Surbana Jurong Campus, Singapore – “Anything worth doing is worth doing well.”
And that’s exactly why we spent most of the Chinese New Year holiday period putting together our annual “Cars of the Year – Singapore-Style” feature for you to usher in the Year of the Rabbit!
We’re probably one of the few – if not the only automotive title in Singapore – to continue to pull together a group shoot of some of the most evocative cars to be launched in the preceding year.
Some of you may think it looks easy because we don’t go around agitating and creating random white noise.
However, trust us when we tell you our nonchalance comes from competence, especially when it comes to arranging the special locations and even more special cars.
Don’t believe us? Give it a shot and check back with us again next year!
We may have been doing this for well over a decade, but the satisfaction (and relief) that washes over you after the stories (and print issue) have been put to bed is nothing short of euphoric.
It would be a lot easier to aggregate reviews over the course of the year, but we like to challenge ourselves (and our itinerant photographer!).
So there isn’t just the big shebang of a group shot, but each of the Cars of the Year (eight this year) has a fresh shoot session and story to emphasise why it’s special/quirky/notable enough to qualify.
If “Who won?” is still on your lips, please jump straight to the feature intro to read about TopGear Singapore’s special flavour of Cars of the Year… and why there’s that big ‘s’ in Cars.
In a nutshell, if it’s in, it’s in and if it’s not, you’re out. Simple enough, eh?
It may surprise you to learn that qualifying for our “Cars of the Year – Singapore-Style” isn’t just determined by price, performance or positioning, but there must be a certain panache and penchant for fun to show it doesn’t take itself too seriously.
The other complication we face every year isn’t just about getting a big enough space for the 8 or 10 cars we might have in any given year, but about having the right space to accommodate the cars.
What does ‘right’ mean? Well, over the course of the past decade-plus, we’ve made it a point to find a location that has some significance to Singapore, be it in terms of cultural, historical or sustainable (like this year’s Surbana Jurong Campus!) relating to the past, the present or the future.
It’s great to be able to put the ‘Singapore’ in TopGear Singapore and we can’t think of a better way than this of showing a little more of our island-state to the world.
Wishing you a healthy, prosperous and bountiful Year of the Rabbit!
David Khoo
Keyword: Hop, Skip & Jump into 2023 : Editor's Note #128