Dubai, UAE - The Dubai International Rally, like most motor sport events, is traditionally dominated by men, but two young Turkish ladies plan to steal at least some of the limelight during the 33rd edition of the event running over UAE National Day weekend. Burcu Çetinkaya and her co-driver, Çiçek Güney, have arrived in the Emirates for the first time at the start of what they ......read more

San Paolo, Brazil/Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy - A few days ago the jury members of the Middle East Motor Award, including Auto Arabia's editor Mohamed Sheta, chose the Aventador as the best cars in its category. A few days later Stephan Winkelmann, President and CEO of Automobili Lamborghini attended the Aventador debut in South America, where the new Lamborghini Aventador LP ......read more

Volvo cars are becoming more and more popular in the Middle East and North African region, among both customers as well as motoring journalists. This is probably one of the reasons why the Volvo Car Corporation took home the most coveted award of the Middle East Motor Award (MEMA) ceremony with the Volvo S60 winning “Middle East Car of the Year”. MEMA is currently the most ......read more

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes with both its drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton were staring the whole weekend, before German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel scored his 14th pole position of the season on the final lap of Q3, thus equaling Nigel Mansell’s seasonal record. After Lewis Hamilton made the headlines this season due to his continuous fights and resulting crashes with ......read more

In one of the keenly contested and prestigious auto awards in the Middle East, Volvo S60 drove away with the coveted ‘Car of the Year’ honour at the Middle East Motor Awards (MEMA) ceremony held at Expo Centre Sharjah on Thursday, November 3, 2011. H.E. Mohammad Ben Sulayem, Vice-President of FIA Middle East and President of the Automobile and Touring Club UAE, in the presence of ......read more

IWC Schaffhausen presents the Portuguese Sidérale Scafusia, the most exclusive and complicated watch ever created by IWC. After ten years of intensive research, the Swiss watch manufacturer has succeeded in combining solar time with sidereal time in a single watch. Around 80 journalists representing the international trade press gathered in Schaffhausen to be initiated into the mysteries ......read more

We at Auto Arabia and Radio Masr 88.7 were the only Egyptian media to test-drive the KIA Rio in Portugal this week at the international launch event. And guess what?! … The car is really impressive! Not as impressive as a Lamborghini (although the Rio uses some Lamborghini design elements in the interior, thanks to ex-Volkswagen designer Peter Schreyer), but it is surely ......read more

Emirates Motor Company (EMC), Mercedes-Benz general distributors in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, has teamed up with its parent company’s five-star hotel and resorts property, Al Fahim Group’s Fairmont Bab Al Bahr, to grant EMC benefit cardholders the most elite services in Abu Dhabi as well as across the world. “EMC is delighted to enter into this new promising business venture ......read more

Bonneville (USA) - London - Cairo / ŠKODA’s Octavia vRS has become the latest member to join Bonneville’s legendary 200 mph club. The 500 bhp ‘salt spec’ challenger – built to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the iconic vRS performance flagship badge – pushed its way through the 200 mph barrier, four days ahead of schedule. In doing so the car, dubbed the ‘vRS ......read more

Wolfsburg - Dubai - Cairo / While Volkswagen owners in Egypt are suffering big-time from the very poor customer service of Volkswagen Egypt, we find the Volkswagen customers in the gulf region experiencing a totally different customer service. That is one of the reasons why Volkswagen Middle East announced the winners of its regional “Catch me if you can” car competition, ......read more

Gaydon - Dubai / At the prestigious Royal Automobile Club last night, international motorsport legend, Sir Stirling Moss took delivery of his newly purchased Aston Martin Cygnet; a surprise birthday present for wife, Lady Moss. One of the closest teams in motorsport for many years, Sir Stirling and Lady Moss planned a private celebratory dinner on the eve of her birthday at the ......read more

Molsheim - Dubai / The final order for the Bugatti Veyron has been placed by a European customer, marking an end to the successful era and exclusive production run of 300 units of the supercar and its even faster cousin the Super Sport. The coupe versions of the Veyron are worthy successors to the heritage of classic Bugattis, now collector's items of unparalleled status and ......read more

In Loutraki / It would have been indeed difficult to find a better place for the first victory in SWRC. The Red Bull ŠKODA team won the legendary Acropolis Rally, one of the most difficult events in the rallying calendar. The season's fourth event saw Juho Hänninen win after putting in a brilliant performance - a combination of speed, patience and cool-headedness. Although he was ......read more

Goodwood - London - Dubai / In just ten days time the annual UK National Motorsport Week (25 June-3 July) gets underway, celebrating Britain’s dominant role in global motor racing with a week of activities culminating at the 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed (30 June-3 July) - one of the world’s greatest celebration of motor sport and car culture, where almost every motor ......read more

Frankfurt - Dubai - Cairo / The Korean car manufacturer Hyundai is not only giving the Japanese car manufacturers such as Toyota and Lexus a hard time when it comes to comparison tests, but it is apparently also giving the established German car manufacturers a hard time when it comes to local and international publicity events. Back in 2006, when the FIFA Soccer World World Cup ......read more

Munich - Dubai - Cairo / Heritage is extremely important for the car companies in Europe and the USA. In the Middle East and North Africa region we find that automotive heritage hardly plays any role, except in some few countries such as Jordan where they have an impressive Royal Automobile Museum with some of the best cars ever built. Now BMW is also keen on reminding its fans ......read more

Gaydon - Abu Dhabi - Cairo / Aston Martin announces an exciting new collaboration with renowned Italian design house Zagato in the 50th anniversary year of the iconic DB4GT Zagato. The first product of this renewed working partnership will be shown for the first time at the famous Villa D’Este Concours this month, with a racing debut at Nürburgring later in the month. Aston ......read more

Wolfsburg – Dubai – Cairo / Motorsport fans in the Middle East never had a chance a to see a company-backed Volkswagen racing car in action in any local or regional rally. This will change in 2013 when the Polo R WRC will compete in the WRC, which by then will hopefully still have a round in Jordan. "We have invited you to join us here in Olbia to announce Volkswagen’s entry ......read more

Affalterbach – Abu Dhabi - Cairo / Roadsters and convertibles in the Middle East are not as popular as in Europe, mainly due to the climate conditions. But it is improving year by year, especially when such stunning cars as the SLS AMG Roadster enter this segment. After the ‘gullwing’ version, the open-top variant is the second car to be independently developed by AMG. ......read more

Wolfsburg – Dubai - Doha / This year convertible fans in the Middle East and North Africa region can expect at least two exciting new models from Volkswagen, Europe’s largest car manufacturer. One of the them is the successor of the iconic Golf convertible and the other one is the very successful Eos 2011 model, which has just been launched in the Middle East. The 2011 ......read more

Le Mans - Dubai / Seven weeks ahead of this year’s 24-hour race in Le Mans (FR), BMW Motorsport made an important step forward in its intense preparation programme for this classic endurance race. Together with 52 other cars, the two BMW M3 GTs with car numbers 55 and 56 took to the “Circuit de la Sarthe” on Sunday, completing a total of 147 laps. The team made full use of ......read more