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@Frederic I restored a silver Opel GT 7-8 years ago. I’ve seen plenty in magazines but it’s the only one I’ve seen in real life. I loved how the headlights flip round in a circle rather than just pop up and down. Very cool car. I must check and see if I still have photos of the build. Manta is a cool car too but rust got most of them so you don’t see many now. They aren’t worth as much as Escorts so there are less people restoring them. The 400 was the dogs danglies with the flared arches. Still a lot of people rallying them in Ireland. Corsa was called Nova in UK/Ireland until the mid 90s. When the Corsa B came out, the name changed from Nova to Corsa. I have had a lot of both. Nearly got killed in one. Was parked nicely at the side of the road and a truck decided to reverse through the windscreen then over the roof. Said he never felt a thing. Ive had a few kadettes/astras over the years too. Always had bad luck with them too. First car was a Mk3 Cavalier when I was 10/11, used to race it around the fields at home until the engine blew up. Favourite GM I had has to be a 2 door Chevette saloon. Someone I knew was scrapping a shell so I built it over a month just for fun. Was super ratty but manual, rwd, welded diff, what’s not to love? That ended up in the bottom of a culvert. I remember asking the scrap man to come and pick it up. He came and looked and said how the hell am I supposed to get that out of there? Im a true blue ford guy but I’ve had an unhealthy amount of Opel/Vauxhall’s.

Hi, guys! Just want to warn some of you who have not heard about new Abu Dhabi restriction. If it is foggy in Abu Dhabi emirate, then speed limit on E11, E311 and some other roads is lowered to 80km/h. Drivers should be notified by electronic boards over the road or LED signs on the right side of the road. The thing is these boards and signs do not work! But cameras work perfectly! So you can get 4 or 5 fines easily even if you drive as slow as 90-100km/h. Also sometimes you might think that visibility is absolutely perfect but cameras still set to 80 km/h. Considering that signs and boards do not work, it is super easy to get several fines. https://gulfnews.com/uae/transport/road-speed-reduced-to-80-kmh-during-bad-weather-in-abu-dhabi-1.1541605789467 Be careful!

THANK GOD FOR GPS! i could get lost in my own pocket so for me its on always but i switch between google maps and Waze as Waze has the road speed and all cameras and will scream at me if im going to fast. But google maps has better navigation or maybe im just used to it....

And that is is whyfor there are 100 car pileup in the fog

Setting a speed limit for adverse weather conditions is a bit daft imo. What if they set the speed limit at 80 but visibility is 20 metres? These idiots will still drive as fast as they are allowed to with no thought to stopping distances. You should always be able to stop in the distance you can see ahead of you.

Thanks @Gauravand @Rahimdad for the response, i drive a pajero LWB, 3.8 version, 2011 model. I have done more than 50 + drives..

Thanks @Rahimdad @Gaurav Let me guess @Roshan Abraham drives a LWB Pajero 3.5, Let me know if this is wrong, Buddy, If you do not have the rear bumper protection, I would advise to have the rear bumper center plastic piece removed before driving if you do not want any damages and you can have the rear skid/bash plate fixed before the next drive, I think you can speak to @Shamil on the damages that we had in my Paj or most of the Pajero's owners went through during their off-road drives. @WiLfY Long time, Wanna join ? I know you got those nice led twin side lights and the Dobinson lifts 😎 In Sha Allah - Look forward to meet you all for the drive, Happy & Safe Weekend ahead !

Sorry for the delay in response. Past couple of days I'm trying to pay back at work the 3 weeks I was on vacation. @MATHEW FELEX you're most welcome to join if you're comfortable driving at night at a slightly fast paced drive. @Roshan Abraham since @Shamil has shared his faith in your driving capabilities I'm happy for you to join, but would like you to share your experience and vehicle so that I'm more comfortable in planning my route.

For me it has to be an orange Volvo/DAF 55. I have a fetish for oddball cars. It showed up in a scrapyard one day and I said I have to save that. I never thought about why the owner scrapped it. I loved the belt drive CVT. The transmission was super weird and the car would go as fast in reverse as it would forward. I tried it once. Going 60 mph backwards is the scariest thing I ever did. I loved the shape of the car so I planned to fit a 2.0 pinto and type 9 gearbox along with an atlas back axle. There was no space to widen the transmission tunnel, only room for 2 pedals on the floor. Hands down the most stupid car I ever bought.

