Barry

There’s a missing business opportunity for someone here

The Aston Martin Valkrie specs have just been released. @desertdude you will like this one. It’s running a 6.5 litre naturally aspirated V12 pushing 1,000 bhp. Revs to 10k. Honda who? Just imagine how impressive it would be if they strapped a supercharger or a couple of turbos to it. They kept it naturally aspirated because they wanted it to be pure. This is a 2,500-3,000 bhp engine with mods. I bet it could push 3,500 with Nos. If you’re going to go to that effort, why not go all out and charge it?

Sure, you can go to virgin and buy Metallica, guns n roses, nirvana etc shirts but it’s all fanboi stuff Is there anywhere to go and search through shirts from Judas Priest, the misfits, wasp, all the old rock bands. I found a nice shop in karama, sells loads of cds and vinyl, but I can’t find a shop selling t shirts

Don’t write off aftermarket parts. People search out the cheapest nastiest parts possible. This is what gives the aftermarket a bad name. If you’re trying to buy the cheapest parts in rashidiya, of course you’re going to have a problem. Exedy clutches are aftermarket. I’ve used them exclusively for the last 10 years along with Valeo for European cars when they aren’t available. No problems other than bad drivers. If they’re good enough for the top drift teams, they’re good enough for me. I built a celica for an ex girlfriend, it was pushing 700bhp and it ran fine on an exedy clutch. As far as I know, it’s still running 30k later. Nice boobs she had but horrible personality. A lot of people post a lot of stuff on the internet. If you believed every bad review you’d just buy a kick scooter and never drive again.

Maybe when I tried to bury it in the desert 👋 sorry

Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t the Tesla cars just run on a load of 51650s linked together, which is basically a glorified AA? If you’re using your head, you should be able to find the bad cells and solder new ones in. I have a 1/2” battery impact wrench. Stopped working. A replacement battery pack was 400dhs and 3 week wait from the uk. I took it apart and tested it. Ended up soldering in 2 51650s from a dragon mart vape and it was good as new. Cant wait until these cars are classed as “old” and I can have a play around. No carbs, no EFI, no fuel pumps, no ignition systems. Just a battery, a motor and a fancy tablet screen, maybe a set of brushes or an armature here and there. It all seems very simple and blown out of proportion due to lack of parts and wide scale training.

Hi Vishal, welcome to Carnity!

It does bug me too, but when you know, you have the responsibility to educate people. With knowledge comes power. Not everyone knows even simple things like thinking their oil needs to be changed every 3k instead of every 12k, they believe what they’re told by the dealer. It’s up to us to share real knowledge and not spread bullshit and create the next informed generation of petrolheads.

Before when it was 1 like = 1 dirham I used to care because every so often I’d have extra money to buy beer. Now I don’t care. It’s like earning reddit karma. It makes some people feel good but in reality, it means nothing. I don’t care if anyone likes my posts or not. My 2 main reasons for posting are either because I’m bored and have nothing else to do, or I see someone who needs help and I’ll try to offer some advice based on experience because I know what it’s like to need help. Forums are great for finding information. Post it on your Facebook group and it’s gone in a day. Post it on a forum and it’s there to help people for life, as long as the admin pay the hosting costs, the information is there for life.

Sorry to be pedantic but the Prado isn’t a V4, it’s an I4. V4 engines are extremely rare and I’ve only ever come across 2 in my life, once in a Ford Consul and once in a Capri. There are others but that’s the only ones I’ve seen with my eyes. The majority of 4 cylinder engines have an inline configuration. V4s are expensive to manufacture, extra costs for a wider block, 2 cylinder heads, 2 sets of manifolds etc. The only manufacturer deviating from the inline 4 that I know of now is Subaru with their boxer engine. Porsche and VW have used it in the past. VW abandoned it after the Beetle. Maybe Porsche are still using it, I don’t know, but I think they just use the flat 6 as their base.

If you find a car and need a mechanic to inspect it, send me a message

V6 gives better mileage than a V8. 320 V8 give better mileage than the 400. If you’re just driving on the road, buy the cheapest one because the extra horsepower will be wasted. It just turn into a willy waving exercise, mine is bigger that yours etc. Big horsepower is wasted on uae roads because unless your first name is sheikh, you are limited to how fast you can drive. If you’re going to the dunes regularly, then it’s worth splashing out on as much horsepower as you can afford.

Pajero. Drives well both on and off road. Even if you never go to the desert, it’s perfectly fine to drive on the road every day. If you do decide to hit the sand, it’s more than capable but the departure angle on the newer models can cause problems. Cheap too. You can pick up something decent for under 20k. The LC100 is nice but it’s a bit of a beast. It will cost more to run and it’s heavier than the pajero so it’s more of a challenge to learn to drive off-road in.

Renaults bring the stop light on for a multitude of reasons. It is linked to both the braking system and ECU so it can be confusing as to what the problem is but stop means stop and it means something needs investigating. I would recommend checking your brake fluid level. If it’s low, you have a brake leak somewhere. Then check your engine oil level. If that’s normal, find a tame mechanic and get them to plug the computer in and see what/if any fault codes come up. If you don’t have a tame mechanic, I have a diagnostic computer to suit your car so I can scan it and tell you what’s wrong but I don’t do mechanical work anymore so I can’t fix it, (I can but I’m lazy) but I can tell you what’s wrong so you can instruct someone else to fix it. If you can’t find a diagnostic expert, you can message me on here directly and I’ll try to help you out.

