Honda: Hands

Posted on July 9, 2013 by JP Zakher

For its 65th anniversary, Honda released this fabulous commercial showcasing all there achievement from the 24th of September 1948 till today. A bolt reaching the hands of that Honda engineer (I guess) is transformed from motorcycles to cars, to people movers, supercars, boats and even four-wheel farm bikes and jets. It is a very clever way of showing, in a 1:56 minutes video, all the industries that those Honda engineers were able to tackle so far. The ad is done by Wieden + Kennedy London the company responsible for the 2003 Honda “Cog” commercial that has been named the best car commercials of all time by AutoExpress. This all-new spot called Hands is even more entertaining and might aswell dethrone the old one. The two commercials are linked below. Enjoy!

Drifting with Abdo Feghali, NOT

Posted on July 4, 2013 by JP Zakher

[Updated] Get ready people, the most amazing event of the year, The RedBull Car Park Drift is happening this Saturday in Lebanon, at the Fouad Chehab Stadium in Jounieh. It’s a huge and pure drifting event in which finalists will be selected with regards to the amount of smoke generated by the car, its noise, its beauty and the length of the drift. Since RedBull is one of the most amazing brands I have ever encountered, they contacted me last week to let me know that I would be riding with the craziest, Guinness World Record holder (check the video below) and most famous Lebanese Rally driver, Abdo Feghali a.k.a. Dado. The tour was gonna take place during the qualifiers on Friday July 5, around the Fouad Chehab stadium in Jounieh. Like this wasn’t enough, RedBull gave me a media pass so I can take the best pictures and videos of the event. A dream that was just too good to be true.

Last Saturday I was partying when a discoball fell out of nowhere on my head. The discoball was 1,6 meters in diameter and fell from a distance of 7,5 meters. It not only broke 2 of my neck’s vertebrae, but also my dream of riding shotgun with Dado. I have a collar around the neck that I am not aloud to remove for the next month a half. So RedBull, I wanna first of all thank you so much for the opportunity you gave me and second of all apologies cause I won’t be able to attend the event 😦 Hope you guys enjoy it!!

[Updated] So you might ask yourself what was the response of RedBull to that incident. The answer: A super unique, custom made DiscoRedBull!! How awesome is that?!

The Jaguar C-X75: 850hp and Co2 Emissions of a Prius

Posted on June 26, 2013 by JP Zakher

“Our challenge was monumental: we needed to achieve the performance of a Veyron; the range of a Volt; and the CO2 of a Prius,” said Jaguar C-X75 manager Rob Atkin. After the introduction of LaFerrari by Ferrari and the P1 by Mclaren, it is now Jaguar’s turn to reveal their secret weapon. They called it the C-X75, a concept they have been cooking for around 2 years now, celebrating the 75th anniversary of Jaguar. The result? The most technological advanced production car in the world. This new master piece is a hybrid that has around 850 hp and 750lb-ft of torque, the result of a combination between a Turbocharged and Supercharged 1.6 liter 4 cylinder engine delivering 500hp revving up to 10,300 RPM (YES you read it right) and 2 electric motors generating around 350hp. The petrol engine alone is delivering 313hp per liter, which is 60% more than any road car available in the market today. This massive amount of power will be delivered by all four wheels to the road through a 7 speed manual gear box. The Co2 emission of this beast are comparable to the ones o a Prius, the hybrid that Toyota has been producing for the past couple of years.

Even though it is a production car, Jaguar announced that it not for sale for the time being so don’t expect to see any of these on your local roads soon. Its design is just brilliant, the grey, matte finish looks amazing. The overall look of the car is crazy but not too crazy, the rear diffuser is just massive and the front end looks “deja vu” it has a Ford-ish aspect to it don’t you think? With this car revealed, we should be expecting mind blowing techs in the next generation Jaguar production models. Looking forward!

GT86/BRZ Club Road Trip

Posted on June 10, 2013 by JP Zakher

BRZ Drifting After a long absence, TheAdsGarage is back with a freshly backed category, a new Youtube account and new Instagram account. How is that for a comeback!! A couple of weeks ago I was invited to a gathering with the GT86/BRZ club. We met up on the Marina Dbayeh, waiting for the late comers, then we hit the road, destination, Wardeh Faraya, the most typical destination for all Lebanese road trips. We all know what happens when a bunch of cars reach Wardeh, Drifting time! The trip was really nice there was good cooperation between the drivers, we had lots of fun and burned a lot of rubber 😀 Thank you very much for the invite guys! You can check the rest of the pictures by clicking right here. Special thanks to Mario Yacoub for editing the video here below.

