During the next two Saturdays—May 16 at the Bonifacio Global City, and May 30 at the SM Mall of Asia—you may notice six specially marked Mitsubishi Mirage cars racing around these areas, with each of its three occupants occasionally getting off to complete certain tasks.
If you pay more attention, each of these six cars will be led by a celebrity: actress-model Ellen Adarna, Pinoy rock icon Rico Blanco, singer-actor Markki Stroem, volleyball superstar-turned-TV host Gretchen Ho, university professor and social media superstar Ramon Bautista, and singer-actress Saab Magalona.
These teams are competing in the first-ever Mitsubishi Mirage Metro Challenge, an event that not only highlights the fun, practical and functional features of the Mirage and Mirage G4 cars but also the skills, intelligence and automotive know-how of the participants.
“At the end of this competition, the champion team will receive P300,000. That’s P100,000 each. The second-place team will receive P150,000 (P50,000 each), while the third-place team will receive P90,000 (P30,000 each). As for the remaining three teams, each member will receive a consolation prize of P10,000. But the wonderful part of these winnings is that the prize share of the celebrities will be donated to their chosen charitable institutions,” said Arlan Reyes, Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. senior manager for advertising and public relations.
Earn points
All these teams will have to earn points each Saturday as they complete several tasks. The Mirage’s GPS navigation will be their lifeline as they will be given clues as well as coordinates as to where they will complete their challenges.
In the inaugural leg that was held on Saturday at the Quezon Memorial Circle, the teams were tasked to look for and retrieve the object pictured in a photo (a key with a Mitsubishi logo).
The next task was held in the University of the Philippines Diliman, where teams must answer correctly all the five questions about the Mirage.
In the next part of the game held at the First Gourmet Academy, the teams were challenged to separate the egg yolk from the white of 15 eggs (five per team member).
Next, at the Craft Coffee Revolution in Katipunan, team members were taught to make Café Amerikana and then asked to craft 10 cups of Café Amerikana.
Hot pink Mirage for Team Saab
At the Cubao Expo, the teams were given clue cards to the next location and challenge, which happened to be in Maginhawa Street. Here they were issued another clue card to the next location and challenge.
For the last activity, the teams eventually headed back to Quezon Memorial Circle where they were challenged to count the number of yellow/blue triangles on the floor.
After the first leg, the following were the results: Mirage Team Ramon had 42 points, Mirage Team Gretchen had 41 points, Mirage Team Saab had 41 points, Mirage Team Ellen had 39 points, Mirage Team Rico had 39, and Mirage Team Markki had 38 points.
Putting their game faces on, Ho’s team quickly learned the art of making Café Amerikana.
Their points will be added to what they will earn in the next two legs, and then added to the votes that they will earn online from those who log on to www.newmirage.ph.
Team mates
Team Rico during the egg yolk challenge
Each celebrity was teamed with two college students (male and female), who were chosen after completing an online application form and presenting an audition video that answered the question: “Why do you deserve to compete in the Mirage Metro Challenge?”
Their audition videos were posted on Facebook with the hashtag #MirageMetroChallenge. These college students aged between 18 and 26 years are also holders of drivers license.
Out of the hundreds that auditioned, only six male and six female students were chosen and then raffled off for their team assignment.
With just the GPS coordinates and a card with a clue, the teams must figure out their next challenge and where they should be headed next.
Joining Stroem were Aerwin John Frias and Abby Gabriel, while Bautista was joined by Niko Francisco and Mary Juanne Antonette Pintado, Blanco with Mars Legaspi and Danielle Ruth Ting, Ho with Arsenio Padilla III and Mikaela Joy Ormita, Magalona with Charlemagne Barceta and Alex Samson, and Adarna with Patrick Lozano and Maria Sabrina Estavillo.
No worries for Team Ramon Photos by Charles E. Buban
“These college students will soon discover—if they are not driving one yet—that the Mirage has plenty of appeal as a first car. It is arguably more fun to drive than most of its competitors plus it has more exciting and practical features inside, things that they will surely appreciate as they finish this three fun-filled weekends with their favorite celebrities,” Reyes said.
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