It is an incredible feeling of solidity when old friends continue to meet up, even for just once a year, and then anticipate the same kind of camaraderie the next.
Lord of the Wheels is now on its eleventh year and never has it failed to draw crowds. It’s a highly anticipated event with members of the United Car Clubs of the Philippines in a competitive, but friendly encounter, to take their cars out of the garage, show off their pride and joy, pump fists and have fun.
Fresh from the energizing triumph of the country’s competitors at the 30th SEA Games, old-school car enthusiasts, equally euphoric over the wins, banded themselves one more time, trying to get that same feeling last a bit longer. The venue for this year’s UCCP event is a favorite, the Ayala Malls Circuit Makati, easily accessible to the public, whose column-free venue is certainly easier to walk around, enabling guests to see the cars up close, touch them, and give them the lingering gaze a fine vehicle deserved.
The Lord of the Wheels XI event was loaded with images of some years gone by which, most often than not, hold powerful emotional attachment to the car owner. Each unit was a visual feast—an on-the-spot eye candy—and a jaw-dropping beauty by itself, never needed a booth girl to add to its enchantment.
Built like a lumberjack, the Ford B1Turbo Wildtrak easily took center stage. It’s a traffic stopper, all right, and sure to generate a ruthless wind turbulence as it barrels by. The tires are very solid and looked like there was a little bit more testosterone built into them for easy drivability in any kind of traffic jungle. It’s a frugal, no-frills conveyor of everything massive or lace-dainty. Any itch to further customize it will be an improvement over perfection.
It is difficult to miss this Isuzu Trooper among the vehicles shown off during the event. The decked-out striking red exterior is there for all to see — sexy, confident, and everything muscled up for stronger power and acceleration. It’s going to be an awesome sight to watch this stunner forge across the knee-deep flooded street or streamlined with pillow-sized boulders. Any journey would be worry-free, like being inside a rock.
To ride this compact Axis is to give the driver a lot of pogi points. Stowed with a hoard of subwoofers and amplifiers, it almost rocked the Circuit Makati venue down to its minutest foundation stone. It’s a seriously booming sound system, installed to pound the eardrums and aurally come at anyone with its pumped-up and base-accelerated tunes. (A Jaguar once had 1200 watts, enough to unroot the earlocks.) All that this cutesy needed was a set of funky disco lights and voila! Who’s to say we can’t turn it into a green Karaoke garden on wheels?
We don’t often see it on the highways but when we do, we are left to wonder how a thing that fascinated much older generations of car enthusiasts could still rev this generation’s pulse. The solar-powered 1303s Super Beetle (nicknamed the Electric Volkswagen), is a full electric car featuring the original analog cluster panel adapted to EV power readout, a PHL made design programmable controller, servo motor system capable of up to 100km to 180km travel range, and other special add-ons. It is the only one electric Beetle in the Philippines. It is the pretty face of the event, a cultural icon of a design.
Each UCCP annual reunion becomes a happy looking up techno showcase to see how each fellow had tweaked his vehicle. How thick a putty has hidden the dents and rusts that came along the way. Check out how today’s old thing can become seemingly new after another facelift the next year they meet up again. Perhaps someone would install a really humongous steering wheel. Who knows?
By the way, a new group under the UCCP was introduced during the event—the GUCCP Grand Launch (Girls United Car Clubs of the Philippines). Organized in October this year by a trio of founders/admins—Myrsa Nituda, Karina Tan-Dy, and Georgette Ong—it aims to make waves this early with a line-up of advocacies targeting distressed women. This tropa of women drivers swears to not compete against the old fellows, just to have fun and make friends