Regarding the cars, I can assure you that the GT86 and the BRZ are almost, totally similar. Mechanically speaking the cars are exactly the same, they feature the same 2.0-liter boxer four-cylinder motor delivering 200 hp and 151 lb-ft of torque. They are both fitted with the same Manual or Automatic gear box. The suspension and springs settings are very similar, the BRZ is a bit firmer (better for the track) and the GT86 is slight softer resulting in some extra oversteer for drifting action. This can be only felt when the car is pushed to its very limits. The only differences I spotted were the LED lights on the front bonnet, the seats fabric, the dashboard in front of the passenger seat that features a cool design in the GT86 that is not available in the BRZ and I found the standard radio in the GT86 much more appealing than the BRZ one. Price wise, the Subaru costs $46,000 while the Toyota costs $40,000 (both including VAT and registration taxes).

GT86 BRZ The GT86/BRZ, is easy to drive, it is steady in corners, thanks to the 50:50 weight distribution and its very low center of gravity. You won’t be expecting any surprises entering the corner at high speed. The interior doesn’t look cheap, it has proper finishing. Its exterior design is cool as well is really looks like a sports car to have fun with. The only problem I had with the car was its power, it really lacks of it!! Going up the mountain roads the GT86/BRZ had some troubles over-passing cars at high speed. It just needed that small extra boost. Maybe a small turbo could do the job? or an Intake with a map would be enough? Anyway, I would definitely get the Toyota, the Subaru is really not worth that extra 6,000$. I would use that extra 6,000$ to equipped the GT86 with extra ponies 🙂

Megane RS Red Bull RB8 Edition

Posted on May 26, 2013 by JP Zakher

Following the success of the Red Bull formula one racing team, for the third year in a row Renault released a Mégane R.S. Red Bull Racing RB8, a special edition version of the Mégane RS production car. This special edition hatchback features the same Crépuscule Blue color used by the Red Bull F1 team, 19 inch black alloy wheels and high-performance Bridgestone tyres, the same tires that were used by the Mégane Trophy to establish a new lap record for the Nürburgring. Other that that there are some red bull badges here and there in addition to an in-dash, connected R-Link multimedia tablet that has six functions (navigation, telephony, multimedia, vehicle, systems and R-Link Store applications catalogue).

Mechanically speaking, the RB8 has the same specs as the Mégane RS trophy edition featuring a Cup chassis, limited slip differential, 265-hp and 360Nm of torque squeezed out of a 2.0-liter turbocharged engine. The Renault Mégane R.S. Red Bull Racing RB8 will be available in 26 countries until September 30, 2013. Prices in Lebanon start at around $50,000. Being a hatchback fan I loved it even though I don’t think I would really pay around 4000$ over a RS Trophy just to get Red Bull badges here and there. As the Mégane is issued from a French factory, I am glad that it is available in manual only, French cars tend to have crappy automatic gearboxes. Its design is not bad at all. The single middle exhaust at the back is damn sexy. The combination of a cup chassis and LSD is just brilliant. It even comes with a yellow seat-belt!! All in all, the Mégane RS Trophy has all the ingredients of a perfect and fun hatchback. Looking forward to test drive one of those Frenchies soon 🙂

Mad Mike drifting Crown Range in New Zealand

Posted on May 15, 2013 by JP Zakher

Mad Mike competes in two pro drift spec Mazda cars. All over the globe and every time he is behind the wheel and initiates his high speed drift he still experiences that same rush of adrenaline that keeps him hooked. He recently conquered the Crown Range, New Zealand a road composed of 47 corners, 1076 metres elevation, 10.4km long, one of the most demanding and technical drives of the country. For the first time the mystic road has been closed for only one man, Mike Whiddett. Mike was able to pull sixth gear along the Crown Terrace and winds the Mazda RX7′s 750 horsepower engine out to its redline hitting a max speed of 240km/h on those slippery and tricky mountain roads. A couple of slow motion cameras, some Go Pros, a helicopter and a big filming crew and BAM the greatest ride of all time has been written in history. (The Behind Scene video is linked below as well) Red Bull I salute you for sponsoring such amazing people!

Aston Martin One-77 Joins The Dubai Police Patrol Cars

Posted on May 13, 2013 by JP Zakher

Because a Ferrari FF and a Lamborghini Aventador (for more details click here) weren’t flamboyant enough, the Dubai Police department just invested in a 2 million dollars Aston Martin One-77. This Aston is only available in 77 units worldwide and is powered by a massive 7.3 liters V12 delivering a minimum of 750hp and 750 Nm of torque. A gorgeous piece of Aston Martin’s accomplishment. You would probably think that the Dubai Police Department would be more than satisfied with these 3 supercars, well you are wrong.

