Hiding Horse

Too much time and money is a great combination when it comes to cars. Tucked away, Dubai-side, in many a slick Sheikh's private collection are some of the wildest rides your sun-baked brain can imagine. You just have to find them. And that's what I like to do, when I'm not kicking back in 7-star luxury or setting fire to vast pools of free petrol, that is.

My buddies down at Liberty Motorsports, just outside of Dubai, are always guaranteed to have something weird and wonderful tucked away in their vast workshop, and a quick sniff around the other day turned up a few interesting bits and bobs. Liberty are the name in custom and tuning in the UAE, and they've pumped out some serious show 'n' go in their time. Here's some of the muscle 'n' hustle tucked away...

Classic Yank-tanks have always been popular in this oil-rich oasis, and with zero restrictions on cheap-fuel-fun ($20 will get you a pretty big tank of gas), it's definitely a case of the bigger the engine the better, affording the V8 cult status. You'll hear many a huge powerplant throbbing around Dubai-town, roaring through wide-open pipes.

Knight Rider wasn't so smug today.

This McLaren racer from the late 60s was the biggest surprise - Allah only knows what this little beastie is doing in the desert. Driven successfully in race series all over the world and thanks to 7-litre, V8 motors pushing around 700bhp, without a doubt quite a bit of a handful. Real men's racecars - free hairy chest with every one bought!

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Over Blown!

The title says it all really - just way too much forced induction here, guys. But hey, you know what they say: the bigger they are, the harder they spool! Moreeb Dune drag racing, Liwa Featival 2009, UAE - home to the biggest hairdryers on the planet...

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Rockin' F1 V8!

Let's rock! Check this Renault F1 V8 motor twitchin' to the beat of eight flying pistons. You don't usually get to get this close to an F1 car, and as you can see (and hear!) from the footage, I was right next to this 800bhp beastie when the pit boys fired it up for a quick test. They all had their fingers in their ears, but I was holding the camera, so again my much-abused eardrums got another beating. Even though this screaming V8 was illegally loud, it was the merest of sweet kisses compared to the uproar from the nitro V8s down at the Liwa Festival at the Moreeb Dune. Check my videos on that and see for yourself who really rules the slammin' V8s class. I was pit-side with the Renault F1 car thanks to my mate Terry 'Crazy' Grant who was performing at the Renault Roadshow in Dubai, and snaffled me back stage. Terry was donutting the hell outta his special Legend circuit car, there was some more smoky action from the tidy new Renault Megane Trophy racers, as well as even more donuts from the F1 beauty. All in all a deliciously smoky day!

Here's that F1 racer sitting pretty in Downtown Burj Dubai. Always a pleasure to get up close to an F1 racer - you forget how incredible they look, sound and scream... until they fire-up that V8!

This is me old mate Terry in his Legend stunt car... grrr, like a tiger! These little cars are seriously cool and no-one can handle one like Terry. Small tubular chassis, motorbike engine up front (usually a 1200cc Yamaha motor making around 120bhp), and rear-wheel drive. These slippery little suckers are light, fast and nimble. Get one on the circuit and you'll be laughing.

Here's the cute 'n' curvy behind of the pocket rocket Renault Clio 197 F1, waiting to stunt-out for the crowds. Look carefully and you should spot the 818m Burj Dubai super-tower in the background... just peaking out behind the 'Renault' flags... got it yet?

Here's one of the new Renault Megane Trophy circuit racers I was talking about - how sweet is that? Pure cut 'n' slashed circuit aggression, and if this doesn't make you want to go racing, you'd better stick to knitting! Rear-engine'd, 3.5-litre V6, 360bhp, on the floor with wild carbon fibre bodywork and cheeky Lambo-style doors... what more do you want?

Cool Track Cars at the Dubai Autodrome

The United Arab Emirates may be small in size, but the local passion for performance is strong. On any given Friday, from October to April, you'll find some serious track day addicts down at the Dubai Autodrome, attacking the track in a wide range of fettled and focused 'production' racecars - all doing battle in the name of glory throughout the UAE Touring Car Championship. Here's a round-up of some of the sweet circuit stuff.

