Philippine Car of the Year

Last weekend was fun, but tiring. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, I've got to miss one whole double-header of a weekend. Rats. That's over 30 cars. Oh well... I get to go pick up the Ford from the shop, do the groceries and finally buy new SD cards for all my toys. But the guys left on secretary duty (of which I was supposed to do 1/2) are sore at me. C'est la vie.

Link takes you to the cover article on Kotse.com. What isn't on my cover article is how enthusiastic I am about the new Lancer. Obvious, huh? Sure, the Lancer's interior isn't any richer than the horrible rent-a-car interiors of Evos of years past... but it looks good. And who has time to fondle dashboard plastic when they're having this much fun? Many North American reviews have really hammered on the Lancer... somewhat unfairly, I think... but they get really wimpy trim levels saddled with tiny wheel fitment and tires that don't do the chassis justice. With the large 18" wheels (which, by the way, feel perfectly controlled by the suspension), our local Lancer kicks butt. Oh, and it's huge inside, too. This is one compact that feels categorically better than the Lynx/Protege in all ways. (The Mazda3 is too soft, the Focus too heavy, and the Civic too inert in the rear suspension). Okay, so the steering's electric. So's almost everything else on the market except for the trucks and the penalty-box Alto. Good bet for class winner, and possible contender overall.

The Focus TDCi... now here's an interesting car. As compared to the Lancer and the Subaru Impreza on hand, it's not the grippiest car here, but the same basic Focus goodness is there, the keen balance, the predictable handling... now matched to a Dual Sequential Gearbox (DSG) that gives incredibly snappy and seamless shifts. Selling this car on Goodyear Eagly NCT5s makes about as much sense as selling an Everest with 15" steelies shod in the same tires. C'mon, Ford, give this car some real tires.

Another contender for the overall crown is the Honda Accord. Too bad it's saddled with Michelin Energy Eco-tires. Terrible. This car deserves Conti-Sport Contacts, at the very least... the Michelins don't have the ability to control a car this fast, and a bout of hard driving may end in tears for some hapless owner. Oh, and the suspension is soft, too, but underneath that softness is excellent body-control and suspension geometry... An Accord Sport would be terrific, but as it is, the Mazda6 and Subaru Legacy are much sportier handlers, if quite a bit slower in a straight line than the mighty 3.5 V6 Accord.

Oh, and not mentioned in the article is the absolute love I have for the Kia Picanto. It's borderline psychotic, really. I haven't adored a small car this much since the original Beetle... and the Beetle wasn't nearly this much fun to drive, or this useful.

Another one from the Chery Picker

Oh, before I forget... I've finally started uploading articles again.

This one was an interesting little car, the Chery QQ. Not quite the pick of the bunch as far as superminis go, but this one is pretty decent for the price point (which is ridiculously low... under $10,000). Gutsy engine, light weight... too bad the rest of the package is so bland.

Seeing as how Korean cars are now like Japanese cars with a different nameplate, it'll be interesting to see if Chinese cars can become just like Korean cars used to be... hopefully at the same low price point they're at now.

PCOTY Testing starts!

The Philippine Car of They Year testing has just started, and I'm tickled pink to be part of it, even in a limited capacity.

One round of testing has already finished. Unfortunately, it's the round that includes most of the interesting cars this year, the new Honda Jazz/Fit and the Hyundai i10. While I've expressed disappointment at the i10 versus the Getz that preceded it (the Getz is one segment higher, but due to price increases, the i10's introductory price is similar), but feedback from the test indicates it's actually a very swell car.

Oh well... more V-Box and drag-testing time for me this weekend. Pics to follow.

Rain Rain Go Away... again.

Dropped off the Lynx for final programming at Speedlab. No alcohol nozzles yet for the Crosswind, but I'm hopeful.

Can't wait to start testing with the LPG. So far, I seem to be getting somewhere between 7-9 km/l (yeah, reaaaally accurate... LPG fuel gauges suck)... but I think a more definitive test will be a trip to Baguio.

In the meantime, it's time to spruce up everything and make our vehicles liveable for the next few months. We had a Merc B-Class for road-testing, but I passed... just not interested. Besides... had something more interesting to test over the past two weeks. Stay tuned.

Elpiji!!!

Okay, while most people will install a mod and call it a day, I'm the type of person who will install it... fiddle with it... break it or find some niggling problem... work on it... and fiddle some more until I get it right. In this case, LPG. Now, while most people would be happy to have their car running on LPG, I can't stand the fact that you lose a significant amount of horsepower with LPG.

