Biggest motoring event of the year

Automobile enthusiasts with their families are again expected to troop to the Central Gateway of the Fort at the Global City in Taguig for the resumption of the Grand Display of the Petron Xtra 2006 Auto Focus Automobile/Motorcycle of the Year — People’s Choice Awards.

This time however, people would have more reasons to make it a must to be there with their families for the next two weekends — April 22, 23, 29 & 30. Let’s start with the opportunity to see real up close all the 2006 models of automobiles from SUVs, AUVs, pick ups, vans, passenger cars, sports cars and motorcycles from all the major auto industry players. Now what’s extra exciting is that most of these vehicles are available for you to test drive and feel first-hand their features, amenities and driving performance.

A great attraction would also be the grand photo-exhibit of rare pictures, many never before shown in public, that would trace the history of motor sports in the country — "Philippine Motor Sports…Heroes & Legends". Lead by the late-great Arsenio "Dodjie" Laurel the Filipino racer who established the record of the being the first back-to-back champion (1962 & 1963) of the very prestigious Macau Grand Prix and joined by the country’s racing "living legend", Jose "Pocholo" Ramirez together another racing icon, Dante Silverio to include popular motor sports personalities of that era like Dodo Ayuyao, Gus Lagman, Ramy Diez, Tony Mapa, Junoy Verano, Louie Camus, Billy Martinez to name some. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled to formally open the rare photo-exhibit on the morning of Saturday, April 22 with pioneer racing personalities together with all the other motor sports enthusiasts in attendance with no less than Ms. Maripaz Laurel, the widow of Dodjie Laurel invited to cut the ceremonial ribbon.

This mid-summer Auto Grand Display will also include some of the high-powered competition cars that are currently seeing action at the Batangas Racing Circuit courtesy of our god friend Johnny Tan. That’s going to be undoubtedly a real visual treat for the out-and-out racing buffs.

To complete the package for the motoring public, a special "grand sale" of automobile after market products like mag wheels, seat covers, car care products, body kits, auto audio products, shocks, roof racks, etc. will be offered by some of the industry’s top names like Concept One of Sammy Liuson, Atoy Body Kits of Atoy Llave, Xenon Bulbs of Benedict Go, H&R Springs and Bilstein Shocks of Arvin Lim, Thule prestigious products of Erwin Versoza, Momo of Italy from the boys of Perfect Circle namely Edbert, Wilbert & Dennis, etc., and a parallel special sale of parts and accessories from the participating automobile manufacturers to boot.

Now those who would just want to watch and ogle, they can join all the others who would come to the Fort during the Auto Focus Motor Show and share the chance of winning valuable gift items in the regular raffles that would be conducted every 15 minutes. The raffle prizes may range from beautifully designed shirts, jackets, carry all bags, attractive key chains, etc., which will be given away by the participating auto manufacturers and distributors.

And of course, all those who would come are empowered to be part of the motoring public who will determine the most popular automobile and motorcycle models that are currently available in the market with the model garnering the most number of votes deserving the title of the "most popular, the people’s choice". Voting can be done in any of the following modes; through the internet by logging on to www.autofocus.com, by SMS by texting your vote through 622 for Smart, 2858 for Globe and 2622 for Sun subscribers or by voting on-site at the Fort at the Sunshine Television secretariat.

All roads for motoring enthusiasts, automobile buffs and the motoring public lead to the Fort Global City’s Central Gateway this coming weekend (April 22 & 23) and the next weekend (April 29 & 30) for the Grand Display & Test Drive of the Petron Xtra 2006 Auto Focus Automobile & Motorcycle of the Year — People’s Choice Awards. I’ll see you there.

The results of the popularity competition and the awarding of titles for a year-long of bragging rights of being the most popular 2006 models as chosen by the motoring public shall be announced on May 2, Tuesday at 6 pm in a fitting Awards Night to be held at the Valle Verde Country Club. The recognition shall also include a special "Best Display Award" that shall be voted on by judges coming from the distinguished local motoring media.

Toyota celebrates Earth Day

"Celebrating the Earth with Toyota…for People, Technology and Ecology in harmony", was the theme of the event that marked Earth Day initiated Toyota Motor Philippines Foundation (TMPF), with its president, Dr. David Go on the lead.

The celebrations were held yesterday, April 18 at the Toyota Special Economic Zone in Santa Rosa, Laguna. It was a gathering of the Toyota Family and its partner organizations, which put into fore the different environmental programs that they have conducted within their respective companies. Being Earth Day, it was considered an opportune time to showcase their projects that each organization has shared with the community to preserve the environment for the future generation.

According to David, through the celebration they also hope to popularize within the Toyota Family, its partners and the community the essentials of environmental protection as espoused of TMPF — borderless cooperation, environment and community-friendly manufacturing and business processes and core business expertise to bring about cleaner surroundings, cleaner air and cleaner water.

Our kudos to Dr. Go and the Toyota Motor Philippines Foundation for being consistently at the forefront of addressing environmental concerns and for sustaining awareness to its importance within the industry.

The band wagon is on a roll

When before we had to convince school officials to have SPMJ’s free "Early Warning Seminars" on road safety conducted for their teachers and students, now school administrators seem to have realized the seminar’s value and are making representations to have their schools be part of the line up.

First it was Toyota Motor Philippines, thanks to former president Mr. Nobuharu Tabata and Toyota Foundation president, Dr. David Go that joined in with the Society of Philippine Motoring Journalists (SPMJ) in its advocacy to teach the youth about road safety. They adopted 20 schools to have these seminars conducted and answered for all the logistics needed for the seminar. So far SPMJ in partnership with Toyota Motor Philippines and its dealership network have successfully conducted five road safety seminars in Metro Manila and Cavite with another two being lined up in Laguna and Bacolod.

Just recently, Ford Group Philippines, courtesy of its president, Henry Co and avp for corporate & government affairs, Cherry Ramirez, confirmed its participation in the SPMJ road safety education for the youth advocacy by initially adopting five schools in Metro Manila to have these "Early Warning" seminars conducted. This is in line with their on-going projects that promote awareness about road safety especially among the children, who, current studies graphically show are major victims of road accidents.

All the major players in the local automotive industry have shown their keen interest in helping out the SPMJ in their advocacy and recognized that they are major stakeholders in this global concern of the children’s safety on the road by participating the last two "golf for a cause" fund raising projects in 2004 and 2005. The SPMJ Invitational Golf Cup tournaments held at the Riviera Golf Club were able to raise the funds to underwrite the costs of developing the Teaching Modules or "lesson plans" that are now being used in the road safety seminars. These were conceived and designed with the help of the NCTS or the National Center on Transportation Studies of the University of the Philippines.

There are hundreds of schools all over the country that we at SPMJ could only dream to be able to hold these free seminars and give these teaching modules to their teachers to use on their students. And we are sure that there are more corporate stakeholders out there, like Toyota and Ford that are willing to take on this challenge with us. We just need to meet one of these days.

FYI or just a reminder

We still receive letters from loyal viewers asking what has happened to their favorite TV shows on motoring and the auto industry.

Well, as a reminder or info for those who are not in the know — Motoring Today, the longest running motoring program on Philippine television and Auto Focus, the premier motoring TV magazine that’s exclusively dedicated to the automobile and the auto industry are now being shown on the cable TV sports and lifestyle channel — Sports Plus.

Motoring Today still airs during Sundays at 4 o’clock in the afternoon while you can watch Auto Focus every Thursday at 10 o’clock in the evening.

Happy Motoring!!!

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