News

  • Nation
  • World Updates
  • Courts
  • Parliament
  • Columnists
  • Opinion
  • Honours List

Sunday October 25, 2009

All revved up for Asia

EUROFILE By CHOI TUCK WO


For members of the Bristol Owners Club, it’s all systems go as they brace for the adrenaline-pumping Trans Borneo Rally next March.

RETRACING the route of the infamous Sandakan death marches and scaling Borneo’s highest peak may seem like a world away from tinkering with posh convertibles in Britain.

And for a bunch of veteran classic car owners whose ages range from 50 to over 70, it’ll be a nail-biting, roller-coaster, never-to-be-forgotten ride of a lifetime. What’s more, the 3,000km-odd journey will take them through logging tracks, gravel and mud in their gruelling drive through Sarawak, Brunei and Sabah.

But for members of the Bristol Owners Club (www.boc.net), it’s all systems go as they brace for the adrenaline-pumping Trans Borneo Rally next March.

Although they are used to shipping their cars for rallies all over the world, including to the United States, Africa and most of Europe, this is the first time they’re venturing into Asia.

Beauties in a row: Bristol club members with their classic cars in Greece. — Pic courtesy of Simon Healy

“It’s basically a nature trip. But we’ll also get to see a part of the world and a way of life we’ve never seen before,” enthused club president Geoffrey Herdman. Among others, they will stay in an Iban long­house, explore the Mulu Caves and Selin­gan Turtle Island, visit the Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary and attempt to climb Mount Kina­balu.

Arrangements are underway to ship the classic cars from Britain to Kuching for the three-week tour of Sabah and Sarawak from March 12/13 to April 5.

Moving experience

Rare beauties in their own right, the six automobiles are aged from 1951 to 1978. Costing more than £350,000 (RM1.96mil), they are expected to be shipped to Malaysia in January.

They include the Bristol (1951) 402 convertible of which only 20 were ever made, the (1956) 405 Drophead – 43 were produced, of which only 30 are still on the road – and the (1959) 406 Zagato, the rarest of all with only five left worldwide.

Herdman said he drove in Argentina in 2006, in New Zealand last year and in Greece in May and June this year, but never in Asia.

He also revealed that he missed an opportunity to work in Sabah back in 1966. And when tour operator Dennis Gibbens suggested a rally in Malaysia, he decided that he would not be left out this time.

There were actually two itineraries, one for the peninsula and considered to be “safe and easy” and the other for Sabah and Sarawak, which was deemed as tough but totally memorable. Needless to say, Sabah and Sarawak were the obvious choice for Herdman and his members who loved Borneo’s mystic and exotic charms.

Herdman and his solicitor wife Hilary were so upbeat about the trip that they flew to Kota Kinabalu for a reconnaissance in March this year. Besides checking out the road conditions, they also trekked along part of the route of the Sandakan-Ranau Death March, where over 2,000 mostly Australian POWs died during the Second World War.

“It was a very moving experience,” said the 66-year-old accountant who will be driving his £75,000 (RM420,000) Bristol 405 Drop­head convertible.

Niche market

Herdman said there were only 30 405 Dropheads still on the road, with 24 in the UK, four in France and one each in the United States and Australia.

So far, he has done nearly 160,000km since he bought the car in 1999 for £25,000 (RM140,000). He spent another £25,000 to get it on the road. “We plan to drive around the world in July next year after returning from the Malaysian tour,” he said.

Gibbens spoke of an emerging niche market comprising members of British classic car owners clubs who go for overseas rallies every year. “There may be at least 20 or 30 such clubs for luxury car makers like Porche, Jaguar, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo involving thousands of members,” he noted.

He said these members usually had the money to spend and could stay for around three weeks if they could be attracted to visit Malaysia.

Tourism Malaysia director (UK & Ireland) Abdul Rauf Abu Hassan echoed similar views, saying they would target members of vintage and classic car clubs as a lucrative niche market. “These are upmarket tourists who have strong purchasing power,” he said, adding that the rally could help spur more such trips to Malaysia. But he admitted that it was a new market which had yet to be fully tapped and the club members were not just from Britain but all over the world.

Rauf hoped that the potential market and joint promotions with tour operators and airlines would help them achieve their target of 400,000 British tourists to Malaysia by the end of this year.

“So far, we’ve had almost 300,000 visitors during the first eight months of this year,” he said, an almost 19% increase over the same period last year.

He described the trend as encouraging as Malaysia had recorded an average of about 30,000 UK tourists every month since June this year.

Despite the global economic recession, it’s heartening that Malaysia can still achieve double-digit growth. It should have little difficulty hitting its 400,000 target by December.

  • E-mail this story
  • Print this story