Pampering Passengers In Rally Event

TEAM LEXUS

MANILA, Philippines — After all these years, an ‘on time, all the time’ rally does not excite me anymore. It must be my age, or my work must be overwhelming me, but that was how I felt initially when I joined the 2012 Auto Rally Corporate Challenge. 

An auto competition patterned after the Tulip rally in Europe, it is held annually in the Philippines as the ‘Sampaguita Rally’ and anchored on the theme ‘on time, all the time.’  

However, what encouraged me to join was the prospect of a nice out-of-town weekend to slow down and just smell the flowers. 

Well, I was not disappointed. A shiny, awesome-looking Lexus IS300 luxury sedan suddenly appeared, bedecked with cute, colorful flower stickers.

The sedan instantly became a fashion icon among the competing cars for the ARCC event held in Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga last March 3. The IS300 found itself on the center stage.

Lexus Manila President Danny Isla colored the four competing Lexus vehicles with flower stickers not only to highlight team originality but also to infuse fun and excitement to the unique car event where speed is not the key to winning.

Not to mention its sleek aerodynamic body shape, the Lexus IS300 stands muscular with a set of wide 225/45R17 front wheels and wider 245/45/R17 rear wheels. 

With the flower stickers, the Lexus IS300 appeared like Pierce Brosnan looking handsome in a Hawaiian shirt.

From the quiet engine to it’s smooth, but very powerful acceleration, the 3.0-liter V6 DOHC IS300 engine packed with a pavement ripping 228 horsepower could have performed superbly in the Clark Speedway vis-à-vis the other participating luxury brands.

Instead of speed tripping, it opted to baby our team – composed of Sammy Liuson of Concept One, Dino Directo of Manila Standard, and me – in the long route under the scorching Saturday heat, with its black premium leather seats. 

The soothing cabin room temperature kept me awake to hone my rusty skills in navigation. The heavenly suspension ride of Lexus IS300 cushioned me from the humps of Clark so there was no need to take motion sickness pills even with Dino’s erratic driving style.

With the absence of calculators to compute time, speed and distance, who cares if we were bound to lose?  

The 13-speaker stereo premium Lexus sound system was more than enough to bring us not only good music but also good luck for that day.

Avoiding talk about our route, speed and time of arrival, our team discussed the Lexus’ unequalled safety traits such as electronic traction control, electronic stability control and all around airbags.

If other teams were pursuing bragging rights for winning the ARCC, the Lexus IS300 had more things to brag about like the Smart keyless entry with push button Start/Stop, six-speed sequential automatic transmission controlled by paddle shifters and all power adjustment seats.

The road book indicated 50 points bonus for 50 kph average speed.  We activated the Lexus’ cruise control not to be competitive, but to check the feature. 

After we completed the ARCC route in that P2.9 million beauty, now let’s talk about who’s the real winner.