They added to the team a Bentley Continental GT equipped with a 4.0-liter turbocharged V8, 500-hp and 487 lb-ft of torque and a Mercedes SLS armed with a 6.3L V8 engine delivering 563hp/ 479lb-ft of torque. All of those later comers are shown in the video below equipped with a police siren and exposed in the famous Dubai Mall (which happens to be the biggest mall in the world) This whole supercar shopping added up to a total of around 3,5 million dollars worth of Super Police Cars. What do they need them for? NOTHING! These supercars are just used to cruise around in the city center giving a glamorous and rich image to Dubai. Dubai Police Chief said that the public’s “amazing” reaction for the Aventador police car convinced him to add further exotics to the fleet. The Dubai Police department has officially the fastest police cars squad in the world.

Final Red Bull Car Park Drift in Jeddah

Posted on May 9, 2013 by JP Zakher

The Final Red Bull Car Park Drift is happening tonight at 9pm (beirut time) at Corniche al Hamra in Jeddah. You can watch the event LIVE by clicking on the video below. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, It’s a huge and pure drifting event in which the participants must drift as much as possible from start to finish. The finalists will be selected with regards to several criteria like the amount of smoke generated by the car, its noise,its beauty and the length of the drift. For the Final in Jeddah, qualified drifters coming from around the KSA will be participating. There will be drifting shows by Red Bull athlete Abdo Feghali (who broke the record of the longest vehicle drift) and Mad Mike (a video of his Mad work will be released soon, stay tuned). The Lebanese edition of the Red Bull Car Park Drift is scheduled to July. Ill make sure to cover this amazing event once it reaches our borders 😉 Looking forward.

Citroën C3 with Pure Tech engine.

Posted on May 6, 2013 by JP Zakher

The Citroen C3 is a small 4 door hatchback cheap and economical. It’s the company’s biggest-selling small car. It has a 1.6 118bhp engine, not fuel hungry at all and very silent. It is its economical aspect that is being advertised in this commercial. Its PureTech engine, will give you 250 extra kilometers of driving. The ad is very simple, romantic and straight to the point. I personally hate the C3. Sitting in it you feel trapped in box full of plastic. As compared to its fellow super mini cars in the range, I would rather get a Ford Fiesta that costs approximately the same and is powered by a similar engine, but looks so much better inside and outside. It even has an Aston Martin look-alike front grill. How awesome is that!

Porsche 911 Turbo S 2014

Posted on May 3, 2013 by JP Zakher

On this 40th anniversary Porsche is now presenting the technological and dynamic performance peak of the 911 series, the new generation 911 Turbo and Turbo S. At the heart of the new Turbo is a rear-mounted, turbocharged, 3.8-liter flat-six engine, making use of twin, variable-turbine-geometry turbos. For the standard Turbo, the result is 520 horsepower, allowing it to achieve 0-100 km/h in just 3.2 seconds. Not quick enough you say? You can opt for the S version with 560 hp, and a 0-100 km/h in just 2.9 seconds. A PDK, 7 speed dual clutch transmission will be the only transmission responsible to drive the ponies to the road. (manual won’t be available).

For an even faster and more precise power distribution to the two axles, Porsche developed a new all-wheel drive system (PTM) with electronically controlled and activated multi-plate coupling which is water-cooled and can drive higher levels of torque to the front wheels. The new Turbo is equipped with a rear-wheel steer system that consists of two electro-mechanical actuators that allow for a 2.8-degrees of rear-wheel steering, and improved steering response and turn-in. For added down-force, Porsche developed an active aerodynamic system, “Porsche active aerodynamics (PAA)”, a first for Porsche. It consists of a retractable three-stage front spoiler, whose segments can be pneumatically extended, and a rear wing with three adjustable wing positions.

Even though I always hated the “homogeneity” of the 911 range, this new Turbo is looking good, very good indeed. It obviously looks like the new Carrera but yet it feels very special, very different from it. Porsche have finally created a Turbo that deserve its name, a Turbo that is not just a more powerful of Carrera but a “range” on its own. When Bugatti has been using Active Aerodynamics for more than 5 years now, it would have been a shame for the new Turbo to not be equipped with such a system that is very effective on such high performance cars. The “Turbo S” writing on the front spoiler is such a sexy detail. The tail pipes remind me of the ones being uses on all of Mercedes AMG models. Right? Looking forward to seeing this beauty fill our Lebanese streets like its older sister did.