No one ever said its for the weak hearted

Did somebody say red horse? I’m in! BMW road is ok to find stuff but it’s a mess. The road sucks, potholes will ruin your car, and there’s no traffic discipline. You spend most of your time watching out for people scooting about randomly on mopeds. You have to deal with beggars and people trying to sell you peanuts at every junction. Saja’a Is a much nicer experience.

Call these 5 Jeep scrap yard in sharjah and check first, if it fails walking around Sajja in this heat or trading barry with red horse is your best bet https://carnity.com/search?&q=jeep&type=cms_records5&nodes=86&search_and_or=or&sortby=relevancy I hope he must have tried this already and if not HELL YES, best place to get new parts, real quick

Sharjah BMW road, where else.

Check the track bar. My cherokee was doing that and i was joking that my car has massage option. It was doing it only between 70-80 below and above was fully ok. I dont know if your car has track bar but it could be bushning.

Wheel balancing still my first doubt as its the cheapest and most basic thing to eliminate before doubting expensive causes. Secondly wheel balancing issue mostly arise in set speed range like 40-60 and 100-120 favorite range. Another thing I doubt could be the wheel bearing. You can check that too while the wheel alignment guy is done and car still on the lift/jack, hold the front tires and shake them side-by-side and up-and-down by hand, if you feel any play it must be wheel bearing causing this vibration.

It only happens when you’re accelerating between 40-60? What happens when you’re cruising at a speed between 40-60? Does it still vibrate?

Your best bet would be to have a drive around Saja’a Scrap area Al Saja'a Industrial Suburb Sharjah https://goo.gl/maps/qWo35EYbcYJkuvHo9 All the shops are nicely laid out and they all have signs outside and you can probably check the whole area out in an hour. Im going there next week but it will probably be Monday/Tuesday. If you don’t get sorted in the meantime let me know and I’ll check when I’m there.

Thank u @GauravWe will be at the meeting point by 9 30.. confirmed

One does notnot drive atthe 140 or anywhere close to that speed when you can hardly see beyond yourthe bonnet Maybe you should you remove your headlights too since being able see really not needed for your superior driving skills

At first I'm really doubting on wheel balancing and not alignment. Get the wheel balancing done from a "GOOD WORKSHOP" and stand on there head to see 0 and 0 on both sides of each wheel, as many times if you are standing outside or on phone, the low paid worker leave the balancing at 15 and 0 or vice versa that cause such strange vibrations at different speeds. Second while getting the balancing, ask them to open the tire and clean from inside if there is any sand or rubber dust has formed. This usually appear in offroad cars after the pop out, but getting this checked while at it can save tons on blind shooting the parts. I still didn't get when you said tires are new and can last another two months.....! What's the date of manufacturing on tires, and share the close up picture of front tires showing the shoulder and main tread left. If tires are old and worn out with uneven wearing can cause this issue too, occasionally. After getting the tire balance, go and inflate all 4 tires at same PSI as per OEM advise, maybe 30-35 PSI and then check on highway if you still have the same vibration. As many times tire guys inflate tires at 45+ psi making all situations even worst to debug.

As most of my family and especially my uncles all drove Opel, The Manta A and B series, and then the Corsa, Kadett, and Astra models are part of my youth growing up. I can still recall the smell of the lightbrown perforated leather seats of the Manta my uncle used to have, and was totally in love with the Manta GT/E. A friend of mine still has the Kadett GT/E which he uses for oldtimer meetings. Opel however was known for rusting faster than the speed of light, especially on the wheel arches. Technically they had their hits and misses but if i ever come across an Opel GT, or Manta A in good condition i'd be shouting "TAKE MY MONEY"

That's a very good offroad experience and looking forward to see you tonite. In Carnity Offroad club, every new joiner supposed to go through a brief (few times) that last for 30 minutes. With your experience you should at least go through it once before you drive here. Can you please come to meeting point at 9:30 so that we can arrange for your brief. Please confirm so that I and Rahimdad can arrive early accordingly.

How many kms car have been driven? Is it regularly maintained or just living on oil change from petrol station? Explain the type of vibration you are getting as much as you can to pin point in right direction. Example, if its vibrating the steering alone, or vibrating the front end body or rear end body? Is it on just specific speed or through some speed range as you mentioned 40-60 km, after that at 100-140 is it smooth? Has anyone advised you for mounting change or you just did it by yourself after buying the car? Vibrations in general is very broad term, some are caused by unbalance tires, steering or track rod balancing issue, wheel bearing issue and few other causes. Engine and gear mounting produces an initial jerk or jerk while braking and not really a vibration tbh.

@Roshan Abraham thank you for sharing your experience. You're most welcome to join us tonight.

