Ever since that new 7-Eleven in Camalig, Albay opened and went viral, I’ve been wanting to go. For the content and the views, more than anything—the drive and the scenery were just going to be bonuses. What better way to trendjack than to actually go there, even if it’s half a day’s drive away?
We pitched the idea to our boss, Carlo Chungunco, who rarely ever says no. But then came the big question: “What car are you gonna bring?”
It made perfect sense to bring a hybrid. It just did. One full tank from Laguna to Bicol and back. Unfortunately, the hybrids that could make that kind of trip were already booked during the week we could afford to drive to Bicol. But as my boss and I were speaking, I remembered I had a Mustang pencil-booked for our team that same week.
It sounded insane to bring a Mustang to Bicol, but as Carlo said, that’s what would make the trip unique and interesting. I agreed, so I finalized our schedule and we started making preps for our drive. It was going to be me and our video content producer Charles Banaag embarking on this overnight trip.
Watch: Driving to the viral 7-Eleven in Bicol with the Ford Mustang
PHOTO: Leandre Grecia
We packed our bags with the bare minimum of clothing—a set for sleeping and another for the drive home. Charles didn’t even bring slippers. We stuffed everything in the Mustang’s trunk—which is quite spacious and perfect for these long out-of-town drives—along with all of our gear and gadgets. The latter probably took more space than our actual clothes.
The Mustang had no spare tire, so the best we could do was bring a tire repair kit, a tire inflator, a lot of caution, and even more prayers that we’d get home with us, the car, and especially the wheels and tires unscathed. The plan was to leave Sta. Rosa, Laguna as early as possible so we’d get to the 7-Eleven before sunset, and we wouldn’t need to drive through unfamiliar roads at night.
We started off our day at 3am and got a full tank at Shell South Forbes which was our official flag-off point, then headed south. From the get-go, I appreciated the Mustang’s 2+2 layout—we could keep our baon breakfast and snacks as well as our cameras in the second row, just within arms reach if we’d ever need them at any point during the drive. No need to pull over and pop the trunk open to get anything.
From our starting point all the way to earlier parts of Quezon, it was a breeze. Me being from Los Baños and Charles from San Pablo, we knew these roads like the backs of our hands. It was a chill drive all the way to Sariaya, where we made our first stop just to greet the beautiful sunrise.
The morning had a different vibe to it. We were already a long way from home, yet we were still nowhere near our destination. But we were starting to feel that true probinsya breeze, and it was then that we knew the road trip had just begun.
PHOTO: Charles Banaag
We continued on towards the Old Zigzag Road, which many of us often mistake for the famous Bitukang Manok. This winding mountain pass through Mt. Pinagbanderahan lets motorists easily traverse a good chunk of Atimonan. If you’ve never been here, stop-and-go traffic is observed on both the entry and the exit points of the bypass road, which just goes to show how sharp and steep the turns are.
At this point, we had already been driving for more than three hours, yet neither Charles nor I had yet to feel any fatigue. That’s a testament to the ride comfort of the Mustang, which I really didn’t expect to impress me all that much. We were also getting a consistent 8-9km/L on the meter—another pleasant surprise early on during the journey.
Once we approached Gumaca, the views got even better. We reached the coastal roads, and the morning sun started to hit even stronger. Just as all this was happening, though, the pavement also started to get worse. And so did traffic.
See, we scheduled our trip on May 15. To many of us, that didn’t signify anything. For the people of Gumaca and and other smaller towns in Quezon, it’s Pahiyas. A festival that originated from Lucban but is now also celebrated in other areas of the province. After getting stuck for more than half an hour, we were told to turn around and take the diversion road to bypass the traffic jam, and so we did. We also decided a driver change was due.
I moved to the passenger seat, and as we entered the diversion road, I took the chance to take a power nap just in case. You know, just get those minutes in just like we do steps. Charles zig-zagged his way past Gumaca, and when I woke up, we were already in Calauag. We stopped for gas and discovered our fuel consumption had increased to about 6km/L. Charles and I swapped seats again, and I was behind the wheel heading into Tagkawayan—perhaps one of the worst parts of our entire drive.
