Touring the Philippines in Classic V8's

69 Pace

2009 Nov. Subic 67 & 69 Camaro

Subic roundtrip November 2009

Fer and I took a quick decision to make a day road trip to Subic and back using the relatively newly constructed SCTEX exfressway from Clark to Subic, from Subic onwards its through the base and Barrio Beretta to Baloy Beach. Such a trip requires careful planning and preparation of the old V8's. Heres the story:

Early morning in Joe's Garage.
The CEO still fast asleep and no where to be seen, Thankfully Fer had opened one garage to access tools.
Todays plan; take a couple of the old V8's and cruise to Subic and back again, preferably getting going before noon. Sounds simple but nothing is ever simple in the Philippines.

So my day started with topping up fluids, rear end and the Muncie transmission was a bit low, as expected from 3 years plus at Jessies "shop".

Hmmmmrrrfff.
Was finally getting ready to go, then when firing up the old Camaro gasoline poooooouuuured out all over from the 40 year old "Rockorkester" carburator, could barely keep the engine running with pedal to the metal. Ooooof it had to come and a after a bit of fiddling and shouting "looooooooorte karburator" a couple of times, We were ready....

A couple of good looking classics, here 1st stop inside Clark Airbase; refreshments and gasoline

Then off to the SCTEX exfressway, Fer in the Chevelle leading the way and determining the cruising speed.

But the Chevelle wasn't in front for long, of course my stock smallblock SS 350 is no match for Fers BB 396 Chevelle 4 speed when it comes to acceleration and top speed, but in cruising mode the Camaro is faster. Keeping within speedlimits and the rpm below 2500, we cruised at 60mph (which is 5mph higher than the cars were designed for LOL).

Parked at Baloy Beach Subic Bay Philippines, with road dust - the dust however, would be washed of later.....

Pitstop inside Subic Freeport; refreshments only this time.

A few minutes before I had been pulled over by a traffic cop for not wearing my seatbelt, well I pointed down to my lap belt which was securely fastened. The cop blared on about a seatbelt is supposed to go over the shoulder. I argued my case that since this was a 40 year old classic car, such luxury wasn't invented nor mandatory at that time. I was let off with a warning!!!! And next time I had to wear shoulder belts!!!!!!

Then the trouble starts, who is that breaking down again Fer?
The starter motor on the bigblock was a bit overheated and would only go "click click", but Fer comes well prepared and after a tow start we were ready to cruise back again.

The Camaro was an excellent tow car I later proudly claimed (leaving out that I had towed Fer a maximum of 100 feet)

Approaching Clark and Angeles City.
This looks cool, but maybe not ideal touring weather up ahead. A few minutes later we were drenched in rain, darkness and thunder. A few minutes later the rain poored down, we had to reduce speed to 45mph, then 35mph and in the end crawling speed. No visibility, 2 inches of water on the roads and total darkness, not ideal weather to drive around with 40 year old wipers and no heater/defrost system. My extra t-shirt came in handy to wipe moisture off the inside of the windscreen later, fuha...

Safely back in the garage.

Always love the view over that SS hood.