Suzuki rent-a-racers

We're not sure if the girls are part of the 'Arrive & Drive' package

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Shahzad Sheikh
28 January 2010

Go racing for AED 9000 ($2500) per race in someone else’s car against others driving the same thing.

You’re kidding right? That’s almost affordable!

I’m not. Well not entirely. That’s the price if you sign up for the remainder of this season – that’s five races for a total of AED 45,000 ($12,300), plus a AED 15,000 ($4100) ‘caution’ – read: insurance deposit, which will accounts for any panel-bashing antics you get up to. And judging by the close contact racing in these equally matched cars – it’s a distinct possibility.

You’d better be quick though, as the next race is this weekend – and you need a race licence to take part. Incidentally, the organisers of this series run an intensive three-day programme to help you get one of those too, should you be a complete novice.

If you have the right paperwork, helmet, set of overalls, gloves and fire-proof undies, but still just want to have a go and not commit yourself entirely, then that’s also possible for $10,000 ($2750). Eight cars will be running this weekend.

Frankly it’s still a bargain for a chance to measure yourself against rivals in the same machinery and other ‘real’ racers – for the remainder of this season the Suzuki series will run as part of a the current UAE Touring Car series, so you’d be mixing it up with Seat Leons, Renault Clios and Honda Civics with seasoned racers at the wheel.

Plus you can bring your own sponsor, although the only sticker space available will be on the door panel, as the organisers will wrap the rest of the car in their own sponsors.

And they’re really identical? How can I be sure it’s a level playing field?

Well firstly, you will pick the key out of a hat – so there’s no preferential treatment. Secondly, all the drivers will be weighed and ballast added to the cars to match the weight of the heaviest pilot – hopefully he won’t also be named and shamed as a fatty!

Tell me about the cars?

For the remainder of this season, the cars have been shipped over from Europe where organisers, Zengo Team Motorsport, run a grid of 35 cars along similar lines, with the series having started in 2007 in Hungary and quickly gained popularity.

This is partly due to the close racing, the affordability, but also the Swifts themselves. Great fun to drive in standard road-going form, these racers aren’t much different. They’re stripped out, full regulations-compliant safety gear has been installed, the engine mapping has been tweaked, the exhausts replaced and the braking toughened up – slightly. That’s it.

So the best driver wins – not the best car?

Exactly, a lot of racers moan about not having enough funds to develop their cars as well as their rivals, or about other racers having better cars/engines/tyres/mechanics/sponsors etc, but in this case all the cars are equal – except of course where some might be more equal than others. But that’ll be the luck of the draw.

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