[drivebyfire]

I had been to Singapore in Dec'14 and it was a unique experience. The sheer number of exotics was mind-boggling. The rules of car ownership are so out of the ordinary and yet the number of super-cars on the roads is so ironical.

Talked to a lot of people there about their car culture and Singapore in general and I made some of my own conclusions. But we need to look at things from a wider angle.

Registration fee for the car is 100% of cost, getting the Entitlement to own a car was at 80000 S$ and could go up to 100000 S$.
Just these two facts pushed the cost of buying a simple Honda upto S$150000 which is crazy.
Add to this that you either scrap the vehicle after 10 years or renew entitlement/registration by paying extra money.

But given all this - Singapore has the highest percentage of millionaires in the world and I think the 3rd highest in terms of personal individual income (don't quote me on second fact, first one I am sure of).

And on top of this I personally felt that Singapore was more like a Pseudo Right Wing Financial Democracy rather than a true democracy. Same Government since last 33 year has been in power, lock down but reasonable rules regarding daily life and freedom of expression, crazy penalties for simple offenses and an absolute crime monitoring system. When you take these facts into consideration then I can sort of understand why Singapore has the car policies that it has.

And believe it or not this has spawned a unique car culture in Singapore. You are not allowed to modify your engines any which way, anything which affects power is not allowed, no remaps, no turbo swaps, no engine swaps and no exhaust mods.

But you can do intake mods. And go wild with external customizations, wheels, paint, lights, body kits you name it and its there. I saw so many super dope looking alloys - and matte paint with pearlescent effect looked killer in the night lights. Given all the rules, people have money to pay and the will to own. And that makes Singapore so unique.

Following are a few of my pics:





Notice the paint:

[Fullrevs]

Some more from recent trips

[S.MJet]

Here are few from my visit last year.

[aditbelw]

Old picture found in my archive