Simply Abu Dhabi XXXIV

2 1 0 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I T his was going to be a test drive with a twist. Dubai-based W Motors founder Ralph Debbas greeted me at his showroom in CityWalk to honour a longstanding promise to drive his newest supercar, the AED5.5 million Fenyr Supersport. But there was something else on the agenda and I soon got the feeling that the test drive was more an opulent means of transport to the real big news buried in a back block of a Dubai industrial estate. W Motors is a Dubai-based automotive manufacturer, better known as the maker of the AED 12.4 million Lykan Hypersport that made headlines in 2013 with its diamond encrusted headlights and appearance in the Fast and Furious 7. Only seven were made and six were sold to investors in the Middle East, China, Thailand and the United States with one remaining at WMotors. However, there have been questions surrounding W Motors’ claim to being a UAE car company when its cars are assembled by Magna Steyr in Austria on a mechanical platform developed by RUF in Germany. This was the day those questions were answered. As I gave the 800bhp Fenyr Supersport a blast into the outer suburbs of Dubai and with Ralph alongside, he directed me through a maze of carefully negotiated speed humps and roundabouts that led to the outer reaches of Silicon Oasis. “There, that’s our factory, that’s where we’re going to be from November,” he proudly boasted, pointing to a fenced off portion of land. The plan, he says, is to relocate those who have been working at both RUF and Magna Steyr, which also builds the Mercedes- Benz G-Class, BMW 5-Series, Jaguar E-Pace and the new Toyota Supra under licence to their respective manufacturers, to the new Dubai facility and from next year will start manufacturing the Fenyr locally. “It’s a relatively small factory of around 6,000 square metres but within that we will include the design centre, engineering, R&D, tech lab and a training facility, making it the first of its kind in the Middle East,” he said. “There will be a production run of just 100 Fenyr Supersports with 10 launch editions that we revealed at the Goodwood Festival of Speed which is where we took most of our pre-orders. “We just delivered our first Dubai car, but most will be exported to Europe, the US and China.” WMotors - RalphDebbas interview B y D a m i e n R e i d