Galadari Automobiles celebrated Sharjah Heritage Days with its ‘Sharjah in Our Hearts’ drive, which saw a convoy of Mazda cars driven by regional media, take on a tour of some of the emirate’s historic and cultural sights, followed by the opening of their newest showroom in the emirate.
Nissan has set the Guiness World Records title for the fastest ever drift. The record was broken with a speed of 304.96 kph and 30-degrees angle using a specially-tuned Nissan GT-R. Masato Kawabata, the Japanese drift champion and title holder for the Japanese drifting series, clinched the top spot from former record holder Jakub Przygoński of Poland. The record was set during a special event that took place at Fujairah International Airport, UAE.
The 2016 Middle East Car Of the Year (MECOTY) awards ceremony was held last week with the results being announced during the reborn 2016 Abu Dhabi Motor Show and Custom Show Emirates that are running concurrently in Abu Dhabi. The final winners were decided by totalling the scores of a jury panel from 12 different publications around the Middle East, including DriveArabia.com’s tiny contribution. Individual awards were given to cars according to their categories, with the main 2016 Middle East Car Of The Year award going to the Volvo XC90, and the winner by public voting being the Audi Q7.
The prototype of the hot Civic hatchback is being showcased in the 2016 New York Auto Show following its preview at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show. The hatchback is the third body-style of the 10th-generation Honda Civic, after the sedan and the coupe. While nothing is confirmed for other markets, the fact that a hatchback model is finally being offered in the U.S. and Europe may mean that it could come to the GCC as well, as some sort of worldwide model. A Type-R version of this has already been spotted testing. We can always hope.
As the industry focuses more on electric vehicles, Toyota, makers of the most famous hybrid vehicle ever, gave it their first shot with the Prius Plug-in Hybrid based on the last-gen Prius. Now there is a new plug-in hybrid model based on the all-new Prius, the latter being a regular hybrid that doesn’t plug into a wall socket. Dubbed the Toyota Prius Prime, Toyota says that it was designed based heavily on customer feedback.
The Mazda MX-5 roadster is a hot favourite among sports car enthusiasts, loved for its good looks, nimble handling and a high-revving engine. A new variant of this little car was showcased at the 2016 New York Motor Show. Mazda has named it the MX-5 RF, where RF stands for “Retractable Fastback”.
The Toyota Prius is finally in the GCC! Frankly speaking, no matter how much hate the Prius gets, we’ve always been fascinated by it, since it came to define the hybrid car.
It’s been possibly a year since I’ve personally driven my own Honda S2000. My brother, sub-editor Marouf, gets to enjoy it more as a runabout on occassion, keeping the mechanicals greased. It’s the cost of being busy building a business and owning three other more practical child-friendly cars and having a string of test cars that we have to drive as part of our jobs. But the other day, I finally found time to go for a round. Damn, I had forgotten how this thing drives.
A decade has passed since the Nissan GT-R started taunting the supercar giants with its impressive pace and electronic wizardry. Nissan is now debuting a refreshed 2017 version of this mega-machine at the 2016 New York Auto Show.
The 2016 New York Auto Show is playing host to the world debut of the all-new 2017 Kia Cadenza. The new model improves on its predecessor with a nicer cabin, better connectivity and driver assistance tech, a stronger body structure, and powertrain enhancements for a “more premium experience” behind the wheel.