Enthusiasm For Cars By Dr. Steven Wong

The strangeness of current times, with Covid-related issues still making day-to-day life challenging for many, has likely prompted me to enjoy even more the quality and unique time spent in a performance car. It has also become my way to cope with all the stress life brings to me. Just stay focused, press the clutch in, downshift to the lower gear, blip the throttle to bring the engine rpm up, and lift off the clutch pedal. Just a few simple steps and all stress in life is gone, at least at that moment.

With the DB9 taking over from the DB7, Aston Martin took the Vantage name and built a back to basics two-seater V8 sports car with it. It was pretty, small, powerful, and debuted in 2005 to set the benchmark for the current Vantage model. This V8 is a 4.3-liter lump with, unlike the standard, a six-speed manual transmission.

The Car Community

When you meet someone who spends just as much time browsing for car parts as you for a used Aston, you tend to get along. Some of my best friends are petrolheads and can do generous things like helping you fix your flat battery or letting you abuse the clutch in their car so you can learn to drive a car with a manual gearbox. So it is not simply owning a car, but a big happy family. Before the pandemic became really bad in Hong Kong, we were still allowed to come together to enjoy the precious moments which were all about cars.

With all the cars revved up, we made our way through the city tra$c and headed into the beautiful countryside of Clearwater Bay to join the CWB Classic Car Show 2021. Organized by Classic Car Club of Hong Kong, and hosted by Clearwater Bay Golf and Country Club, the occasion featured a display of over 100 supercars and rare collector vehicles.

By lunchtime almost everyone had arrived, so a grand display of 130 classic cars lined the golf field with the clear water and islands in the background.

For one second I did not realize I was in Clearwater Bay because there were huge numbers of classic cars from all over the world and produced in different years, making it like an international car show. As an iconic part of the long history of the British marque, we could see cars produced by Aston Martin, Jaguar, Lotus, Morgan, MG, and Mini. There were also German automobiles from BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche, which are the favorite of many people in Hong Kong.

With picnic tables laid out, offering the varied delights of good picnic food we were all pleased to be there and delighted to be free once again to catch up with friends. It was really good to have social contact again. The day was absolutely beautiful with blue skies and warm sun.