Intelligent Active Bags THULE

I was invited to the launching of THULE Sweden Bags recently. It was funny how they had the press conference in a restaurant named Vikings all because of the Swedish thing.

I met up with Thule Managing Director Melvin Sua and told him I was familiar with the brand because of it roof racks in automobiles. More so, I still remember that rally I did in America and competed with a guy using a VW Jetta sponsored by Thule, complete with a roof rack to showcase the whole rally.

I didn’t remember that Thule had bags during the year I competed in rallying in the US. This is when Mr. Sua told me that the bags were a new line from Thule. So he invited me to take a look at their shop and bags.

Thule Host, MYX VJ AI Dela Cruz; Local distributor, Mr. Melvin Sua; Director of Sales, Asia- Pacific Mr. Orjan Pettersson; The Thule Shop in SM Block

One thing I could say is that the bags are impressive. They are well thought of and very functional. More so it has a crossover style of being fashionable for work, office, recreation, and travel. Something that fits an active lifestyle.

Thule bag collection: EnRoute, Perspektiv, Crossover

Now we didnt go home empty handed and Thule gave us Macbook Air sleeve with a “monster truck” design as they say. I still associate the brand to how I initially saw it in that rallycar. So it really reminded me of making a mud flap out of it to really see how tough it is. Now if I only had three more of these… hm.

Manila Speed Show Experience

So how could I not miss a real Formula One car running down the streets of Manila? In my home country, where there is no Formula One? I couldn’t. This moment would definitely go down the books of Philippine motoring and motorsports history. Of course, how all of us local race car drivers wish we could have been the star. But race driver mode, off; fan boy and support to Philippine motorsports, on. A push for the good guy, Marlon Stockinger for his F1 bid with one of Formula One’s top teams, Lotus F1, was on the works. Here’s a Pinoy who just might make it.

It was said that on the 4th of May, Saturday morning at 9 AM, Marlon and his Lotus F1 would drive around Quirino Grand Stand, Luneta Park, and Kilometer Zero.

There were hardly any people around at first and I thought to myself, “Where in Manila are they?”. I eventually heard the V8 engine of a Formula One revving north of Luneta Park towards the Manila Hotel. Lo and behold, Formula One cars with the Lotus F1 Team were sitting pretty on Katigbak Drive.

There were a lot of common faces around despite the foreign members of the European F1 team. Even Manila Mayor, Alfredo Lim, was there to witness the spectacle.

The fans were anxiously waiting for the F1 to start moving and they all had their yellow balloons of support, ready to cheer on the Filipino driver.

The Lotus F1 team by 10 AM had finally brought the Lotus R30 over to Roxas Boulevard by Kilometer Zero and the Rizal monument. Again, there were just so many people.

It started to happen. It was very historic indeed with the Philippine flag waving and the Rizal Monument of Luneta Park at the background.

The host and one of the Lotus engineers unveiled the symbolic Kilometer Zero or the Philippines’ referral point of the whole national highway system.

KM 0 as read on this one of a kind kilometer post in the Philippines.

It was really humid and very hot under the unshaded Roxas Boulevard as we waited for Marlon to take his seat inside the Lotus F1. I had to have a picture of historic Manila and an imaginary version of the Manila Grand Prix grid area.

The driver finally arrived, and it still took forever to start because of numerous safety checks by the organizers.

Now formula one usually have those pre-race grid shots for race day. This looks legit for a Sunday race day, only except if that guy holding the umbrella was a grid/umbrella girl.

Finally, Marlon took off with the Lotus R30.

In a matter of a few seconds, he’d be on the other side of Roxas Boulevard, in front of the Quirino Grandstand. By the time I would get there, he was already done the donuts. F1 wins over my pair of feet.

Lunch time and the party would move to SM Mall of Asia. They’d already set up the meet and greet area inside the mall, at the same time a wax display of Stockinger, an F1 car, and two simulators that the fans could try out.

Walking outside the Mall of Asia, the Manila Speed Show was all over the place.

I was privileged enough to dine in the VIP area were everyone including the Lotus Team, celebrities, and big players of the event gathered for this special event.

Inside the VIP tent they not only had good food but also a Lotus F1 simulator from French company Jok Race. You could read my experience of this simulator, Lotus F1 Simulator in the Manila Speed Show.

Motoring host, James Deakin interviewed Lotus Team Principal, Eric Boullier after lunch time.

I was able to sneak a picture with the team principal of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean after his interview.

That led me to having pictures with all the other important people while they weren’t too busy yet, like Marlon Stockinger.

