Feature Stories

Seeing Sheikh Mohammed zipping around Dubai in a Mercedes-Benz G-Class is a rolling tribute to the strength of the German manufacturer’s overengineered pre-1995 designs. The Geländewagen is the only Merc to survive the cost-cutting 1995-to-2005 era, when quality hit the crapper. Even the attempt to replace it with the characterless GL-Class flopped. It is hard to imagine that the vehicle that is a favourite with sheikh-copycats has been around since 1979.

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Mercedes-Benz launched the 2009 GLK-Class soft-roader at a 2-day all-expenses-paid press event in Oman.

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Al Habtoor Motors officially launched the 2009 versions of the Galant, the Eclipse and the Lancer Evolution X today, with a press track drive at the Dubai Autodrome.

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The 2009 Dodge Viper ACR is a lightweight track-ready version of the standard Dodge Viper, complete with adjustable suspension and a slew of aerodynamic add-ons. It is also street-legal, which makes it a fair enough competitor against the Nissan GT-R and the Corvette ZR-1 when it comes to track times at the famed Nurburgring. And the Viper ACR has beaten both of them with a time of 7 minutes 22 seconds.

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The new top-rung version of America’s favourite sports car, the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, has managed to a pull off a time of 7:26 minutes at Germany’s famed Nurburgring racetrack, driven by a GM development engineer. The ZR1 thereby beats the amazing 7:29 set by the “basic” Nissan GT-R recently (after setting 7:38 on a wet track earlier). However, the ZR1 has a tough battle ahead, as the prototype lightweight Nissan GT-R V-Spec has already been casually timed doing 7:25, while the pricey Lexus LF-A prototype has already pulled off a 7:24. Honda is already testing an NSX prototype,

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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