2017 Dubai Motor Show & Ignition Live Talks
New cars, tons of activities, a social media blitz and us on the Ignition Live Stage
By Shahzad Sheikh
I’ve done six Dubai Motor Shows and can honestly say that 2017 was quite simply one of the best editions of the huge motoring extravaganza I’ve witness thus far; fighting back in style against the current global anti-motor show trend, which even here was manifested in the absence of major players such as Honda, Bentley, Renault, Volvo and Peugeot. Fie on them!
Click below for a compilation video of our Facebook Live walkaround of the entire Motor Show.
So the big stars of the show – apart from us of course on the Ignition Live stage (more on that later) – were two genuine global debuts including the updated Infiniti QX80 and more spectacularly, the mighty 755bhp Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. Click below to watch our video from the Chevrolet stand.
A hugely significant local debut was the all-new Lexus LS – a massively popular luxury saloon here, and one of the two cars on the stand was sold at the show itself. That was the ‘Exclusive’ spec car which has remarkably intricate interior trim materials. The new LS to me is huge step forward not necessarily in a technical sense as the original LS was in 1989, but in terms of identity. This is the first edition of the Lexus flagship which has the bold confidence to be a truly Japanese interpretation of a luxury car.
Another sensational luxury flagship saloon making its Middle East debut, and this one definitely a technological marvel, was the Audi A8 – the first mass production car to offer Level 3 Autonomous drive systems.
Also looking at the future, Toyota highlighted hybrid electric cars and fuel cell cars on its stand combining it all with a bit of fun, charging two local comedians to bring the adrenalin as ‘Waku’ and ‘Doki’. See them in our video below. And you’ll also see the brilliant outdoor section where you could ride the SUV range on jaw-dropping obstacles.
Also available at the show was a chance to have a ride in a drift car with the Pro Drift Academy UAE guys. And the kids could have a go in Lego cars, whilst those looking for inspiration could saunter down the ‘boulevard of dreams’ to see supercars and classics.
Talking of supercars and classics, Brabus brought some gorgeous and hugely expensive meticulously restored classic Benzes, but supercar madness was well served with the sensational 5000bhp Devel 16 dream car, as well as a new W-Motors exoticar, and sleek mega-car projectiles on the Mercedes and Aston Martin stand with the Project 1 and Valkyrie respectively (why didn’t Aston launch the new Vantage at the show?).
And then of course there was us – rocking loud and hilarious on the Ignition Live Stage in Hall 6 for the second show running. But this time with even more shows – we did six shows a day (26 in total with two on the first Media/VIP day) with nearly 60 guests and three hosts: myself, Imthishan Giado and joining us for the show, Alix Capper-Murdoch AKA @Miss_Auto_Know.
Click below now to see the playlist of 24 of the shows which were partly, or in whole, live streamed on Facebook. We covered a huge range of topics from how to be a stunt driver, to how to start a car company, developing and building cars and car parts, the future of transport, the fairer sex in the industry, how to be a car journalist and we even chose the best film and TV car and, in a massively crowded Friday night session, crowned the best car ever with the help of show visitors.
A big shout-out to the organisers of the Dubai Motor Show, who also did a tremendous job on social media absolutely blitzing the feeds of Dubai with cool content, and also to all those that attended and participated in our shows, and all those of you regular MME followers who came up and said hello to us. See you all again next time!
Pretty sure that’s an LC and not RC in the Lexus video!