Feature Stories

When we first read about the Nissan Juke-R, we dismissed it as a publicity stunt. Built by race engineering shop RML in the United Kingdom with the blessing of Nissan Europe as a one-off project, we figured they’d never put to use the two cars they built. But then we hear they did some track-testing in Europe. And then we hear that they were bringing the cars to Dubai to use as a pace car for the Dunlop 24-hour race in Dubai. And then we hear they’re filming a viral video as well as flying in international journalists to drive it here.

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When was the last time Rolls-Royce built a sports car? If they did, our automotive knowledge does not stretch back that far, grandpa. In more recent times, they are now building a smaller Rolls-Royce called the Ghost. Of course, “smaller” is still a subjective term, considering the Ghost is bigger than even the BMW 7-Series it is based on. But does it belong on a racetrack any more than the Phantom does?

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It’s been a while now since the new 2012 Porsche 911 was unveiled to the world a few months ago, so the changes are already obvious to all but the casual observer. Longer, wider and lower than before, it is a completely new model. And yet, when we laid eyes on it at the GCC launch event in Abu Dhabi, it looked like a facelift of the previous generation. But then again, so has every other 911 since 1963.

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The 5th DriveArabia Meet was held on Saturday, the 24th of December, at the tail-end of 2011. We kept it a low-key event at Dubai Festival City, sending direct invites to a few regulars at the last minute, while announcing the event only a couple of times publicly. Those who showed up were in for a treat, as the chief guest of this meet was the 2012 Nissan GT-R, the latest fresh-out-of-the-factory iteration of the Japanese supercar. Ironically, the largest number of people ever had showed up for our so-called low-key gathering, and we even decided to let everyone have a spin in the GT-R,

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The 2012 Toyota Camry is indeed the most anticipated midsize sedan to be launched this year. Between this, the Yaris, the Prado and the Land Cruiser, Toyota dominates a huge chunk of the GCC market. Does that make the new Toyota Camry the best family car in the market? Not by a long shot, although if you asked us, we wouldn’t be sure which one among the competition is better in every aspect.

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The Jeep Jamboree is an annual event held in various parts of the world, where Jeep owners get together and go offroad over the course of a day. The UAE edition, of course, involves a whole lot of sand, and we were one of the few media peeps invited for the 2011 run, us being actual Jeep owners notwithstanding. While the general public had to bring their own Jeeps, we were given a factory-fresh 2012 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, the one with the new “Pentastar” 3.6-litre V6. We were really looking forward to driving that one, and we were getting to do it straight where it belongs.

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The V6-powered 2011 Volkswagen Touareg we drove some time ago was an impressive SUV. With upscale gadgets, a quiet ride and a luxurious interior, it was quite possibly the best road-going 4×4 in its class. But then we drove the recently-revealed V8-powered version, a model that VW took their time to release, and that too in only a few markets, as they pondered whether there was still a market for V8 models in a world where the latest fad is to go green. Considering we kept this rather-excellent SUV for the better part of a month, we decided to see if a V8 trucklet hurts or helps Volkswagen’s “green”

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The 4th DriveArabia Meet was held on October 1st at the Dubai Outlet Mall. The “chief guest” of our small gathering was the 2012 Volkswagen Golf GTI. It was great again, as some of our regulars showed up, as well as some new faces. We had some fun doing repeated runs with the VW’s awesome automatic parallel-parking system, checking out how tight of a spot it could fit into. Some of the attendees shown up later in the night, during the free DriveArabia-sponsored dinner, so they are unfortunately not in these pictures.

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As part of our re-acquaintance with the Mercedes-Benz brand, we were invited to the UAE leg of the 2011 AMG Performance Tour, held at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. The deal was that we get to stay overnight at the fancy Yas Hotel, but before that, we were subjected to a brutal assault of the senses by a variety of Mercedes-Benz AMG models.

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Driving while sitting two inches away from a raspy high-revving engine is rather uncommon for most people. It’d mean you’re either driving a Ferrari 458 or a Toyota Hiace. But somewhere in between is the Porsche Cayman, supposedly the most balanced sports car in the world. We can now confirm that, after our stint with the Cayman R.

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