Auto-lovers get revved up at car show

JOUNIEH, Lebanon: A 1991 3 Series BMW with 760 horsepower sped up toward the end of an obstacle course at Platea theater, drifting around small cones, too close for comfort as it reached the stadium’s barred enclosure. People cheered as it wove through the track, smartphones raised high to record all the action.

The loud and revved up drift show was the highlight of the weekend with the Hankook racing team taking turns to show off their drifting skills. Loud bangs of exhaust resounded like gunshots and echoed beyond the showroom across Jounieh’s hills alongside the residual smell of burnt tires and car fumes.

The Lebanon Motorsport and Tuning Show 2014 showcased Lebanon’s sports cars and motorcycles over the weekend at Platea Jounieh. The annual event and the biggest motor showcase in Lebanon was divided into indoor and outdoor sections highlighting supercars, motorcycles, tuned cars, American muscle cars and 4x4s.

In an outdoor competition area, car fanatics and professional racers vied for titles like strongest car, best remote controlled drift car and best sound system, while others took part in burnout wars and drift shows.

One participant in the car show, Shadi Raad, marketing manager of Raad Auto Tuning, said he wanted to showcase the cars he has been working on for more than five years.

Raad’s duties include importing special car parts to Lebanon and creating custom designs for a variety of vehicles ranging from a 1967 Mustang to a Ferrari 458 Italia.

“We implement our ideas that we design,” he said. “Our cars are a bit different than the cars you see on the streets.”

Over a weekend rife with tension and clashes in the north and east, the car show saw displays of subtle activism. “Imagine all the people living life in peace” was a quote scrolled across a car, punctuated by a small Lebanese flag decal.

Raad said this company slogan reflected his own effort to remain uninvolved in politics.

“We just want to play with cars and race,” he said.

Another car enthusiast, Pascal Maalouf of Maalouf Overhaul and Outstanding Design, also known as Mood Customs, has grown up loving cars.

“It’s in the blood. It’s a family business, since 1980,” he said. “I grew up in the garage.”

Maalouf’s personal favorite vehicles are American muscle cars, as he currently has six Trans Ams.

Although Mood Customs customizes many differently styled cars, Maalouf decided to showcase a more economically viable vehicle, the Mitsubishi Mirage.

Alongside the Mitsubishi, flashier cars filled the area, like a 2007 Porsche Cayman and a Mercedes SL AMG customized into a Batmobile.

As people walked from car to car, debating which to vote for as “best car,” the drift show continued outside.

The adrenaline of driving powerful cars obviously spread across the audience, as a man who left the area did so in a memorable fashion, by drifting his muscle car in Platea’s parking lot.

It seems no one, not even the event’s commentator, can really describe a person’s love for vehicles. “The smell, the sight, the sound!” said the commentator, raising her voice over the loud engine’s roar and screeching tires. “I can’t explain it!”

Auto-lovers get revved up at car show