First car i had, first mistake! "Opel Manta 1980 Berlinetta" 80 slightly tired horses was not able to overtake any car what so ever, winters in Sweden carburetor froze while driving and car died have to wait about 10 min and could drive for a while again until it froze again...

Haha!! even I might have graduated that night by listening to your stories. but unfortunately the hard landing sort of freaked me out, but anyways all well now and the bumper was fixed in less than 10 minutes so I'm all ready for the next drives.

@Emmanuel - We are going to miss you and the sweets for the upcoming drives Enjoy your holidays BON VOYAGE !!!

I would just take it to a shop to be checked, in the long run it saves you so much headaches. There is no price for my peace of mind. Before I buy a used car I like to look at the statistics of failure rate of important components like the transmission, engine or electricals. I like to use sites like carcompliants.com where I can see the complains for each model and helps me determine the clunkers.

I guess we all have bought a few lemons in our lifetime and every time life throws a lesson at you. I'm still stuck with the issue that i sometimes tend to completely fall in love with a car and overlook all the technicalities and pros and cons. I've also bought quite some cars that i knew had some issues and fixing to do, but that helped me in knocking down the price and then get a reliable mechanic to do a decent repair and do some other fixes myself too. Many junkyard worthy cars i bought ended up looking 10x better after a year and always sold them at a decent price. If i can choose between losing money on depreciation, or buying an old car and putting some money down to restore it to its former glory, i'd go for the second option as i gives me more satisfaction.

Car checks get as tricky as compared to a innocent person who has a very simple face and look but the mind is a devils workshop. Most of used car dealers keep the cars perfect from the exterior body line is clean and looks as good as new but the main things to check out is the engine and the wiring as I have come across some cars in uae with chassis being cut and welded from centre. That's 1/2 car body attachment. Also we see a lot of vehicles who's engine has been changed or even gear box so when you take this vehicle for passing the rta guys will ask you to go back to the showroom or service centre of the particular brand and get that verified and need a company stamp on documentation. I suggest it makes sense in paying 500dhs or whatever charges and get the vehicle checked before buying it. Cause once you have purchased it then you are forced to use it is the same way it is.

Oh don get me wrong they charge throught the roof and have been here for at least 30 yrs and I know people who swear by them but that's only because they don't know better. People just assume gora bhais running a shop with expensive eq and tools must be good and honest.

Recently I went for few car checks some cars really shine there if it's clean car you might not even need to drive it but some cars you need to look at every nooks and corner they hide sloppy body works where the paint is cracked and good knows with what they stick together the frame .have seen car only being serviced by Al futaim but had lower cover and fender liners tied by metal string's as per the seller....it's a tricky thing... The seller is singing the song that he has the best thing in the market but as you get a closer look and confront the seller all of sudden he becomes a surprised cat cought up in the lights or the second owner or he is just selling it for a friend who left the country or straight away leaves without a word..it takes much time and patience to get your hands on something worth it...

There are good garages and bad garages out there, we all know that. I charge a lot for my work. 250 Dhs per hour. With good reason Some people who are chasing the smallest price think that’s expensive but they don’t see what I do. 16 years experience, the latest most up to date computers, investing in new tools every month, but hey, experience means nothing here, go get a car check for 50 Dhs and tell everyone you got a cheap checkup. When your ball joints fall out 3 months later, that’s what you paid for

BECAUSE Next time quote them your fuel cost, car cost, time cost + part = They will understand Some people have a sad mentality and ZERO consideration for others time, money, talent & knowledge.

That's the thing an avg joe doesn't know. I think t was Gaurav who once wanted to buy a luxury SUV. So we called a well known so called specialist garage fpr that car, they said yeah they will check it for 300 DHs and what about a diagnostic scan. They said no they don't that on ore purchase inspection. So what exactly is it that you'll do. We'll drive it around amd let you know of its ok. Same place sold another guy I know a luxury 4x4. Turns out it had major frame damage and a shitty botch cove up job which I spotted just from pics. And they said it was a perfect car. Garage is run by people from your part of the world and they are still in business.. Oh and the other 500 comprehensive test is also useless, they won't guarantee their own work. You can't use their own test to register the car. So what exactly are they checking ?

When i was selling my Cherokee, buyer tried to do that. I told him one thing the price i am giving you is the price of this car, i didint show you a perfect car and now i am trying to sell you this one. This is the car and this is the price for it, if you want to buy, buy it. If you dont want i dont care. After one week he come back and bought it.

