Motoring Middle East: Car news, Reviews and Buying guides

What actually is going to happen between 19^th November and 6^th December – now there’s a question! And we’re the ones to try and answer it for you

By Shahzad Sheikh

[27 Nov 2014 – UPDATE UPDATE – Full Schedule!!!]

Full lineup of activities and timetable!

2:00pm Motor Village Opens 

2:00pm Remote Control Car Drift Competition

3:00pm Event Opening Ceremony – Dance Group and Ayala Dancers

Virgin Radio Celebrity Kris Fade joins Dr. Mohammed Ben Sulayem for the official Parade flags off

3:05pm Dubai Grand Parade sets off to tour iconic landmarks in Dubai

3:30-6:00pm Live Talks:

• – Creators of the Dubai Roadster: Dr Mostafa Aldah and Rashid M. Al Shaali
• – Women within motoring in the UAE – Nahla Abdul Aziz Al Rostamani
• – Concept of the Gumball 3000 – Maximillion Cooper
• – Top 5 car maintenance Tips – Waleed Mohammad Al Lahham, AutoPro
• – Road Safety – Kursheed Khan, Roads and Transport Authority
• – Dubizzle Quiz – Nisreen Bashnak and Osman Brugi, Dubizzle

4:00pm Urban Street Dancers

4:00pm Stunt Bike Performance by Shadi Al Daheri

4:20pm Stunt Bike Performance by Hollandi

4:30pm Live Entertainment in the Chill Out Zone

5:00pm Dubai Grand Parade Convoy arrives back to the Motor Village

6:00pm Viewing of the Parades Cars – Join Parade Drivers to celebrate their achievement

6:30pm Live Entertainment in the Chill Out Zone

7:10pm Urban Street Dancers

7:30pm Inspired Light by Infiniti QX70S’

8:00pm Event Closing Ceremony – Fireworks 

8:00-10:00pm Redbull Car Park Drift Grand Finals

2-8pm Activities

Nissan

• 4×4 track: Patrol Test Drive Experience
• UEFA Football challenge
• GT-R Hero Car on GTA Pods

Gaming Zone “Experience Turn 10 Studios and Microsoft Studios’ Forza Horizon 2 on Xbox Discover

Ubisoft’s The Crew, a revolutionary action-driving game developed exclusively for next-gen
consoles”

Simulator F1 Driver Experience

Dubizzle “Dubizzle’s in house artist creates a live art on a MINI, F1 Driver Reaction Game Challenge, Live
Pop Bang Art with Ian CookChill and Recharge lounge, Live CarAoke Experience”

Bikers Corner Oldtimer, Triumph, BMW, Ducati, Suzuki, Goodwill Journey

Autopro Simulator Driving Experience chance to win a Corvette StingRay

AGMC Presents: BMW i8, BMW 760Li and BMW M6 Gran Coupe

Private Car Collection Dr. Mohammed Ben Sulayem Private Collection of Cars on display

ATCUAE Presents “My World 2015” a United Nations Initiative

Aston Martin Range of the latest Aston Martins

Mercedes Mercedes: GL63 AMG, SLS Coupe Final “Limited Edition” and A45 from Gumball Rally

Sports2 Regional Champion Mohammed Balooshi presents MX Academy

Ares Premiering the newest range of Ares Cars in the UAE

Autodrome F1 Driving Simulator, Audi R8, Porsche GT Race Car, Single Seater Race Car and competition
give aways

Photo Moments Trend with us on Instagram – Take a perfectly timed photo and hashtag #dubaigrandparade,
#dubaimotorfest, #mydubai

Competition Prizes Opportunity to win amazing prizes at the Motor Village

Spot Activation Spot the Q50 Eau Rouge in the Dubai Grand Parade

Gumball Maximillion Cooper showcases the Gumball 3000 Race

Heritage Village Traditional Emirati Heritage Village brought to you by Dubai Arts and Culture Authority

Kiddie Corner Keep the kiddies entertained with Arts & Crafts, Face Painting and Balloon making

Chill Out Zone Enjoy a feast of food, entertainment and family fun at the Motor Village Chill Out Zone

Entertainment Roaming Entertainment: Innovative Rider Stilts and Pantomime mime artists
Live DJ throughout the day

————————————————————————–

ORIGINAL STORY (4 Nov 2014):

I love car events. Whether they’re motor shows, car meets, live demos or a cruise, whenever I can, I’ll try to get down there and check them out. It’s always a great opportunity to be around cars, but more importantly, around car people!

So it was with more eagerness than usual that I clicked open the press release about the 2014 Dubai Motor Festival which I received from, well, literally somewhere. Unfortunately I was immediately drowned by an avalanche of information, out of which I have only just emerged!

