Bahrain F1

It was Grand Prix time again and we were off to Bahrain.

Bahrain is an interesting place and a hub for visitors from all across the Middle East, especially from Saudi Arabia. As a Westerner you are either in Bahrain for work or for the F1, and we were here for racing!

For the initial races we had the opportunity to watch them from the Main Grandstand. First up was the TCR International Series which are the Touring Cars. This is an action packed series that is highly competitive and great fun to watch. The highly tuned  2L/330bhp cars from a collection of manufactures raced over 10 laps. Fast, loud and full of contact, I think this may of been our favourite class surprisingly. One Golf in particular must have raced for about 5 laps with its rear panels hanging off, nothing could stop it, well... that was until the front also gave up!

Next up was the Porsche GT3 Cup Middle East. Great looking cars and just so loud that they made the F1 cars sound like mice! This race wasn’t as competitive but was an amazing spectacle against the F1 background.  Hard not to love watching 911’s doing what they do best. The F1 cars hit the track as we moved down to the University Grandstand. Ferrari had an engine blow on the warm up lap which ended its race before it even began.  Once the race got started it was full of action and Hamilton got pushed back to 6th. Rosberg was off and leading the race, seemingly on his own out the front without a care in the world, all the action was behind him. Ferrari did well with 2nd and it was great to see Ricardo and Australia come in 4th.A well run and prepared event by the Grand Prix teams, its just a spectacular event.The Bahrain Grand Prix is simply a spectacular event and we even got the opportunity to meet some of the F1 drivers at this event, which only happens at very few Grand Prix’s. 

Stay tuned as we have a special giveaway coming soon!

Qatar Motorshow

BMW had a great display with all their M series cars. The M6 in satin blue was stunning and the flared wheel arches on the M2 were very cool and reminded us of wide guard Porsche’s.

Ferrari, Rolls Royce and Maserati had their latest models on show but were not really the stand outs for us, unlike the new The F-Type Jag! It was simple stunning.

Another car that stood out was the Toyota FT-1. Lexus had some cool toys at the show, the heart stopping RCF GT3 was spectacular whilst the Lexus hover board was also on display.

Porsche had a good showing and the pick of the bunch was the Turbo S 3.8. Not really a colour we would normally go for and the indoor lighting didn’t quite display the true effect of the paint but we can imagine the metallic really ‘popping’ under sunlight!

The one car that did grab our attention was the Golf GTI Clubsport (slightly biased of course). It will be interesting how this competes with the R version as it will be much lighter, the added boost function also takes it close to the R’s horse power for 15secs with a 15sec recharge.

Mercedes won “Stand of the Show”, we think this just came down to the fact that the SL AMG’s just looked amazing, especially the Nico Rosberg signature Model.

ADRL(Arabian Drag Racing League)_Round 1

We were recently invited to the ADRL Round 1 Event (Arabian Drag Racing League) at the Qatar Racing Club in Doha.
5 rounds of the league are run in Qatar with a range of classes and categories from Pro Modified to Dragster.

A warm and  friendly environment with teams more than happy to chat and share their experiences. We spoke at lenght to one of the fire marshals there who had been flown over from Texas for the 5 rounds in Qatar. What we really liked about the event was all the support and encouragement given to the kids participating and it was great to see them involved at such a young age and clearly loving it.

A big thanks to the organisers for the invite and the opportunity to be in the pit with the cars and drivers...mmmmmmm the smell of burning rubber!

Dallas, Texas

A city still developing and finding itself, our visit to Dallas wasn't quite what we had expected and not what we recalled from J.R Ewing(from the classic  80’s TV series ‘Dallas’)

The Nickel & Rye Bar was first on the hit list where we got chatting with the manager and got some local tips on where to go whilst in town. Off into the night we went and into Deep Ellum, rustic vintage shops, cool bars and restaurants and the Braindead Brewing Co.
The following morning we heading into the Bishops Art District which is an up and coming cultural hub filled with art and cuisine. Lunch was eagerly anticipated with beer and some good ol’ Texas BBQ at the Lockhart Smokehouse. Brown paper, brisket, ribss and beer served in a jar….killer!
If youre a petrol head you can't be in Dallas without visiting Gas Monkey. They were filming at the time so we couldn't really sneak in the workshop but it was still great to visit.  It's a massive shop. The TV show doesn't really do it justice and there were some great cars on the lot!

GMBG is also a cool spot and support local music, great to see when so many places are cutting back on this, well done Dallas!

The Streets of Miami

We had the opportunity over Christmas to take a short break and we hopped on a last minute flight to the US and visited Miami! 

We stayed at The Waldorf on South Beach, which is in the midst of all the action. Wandering the streets of Miami South Beach it was hard not to miss some great cars and places. The city has a great atmosphere with an amazing Latino cultural injection.

Cars from all era's buzzed around Miami including an elusive 356 ‘vert. which regularly passed-by but we were always too slow to take a picture or say hello... but they did look like they were enjoying the drive around the promenade.

With arguably THE best coffee, we say gracias Little Havana!