HSV Exports

Dune raider

On any Thursday evening, the night before a Muslim weekend, Dubai's bustling Jumeirah Beach Road becomes a noisy, seething, crawling Gulf version of Australia's Summernats car festival (though no one seems to be loudly exhorting females to display their breasts).

The highway, which runs along the beach front between the landmark Burj Al Arab hotel and the restaurant district of Dubai, becomes a showcase of sparkling auto excess: nose-to-tail Corvettes, Ferraris, Porsches, Lambos, BMW M cars, AMB Mercs, Audi RS4s, Chrysler 300 SRT8s, even a rare McLaren F1. Then there's the outrageously modded Range Rovers, Landcruisers, Hummers, Escalades, Cayennes.

The boys race from speed hump to speed hump, from traffic light to traffic light as part of this wonderous moving appropriation of chrome and metalflake promenades by. It's a keyhole to the character of Gulf motoring and those who indulge. Cars here are a hobby and a recreation; a catalyst for social activities and family bonding.

Customised and expensive cars of all descriptions are everywhere on the roads in the Gulf, where there's a palpable enthusiasm for powerful performance machines, four wheels and two.

Now there's a new kid on the rev-head block; the CSV (for Chevrolet Special Vehicles) CR8, looking suspiciously like what we know Down Under as the Holden Special Vehicles Clubsport R8.

The Middle East is virginal export sales territory for HSV, so Wheels is in Dubai checking out what the locals think about our mob flogging left-hooker Clubsports to the horsepower-happy denizens of the Gulf region. Affordability is hardly an issue. Tax? What tax? Duty? What duty? The CSV CR8 is priced at 170,000 dirhams (around $55,000). And they can fill the tank in Dubai for $30; even less in Saudi Arabia.

The prevailing driving practice - assertive, cut-throat lane changing and gap filling, with a significant reliance on the effectiveness of the horn and brakes - seems a good match for the HSV product. As is the powerful car culture that exists in the Gulf, as anyone who's watched the mad drifters on YouTube will attest. For these crazy-wheeled funsters, a racetrack is not de rigueur. Any ol' highway will do for the lads to demo their skills.

Cut to the forecourt of the Al Qasr Jumeirah Hotel, a big, contrived slice of five-star ostentation located in what was desert just a few years ago. Here we meet Mohamad, 23, in his traditional Arab clobber, and while the Corvette he's driving suggests a clash of cultures, he tells us he uses his 700-horsepower supercharged 'Vette as a daily driver (45,000km in 12 months), but a CSV CR8 could play a part in his future. "I think this time they've got it right. The Lumina SS (Monaro) wasn't perfect, but I really like the interior, the brakes and the gear on the CR8."

Mohamad's family is into cars. At home there is a BMW 7 Series Individual, Porsche Cayenne Turbo, Range Rover Sport, and a Cadillac Escalade. "I had a BMW 6 Series, but I think this (CR8) is better," he says.

What about the idea of driving an American brand in a region where Uncle Sam is not everyone's favourite relative?

"No, problem. I've always loved American cars."

Underneath a gleaming white kandura (the traditional smock worn by men in the Middle East) is Mohamad's mate Salman, 24, who lives and breathes HSV. He has a photo taken with Mark Skaife to prove it, and HSV model names and numbers spill from his lips. He says he's coming to Australia in March for the grand prix, but mainly to see the V8 Supercars, and to visit the HSV base at Clayton.

Saudi-born Salman is an unabashed fan of Australiana. He's seen Chopper and The Castle on DVD, and Kenny is next. "It's about a dunny man, right?" he asks. his US-accented English is peppered with "mate" and Aussie slang, while during the rugby World Cup he watched the matches on television wearing a Wallabies jersey bought online. "I'm an honorary Aussie," he proclaims, although this commendable commitment does fall short of cracking a tinnie.

"I'm the designated driver - always," he laughs, referring to his non-drinking status. Is it a religious thing? "Nah, I just don't like the taste of alcohol." Across the United Arab Emirates, there is a zero blood alcohol mandate for drivers. That's zero, for all drivers.

Salman's new car is a CSV CR8, orange in colour, and one of the first delivered in Dubai. Yes, he's a very happy chappy. "It has so much power; I love the sound, and those LED tail-lamps. And the interior is fantastic. It has much better performance than an M5," he suggests, before adding, "but it's hard to speed in Dubai ... look at the traffic"

It's mroe about show-ponying in your cars, one-upmanship, looking good - criteria the CR8 meets, but there are other more mundane requirements for Salman, such as its four doors and five seats. "I'm too tall for a Corvette ... and in this part of the world it's also important to have a different car from everyone else."