Funny how people didn’t notice this girl Camilla Guidecelli. I don’t like making speculations but if Marlon becomes famous, she could become just as famous as an F1 WAG. Nicole Scherzinger, Jessica Michibata, Dasaha Kapustina… you get the point.

So eventually the sound of the F1 did roar again and off went Marlon again. This time around the Mall of Asia.

It was a really short stint of 2 laps. It was also a bit of time as Marlon and his Lotus F1 went by just too quick.

James Deakin pulled Marlon out for an interview in front of tons of Filipino fans.

It was time for round 2 of the Saturday afternoon show. VIPs had a chance to take a back seat point of view in a two-seater Formula car with Lotus Test driver, Davide Valsecchi, flaunting aggressive Italian driving skills.

While Davide did his driving relations, Marlon interacted and signed autographs for media and fans.

Day 2, Sunday, had more visitors watching the F1 road show.

A big improvement with the organizers having to work the schedules out better, even putting more shows around the F1 show grounds.

The organizers were able to put in four laps for Marlon. He was given a set of this four-lap F1 road show during lunch time and another later in the afternoon.

That gave us enough time for us to take pictures and videos, and enjoy the Formula One sound.

During the Sunday afternoon, more friends of Marlon arrived like another previous karter of the year, Matteo Guidecelli.

Marlon then went on again with business driving for the last time in his F1 Lotus on Manila’s streets.

Davide Valsecchi also got confused going around Manila.

With the Manila Speed Show almost over, there was one last hurrah before the Lotus Team called it a day.

The Tattoo Pit Stop Challenge had a contest of who would be changing the tires of an F1 car the fastest. The Lotus pit crew showed us how to do it.

To make the story short, this is how it ended. You could read the full entry and watch a video here, A 3.5 Seconds F1 Tire Change.

No doubt Marlon had to not just thank his sponsors and fans, but also all the volunteer marshals who gave their best effort to run the event safely. 

Nothing like a cliche, happy ending moment for the F1 road show with a rainbow over the venue.

Honda Set to Return to F1

(from left) CEO of McLaren Group Limited Martin Whitmarsh, Honda President & CEO Takanobu Ito -Photo from world.honda.com

This isn’t an official report on Honda making a comeback to F1. If you want to hear an actual report about it, by now, it is already all over the internet. As of the 16th of May, 2013,  my social media accounts have been full of reports of Honda teaming up with McLaren F1 for 2015. We all do need to remember it’s not next year. So as the memes go, keep calm and wait for McLaren-Honda F1 in 2015.

One of the popular posts I’ve written in my blog, So You Think Honda Has Lost Their Racing Edge?, still gets the most view here in flatoutivan. You could say that this post is a continuation of what makes Honda push their dreams to become reality again. Many can be excited about the news because of Honda’s history of the sport and the brand being popular and available to consumers. Fans, believers, enthusiasts, race car drivers, etc., alike from the post I authored previously about Honda Racing is starting to unfold again in another chapter for this Power of Dreams company.

Honda’s Iconic Formula One race cars – Photo from twitter.com/McLarenF1

Championships in the late 80′s and 90′s with Senna and McLaren in Formula One are at the top for Honda’s motorsports achievements. Honda being an economical, powerful, reliable and affordable car with progressing technology after every generation has made its name for people associating Honda with what it was known for. Of course for the past years, Honda have lost a bit of their image with them wanting to be more environmental and trying to focus on future hybrids. That is until “environmental” took over them literally and they felt the 2008 recession in Japan leaving Honda and other Japanese manufacturers out of the picture in motorsports, the Japanese tsunami, and Thailand floods that affected mass production of Honda cars. The solid environmental approach of Honda hasn’t been selling too well. However, with the shape of motorsports addressing the mobility issues in the world of engines with the need to become more efficient, Honda can approach this with their glorious motorsports past and their save-the-earth cause.

Honda Civic makes clean sweep of 2013 WTCC race In Slovakia- Photo from world.honda.com

They are doing it with a bang. Over the years they made their announcement of coming back to motorsports through the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC). This gave a lot of Honda racing fans something to cheer on. With the International Federation of Automobiles (FIA) trying to standardize racing engines in the top tier of motorsports to a common 1600cc engine, it seems Honda sees an opportunity of research in engine technology that could suit their products well. The World Rally Championship (WRC) and WTCC are already using the 1600cc engines. Formula one plans to follow in 2014 with the same rule of a 1600cc, but with a turbocharged V6 engine.

