I figured I should go over Dubai’s heavily-hyped hybrid taxis a bit more, considering the general media is happy just reprinting press releases. Operated by the much-loved Road & Transport Authority (RTA), the cars — five Chevy Malibu Hybrids and five Chevy Tahoes Hybrids — are beginning their one-year trial to see if they survive the Middle Eastern heat and whether they actually save any fuel in this publicity stunt.
Nissan has been testing a quicker prototype version of their new GT-R sports car at the German Nurburgring racetrack. The standard GT-R is already faster than the Porsche 911 Turbo, at 7:38 minutes for one lap, and Nissan had promised to beat the exotic Carrera GT in the future. It appears Nissan has done the unthinkable. The quicker new version, called the GT-R V-Spec, has been casually timed at 7:25 minutes.
Naming a car after a natural disaster is never a good idea. It gives people like me a chance to come up with cheesy titles for articles. But I did take our recent Chevy Avalanche Z71 tester up and down the Jebel Hafeet mountain road. Considering it was a family picnic, I did not try to beat any records that I might have set with the Bentley. But it gave me the opportunity to try out some smooth driving techniques with a vehicle that has more body roll than the sinking Titanic.
So I had this Bentley Continental GT Speed at hand, and I was wondering what to do with it, besides the usual battery of tests. I’ve been in the United Arab Emirates my whole life, and I hadn’t seen that popular Jebel Hafeet road yet. I also heard that at the top of the mountain road is a flat piece of pavement, so I grabbed two buddies, threw a barbeque kit into the luggage trunk and set off to Al Ain and see this road for myself.
Back in January 28th, we were invited to try out the 2008 Honda Accord Coupe at the Dubai Autodrome, although we had to keep this quiet until the March 1 local release date of the car. We got 3 laps each with a 271 hp 3.5-litre V6 and a 190 hp 2.4-litre 4-cylinder model, both automatics since that’s the only way they’ll be sold in the GCC region. The awesome photography for our drive was provided by Honda themselves.
Yes, we were saving up for a benchmark used “hot” hatchback, but as we went around for a few months looking for a decent deal, we realised we had saved up enough for a real sports car. So we switched gears and started looking for a used sports car that could best our rocketship 1987 Toyota Supra Twin Turbo, which we have sold off. The Supra still runs like the wind, but it is in rather poor overall shape, and a pain to drive due to its modified underpinings. We estimate the Supra has 300+ hp now after mods,
I briefly wanted to get a cheap so-called “hot hatch” so I could have some fun driving around town while I saved up enough money for a true sports car (since I refuse to take a bank loan). After selling off the Supra, I didn’t want to lose touch with a manual car. The ideal temporary-replacement used car I wanted had to be small, have decent power for its weight, have a manual gearbox, and be really cheap. This pretty much removed most reliable-but-slow-and-sloppy Japanese commuter compacts from my list sadly. So what I came across in my search were four Europeans and one Japanese.
Eid Mubarak to everyone. I am sure you all will enjoy this long holiday to celebrate. Hope all those who went for Hajj come back safely. Before I disappear for the long break, let me sign off with a few interesting facts about the 2009 Nissan GT-R that you might not have heard before.
The examples in this article hasn’t aged well as 99.99% of automotive specs sheets nowadays only show net horsepower ratings, but it still makes for interesting reading, especially as there are still a couple of hold-outs advertising gross horsepower in this day and age. We led the way back then in exposing this practice.
I just got the press release for the new 2008 Chevy Avalanche, to be launched mid-October, claiming their 5.3-litre V8 to have 355 hp. I also read a review in Wheels magazine where the writer assumes the Tahoe has 355 hp, and that the Murano has 265 hp.
We were invited to the Middle East launch today of the 2008 Nissan Altima sedan and coupe at the Dubai Autodrome, and got to do three hot laps around the track.