So, thanks to Ferman Lao at Speedlab, the Lynx has not only been installed with a Sequential Gas Injection kit... it's been tuned to make nearly exactly the same horsepower on LPG as it does on gasoline.

Now most FS-DE owners (Ford Lynx and Mazda Familia/Protege alike) would be happy with 144 whp... but I was hoping for a bit more... still, I make more power than the other non-turbo guys in the club... on a fuel that makes 10% less power as standard. I'm tickled. But if anyone mentions the 240 whp that the turbo guy who just finished at Speedlab is making, I'll kick them in the nuts.

Of course... as with all things I do with the car, this has had its problems... turns out my ECU and O2 sensors are having a hard time adapting to having the car in two different states of tune, especially since they're already strained to the limit in adapting to the big camshafts stuck in the motor.

See... big camshafts with big overlap make for poor airflow at idle... which means a lumpy idle. And once the idle is lumpy, the air going past the O2 sensor is too slow to register... which makes the computer reluctant to give the engine any more gas. This is even worse with LPG, which reads slightly differently on the O2 sensor, especially since we tuned it slightly rich for more power. So the car doesn't idle. Not on LPG, not on gasoline... nothing.

Complicated problem... simple solution. We unplug the O2 sensor and everything's back to normal. I can finally drive my precious baby. Now all we have to do is fine-tune those LPG maps and see if it can't hit 150 whp.

I can dream, can't I?

A short blast with the BMW 320i and the Hyundai Genesis Article, too...

Oh, by the way, our Genesis article is up... sadly... that was a very short test (don't know if you can call a drive of less than ten kilometers a "test")... sadly because it was an interesting car... lots of power, good suspension (great for a Korean...) and lots of toys... but my last test, a BMW X6, which should go up next week... was even shorter in terms of kilometers driven... but in terms of how much driving we were allowed to do, it was a world of difference.

The Genesis is an absolute revelation for a Korean car. The quality, the build and the technology (brand new chassis, suspension, etcetera...) and the confidence are something you would never expect... even if you're familiar with the new and improved Hyundai models already roaming our streets. even better, Kelley Blue Book and other authorities are giving it a big thumbs-up. This looks like it'll be a home-run for Hyundai... if the public is willing to give it a chance. Still, it's no BMW... it's just nowhere near as good a driver's car as the BMW 5-series... or even the X6.

Of course, this entry isn't about either car. It's about the car we took up north to the test and that I drove back down to Manila. The BMW 320i.

Lito German, the ever-loving Marketing guy from BMW, set us up with various BMW models to take to the X6 test up on the racetrack at Subic. Brent Co (of http://www.autoindustriya.com ) and I drove up in the middle of the night in blinding rain at a steady 120-140 km/h. The car felt utterly stable, but I wasn't so sure of the speeds Brent was driving at. Of course, being a sigurista... I called dibs on the driver's seat for the drive back.

And you know what? I can understand how he got up to those speeds... the 320i is not just stable... it's very stable. And, as most European cars are, it's build with highway legs like Claudia Schiffer... they go on and on and on... I was doing a lazy 160 km/h at just 3000 rpms in 6th gear on the SCTEX on the way home... Brent, my wife and my kid sleeping like babies. Impressive. My Japanese motor might accelerate faster, but I wish it were this quiet at just 100 km/h. The 6-speed automatic and perfect drivin position made long-distance motoring absolutely relaxing.

Despite not having the new BMW Navigation system, the trip was uneventful and easy. The SCTEX has really cut time off of the Manila to Subic trip. While our trip to Subic was beset by flash floods on EDSA and torrential rain, the trip home was mostly dry with a smattering of light drizzle. It took us just two hours to leg it back to Manila, despite catching rush hour traffic around Quezon Avenue and slowing to 120 km/h every time I thought I saw a patrol vehicle on the side of the road.

And the 320i impressed on the racetrack, too. Handled very well, punched out of corners easily, and slithered through slaloms and chicanes with ease. Great composure. There's some push when you exceed the tire's limits, but then, that's easy to cure. In fact, I'd say this feels more organic than the MX-5 we drove a while back... and less buzzy, strangely.

Great seats, nice interior, decent space... this car ticks all the right boxes. While this variant may not have all the bells and whistles, I don't really mind... I like my cars simple. And while the steering may not have the "right-now" handling immediacy of the C-Class we tested a while back, the chassis balance and steering feel are still leagues better.