Ayrton Senna’s McLaren Honda MP4 4. Photo from twitter.com/McLarenF1

During the 90′s, McLaren Honda F1 was superior with the 1600cc engines. After being engine supplier they tried to have their own team from chassis development in 2007. In 2008, if Honda didn’t pull out of formula one, they could have won the championship the following year with Jenson Button. Honda built their formula one ground up ready to race on for 2009. Honda’s F1 eventually won the championship with the newly bought team of Brawn GP carrying a Mercedes engine after selling the team before 2009. But that is maybe only if the “ifs” happened.

2008 Honda F1 RA108 contender of Jenson Button. – Photo from world.honda.com

All this however I believe is pressure coming from previous customers of Honda. Honda could have easily backed out of the whole racing thing and focused on their hybrids and robotics engineering. But a call for Honda of its racing heritage and what Honda has established are one of those reasons why people enjoy Honda. And yes, Enjoy Honda is their tagline also!

A 3.5 Seconds F1 Tire Change

The Pit Stop Challenge presented by Tattoo happened right after Marlon Stockinger and the Lotus F1′s last run around the Mall of Asia. They placed the Lotus F1 near the crowds beside the VIP tents and garage.

Marlon, together with the rest of the F1 crew, demonstrated to all the contestants and spectators how to change tires quickly on a formula one car.

Here’s a profile picture of the one of the contestants competing for Team Tattoo. Flatoutivan is that you?

Sports Unlimited’s Marc and Dyan talked about their roles and strategy for the Pit Stop Challenge.

I found it surprising that our national footballers, the Azkals, didn’t have things running too well in their pit stops.

Patrick of Top Gear Philippines and Brent of Auto Industriya teamed up to change those wet weather tires to the prime tires.

My partner for the timed pit stops, Mark McMahon, and I observed the remaining competition after setting the fastest pit stop of the day.

Here is the Pit Stop Challenge show. This is so you may have an actual scene of what really happened.

And on top of the podium for having a Philippine record time of changing an F1 tire of 3.5 seconds! Now Lotus F1 Team, hire us to change your tires!

TATTOO First to Bring Lotus F1 to the Philippines

Marlon Stockinger steering his Lotus F1 in the Manila Speed Show.

TATTOO, the most reliable broadband in the country, literally took to the streets last weekend to showcase speed and power as it unleashed the fastest car on the planet by flying in to Manila for the very first time an authentic, race-tested Lotus F1 car.

Marlon Stockinger and his entourage.

Sizeable crowds went wild with excitement last May 4 and 5 at the Manila Speed Show in the SM Mall of Asia Concert Grounds when an actual Lotus F1 race car, piloted by Tattoo brand ambassador Marlon Stockinger, the first Filipino to make it to junior driver team of the prestigious Lotus F1 team, whizzed past pavements at about 350 km/hour.

Davide Valsecchi driving Globe’s President & CEO Ernest Cu in the 2 seater Lotus F1.

With the scorching sun in the sky and burning rubber in the streets, blazing speeds were the order of the weekend brought by Tattoo. The Fil-Swiss race car sensation made lap rounds with his Lotus F1 car every few hours, while Globe senior executives led by President & CEO Ernest Cu and Senior Adviser for Consumer Business Peter Bithos were privileged to experience riding the two-seater Formula Renault cars driven by the Lotus F1 team’s Grand Prix 2 champion Davide Valsecchi. Even Thomas Stockinger, Marlon’s father, jumped into the cockpit of the Lotus F1 car to give the crowd a taste of how powerful an F1 engine can be by revving it up to the tune of “We Are the Champions,” much to the audience’s delight.

Ivan Isada and Mark McMahon on top of the podium after winning the F1 Pit Stop challenge for Team Tattoo.

Enthusiasts also had the chance to participate in an exciting Pit Stop challenge by changing the tires of Marlon’s Lotus F1 car in the fastest time possible, with the Lotus F1 Pit Stop crew demonstrating how to replace the tires of a Lotus F1 car under 3 seconds. True to their brand’s attribute, Team Tattoo of Ivan Isada and Mark McMahon emerged victorious by clocking in at 3.5 ticks, besting other contingents.

Other activities inside the mall with the Lotus F1 road show team.

The Manila Speed Show likewise brought together a series of activities that car enthusiasts and motoring aficionados enjoyed watching: two entire afternoons of go-kart demonstrations, supercar displays, drifting show-offs and monster vehicles decked in the latest street-legal technology and gadgets. More importantly, TATTOO let the public experience the very concept and definition of speed by bringing to the Philippines one of the biggest and most prestigious motoring events of the year.