Left field suggestion, MX 5. Realistically you can’t use a 300 bhp car much here other than accelerating from 80-120 on the 311. Unless you’re doing track days at the autodrome, then it makes sense. MX 5 has less power but the handling is second to none and it’s a good car you can use every day and not have to worry about ENOC raping your wallet every 2 days. Plus it’s rare here, so it stands out more than the generic mustang or camaro.

It’s just a quick check of the basics. Meh. To check a car properly you really need access to a lift and a diagnostic computer. 20 minutes with a lift and computer can help you knock a huge chunk off the price. I have seen people saving 10k on the price of a car after bringing it to me for a check. If something isn’t perfect a proper mechanic is going to spot it. Some people think spending 500 on a pre purchase check is expensive, but if you even save 1,000 you’re already ahead.

My ancient khatara Garmin gave speed limits. So does default map app in my slightly less ancient windows 10 phone.

I’ve been here for a while now so I kind of know my way around but I’m no expert. I can get myself to a general area but I use google maps to take me to the exact destination. Once I’ve been there, I can always go back without a map and find my way home again. Google maps are good as long as you stay aware of your surroundings and know where you are instead of following it blindly where it tells you to go. Mine still isn’t showing speed. Maybe I need to update it. Totally agree with @Gaurav if it showed the speed limit it would be totes amazeballs. Sometimes you go into a new road and you think the speed limit is something but it is something else. And the first time you find out is when the fine comes through.

What a lovely drive we had, first in Carnity offroad club history to drive with 2 cars. I know it's not good and not advisable, but it was all situational. It all started with confusion of newbie vs intermediate drive pattern change, then followed by late posting resulting in 4 signup. Last minute Sri car had some issues so he couldn't joined. I, Shamil and luwain met at meeting point and started the drive as usual with all the good intentions to play and reach to the fossil rock within 2-3 hours. On second dune, Luwain had a hard landing and bumped his Prado nose and moved the bumper and front grill slightly up. He exited and now Shamil had no hope that I will continue and we will exit too. So we decided to play around little bit and see how it goes and we will definitely won't be adventurous, but continue driving if nothing further goes wrong. As we were just two cars and driving with utmost caution and playing safe in a straight line but side sloping in the rolling dunes, we reached the pylon track in less than 45 minutes and on top of fossil rock in an hour time with barely 1 stuck. Lovely pace and Shamil kept the sensibility promise very well. After reaching on top of fossil rock at 1:00 AM instead of 3 AM we had nice breeze and 5 people food and drinks to talk over million conversation. I'm sure Shamil must have been graduated after listening to my offroad horror and 4x4 disappointment stories in one night. He too had some lovely stories from his previous offroad club that was very interesting to hear that people are still behave the same way as they use to back in 2006 when I first started offroading in UAE. At 4 AM we thought of packing it up and come down and exit. By the time we reach the road it was 4:30 and we both head our ways with an unusual and unexpected drive after many odds.

I’m flying back to the sandpit tonight after a week in Barcelona. God I will miss the food, weather, and the people.. see you guys next week if there’s a drive ! Take care !

Carnity is always my Family. Its the best site which can answer all my queries , suggest me something good, advise me of the best, it all about being a family. I love the support they provide in all cases. The offroad club its super awesome. A great great family.Super relaxing fun,adventure ready club. It makes us wait for fridays to meet the most enthusiastic charming personalities who is so keen in teaching the offroad techniques with a lot of patience. ( every clubs, if we ask for a suggestion of mods- they quote the best mods available on market which is far more expensive and unreachable for everyone but when ot comes to carnity every time i hear a question about mods needed,the answer i hear from expertises is that “Join the club,Feel the car, check whether its ok for you or do you really love off-roading before you do something to your car” and i believe thats the genuine answer some one can give for a newbie) Love you carnity to the Moon and Back.

Please add meme related to Dubai only.

Near my hometown in Belgium there was a massive fog pile-up incident in 1996 that caused 200 cars to crash into each other and took the lives of 10 people, with 56 heavily wounded and 30 light wounded. Abu-Dhabi in 2008 had similar accident where 8 people died and also 200 cars were involved. Main reason was that there was a lake next to the highway and the fog over that lake caused a massive fog-wall that morning only on that specific area. Due to the crashes, fire started and people got killed purely from not being able to escape the fire. I still remember this clearly and i hope to never see it again. Please drive safe whenever fog sets up and use fog lights if possible. NEVER use the hazard lights. Adjust your speed until you can ensure that you have sufficient visbility and time to react.

Thanks for the heads up on the matter I usually am going at 140 even when it's foggy