Javier M

I'm sorry I am going to miss the drives on this day. The wife is finally coming on Friday so I better be in the airport 😆 I am a morning person so I actually prefer morning drives, that way I can still take care of personal matters after the drive. But I don't mind afternoon drives as long as they are on Friday

I am with @Frederic on this one. I am assuming you meant the Jeep JK vs the JL, the later being the newest version of the jeep. It would really depend if you will be using the jeep off-road or just for daily commute. In a few words 5 speed is better off-road and the 8 speed is better on highway. The 8 speed claims to reduce fuel consumption by 9% over the 5 speed transmission but I doubt it is for the transmission, I think is because JL has an aluminum body as opposed the steel body of the JK, making the JL lighter and therefore improving fuel consumption. I think that for on-road driving will definitely benefit from the 3 extra speeds since you will run in lower revs. However, when it comes to off-road keep in mind this 8 speed transmission is used in the Ram 1500 and Grand Cherokee, cars that are not necessarily made for off-road like the Wrangler this is a transmission that is not properly tested off-road. They are only installing this transmission for cost purposes and they are not thinking about the reliability. In off-road conditions simpler is always better, unless you use the 8 speed in triptronic it will be under much more stress than the 5 speed.

I have been there once, pictures don't do it justice. Its a shame no cars are allowed in there, unless you'd like to go to prison. 😁

So I have never used the recovery dampers but it seems they do the job (if done properly). Have you used them before? what are your thoughts? Keep it safe my fellow off-roaders!

So I used to receive many fake whatsapp text from the "lucky Etisalat draw" asking me to give them my IMEI and other information to "prove" I was the winner. This goes without saying that this is a scam. Anyway, I changed my phone number some months ago and all those texts and calls stopped. (Or so I thought) Yesterday I started to receive again weird calls from Indian fellas asking me about something that I did not understand given their thick accent, at the end since their scam call did not succeed they just hanged up. Then I also started to receive whatsapp text from "my bank" saying my card was blocked and that I needed to contact the phone number listed in the text to unblock my card. By this point I just had it with this, I was not going to let these criminals be unpunished and contacted the police. I gave them all the information and the police called me to make sure I did not fall or was victim of these scams, then they thanked me because I reported these people. Please, please, please report any of these sort of calls or texts to the police. This is the only way you can make sure there are no victims. They have a very simple tool, all you need to do is go to http://ecrime.ae and follow the steps it will not take you more than two minutes.

My two favorites, the Ford GT 40 and the Nissan Skyline (aka The GTR)

I have two friends that fall in this category, I just call them mall crawlers. I always prefer function over form specially in off-road where a lot of things can and will go wrong.

It was a fun drive

Let me present to you the Baja 1000. This a 800-900 miles race in the State of Baja California, Mexico. This is done every year since 1967. It allows various types of vehicle classes to compete on the same course with classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles, ATVs and buggies. My dad was asked to build two cars for 2010 truck class (it won 1st place) and 2011 buggie class (it won 2nd place). We used to go every year to watch the race.

I am of the opinion that you don't need it, specially here. But fake snorkels? Really? 🤣

Lately I cant help to notice that there are quite a few number of cars with snorkels. I cant help looking around me and see sand. I have driven offroad in other countries for many years and never in my life have seen the need to have a snorkel for my car and yet here in this sandbox we all call home I see plenty of cars with it. Do you really need one? has the amazons magically appeared somewhere in the UAE? I know there are some rivers here in the UAE but does it really justify to restrict the air intake of your car? I was just wondering since I am fairly new to the country

I dont want to say but lets just say it is more than all of you combined 😭

So when are we going?

It's a shame they wont sell the Focus RS in the UAE. 350hp of pure beauty.

I have plenty more where that came from 😊. Watching movies/Series are my hobby. I have a huge collection of VHS/DVDs/Blu Rays back home. A few years ago I had spine surgery and I could not move from bed for months, I spent all that time watching whatever was interesting no matter the genre or year.