OUTDATED
Humble beginnings - Quezon SuperCab
In 1961, Quezon had begun taking an interest in sportscars following an encounter with a 1957 Ford Thunderbird. And so, using some leftover funds, he and a small team developed the Quezon Motor Company’s first car.
The Quezon SuperCab is a 2-door, 2-seat roadster built by the Quezon-Sarao Automotive Plant from 1962 to 1966. Powered by a 1-litre diesel inline 4 which made roughly 40 horsepower, it wasn’t the fastest thing in the world, but it certainly had enough to get it going decent speed. The small little diesel 4 was mated to a 4-on-the-floor manual, and could send the 800kg car from 0-100 km/h in roughly 25 seconds.
It didn’t handle like a typical sportscar, either. Being built upon a jeepney chassis, it handled… like a jeepney? It’s steering was rather heavy due to a lack of power steering. Combine this with a rear solid axle leaf suspension and rather useless brakes also from a jeepney, and you have something that was rather unique and fun to drive.
The interior was rather basic, only having 2 seats, no tachometer, a fuel gauge, an oil temperature gauge, a speedometer, some simple wood lining and an AM/FM radio to top it all off. At least there’s fewer stuff that might break…
Being based off a jeepney, however, gave it multiple perks. Most notably reliability. Since they shared a lot in common with regular passenger jeepneys; steering, chassis, suspension, and engine components, parts were cheap and easy to get, and if something broke you could simply ask your pare or that manong over there if they have any spares lying around.
178 cars were built during its rather short production span. It is unknown how much they were sold for, but estimates say that each car was worth at least ₱4500 in 1962. (Roughly ₱500,000 or $9000 adjusted for inflation.)
Numerous cars were imported overseas by collectors, and it is estimated that at least 150 cars are still running today, a testament of the SuperCab’s reliability. During the 1964 World’s Fair, two SuperCabs were exhibited at the Philippine Pavillon.