At the weekend MunMaak organised a Sunday drive from Bangkok to the seaside resort of Pattaya before retracing the route after a Brazilian lunch, although this hardly fits the usual sense of the words "Sunday drive": this group of high-performance sports cars enthusiasts' aren't noted for dawdling around out on the highway, or anywhere else for that matter. The Super MunMaak Rally was scheduled to get underway at the Mod Daeng restaurant on Srinakarin Road around mid-morning before taking the curving expressway route to the "party town" of Pattaya which is just over 100 kilometres to the south east. An array of exotic and brightly-coloured sports cars started rolling into the spacious car park tucked in behind the Mod Daeng (Red Ant) restaurant soon after 9:00 AM, grunting their way down the access road in dribs-and-drabs past the scattered colony of larger-than-life fake red-painted ants which match the eatery's theme. Highlight of the the morning's line-up of cars was a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster 722 S, recently arrived in Bangkok, its burbling revs and space-dominating dimensions, as well as its rarity value, instantly setting it apart. This recent version of the Mercedes-McLaren sports car "family" hit the showrooms early last year and offered all round upgrades to the Anglo-German car's dynamic characteristics. Shining in the morning sunshine in traditional Mercedes-Benz silver-gray and featuring bright red "722 S" logos on the flanks (the "722" comes from the racing number Sir Stirling Moss carried during his epic victory in the 1955 edition of the legendary Mille Miglia), the monstrous sports car has a visual presence like few others. Huge raked slats are sliced deeply into the front wing behind the wheel arches with even more aggressive vents featuring towards the top of the enormous bonnet while the front nose swooped downwards and outwards into chunky sections of aerodynamic-looking spoilers while the side-exit exhaust pipes are cut through the sills aft of the raked A-pillars. The bonnet slides forward and hinges upwards, its F1-style "nose" drooping downwards to reveal an equally-massive engine bay stuffed with a 6.5-litre V12 AMG-developed engine bathed in a sea of shining chrome and purposeful dark metal finishes as well as eye-catching red detailing on the top of the engine, alloy "SLR" logos polished into the cam covers and swages of carbon-fibre finishing clustered round the edges. This brute of a powerplant shifts this particular sports car, one member of a limited-edition run of 150 units, from 0-100 km/h in 3.7 seconds, while top speed kicks in at 335 km/h. The car sits on moody gunmetal-finished alloy wheels shod with 255/35 ZR 19 Michelin tyres with lurid-red brake calipers lurking behind the wheel's multi-spokes. Also of particular note in the car park was a brand-new silver Maserati GranTurismo (bearing red plates that denote a car registered here for a matter of weeks) which was hunkered down next to its also-Pininfarina-designed predecessor, the exceptionally pretty 1990s Coupé, featuring "Boomerang" rear lights. The Maserati's stylish Pininfarina-penned curves are in the tradition of true Italian beauty in stark contrast to the aggressive, sharp purpose of the big German sports car. A black Audi R8 was lined up side-by-side with an equally dark-hued Lamborghini Gallardo offering an excellent snapshot at the similarity shared by these two sister machines: the Audi is spawned straight off the underpinnings and mechanicals of its Sant'Agata Bolognese-built VW Group-stable mate. Porsches were plentiful in the car park, including the 911 Turbo and Cayman, as well as a Boxster in flat-black with full body-length flat-green strips, while Maranello's famous "rossa corsa" was on show courtesy of a standard 360 Modena and a highly customised F430 Coupé with red rimmed alloy wheels and full-length over bonnet body stripes. Also numerical in the Mod Daeng car park was Lotus' pretty little Elise lining up to roar off in a variety of colours. Other high performance cars basking under the beating sun that morning included a menacing jet-black kitted-up BMW M6, an eye-catching canary-yellow Honda NSX, with just-as-distinctive pale-gray headlight backing plates, as well as even more over body stripes courtesy of a big and brutish red Ford GT. After a jocular "informal" driver briefing and with morning coffee washed down the crews were quickly off, two dozen or so throats raucously cleared and muscular "legs" stretched before the machines were swallowed up in the grinding mediocrity of Bangkok's late Sunday morning buzzing traffic.
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