It's the End of the World as we Know it...

There's not much I can say about what happened last weekend. The losses, in terms of lost lives and destroyed homes, were devastating, to say the least... but it's maddening to think that so much more could have been done to prevent or alleviate this disaster.

Ford versus Ford

I "borrowed" my Dad's Ford Focus TDCi the other week, to use in the Ford Club Philippines exhibition at the Enchanted Kingdom theme park (a most successful event, with sixty cars on display!), but I've been hanging onto it since then. I figured the car could use some exercise, since he takes it out once in a blue moon. The fact that it's only covered 600 kilometers (about 400 miles) in the past year tells you how often it's driven.

Consequently, I have promised to clean the car up and change the oil. This being a two-year old car under warranty, I was mildly surprised to find out that it was twelve months overdue for its next oil change. Oh well... still runs, doesn't smoke, and the dipstick isn't telling me any sob stories. I'm scheduling an oil change for later this week, but in the meantime, the diesel really needs to be changed, and I've been putting a lot of kilometers on the clock draining the tank so I can put a fresh batch in.

Many of those kilometers were spent bringing my daughter both to and from school. While I've been enjoying the cossetting ride of the Focus, the extra sound insulation and the whomping torque of the PSA 2 liter, I've started feel just a wee bit guilty for neglecting the Lynx for so long. Just the other day, I decided to take the Lynx RS out for a spin and put some gas in the tank, because hadn't run it for an entire week.

After getting acclimatized to the Focus, returning to the Lynx was a shock. It felt lighter, nimbler and rortier than I remembered it to be. After driving the turbodiesel for so long, the torque of my cammed naturally-aspirated motor feels a bit underwhelming, but the absolute lack of inertia in the car, in any sense, compared to the 1.4 ton Focus, is refreshing.

That's the reason I keep coming back to the Lynx. After every new test unit, getting back in the Lynx is a breath of fresh air. Sure, the leather is starting to chip in places, the gearshifter's as woefully wobbly as in my old 626 (understandable, considering it's the same gearbox and both cars are well past 90,000 kilometers) and it's tinny and noisy as hell, but the puppy-dog eagerness of the thing always endears itself to me.

Not that the Focus is without driving panache. It handles well for its weight, and the hatchback layout gives it a good balance. And the TDCi engine is tremendous fun, even at a pedestrian pace... but the Lynx just does some things better.

Too bad my daughter doesn't think so. Almost threw a fit when she learned she wasn't going to school in the blue car today. Oh well... she'll survive the disappointment when we use the red car again tomorrow.

Though I think she might be able to persuade her grandpa to let her keep the car on a permanent loan. A little motoring variety never hurt anyone.