SimplyAbuDhabi XV

2 2 6 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I R alph Debbas is the creator, owner and driving force behindWMotors, manufacturer of Arabia’s first Hypercar: the sensational Lykan HyperSport. If you’re a regular reader of Simply Cars, you’ll have seen this unforgettable vehicle on these pages and quite possibly driven it in your dreams ever since. Recently, JordanaLynch, co-founder and co-Editor of SimplyAbuDhabi, was given the opportunity to spend some timewith themanhimself and had the chance to ask a few questions on behalf of our readers. So, in something of a first for Simply Cars, we shift gear from presenting a supercar review to offering a closer look at the man behind one of the most exciting vehicles ever to grace our pages, Mr. Ralph Debbas. Jordana Lynch: Have you always had a passion for cars? Mr. Barras: I have always been passionate about cars and design since my youngest age. The automotive world has always fascinated me, as we are surrounded by millions of cars and yet very few have dared to challenge the market and try to create something new and innovative. Tell us how WMotors came into being. WMotors started with a simple dream of creating the most exclusive automotive brands in the world and the first Arabian brand of high performance luxury vehicles. It all started in 2006 while I was doing my degree in Automotive Design in England. I was confident that my ideas for W Motors would lead to something big one day, and decided to explore and pursue my passion, dreams and goals to the limit. This beautiful adventure started in 2008 as my team started coming together, along with big international technical partners who supported this dream and helped us achieve what we’ve accomplished today. What does the W in WMotors stand for? WMotors stands for Wolf Motors – not many people know that! Wolf has always been my nickname ever since I was young. I’m very fascinated with this animal, which represents leadership, power and beauty. It just made perfect sense to name the company W Motors so as to symbolise all the attributes of this beautiful creature, while giving birth to a new breed of modern wolves. What makes WMotors unique? Since its conception, W Motors has always been about exclusivity, luxury and design. The main feature is the limited production units of only a handful of cars per year, making it the most exclusive hypercar brand on the market. The design of our hypercars is also absolutely distinctive, combining a concept car into a road-legal vehicle, offering incredible performance, never-before-seen technologies, and unique lifestyle services such as the concierge service connected to the car, the luxury watch from renowned Swiss watchmakers, and the exceptional events that are all part of the W Motors lifestyle. WMotors is about creating collectors’ items that stand out from the competition to lead the way for a new niche market with a very high demand. How important is the Middle Eastern heritage for both W Motors and the Lykan? The Middle Eastern heritage is very important for both our brand and products. W Motors is the first Arabian manufacturer of high performance luxury cars; this alone has placed us in the history books as we are not looking to compete with the big brands that everybody knows. Instead, we are looking to create a new niche product, something innovative, something desirable, and something that will make history, yet again. Bringing the automotive industry to the Middle East has generated incredible exposure, pushing us to lead the way and proceed with our expansion plans in the region, with an R&D facility and production plant opening soon in Dubai along new lines of vehicles. The Lykan HyperSport is the first model launched by W Motors; it will be followed by two new models in 2015 and entering the MotorSport world in 2016. How would you personally define innovation? Innovation is approaching an existing idea or product and looking at it from a different angle. We are surrounded every day by inventions that make our life easier; innovation simply makes life more interesting. At W Motors we base all our work on innovation in technology, luxury, performance or design – always taking things further in the development of never-seen-before products. Do you believe the automotive industry embraces innovation or do you think more risks could be taken? The automotive industry is constantly going the extra mile to embrace innovation; however, most manufacturers have a calculated risk in order to stay in line with the trends. This is bound to change, as many manufacturers are looking further down the line for their future products and trying to think outside the box. However, innovation can also be as simple as creating a new door mechanism, designing a futuristic gear stick or integrating new technologies inside the vehicle cabin. These risks have to be taken in order to make a statement: “We are different, we are more advanced, we are willing to take the risk to change the perception of how the consumer looks at cars today.” And this is how all manufacturers in this industry should be thinking, in my opinion. Where did the name Lykan originate? The name Lykan (also written Lycan) originates from the Greek god Lykos, who was a mythical werewolf capable of transforming at any time from a beautiful and elegant creature to a powerful and vicious wolf. He’s believed to be the most advanced species of wolf in the mythical legends. Every car we create is given the name of a wolf with our own interpretation of the modern werewolf. What gives the Lykan HyperSport its $3.4m price tag? The LykanHyperSport is a limited edition hypercar, with only seven units produced in the world, and is touted as the most exclusive hypercar on the market. The car comes with 24/7 dedicated concierge service, a limited edition luxury watch, diamonds and sapphires in the front lights, a unique mid-air holographic display, reverse door- opening system and many more distinctive features that come as standard. It is powered by a flat-6, twin turbo mid rear engine produced by RUF in Germany, delivering 770HP and 1000NM of torque along a seven-speed dual clutch transmission, making it go from 0 to 100km/h in less than 2.8 seconds and giving it a maximum speed of 395km/h. The Lykan HyperSport is completely hand-crafted, taking 3600 man hours to build just one car with over 600 hours of paint. It is treated like an exceptional work of art with every attention to detail accounted for. Tell us about the design process. The Lykan went through several phases before going into production. The concept phase was created in 2009 as the project was launched with an initial rough idea on how the car might look. This phase was followed by extensive sketching and brainstorming from the whole team and Design Director Anthony Jannarelly, who proceeded with the coordination between the engineering department at Magna Steyr and the design modifications. Following the initial design feasibility done by the engineers, we had a detailed guideline for safety, homologation andmechanical engineering which the design needed to adapt. Step by step, the Lykan was born in December 2012 followed by the world premiere in January 2013 at the Qatar Motor Show. Ralph Debbas