![]() "We were contacted by the private office of an eminent member of the Saudi royal family who loved the car and wanted to be the first one to have it." We sold our first car while we were still completing the prototype and had not yet opened sales. The SandRacer GT500 was a hit even before it was available to buy, says Mr Al Qadi. In 2015, Abu Dhabi police took delivery of a tech-tricked out Lykan HyperSport, which the company said at the time was "just a computerised voice away from becoming RoboCop".īut none of these cars are able to rival the Zarooq vehicle's dual sand and road capabilities - a fact that caught the eye of one discerning client very early on. Also based in Dubai is W Motors, the company behind the Lykan and the Fenyr Supersport hypercars. First unveiled in June last year, the car is currently undergoing a thorough final testing programme. ![]() There are other high-end, niche car makers in the UAE, such as Jannarelly Automotive, the Design-1 maker. These were necessary to have a car which really stands out in the low volume, high luxury supercar arena," Ms Laffite points out. ![]() "We improved the performance of the car, made its design more aggressive and brought the finish to a whole new dimension with a partnership with Mansory, the German star supercar tuner: hand-stitched leather carbon fibre German preparation of the engine. "The concept of a UAE-born desert supercar looked very promising and I decided to commit not only means but also my know-how," Ms Lafitte says. In April 2016, Ms Laffite, who is a luxury market expert based with her husband in Monaco, decided to invest $1 million, taking the project from seed to early-stage investment level. "Even amidst the economic slowdown globally, the sales of luxury cars per capita are still the highest in the Middle East," adds Research and Markets. "World over while mass automobile manufacturers are struggling with margins, high end manufacturers are enjoying steadily increasing sales." "As we had good connections in the automotive and motorsport world, we managed to have a running mock-up one year after the initial idea and six months after announcing it during the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix in 2015," Mr Al Qadi says.Īnd Zarooq has timed its new venture well: "The global luxury car market has seen been relatively untouched by the financial crisis and has been posting growth driven by the emerging markets," says Research and Markets in a report earlier this year. He says initially, he, Mr Laffite and Mr Mardell, with support from family, provided the design and first prototype funding of US$750,000. We actually owe the name to Rashed Ahmed Al Nasseri, a young national from Al Ain who is passionate about cars and the desert," Mr Al Qadi adds. "That’s why we named our brand 'Zarooq', which is the Emirati name for the fastest snake in the desert, the Sandracer. UAE sports car maker’s first roadster is a trip back to the future "Bruno brought to the table top-notch European racing engineers – Philippe Gautheron from Campos Racing, we hired a UAE-based designer who had already penned some supercars and I made sure the specs were perfect for both a bash in Liwa in August or for a casual drive on Sheikh Zayed Road. Mr Al Qadi says that is what inspired the team to build their own. "That’s where we saw an opportunity, a gap in the market: there are no cars today with which you can safely race off-road while also being road legal and good looking, which never harms… So we decided to gather the necessary talents and create our own car, born in the UAE: a new kind of supercar, a supercar you can take in the desert. The problem was that we could not find any which was suitable among existing ones such as sandcars, ATVs, big 4x4s or racing prototypes." "We needed a car that is iconic, unique and ideally a single type. The tech behind the UAE’s first purpose built desert racer But, he says, aside from land, the company lacked one crucial element - a vehicle. Mr Laffite says the team felt that approach would be also more commercially attractive, from a corporate and tourist standpoint. "After careful appraisal of the market, we reached the conclusion that off-road was the avenue we should pursue rather than tarmac, because of the passion for the desert that is a key component of the UAE’s car culture." I brought Mohammed into the conversation in order to capitalise on his 15 years of experience in UAE motorsport. "In 2014, Bruno came to the UAE with the objective to launch a GT series championship here and we met to discuss it. "Mohammed was senior director of Yas Marina Circuit, Bruno’s family include a Monaco GP winner, an F1 TV anchor and himself was a pro driver in European and US championships , while my family was running Winfield, the most successful Formula One racing school ever. "The initial bond between us is Formula One," says Mr Mardell
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