Contestants Begin Confinement in Ford Extreme
It was like the atmosphere at the launch of an Apollo launch to the moon – four humans getting into a cubicle which would serve as ‘home’ for x number of days. Only this time, it wasn’t a space capsule going to the moon but a Ford Ranger Extreme and they weren’t leaving the planet but sitting in the pick-up parked outside Sg Wang Plaza in Kuala Lumpur.
The four – two women and two men (how’s that for equality?) – were the contestants in the ‘Ford – Live in It to Win It’ competition being run by radio station Hitz.fm. The objective is to remain in the vehicle for as long as possible and the person who can out-stay the other three gets to become the owner of the vehicle sponsored by Ford Malaysia.
Think it’s no big deal sitting in a double cab? Well, consider this: no bathing, no reading materials or gameboys, no net-surfing, no phones and you can only change your clothes and brush your teeth once every two days! What’s worse is you have to remain seated all the time. However, positions will be changed from time to time so housewife Mary Biniol won’t be stuck in the restrictive driver’s seat position which she started off in.
For health reasons, they will be allowed out every three hours for 15 minutes to stretch, phone friends, and do ‘personal business’. A doctor will also be on standby in case anyone gets sick. Three ‘balanced’ meals will be provided daily but no snacks in between. They had better be careful about how much they eat
The black Extreme is presently parked outside the Sg Wang entrance on the Jalan Sultan Ismail side and is likely to cause traffic jams as passing motorists slow down to take a look. The contestants are allowed to chat with passersby and will be on-air periodically. A webcam mounted on the dashboard will also monitor what they are up to and the images can be seen on the hitz.fm website.
The test of endurance officially began at 8:45 am today and at this time, it is hard to say who will be the ‘survivor’. Similar contests in other countries have gone on for weeks. According to a Hitz.fm source, if the event stretches on for too long, then some ‘strategies’ will be formulated to ‘break’ the participants. For sure, the DJs are going to torment them during the live interviews!
AUTOWORLD.COM.MY will keep you informed of the progress of the event and hopefully, the second last occupant does not give up at some crazy hour like 3 am!
