Long story short; it's over 300 kilometers of fun across four provinces, with some of the best driving roads the country has to offer. If you haven't seen it yet, check out this little teaser video to get an idea how awesome it was. It was epic, it was awesome, it was the kind of thing serious car enthusiasts dream about. Three days after and I'm still feeling the high.
The awesomeness of the event however goes beyond just a day of having fun in the mountains. With a line up of around 60 vehicles ranging from 60's Mercedes Benz sedans, a classic Datsun Sunny Pickup, our usual group of 70's and 80's Lancers, a classic Porsche 911, a selection of 90's era Japanese sports cars consisting of a few S-Chassis Nissans, Toyota MR2's and a Mazda RX-7 FD, Civics, Corollas, Lancers, and a Lancer EVO V, several Subaru Impreza's... and a Forester turbo, several Hyundai Genesis's, Diesel powered pickups and SUV's, a E46 BMW, a Volvo wagon, an AMG Benz, a Kawasaki bike, a 1.2L Mirage, a Hyundai Elantra and (the wildcard surprise of the trip) a Toyota Avanza. (and more that I just can't remember now) Our convoy through the mountains had a representative from almost every branch of our local car culture; Race cars, stance, classics, 4x4's, stock rides, factory tuned, professionally built and home built cars. It would have been the equivalent of all the religions in the world getting along together in once place in spite of having different beliefs and priorities.
Sure, you could argue that you'd get a similar diverse layout in even small scale car shows, but only a real enthusiast can go out and drive. Driving is the litmus test here. Those who build cars to impress others can put all the parts they can buy and slap together an impressive show car, but only if you build your car to impress yourself will you be willing to take it on a 300+ KM round trip where breaking down or falling of a mountain side would be real possibilities if you didn't know what you were doing.
It may not have been a huge meet with hundreds in attendance, but the quality of the people (not just the cars) was impressive. As I like to say, we were a small but powerful crowd.
For quite some time I've been bored, even disenchanted with our local car scene. I've written about that before and could give a long litany about all the posers and asshats I've come across which have made me stay away from going to car meets and the like for a while. Just go on the Facebook page of a certain popular automotive magazine (clue it rhymes with hop rear) and if you were to judge what the Philippine car culture was like based on the posts there alone, it's not something you would be proud of. Unless you'd be proud to say that you're a jealous sports car hating whiny bitch. The results of the Matsuri (that's festival in Japanese in case you're wondering) give me hope for the local scene. It shows that we can all get together and have fun without the need for any real organized structure. No need for presidents or admins, or complicated groups with all sorts of fees and memberships statuses. Everybody just acting as individuals, united only by our shared passion for cars and driving. I guess that's part of the reason I still feel the high three days later. Because I feel so refreshed. If you hang out too much with people who just have the same type of car, you will develop a certain herd mentality that will prevent you from full enjoying what our car culture has to offer. People for example in Mitsubishi only clubs seem to think that people who drive Honda's are our rivals. 'mayabang ang mga naka Honda' in the colloquial as a lot would say. But out on the mountain you will realize that the guys driving the Honda (or whatever your perceived rival might be) are just enthusiasts like you and if you open your mind and talk to them you might find it surprising that you have some common ground between the two of you.
With that realization, I'm seeing a bright future for our local car culture. The Matsuri is the first of many fun events organized by us enthusiasts for enthusiasts. In order to keep in touch with everybody who joined and to bring together more like minded individuals we have setup a Facebook group called the EPIC Awesome Drivers Lounge. Anyone out there who finds this post and would be interested to join is most welcome.
The event aside, this was also a debut run in the mountains for my '79 Lancer. While we've made more runs around the mountains than I can remember this is the first with the new engine and new setup with the AC and all. This is also my first run with my new partner, my soon to be wife, and this was an experience I wanted to share with her.
I started preparing the car for the run a few months ago. Shaking it down so it won't break down on the road. I was getting confident with the new setup, the newly built engine has almost 2500 KM on it since it was built and is only now really starting to feel broken in and is really feeling strong. I'm also adjusting to the new suspension setup and new tires (brand and size I've never used before). This is also the first time in many many years that the car has aircon (a sign I'm getting old perhaps).
The night before I was up late having a 'steak party' at my house with friends and that combined with being so excited and having to be up early meant I got at best 2 hours of sleep. I was up by 4:00AM because I had made arrangements for a small convoy for us based in the South to leave Petron Westgate at 5:30AM. At exactly 5:32AM our small convoy left Alabang en route to the kick off point for the Matsuri. The Shell gas station along Marcos Highway. By 6:00 AM we were at Shell. On the way I stopped by the Petron station along Marcos Highway to fill the tank of the Lancer with the new 100 Octane Euro 4 Petron Blaze. Having calculated that we should be able to make it all the way around on one full tank of gas.
The atmosphere at Shell was electric. There were already quite a number of cars gathered by the time we got there and more and more arrived by the minute. It took a bit a time to get everybody together and organized. We were put on the #taco group which meant we were with the faster cars. We left Shell at around 8AMish (I really was not keep track of time anymore). After snaking our way through the traffic of Marcos Highway we eventually entered the Devils Playground and started to climb to Tanay. A nice group we were in, initially we were along side a pair of MR2's and an S14 Silvia. I was driving with the AC on and a passenger but the engine was pulling strong and we were keeping pace easily. By the time we were half way up to Tanay at our first stopover to take pictures I was already synched in to my car again. If you are the crazy type who would believe that cars are more than machines and could possibly even have a soul this may have been proof. I don't know if it was the adrenaline or the excitement getting to me, but the car felt like it was running smoother. It felt like it was responding faster. It's almost as if you could feel that it was happy doing what it was doing. It was incredible. The torque of the new engine setup meant I didn't have to ring every last RPM out of the engine like before. 3000 to 4000 RPM shifts in 3rd and 4th gear was enough to keep pace. Only a few times did we need to call upon a full power when the need to overtake arose. As a result the car was relaxed and running cool. I didn't even feel the need to switch off the AC at any point because I didn't feel any lack of power and my sleepy co driver appreciated to frosty cold AC. By the time we were heading down the mountain towards Caliraya we were properly on it! With a mean black Subaru WRX filling my wide angle rear view mirror urging on. It was driving nirvana!
There were a few casualties for the event. Cars with mechanical problems of course, no death or anything like that. Being among the oldest cars in the group we impressively did not have any major problems. Our only hitch was that the left wiper linkage came loose while running in the rain causing the both wipers to bind. It was a quick fix to convert it to a single wiper temporarily get us through the day. The '77 Lancer of my friend got through with no problems at all. We ended with a late lunch (Pizza! I like pizza if you didn't know) at Nuvali in Sta. Rosa Laguna. Exhausted but totally satisfied.
It's been a while since I've had a feeling of being satisfied with the performance of my car. I want to upgrade the brakes since I feel with the new performance they could be better (already have some ideas brewing), but otherwise I can't ask the old car to do anymore than it has.
Lastly, if you noticed the Save the Ring stickers and banners in video, that is in support of the Save the Nurburgring petition.
The rest of the pics we took can be seen here! You can also go the the Epic Tanay Matsuri 2013: The Tänaybürgring events page for more pics and videos from other participants.
