Car News Articles

Would you spend $15 million on a number plate? A super rich businessman did just that.

The super rich in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are bidding millions of dollars for out-of-the-ordinary car licence plates as the Gulf state basks in an oil-driven economic boom.

One businessman forked out a record $US14 million ($15 million) on Saturday for a licence plate at a charity auction in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi.

“It is not huge compared to my family’s fortune,” Saeed Abdel Ghaffar Khouri told AFP after he bid 52.2 million dirhams ($15 million) for an Abu Dhabi licence plate bearing the single number “1.”

“The price is fair. After all, who among us does not want to be number one?” asked Mr Khouri, whose fortune was made in real estate and stocks.

Asked what he planned to do with the licence plate, the twenty-something said he would frame it and mount it on a wall rather than attach it to a car.

“I don’t want to sell it at the moment. But I don’t know what will happen in the future, because I’m sure its price will increase after a year or two,” he added.

Oil-producing Gulf states such as the UAE have seen their economies boom in recent years on the back of record-high crude prices.

Abu Dhabi sits on most of the UAE’s oil and gas reserves - ranked fifth and fourth respectively in the world. Proven oil reserves on their own are expected to last for another 150 years.

Emirates Auction, which organised the sale, said on its website that it had expected that a new world record would be set for the most expensive licence plate in the world.

In May another UAE citizen spent more than $US5 million on a licence plate bearing the number “5.”

Funds from the auction will go to charities, including one to build a hospital for casualties from road accidents.

According to official figures 312 people died in traffic accidents in 2006 in Dubai alone, up 32 per cent on the previous year and giving the emirate one of the world’s highest road mortality rates of 21.9 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Buyers battled it out on Saturday for 90 low digit licence plates, spending a total of 89 million dirhams (about $US24 million), said Abdullah al-Mannaei of Emirates Auction.

“Emiratis love cars and everything related to cars. They also love giving to charity,” he said, adding that Abu Dhabi now had the seven most expensive licence plates in the world.

The auction was held in the plush surroundings of the Emirates Palace Hotel on the Abu Dhabi waterfront.

The licence plates were displayed to eager bidders on a line of gleaming luxury cars. A Mercedes carried the number “1111” while a Ferrari sported “100.” The plates fetched $US632,000 and $US768,000 dollars respectively.

But the number “1” plate that made the record price was unveiled to prospective buyers attached to a Pagani Zonda - one of the world’s fastest and most expensive cars.

Mr Khouri conceded to AFP that he would have been willing to pay up to 100 million dirhams ($US27.4 million) to get his hands on the number “1”.

What is your maximum spend on any number plate?

- NEWS.com.au

I was thinking it might be time to give The Truth About Cars a strapline. German correspondent Martin Schwoerer’s main squeeze has offered to play around with designs for a TTAC logo. So she’ll need any wording to go with our, uh, words. We had kinda sort of adopted “Vincit Omnia Veritas” (The Truth Conquers All) as our motto. Hey, we needed something for our Cafe Press license plate. [NB: we’re “reimagining” the whole TTAC-branded SWAG thing.] These days, that line strikes me as something you’d see sewn into the slippers of an English aristocrat (who are generally coke-crazed scumbags, but that’s another story). Anyway, whilst fumbling for my Ambien CR in the dead of night, the above declaration popped into my head. I’m not quite sure if it was my idea or something I remembered from a conversation with one of TTAC’s Best and Brightest. (Everybody take credit on the count of three. Ready?) But I reckon it’s good. I’d like your thoughts. But before you respond, have a look at the comments on the bottom of the Intellichoice blog post. Check out Flujo’s comments. First, “I am the Editor/Publisher of IntelliChoice and welcome such criticism.”  Then, after I invite him to explain the preposterous choice of the VW R32 for their Best Value of the Year award, this: “IC is completely above board and that point is not up for review.” See? You want us on the net. You need us on the net. TTAC: the conscience of an industry.

The car logos, as we know them now are the result of years of evolution and millions of dollars spent on design. How some of them evolved over the years you now have the chance taking a look at the picture gallery.

For example, Alfa Romeo, a car manufacturer that you know as being from Italy starts its history in France in 1910 and was named Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili (Lombard Automobile Factory, Public Company) or A.L.F.A.

Alfa Romeo’s distinctive logo was created in 1910 by a draftsman named Romano Cattaneo. One day, while waiting for a tram at the Piazza Castello station in Milan, he was inspired by the red cross in the Milan Flag and the Coat of Arms of the noble House of Visconti, which featured a biscione (grass snake) with a man in its jaws, symbolizing “Visconti’s enemies that the snake [was] always ready to destroy.”

Click above to view small gallery of the Mosler MT900 GTR XX

More power, less weight. That’s what we like to hear, and Florida-based supercar-maker Mosler has answered the call with its new MT900 GTR XX. Based on the MT900 GTR, which itself is as barely legal as the Olsen twins, the XX spec packs an extra 20 horsepower and loses 150kg in dead weight.

To trim the fat, Mosler fitted a new six-speed sequential transmission weighing 10kg less than the “conventional” version, installed a titanium exhaust system that weighs 5.5kg less than the steel tubes, replaced the brakes with aluminum brake calipers and carbon-ceramic discs, reworked the carbon-fiber body panels, developed seats that weight 4kg less apiece and cut 5kg out of the air-con. The Richard Simmons weight loss program further unburdens the 620-hp 7.0L Corvette LS7 V8 to bring the sprint to 100km/h (62mph) down to three seconds flat, and 200km/h (124mph) down to 8.7 seconds. If that sounds bonkers already, consider the rumors that Mosler is working on a twin-turbo version for the future, which is looking brighter and faster by the day.

[Source: Auto Motor und Sport]