CPR successfully administered, I’ve come to realise that there’s rather a lot of stuff, that’s going to happen at this thing, it seems. Let me try to break it down as best I can from the information at hand.

Friday’s the big day

Most of the events are happening on Friday 28^th November at Meydan – that’s the ONE date to absolutely lock into your calendar – head down there after Jumaa prayers – we’ll see you there too.

Grand Parade 3pm

This is the second edition of the parade that was attempted last year from The World Trade Centre. Due to set off at 3pm from Meydan, whilst an exact route doesn’t appear to be available at this time, my understanding is that it will go up to Sheikh Zayed Road, cross over and head to Burj Al Arab in Jumeirah, then back down again across SZR to Downtown and the Burj Khalifa, and finally return to Meydan across Al Khail road.

Expect to see supercars, luxury cars, classics, bikes, exotic police cars, and maybe an F1 car or two or not.

Motor Village 2pm onwards

This will be the main staging area for most of the events occurring during this festival:

• Red Bull Car Park Drift Grand Finale
  • 8-10pm
  • 16 contestants from across the region going sideways to compete for the title: ‘King of Drift’
• Inspired Light by Infiniti QX70S
  • Yeah, no idea what this. It’s described as the first car light show of its kind in the world, which is probably why I don’t know what it is. Apparently the light show will be performed exclusively by cars, using QX70S Elite models – that’s the big one isn’t it?
• AW Rostamani Group Events
  • Arabian Autombiles which sells Nissans and Infinitis – hang on, isn’t Red Bull sponsored by Infiniti? Now you got the dealer…. there’s something of a theme emerging here. Anyway, I deliberately digress, Arabian Automobiles will have a bunch of stuff happening at Meydan.
  • 4×4 obstacle course with Nissan Patrols
  • GT Academy Zone – I guess that will be a load of the Playstation gaming booths with GranTurismo 9 or whatever number we’re upto now, to play away.
  • Nissan X-Trail test drives
  • Competitions with a chance to win a Nissan 370Z (let me say that again: WIN A 370Z – I’m having a go at that!), Infiniti Performance driving experience and some football tickets.
• Dubizzle Live!
  • Something that’s not related to Red Bull, Infinity or Nissan.
  • I guess it’s ‘inspired’ by the Autotrader Live event that happened at Festival City a couple of years back – although it’s touted as ‘the first automotive event of its kind in the region’ – but then that’s what they all say don’t they? I mean the number of times that’s been said in this press release… if I had a dirham for every occassion I could BUY that 370Z!
  • There will be cars on show, naturally, plus games, competitions, and some artist will be ruining a car for the sake of ‘art’. Wonder if you’ll be able to bag a bargain though? Get your wheeler dealer game on.

In addition to that:

Infiniti F1 showrun, SkyDive Dubai, 19 November

Yes, more Nissan-Infiniti stuff – but this does sound kind of cool. Just before they head off to Abu Dhabi for the Formula 1 GP weekend, Sebastian Vettel and teammate Daniel Ricciardo will be duelling against each other in a 2011 Championship-winning RB7 F1 car and an Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge concept saloon. Yep. That seems fair. Could be quite a spectacle though!

Dubai International Rally, Dubai World Trade Centre, 27-29 November

36^th Edition of the Dubai International Rally will have a Ceremonial send-off start at the Dubai World Trade Centre at 7:30pm on 27^th November. Organised by the Automobile and Touring Club of the UAE (ATCUAE), the ceremonial finish and prize giving will happen at the same place two days later at 4:30pm (29 November).

This year’s event will be the grand finale to the Middle East Championship series after previous rounds in Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon and Cyprus. To see any of the actual rally itself, you’ll have to head out into the desert somewhere. There’s no maps on the website yet, but we once stumbled on a rally stage in the Hajar Mountains off the E44, near the Omani checkpoint, whilst out on a shoot!

Right so I think that’s it… Oh no, there’s one other thing, isn’t there?

FREE Supercar Taxi (weekends only)

This is the one that all the other media has focussed on for the motoring festival, essentially because they haven’t been able to wade into the press release and actually figure out what’s meant to be going on. Plus this was the only picture worth publishing sent out with the release.

Essentially there are a fleet of 10 rented supercars – actually some of them will be Rolls-Royce motor cars (for that is what they are) and Bentleys – which will be available for hire, for a one way trip in Dubai – for FREE.

Yep a FREE ride in cars worth around a Million Dirhams each. Compare that to Big Boys Toys where last year they were charging about AED500 just to get a picture with one!

These ‘supercar taxis’ will be available on three weekends (21-22 Nov, 28-29 Nov and 5-6 Dec) only from popular places in Dubai including malls, tourist landmarks and the airport. Good luck fighting your way to the front of the queue for those!