Goodbye, Spring Break!

Me and some friends were chilling one afternoon when Ralph of MTX Car Club asked if we could do a small-kine shoot before he leaves back for the Philippines. MTX-Mark is currently taking a photography 101 class at school, so, of course, he was all up for it. Plus, he still needed more work to add to his portfolio. School work would be piling up again real quick, so I thought a shoot would be a great way to end the break.

We picked a spot and headed down.

For those who don’t know him, Ralph has been living in Cavite, Philippines, for the past four or five years now. He left Guam to pursue a degree/certification in midwifery or something like that. In the process, he got married and had a beautiful baby girl. He isn’t a resident there, thus, flies back home every now and then.

I have always been fascinated by the automotive lifestyle in the Philippines, so it is always interesting to hear stories regarding anything car related. I always dreamed of putting together a project car there.. And after talking with Ralph, my eyes were opened to an actual possibility.

We were browsing the Facebook pages of his friends and fellow race enthusiasts, SJE Autowerks of Cavite, and Staging Lanes of Las Pinas, one night, when I noticed something unusual, for Guam and the U.S. at least. In the comments section of most of the shop’s/group’s car pictures were a bunch of letters and numbers. I thought nothing of it at first, but was opened to it possibly being generated codes indicating particular builds or projects. As we were about through with most of the pics, I finally had to settle the feeling of needing to know what something meant, really bad. So I asked him. He turned to me with an “oh, you didn’t know?” look and told me.

In the Philippines, instead of giving their cars girls or guys names, they would differentiate them from everyone else’s by using their given license plate numbers. Whether they first registered their cars with the random plate that was assigned to them, or chose to personalize, their cars would have practically been “baptized” with that name. That was definitely a first for me, and I thought it was really cool. It was another thing that the Philippines had that the rest of the world didn’t.

Car theft is very unlikely here on Guam, especially for these modified imports. The island is just too small for distinct vehicles like these to go missing unnoticed. Also, good luck getting past alarm systems and the island-style close knit communities.

I wasn’t able to get a hold of Mark’s set, but you might find some on his Facebook page, not sure. These are just my non-professional, green box setting, and skill-impaired ones.

SR305. My ‘99 Champ White GS-R.

Back then, HFDZ-Juan had taken pics of his old ES300 at this very spot, in front of the UOG campus Science Building. I wanted to mock his shoot but just could not get it.

MAI6588. Maybe call this one Mai-Mai, haha.

Here is MTX-Ralph’s 2000 DC2. This is probably one of the cherriest GS-Rs here on Guam. I really thought I had a smooth transmission until I had driven this one. Now, every time I drive my car, I swear I could feel crunches at each shift.

Wingless.

Mark doing work on the Spoon N1.

Ralph doing work with his new iPad 3.

MTE9312. MTX-Mark’s ’98 Integra.

Out of the boys, Mark’s taste is more towards stance. I’m pretty sure that if he just had a bit more time on his hands, this Teg would have wheels that barely fit and that mad tight camber shiiz.

For now, some proper Enkei J-speeds.

Ralph representing.

Shadows. No baller parts here, just daily necessities.

After UOG, we headed out to the race track because I thought I had read about make-up races for the rained out Friday night drags. Just another disappointment as we pulled up to a closed and silent strip. We drove back to Ralph’s house where we chilled at for the rest of the day.

New Formula Red.

 The Si you see in front of it belongs to MTX-Jorge, back from low-rider retirement. Keep an eye out for this one as the last car he had was aesthetically executed perfectly.

Si AH!

That’s all for now. I thought I had more pictures until I opened them up to find the same angles over and over.

In other news, get ready for an event filled month of April. Be sure to check out the CarAudio Image/UpScoot Car show during the Smoking Wheels weekend, the J.F.K. High School Autofest on the 21^st, and Stance Appeal’s Chill & Grill the day after.

Esta!