PHOTO: Leandre Grecia
The roads here were insane. It felt like 100% of the time we were driving through bumps, and every now and then, there were huge potholes. Some segments were also still under construction, so once in a while you’d have to line up and wait for your side of traffic to be let through. The only workaround here was to drive carefully and slow down as necessary.
It felt like a never-ending rough patch from there on. It was so bad that I didn’t even realize the roads started getting slightly better as we reached Bicol. And just as we passed the border into the new region, we stopped for lunch at a karinderya, and of course, I got Bicol Express. Because why the heck not. After our quick meal, we switched seats again, and I enjoyed being passenger princess for the next few hours.
We headed further down towards Camarines Sur, and we took the hours on the road assessing the trip so far. We realized we had never bottomed-out the suspension, and not once did we scrape anything underneath despite the ungodly road conditions. We credit that to the Mustang’s reasonable ride height—it’s got proper stance and fitment for it to look good, but it doesn’t sit too low that it would’ve been impossible to drive through these parts.
The Mustang’s V8 engine has also proven solid. We had absolutely no issues whatsoever. Fuel economy stabilized between the 6-7km/L range, which is fine considering that was a 486hp, 567Nm beast under the hood. We had grown accustomed to the beautiful rumble of the engine with the active exhaust, and it felt as if the V8 had become the third companion during this road trip.
The ride so far had also been much better than what we anticipated. The Mustang comes with magnetic dampers, and they’ve performed exceptionally well. In a nutshell, this suspension setup can automatically adapt to the road and driving conditions, adjusting damping when comfort is needed or when handling should be prioritized. True enough, the Mustang did corner well—I just wish I had been able to drive the previous generation model to know how big of an improvement this has been.
After a few more hours of driving and our first coffee pit stop of the day, we reached the final stretch from CamSur to Albay, where I took the wheel once more. We finally got a glimpse of Mt. Mayon, albeit hiding behind some clouds. I couldn’t care less about the imperfect roads and the traffic at this point as I was just keeping my fingers crossed that when we get to our destination, the volcano would show itself to us.
Lo and behold, when we reached 7-Eleven, Mayon just about showed up. And it. Was. Absolutely. Magnificent. Fantabulous. Spectacular. Majestic. Just…beautiful. Words and photos won’t ever do it justice.
Unsurprisingly, there were a bunch of people hanging out by the store. All of them snapping photos and just taking the view in. Luckily for us, the area cleared out for a bit, just enough for us to take some photos and videos.
We were supposed to call it a day from there, but we drove around the area and stumbled upon a portion of the bypass road that offered an unobstructed view of Mayon, so we pulled over and stayed there until sunset. We basked in its glory, appreciating a sight we won’t often see in this lifetime. Core memory unlocked.
PHOTO: Leandre Grecia
We drove onto Hotel Lucca in Legazapi where we were staying for the night. We chose this hotel because it was still in the city center but away from the highway. It also had a secured parking area where we were sure we could safely leave the Mustang overnight. We checked in and drove out for a recovery meal at one of the region’s most popular restaurant: Bigg’s.
I tried this out about a decade ago, while it was Charles’ first time there. The food was delicious while still being reasonably priced. The fried chicken was something we were definitely going back for in the future.
After dinner, we capped off the day by refueling the Mustang and dropping by for a cup of coffee at Better Batter Cafe, a quaint shop in the middle of the city. We already made it a point to try the local cuisine, so we might as well get local coffee, too. The joint had just opened its doors fairly recently, but I noticed it already had a lot of patrons. Credit that to the good coffee they serve, I suppose. Next time, I’ll go back to try the food as well.
The next day was mostly going to be for driving. Less shooting, more ‘going home’ was the idea. We got as much rest as we could and we started the day slow, so we left Hotel Lucca at around 8:30am. We drove back to the 7-Eleven just for the sake of it, but Mt. Mayon was nowhere in sight. A sea of clouds covered more than half of the volcano, which made us also appreciate how lucky we were to have seen it fully just the day before.
