Tuesday, May 21, 2013 Login | Sign Up

You are here :

Current Articles | Archives | Search

17

The Road To Abu Dhabi Part 3: Disappointment in the Desert (cont.)

Mike Kojima posted on March 17, 2011 10:00

Formula D Abu Dhabi

The Road To Abu Dhabi Part 3: Disappointment in the Desert (cont.)

By Mike Kojima

When we last left off, we had just finished a demo shredding the shit out of the 5 star Yas Hotel. The action was so intense that the Hotel management asked us to stop!

First I would like to apologize if a lot of this seems like Mike's bad vacation slides that you are being forced to watch but I didn't come to primarily shoot the event like a photo journalist, I just snapped pics between doing things. The sight seeing stuff is, well just stuff some of you might be interested in. Sorry if this is boring.

For previous installments of our adventures click here!

After our demo run, the next day we had a treat and got to visit Ferrari World. Ferrari World is an amusement park with a Ferrari theme that is built on the track grounds. It is a truly amazing place, it is nearly a half mile square under a space age roof full of, well Ferrari stuff. Ken Gushi's crew poses in front of a sign in the long hall from the entry building to the main hall.

JRod has got a golden ticket. Drivers and Formula D folk got in free, crew people had to pay. I got a free media pass which was cool because I think it cost a couple of hundred bucks to get in. Everything around here is expensive.

Hallway going into the main building, yes that is all solid marble.

First stop was a roller coaster where you race the coaster next to you on side by side tracks. It was pretty fun but not too extreme.

That was fun, what's next?

You turn a crank and it makes Ferrari noise depending on what car you are standing in front of. Dai wishes his S13 sounds like that. Frederic Aasbo's 2JZ sounds nice by design.

Tanner in front of the Ferrari test driver simulator.

Some video crew covering our trip fitted Tony B and Dai with POV cameras.

Chris Forsberg, Mad Mike and Ken Gushi in the waiting room for the test drive simulator.

We watch a video on what to expect in the simulator.

Whoa Ferrari pelts on the wall!

Pages: 1 of 8 Next Page

Posted in: Magazine, Features, Motorsports

Actions: E-mail | Permalink | Comments (12)

Comments

# bigdave

Thursday, March 17, 2011 11:43 PM

Holy holy holy crap!

# JDMized

Friday, March 18, 2011 1:47 AM

Hey Mike, did you mention that the Burj Khalifa is tall?
Did the Burj Khalifa have emergency stairs? I would image it would take an average person one entire day to descent from the top down to the first floor....haha
Nice trip Mike, sucks about the head gasket though.

# 8695Beaters

Friday, March 18, 2011 6:48 AM

Sorry to hear about the bad luck. I guess that's racing right? And pics of Ferrari world and the tallest building in the world are far better than Aunt Edna's pictures of Atlanta.

What's depressing about all this is that for the foreseeable future nothing like this will appear in America. No more big ass buildings, no Ferrari world, and after Japan's earthquake, probably no new nuclear power plants. Balls...

# Marillionado

Friday, March 18, 2011 7:08 AM

Great stuff Mike, sad about that head gasket, but that's racing.

Some footage available on the inevitable Youtube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AAHVSWGVUY

Enjoy.

# Fly'n_Z

Friday, March 18, 2011 8:51 AM

Looks like an amazing trip! Like the others I'm sorry to hear about the headgasket problems... shipping another VQ engine to Qatar so that Dai can participate there is hardcore, I imagine it'll be another epic thrash to get parts transfferred over and the new engine in place.

# Aaron LaBeau

Friday, March 18, 2011 9:38 AM

Awesome write-up Mike! But your story is missing one thing ~Jack Burton references ;-)

Glad you went to the top of Burj Khalifa as it's a once in a lifetime type thing.

# Fabrik8

Friday, March 18, 2011 12:11 PM

It almost looks like the F1 header collector was attacked with a die grinder to remove the interesting bits. Or it was just made as a display piece and never completed to the same level as the real race pieces.

My vacation photos never look like that, but I never go on vacations like that... It really does look like a CGI city.

# Dusty Duster

Friday, March 18, 2011 4:38 PM

"This ride could seriously hurt an old person... I had a bump on my head and hurt my back so I only did it once."

There's a joke here, but I'm not cruel enough to say it.

In all seriousness, you're making me want to go to Dubai on vacation.

# Eric Hsu

Saturday, March 19, 2011 1:28 PM

That Ferrari museum looks like a bucket list kind of thing. The other one would be the Porsche museum in Germany.

Dai needs to get up on some Cosworth electronics so I have an excuse to go with him next year. That trip looks like it would be crazy fun.

# Mike Kojima

Saturday, March 19, 2011 10:09 PM

The Ringwerks Museum in Germany is way better than Ferarri world other than the roller coaster. That is badass!

# SkullWorks

Sunday, March 20, 2011 11:47 AM

I'm sad that you didn't ride the simulator...

Headgaskets BLOW

# speedball3

Monday, March 21, 2011 1:00 PM

Count me as also sad you didn't get to drive any of their simulators. Looks pretty sweet and I imagine it'd be a blast. Headgasket aside, sounds like you had an awesome trip. Congrats!! =) Best of luck for the next round of FD!

Post Comment

Only registered users may post comments.

MotoIQ Proudly Presents Our Partners: