Reminiscing about one more SMD in Hong Kong

Sat in the pleasant warmth of our living room, peering out into the cold and wet winter, the thought of heavily salted roads is rather depressing. If you like me have a profound fear of decaying metalwork, this can – as a classic car enthusiast – be a rather gloomy season. My thoughts drift to better and happier places…

I fairly recently spent just short of four years of my life living in Hong Kong – only moving back to Europe during the summer of 2015. From the perspective of being a classic car owner and driver, I must say that Europe is on the whole a better place to be. More space, more open roads, more classic cars, more car clubs, more events & meets. However, the weather in Hong Kong gave us enthusiasts the opportunity to enjoy our classics out on the roads all year round. Phwoooaar… I must confess that I sorely miss it at this very moment!

My weapon of choice for a Hong Kong SMD: 1977 Toyota Sprinter Trueno 1600GT with its fabulous 1.6-litre 2T-G twincam, 5-speed manual and a factory LSD. Far from the fastest around the block, not the most exotic or valuable either – but it made all the right sounds and had real character. Β Picture courtesy of Ben Molloy.

I dug into those old pictures from our many Sunday Morning Drives – or SMD’s as they were known among the Hong Kong enthusiasts. Often they would be arranged through the Classic Car Club of Hong Kong, while other drives were more informal and impromptu affairs set up between a group of likeminded friends. We would meet up early on a Sunday morning – before the traffic got too dense – and head out in convoy to enjoy the best driving roads Hong Kong had to offer – more often than not, up in the northern New Territories. The many switchback hairpins of Route Twisk was my own personal favourite. It could be a bit heavily populated with bikers thinking they were the next Valentino Rossi, but get there really early and you could beat them to it, and get a good clear run up one side of Tai Mo Shan Mountain and down the other. Also following Ting Kok Road along the coast of Plover Cove and then along the many flowing bends of Brides Pool Road through Plover Cove Country Park in the very northeastern corner of Hong Kong was another great run. Sitting down with friends afterwards on the coast at Luk Keng outside the simple shed of Fat Kei Store with your mates for a bite of breakfast and a cup of coffee, while listening to our classics ticking as they cooled again was just pure magic. Others preferred going down to Big Wave Beach at Shek O on the south of the Island, but while the roads are narrow and twisty and the landscape stunning – especially if you chose the route leading over the old Tai Tam Reservoir Dam – I always found the traffic much too congested. Still, it offered up an alternative to the northerly Sunday Morning Drives, and granted, if you’re into your supercars, this was the place to go on any given Sunday, as the parking lot would fill with Ferraris, Lamborghinis, McLarens and other exotica.

I miss the sun, blue skies and dry roads. I’m sure you do to! So I figured I’d share my sentimental reminiscing with you…