MUSTANGMANIA INVADES ASIA, PART1: SINGAPORE
With my job, I spent the last 3 years travelling around the world. I met mustang people in every country, that shared with me all their love, and their stories.
Some life changing(some of them pretty hard, like the death of my father, and the end of my marriage) took away from me my passion for writing. I collected that stories, and kept for myself. These stories came out only when i had few beers at car shows.
This year, i decided to change, and restart all over again. I brought back mustangmania to life.
This will be the first of many stories i collected all around the world.
In December 2017, I organized a business trip to Asia. The main scope was to visit the dealers that the company i was working for, had.
I planned(as usual) all the trip by myself, coordinating with my dealers schedules.
All of them knew my insane passion for Ford Mustangs; Few of them, even today, still send me pictures of every mustang they see around.
The first Stop of my trip was Singapore. I took courage, and decided to contact the guys from Mustang Owners Club of Singapore. A guy from the club, Ansar Mansoor( former teacher at Singapore polytechnic) quickly replied to me, from Facebook Club Page. We had a quick chat; He decided to come and pick me up from the airport. My schedule was to land Saturday morning, have two days off, few meetings on Monday and Tuesday, then fly out on Wednesday afternoon to Beijing, China. I sent him my flight details, and my mobile number.
I had a pretty long flight, some turbolences halfway, but i landed exhausted, on time, after 11 hours of flight. After the security checks, i went out, and the first thing I saw was an amazing black, with reed wheels, brand new, for mustang GT 2016. That was my kind of warm Welcome!
After a quick chat, i placed my luggages in his car, and i quickly discovered they have the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car( Singapore, like Hong Kong, UK, Australia and New Zealand drive on “the wrong side of the street”). Be a passenger, on a new Mustang, in Singapore, was just amazing. Mustang will let you feel home, everywhere you where in the world.
We quickly reached the hotel, i have done the check in, then he said:” Get changed, have a shower, we have to be to a car show in one hour; i will introduce you to the other guys of the club.” Said, done.
The Mustang Club Owners of Singapore(MCOS), has been founded by a bunch of friends, heade by Dr. Felix Li, in 2015. Now they are 34 members, and they are still growing( think about the overall dimensions of Singapore, it is a high number). Think about a Mustang GT, in Singapore, costs 325.000 $, road taxes excluded. A Toyota Prius costs 150.000 $!
We reached this drift event, in the parking of a Mall, when it was just begun. After all the mutual introductions, They guys introduced me to the local laws, that don’t allow people to use car older than 10 years as daily drivers.
Also, there is a big taxation on performance cars, like the mustang. When i asked to the guys “what are you gonna do in 10 years from now?” they replied “We will keep our mustangs, of course!”.
Getting a COE( Certificate of Entitlement) in Singapore, after 10 years, will be extremely difficult. That is the reason why all the few vintage cars in Singapore, where imported, and could be used only for few events every year. All of these guys were dreaming about mustangs since they were kids, and they worked pretty hard to get they beloved ponies.
I took from my bag my “mustangmania” decals, and gave one to all of them. Ansar opened the trunk, took a bag and gave it to me. “what is that?” i said. “A gift that will remember you your Singaporean brothers forever”. I admit i was too curious. I opened the bag, straight away, and there was a MCOS polo, black. I putted that on, straight away. I ended that memorable day with Ansar, drinking Margaritas and talking about cars.
From That Day, I will always have brothers in Singapore.
LINKS
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/mocsofficial/
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/mocsofficial
website:
http://mustangownersclub.com.sg/
