Barry

@Frederic Nuyttens there was one of those abandoned in Al Quoz behind gold and diamond park for over a year. The front end was damaged. It disappeared a few weeks ago. Very rare car here, never mind anywhere else. Next car, Saab 900 Turbo. The biggest honour it holds is that it was the first commercially successful turbo car. There were also a few oddities that made it special. The engine was mounted backwards so power was delivered from the “front” of the crankshaft. The next was that it had the gearbox mounted in the sump, like an original mini.

Bit of a clickbaity title but that’s what it is. I saw a thing, I don’t know what it was. I was on Al Khail Road heading towards Hessa Street. It was on the back of a tilt and slide truck. Bigger than a Hiace but not massive. White with some orange stripes. It was box shaped with 4 wheels but tall enough for someone to stand up inside it. Like it was really a big box with 4 wheels and windows all around. There was no drivers seat. The door was at the front and there was a row of seats down each side. I couldn’t get my phone unlocked in time to snap it. I’m going to guess that it was some sort of self driving transport pod? Has anyone seen anything like this around?

Had a very enjoyable day. Nice to meet some new people and good to reconnect with some old friends. Big thank you everyone who put in the hard work organising the event and kept everyone safe. Special thank you to @skumar83 for letting me drive his Jeep.

Need to check the steering angle sensor and wheel speed sensors and associated wiring as these could cause that particular combination of lights to come on. There’s also a possibility of faulty dash clocks or wiring to the dash clocks, or a loose connection somewhere in the ignition loom. ECU is unlikely to be faulty and it’s an expensive part to throw at it without a proper diagnosis. Find a better garage.

Here’s one for you @desertdude Climb dance video from 1988. Ari Vatanens winning run on Pikes Peak hill climb in 1988. You will love the specs. 4 cylinder 16 valve. Over 600 BHP. Kerb weight below 900 kg. 0-200kph in under 10 seconds. Sure loads of V8s can do that but show me one that was doing that in 1988 and winning races.

Flags can help to a certain extent. If you see a flag waving at the top of a dune, it’s probably best not to attempt a climb.

Very good points @Jeh I fell into the same trap many years ago. Pulling an amazing handbrake turn and making all the girls drop their panties may be cool when you’re 17 but it doesn’t make you a good driver on the road. First time I got my license confiscated in my early 20s for dangerous driving (doing donuts in an empty car park?) I had to resit the test. I failed the first time and I couldn’t believe it. I asked the instructor what went wrong and he told me I was driving how I wanted to drive, not how they wanted me to drive. It’s hard to swallow your pride but that’s what it takes to get a license. Smooth, controlled, constantly aware, not showing off that oh I know this, watch me drift the trade centre roundabout. If everyone drove like RTA wanted them to, there would be zero accidents. Who the heck is stupid enough to crash on a straight road but I still see it every day. @Gaurav I agree with you too. A 60 or 90 driving ban for things that cause accidents like using the phone, swerving, not indicating, random braking etc would hit people and maybe make them realise. Especially if you live in somewhere like Warqaa or IMPZ where it can take 2 hours to reach downtown Dubai by public transport. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, id love to see more unmarked patrols on the road. I was in a rush home tonight so I took a cab up hessa street. A white Tahoe cut across 3 lanes of traffic without even indicating and almost hit our cab then narrowly avoided the steel barrier in the middle of the turn they were trying to make. When I looked in the back, there were 2 women passing a small baby between them, oblivious as heck to the world outside. This is the kind of BS that needs to stop but why will they stop when there is no chance of getting caught.

And people will still complain that they fail it. This one bugs me. I’ve seen people fail the driving test 6-7 times and blame everything and everyone but none of them ever admit that maybe they’re just a bad driver.

Happy birthday big habibi. I’ll be sure to have a beer for you tonight.

Good to see so many noobs signed up for the drive, hope to meet you all soon. I’ll give you a call soon @skumar83 just been crazy busy

Can’t believe there’s no love for me first and the gimme gimmes. Anyway, Just heard that Ozzy has been hospitalised for major surgery. All the drugs that guy did and he’s now getting an operation due to a simple infection. Maybe it’s time to start saying goodbye to Ozzy before he drops off like Lemmy did? For what it’s worth, I don’t believe Black Sabbath invented metal. Sure they were heavy, but in my eyes, Judas Priest were the first metal band. Black Sabbath were just a dark Deep Purple.