We flagged off from the area around 9:30, and we hoped that from there, it would just be smooth-sailing, but of course it wasn’t going to be.
Apart from the fact that we had to drive through the same terrible roads going home, we also had several traffic jams we had to deal with. The first one was at a bridge under repair where the car in front of us fell into the canal just past the roadworks. We couldn’t get through, and I think that set us back for at least 15 minutes. That wasn’t the end of it.
We kept on driving back up to Quezon with just one stopover for a late lunch at a random eatery by the highway, because we wanted to pass the Old Zigzag Road before the sun set. Once we reached Plaridel, though, we got stuck in a standstill.
We figured it might have been because of the Old Zigzag Road traffic, or we thought the mountain pass was closed at night, so we just waited. Sadly, there was no internet connection where we stopped, but at least we had music that we happily enjoyed through the Mustang’s 12-speaker Bang & Olufsen audio system.
As the minutes continued to pass and with zero movement, the rain also started to pour, which had me worrying because we were just by the seaside. We were growing weary, so I looked for something else to do, and I realized I had the first few episodes of Bojack Horseman downloaded on my phone. We decided to watch that instead, and instantly the Mustang’s cockpit turned into a mobile theater. It helps that the Recaro seats are actually plush and comfortable, so at least we passed the time easily.
After several episodes, we finally started moving, and around a kilometer down the road, we passed by a major road crash. Three trucks that seemingly blocked off the entire four-lane thoroughfare upon impact. No wonder there wasn’t oncoming traffic for the entire two hours we were stuck waiting in line. The roads opened up afterwards, but the incident was a stern reminder just how dangerous these southern highways are. Thankfully, the rain subsided as we drove through the Old Zigzag Road, and it was finally the home stretch from there.
PHOTO: Leandre Grecia
It was already past midnight when we got back to where we started, which was Shell South Forbes. We clocked in 933km and spent 31 and a half hours in the Mustang while spending about P10,000 on gas after all of it. We had so many realizations about this car.
It didn’t meet my expectations but in all the right ways. It was way more comfortable than I had imagined, it was a bit more frugal than I predicted, and it cornered much better than I thought it would be. It also wasn’t as blinding fast as I thought Mustangs were, and that was perfectly fine. Because the entire package—with that V8 and active exhaust and all that—makes for a real grand tourer.
The Mustang was built for long-distance driving, and it held up exactly as it needed to. No squeaks, no clunks, no nothing at the end of our trip. I was incredibly impressed by just how solidly built the car is. And unlike other performance cars, the Mustang was perfectly fine with the pace we went. We averaged about 30-35kph for our entire trip, which is slow, if you think about it, but all of it was time well spent with the Mustang. When you want to drive it hard, it’ll take care of you, but if you want to cruise at a steady pace, it won’t force you to do otherwise.
The end of our trip didn’t mark the end of my time with the Mustang, though, as I still had a full weekend to spend with it. I used it for going to the grocery, for hauling some cargo from one house to another, and for driving back home to Los Baños. I made sure to hit the thousand-kilometer mark before I returned it, and it was a bittersweet goodbye when I finally did.
Bitter because, clearly, I’m gonna miss the Mustang. But sweet because that farewell also meant we were able to complete what we sought out to do. In hindsight, I’m happy it was the Mustang we brought to Bicol. This trip wouldn’t have been as special (and seamless) had we driven something else. I’m no hybrid or EV hater, but after this trip, I was reminded how electrified vehicles might never be as fun as something like this—a menacing naturally aspirated V8-powered pony.
But if I’m being honest, the Mustang was never a car I really admired. I respected it for what it is, especially for its heritage. For the nameplate’s importance not just to Ford but also to automotive lore. As a car, it was never one that I was dying to drive. But I parted ways with a newfound respect for and a profound connection with it. It’ll go down as one of the most unforgettable cars I’ve ever driven, and on one of the most memorable road trips at that.
This article originally appeared onTopgear.com.
Minor edits have been made by the TopGear.com.ph editors.
TGP Rating:
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TGP Rating:
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Starts at ₱
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