One of the founders of the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Sir Henry Royce once said, “Small things make perfection, but perfection is no small thing”. It is in this vein that Rolls-Royce presents perfect 1:8 scale models of the Cullinan, the marque’s stellar SUV. As daily motoring pleasures have been curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some other of life’s little ...

While watching the first John Wick movie where Keanu Reeves’ titular character went after and killed the young Russian mobsters who killed his dog and took his black 1969 Ford Mustang, I overheard a comment from the group of young people watching in the row behind us: “I don’t get it – all that carnage for a dog and an ...

At the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2007, the Ford Motor Company displayed their Ford Verve concept car, which would eventually be released as the sixth-generation Ford Fiesta. Also known as the Fiesta Mark VI, the car is based on Ford’s new global B-car platform. Production of the Fiesta started at Ford’s Cologne plant in Germany in August 2008, followed ...

When I was a young teen, one of my favorite TV shows was “VEGA$”, an American private detective crime drama series that aired on Philippines television around the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. The TV series stars Robert Urich as private detective Dan Tanna, who drove to his cases around Las Vegas, Nevada in a red 1957 Ford Thunderbird convertible. ...

When BMW Philippines introduced the all-new BMW X3 (E83) sports activity vehicle in early 2004, they organized a fun activity for the local motoring media. They set up a short slalom course in the adjacent parking area and the media guest with the fastest time through the slalom course gets a prize. At the time, I was representing The Philippine ...

Inside a clear acrylic display case on top of my model collection shelf is a battery-operated Bump ‘N Go race car. It’s roughly a 1:18 scale model of Malcolm Durham’s 1970 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 Funny Car dubbed as the “Strip Blazer VIII”. The tin toy was given to me by a good friend, Frank Koh, to augment my collection of ...

Without a doubt, the YZF-R1 is the top dog when enthusiasts talk about their favorite Yamaha super sports bike. And we talk from experience: In 2003, Manuel Gaspar “Boy” Albos, Jr., the executive vice president (EVP) of Norkis Trading Corporation, which was the former distributor of Yamaha motorcycles in the Philippines, showed us a brand-spanking-new Yamaha R1 that just arrived ...

On the wall in front of my desk in our home-office hangs a framed poster of a 2001 Harley-Davidson V-Rod (VRSCA) parked in front of the Milwaukee factory of The Motorcycle Company. The large poster came inserted in a special issue of a foreign motorcycle magazine that featured the V-Rod’s introduction. My wife Shawie had the poster framed in 2002 ...

We’ve been keeping ourselves busy even when we’re compelled to stay home since the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) was imposed in Metro Manila on March 15, 2020. Aside from reviewing scale model cars, we’ve been sorting, organizing, and arranging our stuff in our residence and our home-office. We realized that we have a lot of stuff that we didn’t know ...

In March 2003, Honda Cars Philippines (HCPI) took several members of the Philippine motoring press, including yours truly, to Australia to watch the Foster’s Australian Grand Prix Formula One (F1) races at the Albert Park in Melbourne. As the guests of Honda, we were privileged to go into the paddocks of the BAR-Honda Racing Team after the Friday afternoon practice ...