First Arab Supercar Costs $3.4 Million, Has Diamond-Encrusted Headlights

cartechboy writes "If you're looking for bling, you can always count on Dubai. At the Dubai Motor Show this week, Lebanon-based W Motors unveiled what is billed as the world's first Arab-built super car. The Lykan Hypersport incorporates jewels and precious metals in its construction, suicide-style doors, and an interactive holographic display system. (Yes, drivers will be able to adjust radio volume via a holograph.) The 750 horsepower car accelerates to 60 mph in just 2.8 seconds and has a top speed of 245 mph. The cost: $3.4 million, but owners will also receive a Cyrus Klepcys watch, said to be valued at around $200,000. W Motors plans a whopping 7 units for production."

Comments

"suicide-style doors"

[circletimessquare]

perhaps not the best marketing terminology for a vehicle, in that area of the world

Re:Suicide-style doors?

[AJWM]

Suicide doors are doors with the hinges at the rear, so that it's "suicide" to open them if the vehicle is moving at any speed. In a regular car, the slipstream will tend to push the doors closed. With suicide doors, the slipstream tends to rip the doors fully open. If you're not belted in (the term dates to before mandatory seatbelts), and holding onto the door handle, you're likely to get yanked out too.

Re:Wonder about the mileage

[Dogtanian]

It looks to have a modified version of the 911 engine, so probably not too bad. Most "supercars" like this are Porsches or Ferrari/Lamborghinis with a body kit, sometimes an engine swap as well.

So, yeah. Just another example of some "expensive" bulls**t being little more than a much less expensive thing with lots of gratuitous and tacky bling glued on. (*)

I mean, so what? I could make the "world's most expensive car" by gluing the Koh-i-Noor diamond to a 1998 Vauxhall Corsa. Who cares? It's still just a clapped-out Vauxhall Corsa.

Then again, it's entirely appropriate that this would be unveiled at the Dubai motor show, held in a location notorious for its gratuitous bling architecture such as the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world that needs trucks to remove all the crap because they don't even have the sewage infrastructure. Yeah, I'm impressed guys... come back when you can actually develop a supercar- or half-modern society- yourselves. This doesn't count.

(*) Ironically, the reason why so many products at this level of "premium" *are* just bog-standard kit with jewels glued on is because they couldn't *actually* afford to pay what it would cost to develop a car that was (e.g.) 25% faster than the current record-holder or a phone that was twice as fast and had twice as high resolution as the current best model... unless they were to sell in large numbers, which would entirely defeat the purpose. The development and tooling cost would render them ludicrously expensive even for the richest people in the world- many of these things only work out as being economic because they're intended to sell in the millions to us plebs. You can wave several million dollars at Intel, and you still won't get a processor that's twice as fast as their current high-end mass-market model. Ha ha, nice Corsa you've got there. :-P

Features not that impressive

[Animats]

From the video, the door hold-up mechanism needs work. When they open the "suicide doors", which rotate backwards and upward, it looks like the counterbalancing system isn't quite right. The demonstrator has to adjust the door to keep it open, and then it shakes.

There is a web site for the company with more specs. The engine is a 6-cylinder boxer type, which seems undersized for the claimed performance. Most supercars have from 8 to 18 cylinders.

Surprisingly, it's not an all-wheel drive vehicle. Most supercar-class sedans are. I'm surprised they can get that acceleration with rear wheel drive only. There are rear wheel drive race cars that can do it, but sedan-sized cars usually need all-wheel drive to get enough traction. The rear tires aren't especially large. There's nothing like Formula I aerodynamics to get huge levels of downforce. I wonder if this thing's claimed acceleration just reflects performance on a dynamometer.

No active suspension, either. That's a real problem with supercars - if they're low enough to go fast, they're too low to go anywhere. See Top Gear's evaluation of the Bugatti Veyron, where it takes them an hour and wooden blocks to get it out of a driveway.

Maintenance: "a team of qualified W engineers will fly to anywhere in the world to service your Hypercar or to help with any problem you might encounter with the Lykan at any given time."

Re:Wonder about the mileage

[Lumpy]

All of the Shieks LOVE america and americans. They are richer than anyone because of americans and our buying every drop of oil they can sell us.
It is the poor people that get upset as we support the ultra rich that kill the poor people for sport or do everything they can to keep them repressed and suppressed.

the price of ONE if these cars can elevate 300 Saudi poor to owning a modest home that is comfortable and has clean water and sanitation. But they will not do that. Instead they will drive this car and have their security torture and then kill any poor person who dares to steal one of the diamonds on the headlights.

You know, I've been wondering about this

[rsilvergun]

this is an old right wing attack on Socialism. It's based on the assumption that the ruling class 'earned' their wealth. It's easy enough to disprove just by pointing out the huge amounts of gov't contracts, free money and support nearly every one of the ruling class gets. Heck, last I heard the British still hand their Royalty something on the order of $100 million a year in free money. Basically, we all rely on 'other people's money', because money == labor in a modern society (like it or not there's not enough gold for it to be a standard) and sorta the entire point of having a Civilization is to work together for the common good. Otherwise it's just dog eat dog slavery.

The hard part isn't pointing all that out, it's boiling it down to a nice sound bite like Margaret did. Yeah, I can bang on all day about how we already produce enough food to feed 10 billion people, how automation is making the even 40 hour work week obsolete and about how single payer healthcare works better than the mess in North America. But that doesn't hit you in the gut like Margy's comment. It might be right (it is) but it doesn't _feel_ right. It doesn't appeal to common sense and emotion.

The problem socialists have is the right wing has simple answers to complex problems. Sure, they're self serving answers at best and horrifically wrong at worst, but given the choice it's much easier to get people to go along with them.