When I say Europe, I mean mainland Europe. The UK were always pretty non conformist when it came to the union. They wouldn’t switch to Euros and cried until they got to keep their own currency and cried again against all the laws that were passed, even if they were for the greater good of all member states. Northern Ireland and Scotland voted to stay in the EU but we were dragged out of it by the English vote. Nothing good will come of it. The days of the British empire are long gone and they fail to see it. Maybe the only good thing that will come out of this is that the UK will eventually break up. Scotland will have its own independence and occupied Northern Ireland will be reunified with the Republic of Ireland and England will be left stewing in its own pride wondering what went wrong.

Yes I’ve done that before. First time I went to Europe I looked right then started crossing the road then when I was halfway across a car was coming towards me. Had a couple of narrow misses too.

@Ren13 that’s a sexy set of wheels you’re running. Also just to add, I’m not digging at anyone in particular. I just think we should share more love. As mentioned earlier, it’s a diversion from the real world but sometimes the real world sucks and people need a happy place to go. I like a bit of banter but there’s a limit. An open mind is everything. I love a Denali engined Patrol as much as I love a 900cc Audi 50 as much as I love a 500 HP Scania 143.

Interested in hearing how people who do/have done it, find switching between LHD and RHD cars and vice versa. I drove RHD my whole life, only ever drove a handful of LHD cars before I came to UAE around the garage and never on the road. I thought changing gear with the other hand would be difficult but it came surprisingly naturally. The main problem I had was I had a habit of looking over my left shoulder to reverse. A couple of times here I’ve started reversing then look over my left shoulder only to see the seat belt and B pillar. A bit of practice cured that though. The other problem I had was when turning into car parks I would try to go in the wrong entrance. Again a bit of practice cured that. Now sometimes I wonder how it will be when I go home for a holiday. Will it come naturally or will I have to retrain my brain and think about what I’m doing. I guess the best solution is to save my pocket money and buy a McLaren F1 😂

I’ve noticed a lot of hate on here lately, that’s not what carnity is about. There are people here from all over the world. Some of them like different cars than you may like. If you see a thread title such as “the hatchback appreciation society”, it’s for people who appreciate hatchbacks and they can go in and share cars they like. If you don’t like hatchbacks, don’t go into a hatchback thread and tell them all their cars are crap. Similar if someone posts a 4x4 thread, don’t go in and say you have no interest. This is a community forum. We all have different interests. Some people like diesels, some people like small cars, some like huge V8 trucks. Live and let live. Let people talk about what they want to talk about. If you aren’t interested, there is another thread for you.

It’s hard to believe that it’s 60 years since Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth got together and built their first modified cylinder head for a Ford. What is even harder to believe that ford sent their cars to cosworth, brought them back and sold them as official For cars. I still remember the time in 1995 when my cousin showed up to my house in his brand new mallard green ford escort cosworth, complete with whaletail spoiler. He was the coolest person in the world at that time to me and I still aspire to own a cossie. Here are a few in honour of their 60th birthday. Also notice that they built the Mercedes 190 2.3. They also built the 2.6 and evo and evo2 but I haven’t posted it. All you real petrolheads already know this. So let’s show some love for cosworth on their 60th birthday!

Lancia Delta Integrale. Godfather of the Delta S4. Most of them have rusted away now. The owner of chipcentric has one in his garage. Very cool piece of machinery. This particular one belonged to Jay Kay from Jamiroquai. And the monster it spawned, the Delta S4. Spaceframed animal. 890kg kerb weight. Supercharged, turbocharged and intercooled longtitudinaly mounted engine. 500 bhp, capable of 1,000 bhp just by increasing the boost. This is the car that was responsible for the death of group B after the death of Henri Toivonen and his codriver Sergio Cresto in 1986 on the Tour de Corse. Toivonen went off the course, down a ravine and the car exploded burning them both to death. The fuel tank was mounted under the seat with little protection for the driver. Back then it was all about achieving 50/50 weight distribution, safety was an afterthought.

