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#TogetherAsOne Alex Demirdjian Racing at Spa Francorchamps for Lebanon and Armenia

By Rami on July 29, 2017 in Automotive, Racing

After racing for Lebanon at Monza, and racing for Armenia at Paul Ricard, Alex Demirdjian and his team are racing this time at the Circuit Spa Francochamps in Belgium in the name of both countries raising the slogan #Driveforlife.

This stage of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup in Belgium is Total 24 Hours of Spa, and Alex along with his team will be revving the Ferrari 488’s engine for an ultimate test of endurance in the Pro-Am category race. So let’s wish them a good luck and hope for a good result!

I have already uploaded a video of Alex making a full lap around the circuit last night, and you can also follow the race live today on www.blancpain-gt-series.com/live.

Update:

Alex and the team scored a new milestone with a third-place finish in Spa Francorchamps’ 24-hour race! It wasn’t all easy for them though as they received three penalties throughout the race but still managed to make it.

They originally took off from the 7th position but thanks to their successful strategy and the alternation of drivers especially during the last four hours of the race, Dermidjian and the two other drivers managed to finish on the podium and eventually raise the Lebanese and Armenian flags together.

City Centre Parking Now Has Car Plate Scanners To Help You Find Your Car

By Rami on July 14, 2017 in Automotive

I was at City Centre Hazmieh the other day when I noticed they now have car plate scanners in their parking to help you find your car if you ever forgot where you parked.

Several machines located at the mall entrances will help you find your car once you provide your car plate number. I tried the system out of curiosity and the machine took around 10 seconds to return images of several cars, I then had to flip through a couple of images before I found my car along with its exact spot.

Needless to say, the machine will of course fail to find anything if people of the Lebanese 7arbou2 kind remove their car plates or erase the numbers to evade speed radars, but these are douchebags anyway and definitely deserve to get lost in a parking lot.

Watch, Learn, and Abide by The Traffic Law

By Rami on October 25, 2016 in Automotive, Videos

MTV Lebanon aired a spot on report by Nawal Berri yesterday showing a series of accidents recorded by the traffic monitoring center that happened due to drivers and pedestrians violating the traffic law.

As disturbing as this video is, it is a much needed wake up call to everybody outsmarting others on the road.

Penalty Reduction on Mecanique Fees Until February 2017

By Rami on October 20, 2016 in Automotive

I rarely give any importance to the laws passed by the Lebanese parliament, but I know this one matters to lot of people and that’s why I’m sharing it here.

The parliament authorized yesterday a reduction on mecanique fee penalties for people who have not paid their dues over the past years. The reduction is expected to be up to 90% and you have until the end of February 2017 to benefit from it.

However note that the inspection centers are currently closed due to the transportation unions strike, so you might have to wait a bit before you can inspect your car and pay your dues.

What’s All The Fuss About Automotive Inspection Fee Hike?

By Rami on October 7, 2016 in Automotive, Politics

Have you ever been through the horrible experience of taking your car to one of the “mecanique” inspection centers in Hadath or other areas? The last time I went there 2 years ago I spent 6 hours there waiting in endless queues. The whole experience makes you pray for your car to pass the inspection not because you hate going to your mechanic, but rather because you want to avoid wasting another day over such silly task!

A while ago, it was announced that a new company called Autospect won the bid for running the existing inspection centers, and that part of its plan over the next year is to increase the number of inspection centers from 4 to 17 across the country which will help reducing the time needed to go through the inspection to 15 minutes, with the possibility to book your appointment online. This however will be at the cost of increasing the current fees from $22 to $33 out of which $5 are a new government tax.

Next thing we know, public transportation drivers started protesting the price hike by closing vital roads around Beirut every week or so. Disregarding how much I hate it when a group of people start blocking streets to make their points, I found their protests to be utterly weird.

Out of all the fuck ups in our country, this $11 or 16,500L.L increase is seriously the reason why these drivers are wasting their precious time to organize these protests? I bet each and every one of these people earns more than that amount per day, but given how sensitive they are about such increase, how on earth can they afford sacrificing their income by going to such all day protests?

I personally think it must be one of two things, the protesters are either not public drivers but rather people who for some reason believe the new developments are not of their interests, or the transportation unions are simply controlled by some influencing figures/businessmen who didn’t win the bid.

Either ways, whoever is willing to reduce the inspection time to 15 minutes can take my money because I’m tired of finding a “simsar” each time I have to take my car to the Hadath center! Protesting against such progress is ridiculous, and no please don’t demand for the government to handle the inspection process instead!

Cool 350Z Drift Video at Beirut Harbour

By Rami on May 29, 2016 in Automotive, Sports

xavier massaad beirut harbour drift

I just saw this video of Xavier Massaad drifting a Nissan 350Z at Beirut Harbour and thought it’s worth sharing.

I’m not really sure when was it video shot, but Xaview definitely pulled some cool moves and aside from the ones made by Abdo Feghaly we rarely get any good drifting videos here.

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