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 THE pickup (truck in America) plodded quietly into what appeared like a wilderness in a God-forsaken place. It was in a convoy that trekked through a beaten path, the road so narrow a battalion of ants, crawling single file, might not even fit in. There were maybe eight machines all fitted with monster engines; it was basically four to a pickup, and Aries Espinosa, Anya Sampan, Danee Torres and I were under strict orders to follow the trail.
You miss a beat, you’re dead meat. We were like special military forces on a mission, falling in line, receiving directions from an intrepid leader, alert at every twist and turn, keen to heed the minutest details blared on the walkie-talkies every step of the way. Directions were to the letter that John Wayne and his Green Berets, with just one failed embrace of a signal, would have been put to shame decoding Viet Cong radar on the dreaded Mekong Delta.  On both sides of the hole-riddled, mud-prone road are sparse growths of cogon barely struggling to sprout from the breast of the earth. Not a single tree was in sight. Virtually all open space. There were huge patches of land planted to kamote, their pale green-brown leaves reaching out meekly for survival under the elements, fenced in by kakawate twigs now beginning to have their own small signs of life through their tiny clusters of greenish leaves peeping out from pencil-thin trunks. But, otherwise, all over, what you actually see is a swath of grayish, rain-drenched sand that, if not for those sickly looking cogon bushes that somehow jockey, beautifully, that is, to dot the entire landscape, you’d think you were in the Mojave Desert or some place in the barren Himalayas or blank slopes of Krakatoa east of Java.
Sure, the Isuzu D-MAX was up to something of what would soon prove to be unimaginable achievements. But that is getting ahead of the story. Yes, you guessed it right, this was the Isuzu D-MAXIMUM 4x4 Challenge with the Boondock II. And what a time it was to test the mettle of these two off-road champs. Rains and all, rough roads that appeared like moon craters and all, almost waist-deep waters of an endlessly rushing river bed, angry as hell, just about ready to swell in a minute due to driving rains—no one, none of all the test drives before, would compare with this mother of all tests! But then, first things first. Where were we but in the middle of nowhere. We were cupped by mountain ranges it felt like Mother Nature itself, with all her lush greenery and symmetrical, hilly formations, had become our cradle—our gentle sanctuary of open space of sand, mud, holes, nature-made humps that appeared at times like giant blades of turbines if not wind vanes, rocks and boulders, snarling waters all ready to gobble us up, surrounded by green valleys and flora and fauna, under a sunless sky. The open land, outer space-like tableau, drew life merely from the symphony of gurgling waters on a deceiving river crafted by, yes, the spectacular eruption of Mount Pinatubo of many moons ago. ***** “WHERE were you 18 years ago?” I asked Keiji Takeda, the bespectacled president of Isuzu Philippines Corp. He knitted his brows and said, “Well, wait a minute. I was in Tokyo.” “Were you with Isuzu already at that time?” “Umm, yes,” he said. “18 years ago was 1991,” I said. “What were you doing then at Isuzu?” “I was in my new job as sales manager of Isuzu in Tokyo, after being transferred from the operations department,” Takeda said. “Wow!” I said. “Do you know that that year, Mount Pinatubo erupted after having been dormant for nearly 600 years, making it one of the biggest volcanic explosions in the 20th century?” “Really?” said Takeda, knitting his brows again. “I didn’t know that.” Although this was Isuzu’s fourth trip to the site since 2002, it was Takeda’s first time to visit Mount Pinatubo in the Capas, Tarlac, side of the explosive volcano, which is actually found in the Zambales mountains. “Am so glad I finally made it here,” said Takeda. What Takeda-san really reached, though, was the Crow Valley, seat of the majestic riverbed that is actually the famous take-off point toward the summit and the lake created by the Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991. ***** ALMOST gale-force winds that day spawned rains pell-mell that the convoy, upon the wisdom of General “MacArthur” Balmadrid—that’s Art B for you, who else?—was forced to halt the assault of the fortress of the world-famed volcano, in ardent consultation, of course, with his chief lieutenants Timmy Naval-de Leon and Ronald “Mayor B” Baladad. Yuki Kato, together with trusty aids Joseph Bautista, Lara Jill Santos, Lea Latosa, Ramil Mendoza, Ariel Colle, Hermes “Chairman” Canon and Mario Ojales could only agree. Canceled was the ultimate destination—the lake and the crater—but then, in a stunning announcement during the awards night, Takeda-san said it would be pursued “at a later date.” It was met with a heart-rending applause, a standing ovation even. One of those who eagerly received the news was The Manila Times’ Anya Sampan, whose gallantry at navigating the D-MAX into the treacherous waters of Crow Valley, despite her being a rookie at maneuvering a stick-shift machine in the most precarious situations amid the rains, earned her the well-deserved “The Greatest Student Driver of The Year” plum. I’d say she also just crowned herself the “Gutsiest Driver” of all time. Why, despite being a die-hard “’matic” driver, Anya virtually transformed Crow Valley into her own private personal playground on a manual transmission. Anya’s award ranks with equal prestige with the accolade I have just bestowed upon both the D-MAX and the Boondock II: The Toughest Off-Road Machines There Ever Were that day this side of the globe. Why, if there’s a vehicle company that is more than willing to have its products destroyed in a test challenge just to prove its product’s roadworthiness, only Isuzu can lay claim to that—if only for this day. Take it from someone who just tried to mangle one—and ended up thoroughly shamed. ***** Pee stop Was I glad I met Scott Ferrier, the Australia-based design manager of the new Ford Everest. We had quite an interesting conversation during the recent Everest launch (watch out for my review of the vehicle) in Baguio. “I met my wife during a train ride from London to Glasgow,” he said. “She’s an opera singer and she was to have a concert in Glasgow, my country.” Love at first sight. His wife adores Maria Callas, my favorite, too. If you happen to read this, Anika S (Salceda) and Glenn D (Dasig), please send my regards to Scott? Such a nice fella. |
FOLLOWING its first public appearance at the Beijing Motor Show in China, Audi Philippines has announced the arrival of the new Audi Q5 premium five-seater sport utility vehicle (SUV) in the third quarter of 2009.
