When we got the 1973 Volkswagen Beetle 1600 of our family friend and VW enthusiast Ildefonso “Fons” Caluag, our initial assessment is that we just needed to continue the paint wash-over that was abandoned by an unscrupulous journeyman painter. We got a wash-over sponsorship from Johnson Tan, the proprietor of JSK Custom Paint and Auto Works, and we had the ...

Ildefonso Caluag is a certified Beetle fanatic. He owns two Volkswagen Bugs – a green 1974 Super Beetle 1303 S and a cream 1973 Beetle 1600, which he loving refers to as his “baby”. Fons, as he is known to his friends, narrated that he sold his slightly used locally-assembled 1980s VW Brasilia and with the proceeds, bought the ’73 ...

Our 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe LS sat almost undisturbed for a couple of months while we test drove and reviewed a string of brand new cars such as the Ford Ranger Raptor, GAC GA8, BAIC M50S and BJ20, Porsche Cayman and Macan Sport. We started our Tahoe once in a while to charge its new Hitachi car battery, which we installed ...

In June 2013, we took our 1971 Chevrolet Camaro RS project car to Ben Lim’s workshop in Cainta, Rizal in eastern Metro Manila. In July, the engine bay was devoid of the original 307/327 V8 and Turbo 350 3-speed automatic transmission and was waiting for a newly assembled 383 and refurbished 700R4 4-speed automatic with overdrive. Then, sometime in October ...

In our previous report, we mentioned that we weren’t confident with all the cheap fixes we did to our 1986 Mercedes-Benz 500SE project car. We realized that we can’t fix our top-of-the-line German luxury car with run-of-the-mill parts and service. So, we dug deep into our pockets and took our 500SE to a German car specialist workshop. On January 22, ...

If you missed Part 1 of the Project Car series on our 1971 Chevrolet Camaro RS, here’s a short summary: Power Wheels Magazine Editor-in-Chief Lester Dizon bought the car in January 1996 and started working on it piecemeal, as his budget will allow. It went through a nuts-and-bolts restoration at MSG Garage in February 1998, displayed in April at the ...

  From 1979 to 1991, Mercedes-Benz produced the W126 series as its top-of-the-line Sonderklasse (Special Class or S-Class) model. It achieved several awards including the Wheels Magazine “Car of the Year” in 1981; the U.S. Highway Loss Data Institute “Safest Passenger Car of the Year” in 1988 and 1989; the third-ranked luxury vehicle in J.D. Power’s 1990 Initial Quality Survey ...

Since we acquired it in March 2017, our 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe LS has never failed us. Its 4.8-liter Vortec V8 engine starts up immediately – rain or shine. It starts right up even if we store it for a couple of weeks, especially when we get busy driving other vehicles like our Long Term Test 2016 Suzuki Ciaz or other ...

In April 2016, we accepted a used 1992 Mitsubishi Galant Super Saloon MPI from one of our media colleagues as a direct trade for one of our 250cc motorcycles. We didn’t have any intention of getting another Project Car since we were busy working on three other projects – our 1971 Chevrolet Camaro RS, our 1977 Mitsubishi Celeste 1600 ST, ...

On the 2nd week of September 1971, a 2nd-generation Camaro with the Rally Sport (RS) option rolled out of the General Motors (GM) Chevrolet assembly plant in Norwood, Ohio, USA. Its Trim Plate indicated that it was finished in Sunflower Yellow (Paint Code 52) with a Black Vinyl Roof (Roof Code B) and Black Custom Z87 Cloth Interior (Trim Code ...