An Open Invitation. A few weeks ago I read an invitation coming from Honda Cars Philippines Inc. (HCPI) posted by Mikko David on one of the Philippine Jazz And City United (PJACU) threads. As an owner and a member of one of the well recognized fuel efficient car I then came to an end on deciding persistently to join this possibly one-time event. Anyway, I have always been leaning to join this kind of event, not to mention that participants will get the chance to drive for a day the latest Honda cars in the market. Variants such as the Honda Jazz 1.3L(GE), Honda City 1.3L & 1.5L(GM), Honda CRV 2.0L(RE) and the Honda Accord 3.5L(CU2). Honda Club Philippines officially announced the said event then opened its lists to those members who are interested to join. Now, I can attest that this is one of the many good things on becoming a bonafide member of the club. The day of the event came and only 12 lucky participants were gathered from the 15 listed interested members, lucky me I signed-up early. At this point of time I'm very eager that I will be driving the successor to my car, the 1.3L Honda City fore I'm aiming on knowing the cons and pros of my car's successor. Back at home, my wife expected this day to be another day for my passion and joy, while a day of sacrifice and wait for her, simply because she will be taking a cab going to work and will be doing her usual stressful day job, she understands this very well (lol). As I drive my way to fetch Mikko before heading to the event I thought of doing an economy run, light foot press on both pedals, low thermostat then set the blower to its lowest, atleast my mind are now set on doing this things a few hours before taking the event challenge.
At the venue. The registrations and further briefing were held at the Pancake House, Fort Bonifacio Global City where we arrived at a very early time as 6:30AM. We have to be early before a huge traffic and the color coding scheme hits us. Enticingly we were greeted by Ms.Cherie of Honda Philippines then have me fill-up the event registration application, I was so surprise when she handed me a bowl of enclosed papers which happens to be the raffled honda cars which we will be driving for the day. It feels like am starting to get a mild feverish feel in me for I actually expect that we can get to drive the car whom we were affiliated with in Honda Club Philippines. All as well, I managed to pick the car I wanted and still stick to the plan which I am prepared to. A few minutes more and just right beside me was Jeff Aspacio, my partner from the media group who were also invited by Honda Cars Philippines. We gave one another a few tips and minutes on how to drive more efficiently and to strategically end the race with our bags bringing home the winners reward (lol). Atleast, my understanding stressed wife would get to say the words "you did well honey, bring home some more in the near future" (lol).
Starting Grid. At the open parking lot found at the back of Pancake House there you'll find the cars to be driven by the competitors. Everybody is excited and are eager to get a hold on their cars, even much to see the great interest of the competitors driving the much better and powerful Honda Accords and CRV's. I then thought myself, why didn't I choose to think of taking the better comfort Accord or CRV instead of the what I have driven and tested City? (lol). With seeing them ride their luxurious cars I almost forgot what my prior goal was, that I was there to see and experience the pros and cons of the new successor to my greatly appreciated Honda City. A comparo between two Honda's intelligent engines, the much applauded in fuel economy iDSI versus the better power iVTEC.
With all the thoughts, simple laughs and criticisms the ignitions were then started and the wheels starts rolling. First stop, Petron Diego Silang Gas Station (C5 Road bounding from south-north). In this point, all the competitors car will be filled with a measured full tank-tank full fuel using Petron's 95RON, the XCS. With Honda Philippines, AAP and all other appointed martials around, the car's fuel lid, engine hood & the airconditioning system (settings/options given to each corresponding team) were all tampered & sealed giving them the full authority to monitor each competitors car. The race were parted in two monitored categories one, under the City Driving category and second, the Highway Driving. Jeff and I agreed that he will be taking the City driving challenge while I'll be doing the next said challenge. Lucky me I won't bother having problems with the metro's annoying traffic and alot more pain-staking city driving challenges (lol).
the map route to be followed including the monitored and expected distance travelled.
Flags-OFF!! With my team mate Jeff Aspacio on the wheel, I have high hopes and beliefs that he was doing what we have tackled earlier and that it felt like what my normal ecorun driving is as compared to my usual ecorun test trials and ecorun driving technique. Wallah! with a few minutes earlier we arrived at Petron Marilao NLEX with a travelled distance of 37.7 kilometers. Crossing our fingers, on how we did on this run the other teams started coming then have their cars refilled and recorded. My team-mate Jeff Aspacio took the best time on this challenge gathering a very impressive 16.80 Km/L which took our team first overall.
Next Leg is UP! The organizers treated us with a sumptuous lunch-break meal at Teriyaki Boy. Afterwhich, the next challenge started and this time around I'm holding the drive wheel with the lax of knowing what and how will the predecessor to my car will be performing. Took my usual technique on doing ecorun driving the rest of the cars drive their cars with them passing us by (to heck with them I'm winning this challenge lol). We were put to test by a huge traffic passing the candaba viaduct. Another test came to upclose, when suddenly a huge rain fall drops from the skies, the banner truly described the event "a drive every drop" of rain shower (lol). As the map route instructed, after reaching the Angeles exit we should circle back to Petron Marilao Gas station. Running at a maximum range of 60kph plus the traffic we passed our team fell a few minutes behind from the expected time of arrival, good thing my team-mate Jeff did a mathematical computation on how many minute per kilometer should we travel by this time. A minute per kilometer must be met as what Jeff calculated, it left me no reason this time not to accelerate my pedal then ran-pass the technique which I'm suppose to be doing (what a crucial challenge) . Still eager on winning this challenge, I am quite confident that stepping on the gas pedal and running 80-100kph with a few kilometers and a few minutes left our team may still dominate the challenge on winning under our category.
Finish Line Surprisingly we arrived Petron Marilao at the exact expected time of arrival. I was able to earn a rate of 21.86 Km/L, giving me the confidence on hopefully winning first under this category. We left all the overall tally computations to the event martials and organizers so we headed our trip back to the Fort in High Street where winning teams will be announced.
Enjoying the highway run Jeff and I agreed that he will be driving this time the highway run and I on the City run, thus on a different situation since the long story of car efficiency challenge is over. With us greatly appreciating the highway roads Jeff decided to take a slight revolution to the engine learning a bit on how an i-VTEC would perform, "a powerful beast that is" those were the last things that popped into my mind.
Who Wins, Who's Not? I'll let the figures and photos decide on how we perform on this challenge, one thing's most everybody is a winner for we learned things by ourselves on how a Honda performs well on the motoring business minding the economy with an added value on "Driving Every Drop" of fuel.
Results
Winning Teams together with Mr. Hiroshi Shimizu, President and General Manager of Honda Cars Philippines, Inc.
The entire participants with Mr. Hiroshi Shimizu, President and General Manager of Honda Cars Philippines, Inc.
Blog & Media exposures
Business Mirror newspaper
Mikko David's blog sites
http://www.mikkodavid.com/article_view.php?ArtId=54
http://www.mikkodavid.com/article_view.php?ArtId=57
Jeff Aspacio's blog site
http://www.aspacio.net/2009/08/drive-every-drop-honda-challenge-cup.html
Paul Santos blog site
http://www.unlawyer.net/?p=2189