The only niggles with the 320i are the side mirrors, whose concave wingtips can give you headaches, and the run-flats, which make the ride over gravel parking lots and broken pavement terrible. Otherwise, I could imagine living with one of these cars for the rest of my life.

Only, make mine a manual.

Hyundai Veracruz versus Mazda CX-9

Well, this was a fun two tests... the CX-9 and Veracruz are both fine automobiles, but obviously, for us motorheads... there's only one thing that matters... excitement. And the Veracruz just doesn't have any. But the backseat of the Veracruz is a fine place to be if you're taking a long road trip out and can afford a driver.

The CX-9 is fantastic, though... the sound, the power, the driver-oriented stance. It doesn't give up much (if anything) in the way of comfort to achieve its sportiness. Handling is, like the BMW X5, very muscle-car-ish... except that the X5's AWD system allows for a little more tail-happiness than the CX-9, which acts more like a front-driver most of the time. The CX-7 would probably be a better drive, but, sadly, we don't get that here. Too bad, a CX-7 with a 2.0 CRDi would sell like hotcakes.

Doldrums Doldrums Doldrums

Getz article is stalled by the lack of hard testing data on a fresh Getz CRDi. I wonder if HARI (Hyundai's marketing arm in the Philippines) actually cares that their test units might be driving customers away. On a related note: I'm getting sick of testing the same old stuff... I want new cars to test! Wouldn't say no to another Focus test-drive.

The Hyundai Getz was a fine daily driver, but the suspension systems on modern Hyundais are still a step behind the best of the rest. There are Japanese cars with terrible suspension set-ups, too (*cough* Toyota *cough*) but they still feel much more refined than the Hyundai/Kias (at least in this aspect).


Suzuki Alto Article now up

We had a blast with the Suzuki Alto, too. A great illustration of the way weight affects the speed of a car. With only 47 ponies and a dry weight of about 750 kilos, the Alto loses about 3-4 seconds against the clock (to 100 km/h) per passenger. Theoretically, it would go much faster than the 17-18 seconds we got if a monkey were driving it. We're still looking for a monkey.

The Alto is a truly horrid car. Indian build quality, golf-cart tires, a thrashy engine... but the V10-like wail of the three cylinder engine (Imagine a Lamborghini Gallardo, volume at "2" instead of "11"), the lack of nannying understeer (never has 60 km/h felt so... entertaining...) and the wheels-at-the-corner feeling of the tiny little thing made it a blast to drive. Too bad there's nothing else to recommend it for purchase.

Tucson Article up!

Agh. I'm still getting used to working on this Eee PC, so my GIMP-work is a little shoddy... oh well... it's done, it's up, and I'm happy.

As I've said previously, it's not the best CUV out there, but it was a fun little thing, and I'm sad to see it go... especially since this means I'm stuck rowing my own gears again... in traffic... oh joy... but hope looms on the horizon... A test drive of the Santa Fe and Starex loom... as well as one for the CR-V... but then, I'd really like to sink my teeth into a car again. Something nice and zippy...

Hyundai Tucson

I'm currently finishing up an article on the Hyundai Tucson... I didn't expect it to be much of a test-drive... in fact, aside from the diesel engine, I couldn't think of a single reason for anyone to buy the Tucson... but man, does it handle sweetly...

Not many cars nowadays will talk to you about what's happening at the wheels, and not many will give you the adjustability that keen drivers look for in a motorcar... so it's very refreshing to find a compact SUV with a sharp turn-in... and even more refreshing to find one that you can actually trail-brake or throttle-lift into oversteer... quite an entertaining little beast... too bad the interior screams "Corolla" and the diesel in this car is the most gutless of Hyundai's CRDis... 13.8 seconds to 100 km/h... and only when it's cold out... this is a car screaming for a better transmission, an intercooler, and about thirty more horses.

Me? I'd love to have one... buy it? No thanks.

New Year, More Cars

It's been a slow Christmas, dental operation, sensor issues with my red rocket and the general blahness of the season... but now that the new year has started, I'm finally getting into the swing of things. I'll be posting an article on the Kia Carens this Monday, and I'll be doing test drives of the Kia Spectra and the Hyundai Tucson this month.

I'm also hoping to sink my teeth into a Chery QQ, as well as do some photography and a short review of the Alto.

Ahhh.. ain't life grand?