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THERE is
extreme and there is creatively extreme, but it was like
no other motoring event this writer had ever been to
before. Last week’s Isuzu Alterra “Great Drive, Great
Life” was one of those creatively extreme exercises
which was more fun than hard and yet it tested physical
endurance and mental agility as well.
We rode
off at
7 am from Mario’s Restaurant in Tiendesitas after a short
briefing from the Isuzu guys. From there we ran off to
Clark Airbase for our first test on the lahar-filled
Sacobia River. Just getting to Clark was a thrill in
itself as the powerful Alterra engine allowed us to whiz
through the North Luzon Expressway. Speed and power was
not a problem as the Alterra was capable of giving the
driver all that he wanted, and I wanted it all.
We got
to Clark, made our way to the Centennial Expo and then
all the way to Sacobia River, where the first test was
to be done. We were divided into five team colors: Red,
Blue, Orange, Yellow and Green, with four members to a
team. This writer belonged to the Green team. The
objective of the exercise was to test the mettle of the
Alterra on an off-road scenario. We all had to be paired
off as drivers and navigators. The driver had no idea
how the course was to be taken and only the navigator
could tell him where to go.
Being
last on the grid, we had some problems because the lahar
track was well worn out and driving on the soft,
sand-like surface was very difficult at best. We had to
traverse quick turns, water crossings and do tricky
parking maneuvers while trying to get the fastest time.
They called this activity an off-road gymkhana—a test of
precision driving. Now, while the other teams had good
times, our teammate Anjo Perez of the Manila Bulletin
drove in a record one minute 59 seconds plus my ordinary
three minutes and 31 seconds gave us, the Green team,
the winners’ banner for the first activity.
 In
the same line, the Alterra showed us what a true
commercial SUV should be able to do on- and off-road. On
the
Sacobia
River, the stability and handling of the SUV on a
noneven and treacherous track like that of a river bed
showed true four-wheel-drive performance.
After
that, we all drove off to the Eagles Sports Shooting
Range, where old buddy and schoolmate Itos Carag, also
an Olympic hopeful for the sporting clays shooting
event, was waiting for us to give us another adrenaline
pumper.
There we
all had to handle a shotgun and try to shoot down flying
orange clays. It is part of an Olympic event called
skeet and trap. Most of us had experience in handling a
firearm, but not shooting a shotgun at a moving, much
less a flying, target. Having a team with more
experienced and disciplined shooters, again, the Green
Team took the banner, with all four shooters hitting the
flying clays more times than the other teams. That gave
us “team to beat” status, after taking two of the four
competitions slated for the day. But the day was young
and we had two more difficult courses to run.
 From
the firing range, we all ran off to
Subic base using the all-new Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx),
the first team of journalists or civilians for that
matter to run the highway. Now let me digress here for a
while, as I would like to congratulate the builders of
the SCTEx on their efficiency in building the connecting
highway. The SCTEx connects
Subic, Clark and Tarlac,
shortening the time of travel to these areas and
consequently spurring growth in the area. The highway
was so well built, it reminded me of California’s
Highway 1, a scenic road that connects
San Francisco to
Los
Angeles. As earlier said, the Alterra performed very
well in this highway setting.
So, we
got to the Subic Bay Yacht Club for lunch onboard a
yacht, which was followed by the next event where our
team was quite weak at—water sports. There we had to hop
onto a sailboat, ride it out onto Subic Bay, hit a
starting spot and then go around a buoy back to the
starting line as fast as we could. Since it was a
sailboat, we needed wind to run it, and we had a very
weak blow as such. We also had to know the mechanics of
sailing a boat, which we did not, so unhappily, we had
to settle for second place in this event. Not first, but
enough to keep us in first place.
 And
finally the last contest: ride a horse and make it go
through a course at the El Kabayo Ranch in Subic. Don’t
get me wrong, I have no problem riding a horse. But this
was a contest and I was too heavy for a quick ride, so
we made Matt Mallari of STV do all the riding for us.
Here, Matt, who used to ride carabaos in his province
when he was younger, gave a good performance, taming a
stallion and making it do what he wanted, such as go
through a winding course as fast as it could without him
falling off. It was really like taming a wild horse from
our point of view since we were not experienced horse
riders.
In the
end, we garnered second place in the final event and an
assured championship slot in the competition.
So, off
we went, back to our plush rooms at the Subic Bay Yacht
Club, took a shower and refreshed ourselves for dinner,
the awarding ceremony and a round of night fun. At the
awarding, the Yellow team got fourth runner-up, the
Orange team got third runner-up, the Red team ended up
second runner-up, the Blue team was first runner-up and,
yes!, we the Green team were the champions of the Isuzu
Alterra “Great Drive, Great Life” competition.
Engineering marvel
A pair of
Alterras rolls through a section of the new SCTex that
was cut through a mountain.
All four
of us in the team, Perez, Mallari and this writer, of
course, received cash prizes, fuel gift certificates
from Petron Corp., a Cross premier pen, a loot bag from
Unilever Philippines and, of course, the coveted
first-place trophies.
In the
end, it was not us that won the race. It was the
consumers who will get their money’s worth from the
Isuzu Alterra. Truly a “great drive for a great life.”
I’ll give you guys a test-drive report at a later date.
Watch for it! |