Just spotted a Metro GTA for sale in UK. £10,000 😳

If you like those check out the Yamaha Virago too, similar style and available in 250cc. I’ve ridden a lot of bikes and Japanese is the only way to go. I borrowed a Ducati super sport for a weekend once and had to call for recovery twice.

The thing about bikes is that you either get them or you don’t. And you don’t which I completely understand. I lost my cousin a few years ago in a bike accident. He came off a corner in the rain, hit a telegraph pole and snapped his spine in half. My family hold a bike event every year in his memory. He died doing what he loved so that’s what we celebrate rather than be sad forever. On the other hand, a bike gives the kind of freedom you can never feel in a car. It’s literally just you and the road, man and machine. Hitting a bump and lifting your front tyre at 80MPH gives you the kind of buzz you can never get in a car. And the acceleration. OMG. There’s nothing more fun than outrunning guys in £15k M3s on a £1k shitbike. Look into the Honda ST1300 Pan European. It’s a smaller version of the Goldwing without the old man rider stigma attached to it. My friend had one and I borrowed it a few times. It’s the perfect tourer.

Here’s one for you @sertac The 205 1.9 GTi came out in 1986. Here’s the 205 1.9 GTi-S which came out in 1984 How, you ask. In 1984 a man named Skip Brown (now a famous Peugeot tuner, I was lucky enough to have had one of his engines) started buying brand new 1.6 GTi’s and building his own 1.9 GTi model and selling them back to the dealerships. Skip was doing for the 205 what John Cooper did for the Mini years ago. The 1.9 GTi-s was special. Each engine had a gas flowed polished head, stainless steel valves, high lift cam, blueprinted bottom end and a large external oil cooler. This all prompted Peugeot to build the 1.9 GTi we all know and love today. Heres another rare 205, the Roland Garros edition Came out in 1989 and was a 205 XS underneath with special bits added. Finally the holy grail of 205s, the 1FM Only 25 were ever made to celebrate the 25th anniversary of BBC Radio 1 in 1992 and given away as prizes to lucky competition winners. The highest spec 205 below the T16 which has very little 205 DNA left anyway. There are only a handful left, my friend is a lucky guy who is restoring one now.

@Sidshk what kind of bike are you looking for? Cruiser, tourer, sports etc. What do you want to do? Commute? Long weekend trips? My first bike was a Kawasaki GT550 like this The engine was a bit rattly, it burnt oil and it struggled to get over 100 MPH but I loved it. I put a 421 manifold and huge Yoshimura backbox on it and it was properly loud. The thing I loved most about it was that I was shaft drive. No chains or sprockets to wear out and no time wasted aligning the back wheel.

I’m planning on doing it too. Used to ride bikes at home. The biggest issue you will face is other vehicles. You see how cars manage to hit each other on straight roads here, sorry mate I didn’t see you. They have even less awareness of spotting a bike. I seen a few guys on delivery bikes getting hit and they’ve always ended up in an ambulance. These guys never wear any safety gear other than a helmet so it’s no surprise they come out badly in an accident. Sandals and polo shirt are not appropriate for riding a bike on a road. You’ll need proper trousers, jacket, boots, gloves, helmet at the least. A back protector is a good investment too. A full set of gear could cost you half the price of the bike but it’s worth it. You WILL fall off at some stage but you never know when so it’s best to always dress appropriately, even if you’re driving a kilometre to the shop. There are ventilated fabric clothes suitable for summer use so there’s no excuse. The other thing is don’t put yourself in bad situations. Be aware if you’re in someone’s blind spot and they can’t see you, always expect people around you to do unexpected things like randomly change lanes without indicating or brake for no reason. I would say riding a bike in the uae is a little bit more dangerous than in western countries because of the differing attitude of car drivers, but then again it can be dangerous anywhere. You just need to take some steps to protect yourself and try to stay one move ahead of everyone around you.

Indeed. And if I have any left over you can try it as an engine flush in your discovery.