C! Magazine honors best in class

MITSUBISHI’s first vice president for sales and marketing Dante Santos (left) and advertising and public relations manager Arlan Reyes Jr. display the awards given to their ASX and Montero. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

C! Magazine recently held the seventh Annual C! Awards at the One Esplanade, honoring the year’s best in class cars of the local auto industry. This year’s awarding was held in a specially organized gala night where the popular car enthusiast magazine paid tribute to the best cars in the industry. C! Magazine’s president Kevin Limjoco and its editor-in-chief James Deakin played host to the event. Each final nominee for every category was driven at least 300 test kilometers to qualify and vie for the awards. Aside from this, the nominees were put through an extensive battery of tests and evaluation by the editorial group of C! Magazine team.

Chef Sito Senn of Las Tasca provided a sumptuous sit-down six-course gourmet dinner and just like in past awards, videos of the deliberation as well as other specially produced features were shown. These AVPs (audio video productions) will be included in a special free DVD in the C! Annual Buyer’s Guide. It was also announced that next year’s Annual C! Awards will include awards for motorcycles and scooters.

Although C! Magazine is already a decade old, having been established in June of 2001, the annual C! Awards did not start until after its third year of inception. “The fundamental reason for this is that I required the C! Team to have enough valuable seat time behind the steering wheel of every car sold in the Philippines first. And when I say enough seat time, I am talking about hundreds of test kilometers per vehicle over a myriad of realistic driving conditions so that the categories and the nominees could be clearly defined. We also test cars with the additional core of thought as consumers, if given the budget and need, would we ourselves buy the cars we test. Only through years, months, and sometimes thousands of instrumented test kilometers can the competitive stars within their set categories shine,” said Kevin Limjoco.

“So after three years of testing we were able to finally establish our proper authority and began nominating the best of the best, with each editor casting their votes, traditionally in the February and March issues of C! with the winners being announced in the following April issue of the magazine. After three years of that format, we were then able to evolve the C! Annual Awards into its current special gala night format where we pay tribute to the automotive industry by recognizing and awarding the very best cars that were sold and tested by the end of March of that year, combined with other special categories, in our own unique way. So vehicles launched after the end of March then qualify for the next year’s Award show,” adds Limjoco.

Among its special awards included The Pocholo Ramirez Award (also known as The C! Lifetime Achievement Award), which was presented to the late Kookie Ramirez. The popular race driver recently lost his battle to cancer and just like the father, Pocholo, was dearly loved and well-respected by the automotive industry and motorsports community. The whole family was present to receive the awards. The C! Drive of 2010 went to the Lexus LFA while the Consumer Choice Award (Winner of public online voting on the official C! website among all the nominees of the year) went to the Honda Jazz 1.5V.

2011 7th ANNUAL C! AWARDS WINNERS:

Multi-purpose Vehicle – Toyota Innova 2.5G

Pick-up – Nissan Frontier Navara LE 4×4

Compact SUV (5-seater) – Hyundai Tucson 2.0 CRDi

Compact SUV (7-seater) – Mitsubishi Montero Sport GLS Sport 2.5 VGT

Mid-size SUV – Mazda CX-9

Full-size SUV – Ford Expedition V8 EL

Premium Compact SUV – BMW X3 2.0d

Premium SUV – Nissan Patrol Royale

Compact People Carrier – Kia Carens CRDi EX

Midsize People Carrier – Toyota Previa 2.4Q

Full-Size People Carrier – Hyundai Grand Starex VGT GLS (10-seater)

Premium Super SUV – BMW X6 M

Crossover – Mitsubishi ASX GLS SE

Minicompact – Suzuki Celerio

Subcompact – Ford Fiesta S

Compact – Toyota Altis 2.0V

Premium Compact – MINI Cooper S

Executive – Subaru Legacy GT Sedan

Premium Sedan – Mercedes-Benz C200 CGI

Premium Executive Sedan – Volvo S60 T6 AWD

Premium Luxury Sedan – BMW 740iL

Sport Sedan/Coupe – Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 V6

Premium Sport Sedan/Coupe – BMW M3 Sedan DCT

Sports car – Porsche 911 Carrera S PDK

Cabriolet – Ferrari California

GT – Jaguar XKR 175

Supercar – Ferrari 458 Italia