At the top of the blog you can see one of the more famous UAE Touring Car campaigners, the gold 'n' delicious Honda Integra DC2. Built for the right reasonable price, but tuned with the right parts in the right places, this car had the corner grip and braking strength before it had wild hikes in horsepower. Engine work to that legendary VTEC followed, but not before there was balance and drivability. And that's why this car always shows strong. More proof, if you needed it, that Japanese cars were born to race. Note the heavily-vented carbon bonnet, homemade carbon front splitter and miss-matched wing mirrors - she's seen some rubbin' during her racing!

Another Jap classic amongst the racers is this Mitsubishi EVO VI, which regularly hassles the rear bumper of the more expensive Porsche, Corvette and Viper entries, thanks mainly to the maximum exploitation of those great EVO traits - namely, get the power strong, reliable and tractable, and let that stonking chassis do its thing. Check the huge intercooler, cold air intakes everywhere and that distinctly appealing widened track under flared arches. Sounds pure EVO-evil on the move, too.
Stepping sweetly into the new school side of things is this SEAT Leon Cupra. It's just a small step away, in terms of spec, from the real-deal European Touring Car machines, and its pedigree shows out on the track where it's consistently near the top of the table. Undeniable proof that light-weight, chassis grip and braking composure maketh the racecar - brute power won't always win. The Loen looks just killer in race trim - surely inspiration for a road car style-up?

It's always a pleasure to see a tidy Beemer out on the track. These Bavarian beauties just exude pure motor racing class, even if, like this E46 M3 CSL, they are simply road cars with a cheeky sprinkling of factory-added circuit bits. But what lovely bits the factory have sprinkled - light-weight BBS alloys with a seductive deep-dish, carbon panels including the entire roof, and a general performance enhancing diet plan that really gets the most from that lusty 360bhp, straight-6 motor under the hood. Not cheap, but too trick; the CSL just rocks right outta the box.

You may already have noticed that there is indeed a few quid (or Dirhams as we call them in these parts) knocking around the racetracks in this region, and as such you will see some true motorsport thoroughbreds smokin' the tarmac - just like this Porsche 911 GT3 RS. If you've got the cash and you don't want to build it and tune it yourself, then the GT3 RS is one of the daddies of out-of-the-box racing. Money can buy you happiness!

Just as pretty but in a more nostalgic style, and right on the other end of the money and maintenance scale, is this Porsche 944 S2, looking too tough in dark grey paint over track-tweaked factory S2 bodywork. This car posts regular mid-table results, right on the tails of some of the much bigger budget cars, thanks again to the cunning allocation of cash. The 2.9-litre, 4-cylinder motor remains untouched; for this driver it's all about stopping and steering, with upgrades to the brakes and suspension. And this Porker definitely goes round the bends. And all the time rolling in serious style on stunning Enkei rims.

RubberDuck Magazine's own Jon Saxon has some big love for these little cars, the Caterham Super 7. This pocket rocket represents British sportscar making at its very best, with years of experience poured into these reasonable-budget-racers to make them almost untouchable on the track. The grip is stunning and the brakes can stretch your neck, again it's not all about brute force - although at 260bhp these CSRs ain't exactly shy. In the right hands Caterhams will go around the outside of pretty much anything... in Jon's hands they usually end up backwards in a hedge! (Sorry mate!). Full cage, exposed aluminum bodywork and dark grey rims keep this Super 7 CSR nicely on the mean side of nasty.

We're hangin' with the big boys now. These are the pure muscle monsters that constantly rattle the scenery and hog the podium positions, down at the Dubai Autodrome. At 8.4-litres, the Dodge Viper V10 is easily the biggest block on the block, dwarfing even the rather immense 7-litre V8 lurking up front in the Corvette Z06. With open exhausts and full GT race-specs these cars really do sound like the end of the world!