With SEMA happening/just happened over in Las Vegas – quite possibly the greatest car show on earth for those with a penchant for tuning – anything else just seems, well, like second place. Still, it didn’t stop us from trying to at least consolidate ourselves with some kind of motor show; in this case the Duabi International Motor Show.
Naturally there was a glut of Ferraris and Bugattis (more about those in another post). There was also a section of the show devoted to automakers like Chery and JAC – cheap Asian motors that look like ugly rip-offs of European and Japanese vehicles – which we can’t be bothered to cover here. Much like they can’t be bothered to come up with their own designs. It’s far better to concentrate here on the smaller companies doing incredible things or the big companies who were getting a bit wild. The GT-86 below a prime example of the latter; a Toyota backed drifter for the Emirates Drift Team.
Jaguar’s Project 7 concept car is also exactly the type of thing we can appreciate:
What might be the speed-blur ‘car of the show’ though is the Hennessey Venom GT. Based on a Lotus Exige, they’ve shoe-horned a Viper V10 engine in the back and strapped on two massive turbos for good measure. The result: 265.7mph before it ran out of road.
Something that’s claiming more impressive stats though is the Dubai-backed Devel Sixteen. Looking pretty spectacular (think Zonda meets Batman…meets Top Gun) the producers claim it will produce 5,000bhp from the 16 cylinder engine and achieve almost 350mph. It’s a nice story at least. Dubai may have built the tallest building in the world but even with all the dollars they could throw at this, it would be a serious turnout for the books if they ever release a version capable of that… especially if they intend on it being road legal.
Another company from the Middle East is W Motors who have the cool-looking Lykan HyperSport and freshly launched SuperSport (the blue one). The HyperSport has a 750bhp 3.8-litre flat 6 Boxer engine and hits 62mph in 2.8secs apparently. Probably sounds pretty special too.
The Danes are getting in on the act too with the Zenvo ST1. It’s been around for a while, but the first time we’ve seen one of the 1100bhp hypercars in the metal…perhaps because this may have been its world debut (although we’re not sure about that). Apparently only 15 are scheduled to be made, two of which have been sold already.
Hell, even the Spanish are having a go at the hypercar market with the Spania GTA Spano – rocking an 8-litre V10 with over 900bhp and a similar number for torque – it’s a very decent looking car.
While most of these cars seem to be the stuff computer games are made of and the likelihood of seeing one on the streets seems remote at best, could it be that the UAE is the perfect place to showcase them. If anywhere has the money (and fuel to feed them) it’s the UAE…and Iit wouldn’t be a bad thing if the roads are filled with these rather than white Toyota Landcruisers, that’s for sure.
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