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Road Trip
Sunday bloody fast Sunday
Driving the Jaguar XKR Convertible at the Batangas Racing Circuit gives us one more reason not to like Mondays
Words by Vernon Sarne; Photography by Chino Acosta
What do you do on Sundays? Let me guess. You oversleep. You cuddle with the wife. You pillow-fight with the kids. You worship. You visit your parents. You cook your killer dish. You water the plants. You watch the Lakers and the Celtics. You read a chapter from a Ben Mezrich novel. You oversleep again. Ah, this is the life.
Or is it?
The contently domesticated among us may not know it, but there is a small portion of the male species who refuse to spend their Sundays twisting and turning under a thick comforter. They might smear their hands with oil, but it's not from cooking. They might wet themselves, but it's not from dousing the orchids. The oil, the water—both precious liquids—will not be wasted on familial duties. Instead, every drop will be lovingly used on something that promises to provide more excitement than anything Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett might accomplish in midair.
These few privileged men are crazy about their cars, and they spend Sundays teasing the redline on their tachometers. Most of them belong to proud car clubs. You'll occasionally see their convoy racing past your lowly econobox on the expressway on certain weekends. Many of these motoring fraternities fall under two categories: one whose members own dressed-up Japanese cars and another whose devotees boast European exotics. The former are mostly content driving around and parking by a bar or a coffee shop. The latter, meanwhile, do not bother driving around the congested city—they need an endless stretch of asphalt for their expensive machinery. Hence, they go to a racetrack outside of Metro Manila. We tag along with one such group this sunny Sunday morning.
What would you do if you were offered free use of a high-end sports car on a proper racetrack for a day of full-throttle driving? To be exact, what would you do if you were asked to drive the new 420-horsepower Jaguar XKR around the Batangas Racing Circuit and over as many laps as you liked? You're right, this question doesn't even require an answer.
Exactly why we now find ourselves entering the premises of BRC when we really should be snoring away in our cushy beds. With me on this trip are writers Dinzo Tabamo and Kristine Garcia and photographer Chino Acosta. They, too, agree that the XKR—especially in convertible form—is worth losing sleep for.
Admission fees
This group we're hanging out with consists of young Chinese businessmen who are obviously rich, judging by the Ferrari, Jaguar and Maserati cars they've brought to the track. Even the one Japanese sedan in their fleet is nothing like the Civics and Corollas we keep in our humble garages—it's a Lancer Evo IX.
The boys tell me they originally wanted to rent the track exclusively for themselves, but even they found the P75,000 asking price a bit too steep. So they settle for the non-exclusive fee of P2,500 per car, although this means they'll have to share the track with others. Which is somewhat unsettling if you're driving a multimillion-peso Italian sports car.
On top of the track fees, they also have to pay for the services of a driving instructor—in this case racing driver Kookie Ramirez—whom they've asked to teach them the basics of racetrack driving. They inform me that the going rate is P5,000 per student. Considering they're around six in the group, this means a racing instructor can earn as much as P30,000 a day. Not bad for someone who has mastered the art of clipping the apex.
After paying the track fees, we proceed to the pits, where another group is already tending to its, well, souped-up Civics and Corollas. Surely, it isn't every track day that they get to share the paddocks with exotic supercars. This much becomes patent the moment they gather around and take pictures of the Ferrari. If thought bubbles actually existed, I'm certain theirs would read: “Who the hell are these lucky bastards?”
A middle-aged lady approaches somebody in our group—the one who drives the Ferrari, of course—and asks if we wish to avail of her catered and home-cooked lunch buffet. Knowing how much the boys have had to shell out for track and clinic fees, I have no doubt they won't flinch at whatever price the woman quotes. After getting the menu orders—three viands and bottomless rice—the cook scurries to her kitchen somewhere, determined to feed us by high noon. Dinzo wholeheartedly gives the deal his nod of approval.
I then grasp the full extent of my luck as a motoring writer. Driving fast cars on a race circuit is part and parcel of my job. Racing classes sometimes get thrown in, too. The track, the car, the instructor, the food—all absolutely free. I'm now more amazed at this realization than the fact that, in a little while, I will be circling the BRC behind the wheel of the XKR Mark II. I'm amazed at how I sometimes take for granted what a loaded guy would willingly pay some P8,000 for.
Jaguar XKR Convertible
My car for this particular track day is the second-generation, all-aluminum Jaguar XKR Convertible. The owner—a kindhearted and easygoing chap who has earned quite a fortune from his garments business—is a rare breed of a car enthusiast: He loves cars but not necessarily sporty driving. In fact, this is his first time to visit the Batangas Racing Circuit, and he has no interest whatsoever in driving his Jag on the track. Instead, he hands me the stylish electronic key fob and almost begs me to abuse his newly acquired automobile. Who am I to refuse?
My new buddy is actually a huge Mercedes-Benz fan, owning a decent collection of models that he has managed to put together over the years. It was a friend who sold him on the XKR, which set him back about P9 million. Good choice, I almost tell him. The new XK, it must be noted, was Top Gear UK's Car of the Year in 2006. And what my friend has here is even better—it's an XKR.
It's remarkable how the addition of one seemingly innocuous letter could translate to an increase of 120hp in engine power. The letter R, of course, is used to designate Jaguar's performance models. It is to the British carmaker what M is to BMW or what F is to Lexus. Jaguar engineers supercharged the XK's naturally aspirated 4.2-liter V8 engine and brought its horsepower and torque ratings up to 420hp and 560Nm. They say this car can hit 100kph from a standstill in five seconds flat, but I feel no inclination to verify this claim. I'm worried not so much about my driving skills as I am about my wherewithal to pay for damages should I misjudge a turn.
For maximum effect, I put the soft top down. I push an overhead button and the canvas ceiling disappears completely inside the boot in less than 20 seconds. The nice thing about this XKR, I am told, is that it feels very rigid even with the top down, owing to the fact that this car was designed as a convertible first, the roof merely getting added afterwards. Most other roadsters look a bit awkward and feel a little shaky without the roof because they had been coupes first before their designers eventually chopped the top off.
I fix myself in the driver's seat and push the starter button. The supercharged V8 howl is made more macho by the al fresco cockpit. I'm about to go when the passenger door opens and a stranger hops in. He introduces himself as the group's trusted technical consultant. More important, he reveals that he is the person behind the al_motor handle in our website forum (www.topgear.com.ph/board). I find this amusing because the two of us have had our online tussles in the past, when he would usually join others in reviling “this new Top Gear editor-in-chief.” I'm pleasantly surprised to find myself chatting with a friendly and soft-spoken fellow. He asks if he can ride shotgun. Again, who am I to refuse?
Back to reality
I take the wheel of the compact sedan we've brought to Batangas. Time to go home and back to earth. I actually race the poor car hard on the STAR Tollway. Why am I not surprised that it feels like the blandest ride I have ever put my hands on? It feels so pathetically listless that I hand over driving duties to Kristine. She doesn't complain. Why should she when she has no idea how a 1,700kg Jaguar XKR Convertible accelerates and corners?
Tomorrow, we go back to work. Back to our daily commute and back to our pockmarked EDSA. Now more than ever, I can relate to Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats when they whine they don't like Mondays.
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Top Gear Philippines - May 2008
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