Sure, loads of room for luggage, but that’s what the Toyota innova taxi is for. Realistically, who needs a fully specced TRD Hilux unless they’re crossing desert terrain?

Spotted this on another forum. Has anyone seen one in the wild? What’s the purpose of it?

Classic cars are a good investment. Especially modern classics. Even crapppy stuff like Morris marinas are starting to make money. I love the idea that people are starting to appreciate cars which weren’t properly appreciated but I hate the fact that petrolheads with a genuine interest are being priced out of the market. I remember growing up and you could buy an AE86 (the tofu delivery car) for £800 (4,000 dhs), now that car will cost you £20,000 (100k dhs). It’s incredibly hard for young people to get into the car scene now. Sure, there’s watching YouTube videos and knowing every fact about every car but most cars are unobtainable to most young people unless they have 6 masters degrees and a 50k job or a rich daddy. The only option is to finance a new Golf R. The new generation aren’t less into cars, they are just being priced out of it. Modifications are discouraged because it affects resale value. Individuality is suppressed. And that makes me sad.

I seem to spend half my days sitting around waiting for people to show up for meetings. I tried mobile gaming but honestly, most games on phones are poopoo. What mobile websites do you all visit to kill time, outside of car websites? I’ve tried reddit and 9gag but they get boring after half an hour. What can really kill some time? And if it can educate it’s a bonus.

EsCos currently for sale at £47,000, almost a quarter a million dhs. I remember these being available for £7-8,000. Sure missed out on that boat!

Honestly, I wouldn’t buy anything from them judging by their website. Way overpriced for an Android headunit. You can pick up an android head unit in with direct fitment, gps, WiFi and Bluetooth including forward and rear cameras for around 1,200 in dragon mart.

Like I said before, it all comes down to running costs, especially when petrol can cost 7-8 dhs per litre. Many people can go out and buy a huge engined car but not everyone can afford to run it every day with the price of fuel. Last time I checked, in my place it was 60% excise duty tax on fuel then another 20% vat on top of that. Fuel costs 3 times what it should. Then you have to pay road tax and insurance every year. My last road tax was £165 (770 aed), my last yearly insurance was £2,500 (11,700 aed). And that was only third party covering fire and theft, not full comprehensive. If I had an accident it comes out of my own pocket. This is why we like small turbocharged cars. Weight is an issue too, especially on B roads and narrow mountain passes. Small and light = being able to carry speed through tight corners, big and heavy = fast in a straight line but having to brake a lot to change direction. Carol Shelby came out with the no replacement for displacement statement in 1967 and it has been bandied about a lot since but that was over 50 years ago and technology has come a long way since. It’s something said now by people who are scared of anything modern and don’t know how to tune an engine other than fit oversized pistons or a stroker kit then rejet the carb to suit. A V8 making 400 bhp is nice in a noice nostalgic sort of way, but a girl driving a V8 with VVTi, EFI, coil over plugs and a whining blower making 800 bhp is going to make me take my boots off faster. Europe isn’t the rich place many people think. If it was, there wouldn’t be so many Europeans here. C63s, M5s, even bog standard 911s are a pretty rare thing to see. Ferrari’s and Lamborghinis are even rarer. Most of these cars are produced for the export market and sent to places like the uae where millionaires are plentiful. I see C63s every day here but I had never seen one in the wild until I came here. The only reason I have experience of cars like these at home is because I was working for one of the top specialists where people would send their cars on a boat from hundreds of miles away. The big market in the UK now for sports cars is smaller engined, light sports cars. This is where the money is made. The MX5 is king of this market right now. It’s nippy, light, and does exactly what people need it to do. I could go out and buy a mustang, camaro, challenger etc, I would be king dingaling at all the meets and shows but in the real world, it’s completely and utterly pointless, there’s nowhere you can use it in real life situations.

I’ll message you. I don’t want to post too much on here

@desertdude have you ever been to Europe? I love a big V8 as much as the next guy, but practically, they don’t work there. There are no 12+ lanes highways like there are here. Roads are mainly one lane each way and many of them through mountainous terrain, which is why small, light cars with loads of horsepower make sense. I know you’re anti small cars, but they work where they’re supposed to work, hence why the A110 is a finalist for European car of the year. Fuel economy is a legit issue too. When you’ve been in the UAE so long, it’s easy to forget that some Europeans are forced to pay 7-8 dhs for a litre of petrol. When you have to pay rent, buy food, pay whatever government charges, shit becomes real. PI would have loved a V8 patrol at home but it’s totally impractical. This is about European car of the year, not UAE car of the year. If you can’t handle that, find another thread.

Anyone enjoy reading? Maybe many of you won’t be into this but I love books by Irish authors, particularly non fiction and history, not really into fiction stuff at all. Have quite a few lying around. Anything non fiction and history at all, I love learning about how the world was. I love biographies and autobiographies too. I was always told when you finish a book, get another but the price of books here are insane. Would anyone be up for book swapping? I’ve finished this many times. I’ll make the first offer with this for exchange with another biography.