There are some cars that take on a special significance beyond their utility and dependability. Our Galant GTi-16V is one such car. For us, we’ve developed a fondness for the silver sedan beyond its performance figures, rally image and seemingly limitless abilities. Our car-crazed brain is filled with some wonderful memories about this car, and it has carved out a permanent place in our mental showroom. Acquired brand new, this car survived college with both me and my brother, and we graduated 10 years apart. We’ve been to countless places and discussed the most important matters driving this car. More than that, though, we will always remember it as mom’s car.
The GTi is not quite the usual choice for a mother of three. But then my mom had the privilege of having the pick of whatever was in our stable. That meant that she always got to drive the newest car as her own. I can remember that first, she drove a beige VW Brasilia, with its machine-gun boxer engine and rock-hard pedals. Then came the macho machine Corona hardtop, with an image that was even more brutish but in truth much more comfortable. Replacing the long-serving Corona was this Galant.
I pestered her for several months to choose this car over the other offerings at that time, praying that she wouldn’t choose the anemic but cheaper Super Saloon. One car that fueled my desire was a professor’s car, one of the first GTi-16Vs I’d seen anywhere. Seeing that midnight blue car pull into the faculty lot fueled my desire to own a GTi. The pestering paid off, for in the dying days of 1991, we finally got a silver GTi-16V.
The Galant’s tank-like countenance (thanks to its huge air dam) didn’t really gain much favor with my mom. She hardly drove this car, letting us do much of the pedal-pushing. The Galant only clocked 1000 km in its first year. I took it out every chance I got, relishing the throaty sound of its engine and the instant response from the accelerator. It blew away all of its rivals, including the Mazda 626, Nissan Bluebird, and Toyota Corona.
Apparently other owners have also had stirring experiences with their own DOHC 16V machines. Rufi Parpan, Club Mitsu president, organized an all-GTi drive for a Sunday morning run to Tagaytay. When we pulled into the South Luzon Expressway Petron station just before 7 am, we didn’t know quite what to expect. We felt a tinge of excitement when we saw fifteen other GTis grouped together in the parking lot. We delightedly parked among the spoilered bunch, and even the sight of a dozen Porsches similarly gathered across us barely diminished our sense of pride.
I thought I knew clearly enough why we joined that activity. Certainly a drive to Tagaytay with more than a dozen other super-Galants was attraction enough, and once the road turns twisty all need for reason stops.
Yet as we cruised through those meandering roads, the last in a two hundred-meter long line of GTis, the drive suddenly took on more significance. For us, the GTi was the crowning glory of a marque that has not been topped since. Yes, there have been Evolution Lancers, but they cost several million pesos per copy. Mitsubishi Motors Philippines has not quite put together an affordable enthusiast car that could succeed the GTi. Surely the company has a formidable lineup, and they will go on to greater heights, but not quite in the same way that they did in the summer of 1991.
As we drove down to Manila, we similarly realized that we have also come to a similar point in our lives. There are certainly good times ahead, but some glory days will never be here again. This was mom’s car, but she is gone now, and we only have our memories and her unceasing willpower to push us to succeed. We dare not even think of this GTi as part of her legacy; she gave us so much of her life that any mere object could not measure up.
One of her gifts was that of time, driving us to high school each day. I have this memory of sitting in the passenger seat of the Corona hardtop, my mom fiercely revving the engine with her bare feet on the pedals. We will never drive with her again, at least not on any earthly vehicle. But if there’s any chance that we can travel once again, then mom, please save that passenger seat space for me.
By Jason Ang | Photos By Jason Ang and Ulysses Ang
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