Well The Danger On The Rocks Is Surely Past
It's been a reasonably interesting week since my last post, but the most important part of it was meeting my son in Disneyworld for two days of extra vacation. I haven't been home now for fifteen days and I'm looking forward to it.
Some of the content that I'll be coming up with as a result of the trip:
Road tests of the Peugeot 508 GT, Renault Megane RS265, Nissan Silvia S15, Citroen DS5, and Citroen DS4, to appear in R&T and TheTruthAboutCars
A complete writeup on the Malaysian motorsports scene, to appear in an upcoming issue of R&T
A series of detailed pieces about the business case for French cars in the United States, based on my experiences with the Asian importers for those vehicles
A companion piece for LiveLifeDrive in Malasyia
and a few items for this site, on things that wouldn't be terribly popular in or terribly appropriate for automotive publications (yes, I'm talking about women and drama here, mais bien sur)
Rental review of the 2013 Ford Focus SE
So look for all of that. I'd like to close by thanking three people in particular. Bobby Ang, the founder of Wheels Weekly, actively recruited me to start writing for Malaysian auto enthusiasts a few years ago and he has proven to be the most dependable, trustworthy, and capable of friends. He masterminded this trip and I owe my experience to him. Mohamed Azman agreed to let me drive his car at Sepang, which was a simply insane thing to do in a country where a Proton is as difficult to acquire as a 550i is in the United States. He took two days off from work to babysit me around Selangor and he opened my eyes to the scene in Malaysia from a priceless local perspective. I'm grateful to him in ways I can't really put on paper. Here the three of us are after the podium ceremony:
Nicholas Gomez, an executive for the Naza Group in Malaysia, went above and beyond to look after me while I was in the country. He provided me with a Peugeot 508 GT wagon to use as my personal car, regaled me with important and informative stories about the region, and picked up a couple of pretty outrageous tabs out of his own pocket. He also inadvertently introduced me to a young lady with whom I'll be creating an album, a child, or some combination of the two, just as soon as she has the good sense to leave her tropical paradise and move to central Ohio. Most of the places Mr. Gomez and I went to together don't allow pictures but here we are doing important corporate stuff:
He's the handsome bastard on the left, and before the ladies ask, I believe he's currently single.
These three men combined to make my experience in Southeast Asia a singular and memorable one. It's humbling to have people of this caliber put their faith in me. I'll do my best to convey my experiences to all of you in a manner than repays that faith.