To achieve that, he suggets the CR8's black cabin could wear a little more colour. "I like the Aussie HSV GTS," he says. "Bigger rims, red interior, xenons, and the console screen."

Leaving the glitz-drenched Qasr Jumeirah Hotel, Salman turns onto Jumeirah Beach Road and, ignoring the heavy peak-hour traffic, floors the CR8. Soon we're doing 140. What about speed cameras? Speed camera fines are roughly $60 but the car guys know where all the cameras are placed. So it's accelerate and brake hard.

Brakes are very important here in the Middle East.

REWIND 24 hours ...
Wheels crawls off a plane into Dubai's bustling, traffic-snarled airport, and we're ushered aboard a limo to cart us off to a hotel in the city. It's a Chevrolet (nee Holden) Caprice, and isn't that a nice unplanned touch? Made in Oz, South Oz, to be precise. Look around, there's another one and another.

The Sri Lankan driver of the Caprice hire car is blissfully unaware of its DNA. "Australia? Really? Isn't Chevrolet an American car?"

Suddenly there's a Lumina in the lane adjacent, and a Barina and an Epica. This is getting way too hard to explain. En route, we pass dozens, no hundreds, of sandy coloured Camry cabs, with a choice of red, blue, green or yellow turrets, all the way from Melbourne, Australia.

This is Aussie export action on wheels. Dubai is boomtown Middle East, populated by (as well as the local Arabs), Brits, Filipinos, Pakistanis, Indians and Aussies. It has a skyline that's an every-changing backdrop with more cranes than camels as the once modest little emirate, only 35 years old, thrusts out into the desert, devouring dune after dune.

HSV recognised the potential here and its march into the market has been an eight-year grind, although the arrival of the VE Commodore got things ticking over way faster. HSV predicts there will be 500 sales of the CR8 in 2008 (or around 10 percent of total 2007 sales), making the region very important in the growing HSV global firmament.

Our Clubsport R8, in left-hand-drive form, is sold off the same showrooms as GM's hero cars - the Corvette and (soon) Camaro. In fact, among the cognoscenti, the CR8 is regarded as a four-door Corvette, because the drivetrain is identical, which has real advantages in servicing, hot-up bits, and spares. But look closely and there are still plenty of HSV labels on the 'Chevrolet', just as there is still some HSV ID on the Vauxhall VXR sold to the Brits.

And it's the expat Aussies and Brits, along with the keen young locals, who are at the pointy end of the queue as the new CR8 rumbles off the showroom floors. One hundred units of the first batch of 200 were sold in the first three weeks after its November 1 launch. The target market, as a wise head observed, is "anyone whose father has got $60 grand to spend".

It's an extension of Holden, which, among the rev heads of the Gulf, is no obscure Antipodean brand. The company has shipped over 200,000 units since exports to the region began with the VT-based Lumina in 1998, although the long-wheelbase Caprice is now outselling Lumina (nee Commodore) three to one. They like 'em big over here.

And the enthusiast locals swap the Chevrolet badges for identification boasting the Holden origins, proving that among the young and cashed-up Arabs, the heartbeat of America is not necessarily the pulse of the desert. In fact, many educated, car-mad Arabs feel that GM has erred in not retaining the HSV branding for the Middle East.

They were made more aware of the Holden/HSV name with a CSV one-make race series in the region using Z Series Clubsports. In time there will be a new batch of HSV (CSV) E Series Clubsport R8 (CR8) cars and this won't hurt the demand for the road versions.

US car pimpers West Coast Customs (of cable television fame) has just opened for business locally as there's massive demand for outrageous mods. Stepping inside, we spy, among other things, a wild black Ferrari, and a worked wagon of indeterminable parentage. HSV is negotiating with West Coast Customs to be its tuning agent in Dubai, catering for the demands of the local customers. Stand by for 800-horse CR8s.

In the meantime, we drop into Al Yousuf Motors, a leading GM dealership in Dubai, parking a red CSV CR8 outside. In no time, the car is being seriously checked out by a local, a video editor named Amjad, already the owner of Holden engineering int he form of an '06 four-door Lumina SS.

Is he interested in a CR8, we ask? Sure is. "I've been following it online. I like it because of the extra horsepower and the new look." Yes, he knows it's made in Australia, despite the Chevrolet badges, but there's a problem. "I don't drive a stick. Is there an auto?"

Mid 2008. You'll have to wait, Amjad.

"Sure. I'll wait."