for the Caltex sponsored teams that participated in the different motor sports disciplines, it was right smack into Isuzu’s Christmas party held at a new restaurant at the Fort.

We were late for the Isuzu party on account of the awards received by STV, Sunshine Television Ventures guys who recently made a sweep in the media division of a recent Delo off-roading event. Senior cameraman Raul Promeda, supervising producer Arrin Villareal and cameraman Matt Mallari got 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in the event.

The Honda Cars Philippines Christmas Party was last night at Merck’s in Greenbelt while tonight is Ford’s Christmas party and Henry Ford Award’s night at the Dusit Hotel.

I’d probably need a new set of wardrobe by January.

Pit Lane Notes

A new rule in the 2004 World Formula One Series requires an engine to last through the race weekend — roughly around 900 kilometers. Many fear the new rule would see a drop in horsepower and the lowering of the revs. But Mercedes Benz believes they won’t suffer any such drop in both horsepower and revs and would maintain the levels of the 2003 series. The rule was designed to bring down costs of running in F1.

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Ferrari hopes to race their new car right from the start of the 2004 season. Previously in the last two seasons, Ferrari would first start with previous year’s car before introducing the new model several races after. The new car is said to have a new chassis and likely to be called F2004.

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BAR-Honda is reportedly happy to just set its sights for the 4th position in the Constructors Championship of the 2004 season behind Ferrari, McLaren and Williams. Their new car, the BAR 006 is set to be unveiled in February and is scheduled to switch to Michelin from Bridgestone.

"Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks"

It’s an old adage but members of the SPMJ, Society of Philippine Motoring Journalists have accepted this as practical truth in their advocacy to instill traffic education among the youth. Judging by the present state of affairs, traffic education may yet prove to be the most effective means to reduce and hopefully eradicate chaos on our roads that’s basically due to lack of knowledge of simple basic traffic rules. And having stubborn drivers in our midst, achieving order in our streets through education may not just happen in this generation.

After a series of discussions during several workshops, this group of motoring journalists has come to an agreement that the best way to instill traffic education is to start this at a very young age and follow through the formative years of the youth — from elementary to high school as part of their school curriculum. Aside from having the advantage of working on young minds, the sad economic truth that most of those who become professional drivers have only the means to reach these levels of education convinced the members to have such limits.

To achieve this SPMJ is presently making representations with those from Congress and lobbying for the drafting and passage of such legislation. Unfortunately, despite a win-win situation for any congressman who would help draft and sponsor the bill, the present political climate seems to muddle their minds and there seem to be no takers yet.

In the meantime, the members have embarked on a project to produce teaching modules and audio visual presentations aimed at these two educational levels. Once these are made, they will personally make trips to schools and show these AVPs and conduct an open forum with the students to augment the information campaign. These teach-ins shall be held until the time that a law would have been signed to include traffic education in the elementary and high school curriculum.

To fund the initial project, an annual golf tournament, "SPMJ Invitational Cup" shall be organized among the different automobile companies and other sponsoring corporate entities together with the media. The first one is scheduled February of next year at the Riviera Golf and Country Club. The initial responsive attitude of most automotive companies to the advocacy was translated by way of their very positive response to the fund raising project where they would not only have corresponding media values for their sponsorship, a day of friendly golf competition among the industry players and the media is also thrown in as a bonus.

But the more ambitious stage in the group’s venture to help in putting order in our roads is the setting up of a "traffic city" where young people would be given a "hands on" experience and training in obeying traffic rules and regulations. More about this in our future columns.

Motoring Tip Of The Week

I am not engaged in the business of selling car tints but in this day and age in our country where motorists are often victimized by criminal elements I would strongly suggest that you have your vehicle tinted especially when you often drive alone at night — regardless if you are male or female.

When your vehicle is tinted in such a way that the inside is not visible during the day or night, the criminals cannot immediately tell if the driver is alone or how many people are inside the vehicle. The line of least resistance would always prevail. Also while parked the criminals would prefer those vehicles with visible items of value that those that need to be broken in first before finding out.

Happy Motoring!!!

(Thanks to James Deakin for the new picture in my column. The old one I used to have here was taken three years ago, so I had to change it. Believe it or else.)

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