 “We want to give our subscribers and the public at large a taste of what Tattoo can offer,” said Dong Ronquillo, Head of Tattoo Nomadic Broadband Business. “What better way to showcase Tattoo’s premium on speed and reliability than through our brand ambassador Marlon Stockinger driving before us in his Lotus F1 race car. It was all about how fast you can go and the services that can bring you up to the speeds you want to achieve: that’s the speed imprint of TATTOO.”

When it’s all about blazing internet speeds, TATTOO takes the lead to provide quality broadband services in the country. For the fast-paced and always on-the-go, Tattoo Black provides speeds of up to 42mbps that comes with unparalleled premium customer service and benefits. Tattoo@Home offers a complete line-up of home broadband connections for those who prefer to surf indoors with their families while Tattoo Torque, the ultra high-speed unlimited home broadband service, has the fastest connections reaching 150mbps.

Everyone’s inner racer can go full throttle as Tattoo continues to grow and expand its Long Term Evolution (LTE) network nationwide, providing the ultimate in broadband experience.  Unleash your inner need for speed with Tattoo – live without limits. Visit tattoo.globe.com.ph to know more.

For those who missed the weekend activities, the Manila Speed Show continues to roll out at the Glorietta 1 from May 7 to 16, 2013 as it unleashes the exciting Lotus F1 Simulator starting at 11AM to 7 PM at the Ground Floor, Edsa Mall. Tattoo subscribers as well as other speedsters can get behind the wheel like Marlon Stockinger and test their driving skills as they negotiate the tracks of a virtual F1 circuit.

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• Lotus F1 Simulator in the Manila Speed Show (flatoutivan.wordpress.com)

Lotus F1 Simulator in the Manila Speed Show

The road show inside Mall of Asia

The Manila Speed Show presented by Globe Tattoo was definitely a thrilling weekend. With all the high revving V8 Formula One sound, how could I not want to try driving at full speed. Of course, being a race car driver (actually rally driver) myself, it was only natural to envy Marlon Stockinger driving his Lotus F1.

One of the front cut F1 simulators inside the VIP room.

It was a good thing I was standing by 2 formula one, front cut, life size models of an F1 car inside the VIP room of the roadshow. One of the Lotus roadshow F1 guys, Clement, offered me to be the first person to use it. He told me to sit inside it because it was actually a Lotus F1 Simulator. They had two of it inside the VIP room and I was ecstatic to try one out.

My view and the annoying glare. Sight level: difficult.

Two years ago, I tried one of these simulators. It was complete with the body shell of an F1, meaning you could sit inside a formula one cockpit. It was the Singapore GP and I had to wait for about an hour just to have my chance of playing it with only a lap of experience given by the organizers. This time, the simulator did not have active hydraulics and dampers under the rig to move the whole simulator. What it had was a single screen, a force feedback steering wheel, loud speakers right beside my ears to emulate the mid-engine F1 sound, adjustable pedals, and a real F1 guy from the Lotus team to give you a hefty dosage of F1 simulator orientation.

Alex telling me what to do while I sit uncomfortably inside the cockpit.

Having experience with an F1 simulator already before, I tried to find my seating inside it. Now the F1 seats aren’t like your ordinary car because here you are almost lying down and you have your feet raised almost as high as your chest. I knew this, but I still found myself seated up straight for the first few moments of getting myself accustomed to driving again in this unique way.

Finally put Alex’s instructions and words into my thoughts now. Photo by Mika Fernandez David / Gadgets Magazine

Alex aka Fabio (in the Youtube video), my Lotus F1 simulator race engineer, gave me a 5-10 minute crash lecture on what to do. I heard Marlon was given a Formula One manual to learn and operate his Lotus. At least I didn’t have to do something like that. What I did appreciate was how serious he took me for driving the F1 simulator and it really, kind of, did feel like I was in an F1 test session when he gave me instructions. Pretty fancy with the whole props of the F1 team with their uniforms and all watching what I was doing. Of course that seriousness only happened when I drove. The kids that were watching took over, treated the simulator as an arcade, and made it a playground. You should have seen the faces of the Lotus engineers maybe thinking, “this is not how we pictured this area to be like”.

You want some easy driving? Try bringing this giant F1steering wheel inside the simulator.

Anyway, I sat down inside, made myself comfortable and with the previous experience of driving an F1 simulator 2 years back in 2011, I knew I had to figure out how the F1 handled in the Melbourne F1 simulator track they had. Everything was automatic from the transmission, to the traction control, ABS system, etc. In short, it was on “easy mode” where all regular fans could experience F1 in a “successful” way.

