The City that never sips (a lot)

MANILA, Philippines–“Bring it on!”

 

I channeled my inner “Tito Poch” last Sept. 4 as I braced myself for a fuel economy run organized by the same car manufacturer who gave the words “fuel economy” a “run” for their money. For doesn’t it feel like yesterday when the late Pinoy motorsport legend Tito Poch Ramirez dared the notorious Metro Manila traffic to “bring it on” and spoil his date with fuel economy destiny on board his Honda Jazz?

 

The “Jedi” of fuel economy runs, of course, overcame the challenge of the nation’s capital and eventually burned the last drop of gasoline in his tank way down in southern Luzon, in Sorsogon province; a mind-boggling thousand-kilometer journey that started in Pagudpud at the northern tip of mainland Philippines.

 

The fuel economy run that Honda Cars Philippines Inc. (HCPI) organized this pleasantly cloudy Thursday was nowhere near the magnitude of Tito Poch’s record-setting odyssey. We were to start from Bonifacio Global City in Taguig and end at the Kamana Resort in Subic Bay, a short-but-sweet 170-kilometer drive that would take the new City 1.5 VX and 1.5E variants through various traffic and road conditions along some of Metro Manila’s busiest thoroughfares, the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx), the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) and the Zambales-Bataan provincial roads—an ideal combination of urban, highway and twisty-road driving.

 

Six pairs of motoring scribes were sent off from Bonifacio Global City in Taguig late morning by HCPI president and general manager Toshio Kawahara. The lead car—an Accord—was captained by Georges Ramirez accompanied by his wife Caroline. The sweeper car—a CRZ —was driven by Georges’ brother Louis. The directive was simple: Drive to the Subic destination on as little fuel as possible. The tips were straightforward: Anticipate, keep calm and think 10 cars ahead; don’t exceed 80 kilometers per hour, and don’t go over 1,800 revolutions per minute. We believed Georges as he barked these instructions to us, because: 1) He had the Tito Poch gene “motorpool,” he has the same good looks and facial hair, and; 2) he was the apprentice-now-Jedi master himself, as he was able to squeeze out north of 25 kilometers per liter from the City in a previous test run on the highway.

 

Four hours later, at the relaxing and picturesque Kamana Resort, the results were tallied and verified by Georges’ team. For the 30.6-km urban economy run, the father-and-son duo of Ron and Eric de los Reyes of Auto Review came out the most frugal in fuel, with 17.1 kpl, followed by Wee Gamboa and Matt Mallari of Motoring Today (15.8), Patrick Tadeo of Top Gear Online and this writer (14.6), Martin Aguilar of Autoindustriya and Ulysses Ang of Philippine Star (14.5), Mika Fernandez David of Gadgets Magazine and Eric Lingap of Manila Bulletin (13.8), and Dino Directo and Olson Camacho of Autocar Magazine (12.1).

 

For the highway run, the tandem with the least fuel consumed after 48.8 km was Matt and Wee (25.3 kpl), followed by Mika and Eric (24.7), Ron and Eric (24.4), this writer and Patrick (24.1), Olson and Dino (22.0), and Martin and Ulysses (21.7).

 

The combined city and highway run of 79.4 km yielded the following overall results: 20.75 kpl (Ron and Eric); 20.55 (Wee and Matt); 19.35 (this writer and Patrick); 19.25 (Mika and Eric); 18.10 (Martin and Ulysses); and 17.05 (Dino and Olson).

 

There were no astounding cash prizes at stake for this fuel economy run, just token items and bragging rights for winners. For them to be able to declare that they topped one of the most strictly administered, most meticulously supervised fuel economy runs would already be saying a lot.

 

The reward for this writer, and most likely for all the participants in this run, was an overnight stay at the pleasant and relaxing Kamana Sanctuary Resort and Spa in Subic.

 

But little did I know that all traffic hell would break loose the next day, Friday. The ghost that hounded Tito Poch on his approach to Manila during his historic fuel economy run would try to spook me this time.

 

The Friday return trip from Subic started uneventfully late morning, with light southbound traffic from the resort all the way to the Manila-bound toll gates at NLEx.

 

But just after passing the NLEx toll barrier, I stopped dead on my tracks, almost literally. On all lanes, as far down the expressway as the eyes could see, was a sea of cars and red brake lights. To make a long, bladder-bursting story short, what should have been a 10-minute cruise from the toll barrier to Edsa dragged on for two and a half hours, and counting until I couldn’t take it anymore and took the Mindanao Avenue (Smart Connector) exit.

 

Even then, that detour hardly helped, as Mindanao Avenue was in a similar gridlock up to the North Avenue intersection. This writer eventually made it to her favorite watering hole and vegan restaurant along Xavierville Avenue in Loyola Heights, Quezon City, half past 5, a full six hours after starting her City’s engine in Subic. I would have to take my hat off to Tito Poch for enduring at least 10 times what I had gone through this day, but whew, I could imagine the man cursing the traffic to high heavens under his breath.

 

Surprisingly, the City I drove took all that traffic in stride and registered a decent 12.4 kpl at the end of the day. The city brought it on, and the City was not found wanting.