The Yas Marina Circuit will be the location for what is being billed the first inspection centre for modified vehicles in the UAE, as it was officially launched in a signing ceremony held yesterday.
If you’re a regular reader, you may have caught our Ferrari 488 GTB reviews which, if you read between the lines, would realise that it is probably the best supercar today, barring those ultra-expensive limited-production hypercars. However, we never drove it on a racetrack before, which is exactly why we decided to attend Ferrari’s Passione Rosso customer event at Yas Marina Circuit last weekend, which had a little corner reserved just for us media people.
Porsche has finally done it. With the need to increase performance while also improving fuel economy numbers in line with upcoming worldwide legislations, Porsche has taken the turbocharged route with their new Boxster and 911 models. We got a chance to drive these two models at an event in Abu Dhabi recently.
When the first generation Audi R8 was launched in 2007, it caused quite a stir with its supercar looks, while combining it with daily drivability and good performance. For Audi, it likely wasn’t easy coming up with a new one. After almost a decade, the German luxury automaker has launched the new-generation R8. Still keeping the somewhat-similar exterior look with more edgier styling, the latest R8 is actually all-new from the ground up. Sadly, the V8 engine is gone, which we rather enjoyed in the previous model. However, the brilliant V10 is still there, which we had a go with on the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.
The Cadillac CTS-V has been around for about a decade, but GM never quite figured out whether it was a compact or a midsize, and by their own chief engineer Tony Roma’s admission, couldn’t hack it as a rival to either the BMW M3 or the BMW M5, given its compromises to straddle the line. But things are much more focused this time around, with the latest CTS-V growing into a proper midsizer, leaving the compact super-sedan market to the ATS-V, which comes as a coupe too. We drove the company’s little new bruisers at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi this week.
It almost feels like Dodge is exclusively a muscle-car brand. Sure, they also peddle the excellent Durango currently, but at the moment, their brand seems to be defined by the Charger and the Challenger, with a bit of Viper thrown in as well. Muscle-cars are known to only be straight-line warriors, so Dodge saw it fit to let us try out their latest Challengers and Chargers at the Yas Marina circuit no less.
Mercedes-Benz make some very nice luxury cars. In fact, we really liked the new S-Class and the newer C-Class when we briefly drove them around town a few months ago. Mercedes-AMG make some very fast cars. In fact, they make those fast cars simply by upgrading their luxury cars with bigger engines and stiffer suspension. They go very fast in a straight line. But when you reach a corner, one of two things happen at the limit — if ESP is on, you are made to slow down and understeer forcefully, but if you turn off the ESP nannies,
Jaguar is one of the few brands that often sets up track days for potential as well as existing customers, to show a side of their cars that wouldn’t be apparent in a regular test-drive. Their latest event was held at the Yas Marina circuit a couple of months ago, and the media was invited to have a go at their range of cars as well.
Al-Futtaim Motors, the UAE’s Toyota dealer, officially introduced Toyota Racing Development (TRD) packages for the 2015 Aurion, Corolla, Yaris sedan, Yaris hatchback and the 86.
Maserati, the brand better known as playing second-fiddle to Ferrari, is adamant to prove that it is anything but. The Italian carmaker has its own racing heritage, and therefore they currently runs their own racing series, the Maserati Trofeo MC World Series, whose final was held at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi last December. During that event, we even got to hit the track in between races, with a street-legal Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale, the car on which the racing series is built.