Cars I saw in the past 2 weeks

The folks in Abu Dhabi are crazy about their cars. Normal ones, fast ones, luxurious ones, and exotic ones. Just for fun, here's a listing of some that I’ve seen recently.

Aston Martin twins – one grey, one black, parked side by side at the hotel. Sleek and fast while just standing still.

Lamborghini – I saw one pull onto the highway with driver texting, head down, with very sedate behavior that you know could just explode down the highway in an instant. On the way to Dubai last week I had one zoom past at probably 200 kph.

Bugatti – Bugatti makes one of the fastest and most powerful cars in the world - the Veyron -  and I have seen one of them here many months ago (below). Last week I was on the highway to Dubai – 8 lanes and busy. The left lane is for serious fast, and I was passing several cars, at the speed limit, when I saw a car behind me flashing its bright lights.  I got over into the next-to-fastest lane just in time for a big, blazing red Bugatti sedan to pass by – sounded like a race car at full throttle, and he was going at least 120 mph. Below - Veyron; this thing is only about 4 feet high with 1000 HP!

Brand new red Corvette – I was out walking with a friend and saw, heard, and felt this Corvette racing past us down a long brick driveway at full throttle. The sound was magnificent, but it must’ve been a very bumpy ride!!

Audi R8 – mid-engined Tony Stark model - windows tinted so dark couldn’t see the driver even in bright daylight. Terribly expensive machine. Below, a lesser Audi, but still worth 10 of most other cars, parked on the street at work.

Maserati – the lower end of the luxury performance car market, granted, but still it is a beautifully styled machine, and there’s something cool about the trident emblem

Ferrari – just beautiful shape, sound, and red! It is just surreal to see one of these parked in the garage right next to my Toyota rental! The one below you can actually rent from Ferrari World to drive it for 15 minutes. You must have one of their drivers with you. This is a pretty simple model - not one of the exotics that will take your breath away when it goes by - but still impressive.

Rolls Royce – gold with silver trim. One of the largest passenger cars I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen 4 of them this week including a pearl white 4-door with a 3-digit license plate – the lower the number, the higher the status here! Here is a classic Rolls just out in the parking lot with all the other cars.

Original Mini Cooper – one of the tiniest cars ever – this one in mint condition in Abu Dhabi. Somebody paid a fortune to restore this little gem!

Red Jaguar – after riding around the Formula 1 track on a great bicycle, I came across a fellow loading his bike onto a rack installed on his Jag! Having never seen such an unlikely thing before, and it being a new and absolutely gorgeous Jaguar, I just had to get a picture!! 

Red Bull Formula 1 race car – one of the fastest cars ever. After 6 months living literally across the street from the Yas Marina Formula 1 track, yesterday saw and heard the real thing for the first time. 

I’ve seen hundreds of cars on this track, from street cars for the “bring your own wheels” night, to team training events by Mercedes, Porsche, etc., to an actual circuit race with Ferrari racers. But this thing screams – literally. The sound was incredible, and I suspect this driver wasn’t even pushing hard. Just a sole car on the track for training, practice, or fine-tuning. I got lucky and actually got a shot of it going by at maybe 100 mph (above).  The image below is from their website just to give you a good look at this insane machine.

Click on this link to see a little video I shot the other night - a Formula 1 car doing wet track testing. The braking power of this car as it comes into a hairpin turn is insanely powerful!

 

Of course, there are dozens of Mercedes, BMWs, Audis, Porsches, Mustangs, Camaros, and Challengers, and other very cool cars. There's nothing like seeing a $150,000 Porscshe wedged into a parking space in the same row as my rental car, or a $200,000 Audi double parked on a narrow company street, with cars already parked on both sides, and it stays there all day. Crazy.

And hundreds of Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan (including the giant Patrol SUV – there must’ve been a giveaway one weekend cause they’re everywhere!), Mitsubishi, VW, Kia, and other “normal” cars. The taxis are almost all Toyota Camry, because it is a good size and very reliable.

I can’t talk about cars without a mention of parking. Parking here is insane. Lots are design with chaos in mind, lots of lines and arrows and lanes and DO NOT PARK HERE markings. These are all ignored in favor of helter skelter, first come takes the first spot whether it is actually a parking space or not. There are large generous paved medians, but the folks here didn’t learn what the Saudis did, to make all the curbs 12-15 inches tall so people can’t drive over them. Here the medians become additional parking spaces. Lots of cars get blocked in every day.  

And the lots are full of abandoned vehicles.  There is a brand-new yellow Camaro that has been parked in the main lot at my work since I arrived, unmoved, with an inch of dust on it. Nobody knows why – just parked there one day and left.  Some cars were left while owners take a long trip abroad, but they do get recovered. Others have vague stories of drivers who lost their jobs, or for other reasons left and went home, parked the car, locked it, and walked away.  Abu Dhabi has been cracking down on this and impounding these vehicles. I wish they’d make it out to my lot – I think we counted 40 of these and parking would be a lot easier if those were removed!

Hopefully this was a light, fun read just to share some of what I see around here every day. More soon! Mark

#AbuDhabi, #cars