The Jokrace “joker” F1 steering wheel of the Lotus simulator.

I didnt’ know how many laps I was going to be given so right from the start I knew I had to get things perfect. Last time out in Singapore it was just one lap. There weren’t any hydraulics in this simulator, so trying to crash and feel everything vibrate wasn’t in my itinerary. A clean one lap was all I needed, which I did! And then I was given a second lap which to me was a bit of a surprise. So I went on and pushed on trying to get a rhythm and observing the computer’s physics as I manipulated the F1 through the Melbourne track.

I found the simulator to be more forgiving comparing it to the last time I drove a sim. The brakes had more feel unlike the Singapore simulator wherein you could very easily lock up your brakes. However I did find the simulator’s placement within the VIP room difficult seeing the screen as you will see in the video of this post. There was so much glare that it already was difficult to see the 90 degree, blind corners of Melbourne plus the unclear screen in front of me. Nevertheless, it was still a joy to drive and I tried sneaking in 6 more laps in the afternoon. So in the end at the Manila Speed Show, at least I got my driving adrenaline fixed on those F1 rigs to keep me calm. There was so much excitement over that weekend, becoming too hyper-active would be rude!

No joke! This is the real thing! Now what is the steering wheel used for again?!

Thanks to GlobeTattoo for the event and Gadgets Magazine for the photos!

Game On Being a Celebrity

So after my last stint of being a “fuel-efficient” driver, and now hardly being known as a rally driver, I’ve step my game up to being “celebrity fuel efficient driving coach”. Now, that really isn’t a real title but yes I was on a television special called, Game On. It was for the car manufacturer, Chevrolet, and the show was under local channel Studio 23. I had to give pointers and tips on how to drive fuel efficient using Chevrolet’s latest sub-compact car, the Chevrolet Sonic.

8:00 AM – I arrived at Chevrolet EDSA Greenhills, my car parked beside the Sonic Game On car that we were going to use for today’s program.

8:30 AM – Some donuts and coffee for breakfast with the Roadwise crew and Chevy’s PR and marketing team.

9:15 AM – The celebrities, Gretchen and Andrei, started their spiels on camera in the Chevy showroom.

10:05 AM – We had both Chevrolet Sonics fuel tanks filled, and started out the city driving challenge (Greenhills EDSA – White Plains Ave. – Katipunan – C.P. Garcia Ave. – University Ave. – Commonwealth Ave. – Philcoa – C.P. Garcia – Katipunan – White Plains Ave. – EDSA – Magallanes).

10:45 AM – We were on the road, Gretchen started driving, I coached and answered interviews, and our program manager assisted on the topics of what we had to cover in front of the camera.

12:00 PM – We arrived at Magallanes gasoline station. We did the computation for the city segment of both Sonics and had our lunch break too. Here I  was with our TV director, Jet, and Bebot, our Roadwise fuel consumption verifier.

1:05 PM – The hosts started their spiels while Roadwise Driving Coach, Mike and I ran down the statistics of the fuel consumption in the background. Gretchen won the city challenge posting an 8.597 Km/L reading compared to Andrei’s 7.75 Km/L. The record I set for them was a 9.690 Km/L fuel consumption.

1:30 PM – This is the group picture before we went on the move for the highway driving. Mike, Andrei Felix, Gretchen Fullido, and Flatoutivan.

2:45 PM – On the highway drive (Magallanes Gas Station – SLEX – STAR Highway – Ibaan, Batngas – STAR Highway – SLEX – Eton Exit – Sta. Rosa Gas Station).

3:20 PM – We got to Sta. Rosa gas station and of course Andrei wanted to know as soon as possible if he beat Gretchen this time in the highway fuel economy run.

3:35 PM – We eventually found out who had won the highway segment of Game On. It was a close match between Andrei and Gretchen as they where only 0.09 Km/L apart. Andrei did 16.398 Km/L compared to Gretchen’s 16.308 Km/L, while the target I gave them was an 18. Km/L fuel consumption reading.

4:30 PM – We arrived in Nuvali for our closing spiels and had both blue and white Chevrolet Sonics parked.

Gretchen and Andrei did their interviews…

Then I did mine…

And also Roadwise instructor, Mike had to do his segment while I had to take a seat after a long day.

The not so glamorous life of the celebrities took their breaks while we, TV newbies from Roadwise, had to get our spiels right in front of the camera.

All in all it was a good day’s experience and we traveled back to Manila in the sedan version of the Sonic. It had a GPS as standard for a sub-compact car. Cool! No getting lost going back home.