We are Quezon Motors.
History
Quezon Motors was founded in the former capital of the Philippines in 1959 as a jeepney manufacturing plant for Sarao Motors by Mr. Ricardo Alfonso Quezon, a former PAAC and later USAF engineer who had served in the Second World War and had more than enough technical expertise to run such a business. Beginning as a small assembly shop in the middle of Quezon City, they built up expertise on assembly of automobiles before building their first sports car, the hand-built SuperCab, and eventually moved into the realm of mass production with the Laguna in 1966, and the Cordova in 1970.
Quezon’s history in motorsports initially started out with a race-oriented version of their first car, having entered into amateur SCCA races in the mid 60s with relative success, before moving onto the Trans-American series in the late 60s with the Laguna. This motorsports frenzy grew from entering small international races, to being a dominating constructor in the Formula Pacific series, and gaining fame from other prestigious racing events.
With their racing prowess improving in the late 60s to early 70s, they’d eventually develop their first road-going engine in 1972. This first engine would prove to be vital to Quezon’s success in the later part of the 70s and early 80s. An advanced Single Overhead Cam engine design that would only be developed further and better as the years went on.
With successes in both motorsports and in the mass market, it seemed that Quezon was headed down a great path. It was almost as if nothing would be stopping this machine.
Until we enter the 80s. With Mr. Ricardo Quezon’s health being in decline, the one man who had been the mastermind behind every big business decision for the small company, unfortunately had to step down as Quezon’s CEO, and replacing him would be someone who isn’t exactly the best with such things.
Mr. Felipe Quezon has been appointed CEO of Quezon Motors in 1979. While Mr. Ricardo liked to take his time to let things develop before finally adapting them into the mass market, Felipe had other plans. He wanted to see innovation as soon as possible, even if it would mean taking massive risks. Those risks would have eventually led to the company’s downfall in the late 1980s.
In the late 70s, Quezon had a rather strong partnership with General Motors, after all the American giant had been responsible for providing Quezon with engines and technology in the early days, and without having given the license to build GM engines in the mid 70s for both companies, who knows if Quezon would’ve gotten through?
Thanks to this strong partnership, however is where the problems would arise. Felipe didn’t exactly have the technical knowledge that his father had and was easily coaxed into deals, and so when Quezon was offered to use the Iron Duke engine and develop special variants for themselves, he was persuaded and given possibly one of the worst engines ever made.
Not really knowing of the Iron Duke’s lackluster potential, he ordered that this “new” engine be turbocharged to test its capability, and he gave the engineers what was essentially an impossible deadline. To make a long story short, as the 80s rolled in Quezon had now in a rush developed an engine that was not only abysmally lacking in power, but also couldn’t exactly last long, essentially tarnishing the company’s reputation.
Over in their motorsports division, funding had been lowered in order to meet Quezon’s other needs, such as rising debt due to said increased development of roadcars, and Felipe’s lack of genuine interest in racing. It wouldn’t be too long before it would cease operations in 1985, and would eventually be taken over by Japanese company Suisei Heavy Industries and merged into their own racing division.
In 1988, having fallen into a lot of debt and unable to sell anymore cars, combined with accusations of protecting the Marcos Family and with Felipe Quezon being arrested for smuggling of Shabu, it wouldn’t be long until Quezon would close its doors.
However in the mid 90s, talks were being made of the Quezon name being bought by a Chinese company to turn into a subsidiary, but this never really came to fruition.
Later in the late 90s however, the late Mr. Ricardo Quezon’s grandson was hatching up a plan. He wanted to re-establish Quezon as a newluxury car nameplate.
In the second half of 2000, development work would begin, and within a year the new car would be ready for release to the public. The SR-2 released in 2001 and sold enough cars to make it eligible for WRC homologation in 2006, and allowed the roadster to be fairly competitive in the Championship. This risky business decision helped Quezon acquire enough funding to continue development on their second car, where their mass production had kicked off with the Cordova.
Their motorsports division would be reborn again following the Cordova’s entry into the LM-GTE class at the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans and the American Le Mans Series in 2010.
In 2010, following financial troubles due to the financial crisis, the Chinese state-backed holding company Long March Holdings would purchase a 70% stake in Quezon. Despite this, Long March still allowed the company to operate almost independently.
Thanks to funding from its new parent company, Quezon was able to expand more and allow more innovations to enter their cars, and the goal of making Quezon an luxury car marque was acheived.
Lineup (2021)
Assembly & Manufacturing Locations
Current facilities:
Philippines:
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QC Plant - Novaliches District, Quezon City, Metro Manila.
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Craftsman Assembly Hall - Pandacan, City of Manila, Metro Manila.
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Quezon Santa Rosa Plant - Santa Rosa, Laguna.
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Exotics Manufacturing - Cebu City, Cebu.
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CDO Auto Plant - City of Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao.
Austria:
- Magna Steyr - Graz.
China:
- Shanghai Quezon Manufacturing Co. - Pudong, Shanghai.
Malaysia:
- Quezon of Malaysia Inc. - Pekan, Penang.
North America:
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Quezon West Coast Assembly Plant - East Oakland, Oakland, California.
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Quezon of America Manufacturing Plant - Detroit, Michigan.
