First aid for UAE bikers
Off-road motorcycling is popular in the UAE, but what do you do when you're kilometres into the desert and an accident happens? KTM in Dubai, along with the licensed first-aid training company SLT, is organising a Safety First first-aid training course specifically targeting motorcyclists who enjoy the wilderness of the Emirates.
The courses, which are held on Saturdays from 9am until 5pm, include elements on managing an incident, assessing a casualty, severe bleeding, shock, heart attack, unconsciousness, first casualty examination and recovery position, and CPR. The courses also cover other possible injuries that may happen when you can't just call an ambulance as well. It's open to owners of any brand of bike, and though the lessons have the motorcyclist in mind, anyone with an interest in first aid can attend.
Upon completion of the course, participants will earn a Basic Life Support Adult Plus certificate, valid for three years.
The cost is Dh600 per person, with the next course set for May 7; contact KTM-UAE at 04 346 8111.
Lamborghini, Ferrari sell out of latest models in less than a month
If you were still humming and hawing about whether to buy the million dirham-plus new Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 supercar, you are already too late - it has sold out for at least the next 12 months.
The Aventador made its official debut at the Geneva Motor Show last month, but a few, select potential buyers were able to test and buy the car at the end of last year.
Lamborghini's chief executive, Stephan Winkelmann, said interest in the V12-powered Aventador had been unprecedented.
"We see a slow but steady recovery of the market, and we will benefit from this," he said. "The extraordinary response to the new Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 is the best proof that our vision is right."
The all-wheel drive supercar goes from zero-to-100kph in less than three seconds, with 700hp and a carbon fibre chassis.
To console yourself, configure your own Aventador at www.aventador.com/index-eng.
Another star of the motor show in Switzerland, the Ferrari FF, also sold out its first run of 800 cars. The V12-powered, shooting brake-styled FF grand tourer is the Italian brand's first all-wheel-drive model.
Davis changed auto writing
David E Davis Jr, considered the dean of modern auto journalism, died this week from complications following bladder surgery. He was 80.
Davis became the editor of Car and Driver magazine in the 1970s and created a more feature style of car review. In a 1971 interview, he described his philosophy on auto journalism.
"The [car] magazines I think sort of got themselves hoisted on their own petard, with a feeling that in order to be a car magazine you had to devote an awful lot of time to performance per se," he said. "And I just don't think that's true. The public involvement with automobiles is a heck of a lot deeper than anything as superficial as just a quarter-mile acceleration or road racing or anything else."
He was known to be incredibly witty and larger than life, and left an indelible mark on the profession. Davis cited the novelist Tom Wolfe as an inspiration to his approach to writing about cars.
Davis worked at Chevrolet's advertising agency for a few years and wrote for numerous car publications around the world. He went on to create Automobile magazine and, more recently, Winding Road e-magazine. He leaves behind his wife, Jeannie, a daughter and two sons.
Consortium sets standards for mobile devices and car industry
A group of car manufacturers, system suppliers and makers of consumer electronics have formed the Car Connectivity Consortium to work together to develop a standard, known as the Terminal Mode, that turns mobile devices into informtainment portals.
Daimler, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota and Volkswagen have all signed up to the consortium, according to AutoCar, and have been joined by phone manufacturers LG, Samsung and Nokia. Further members are expected to join the alliance "within weeks", and audio suppliers Alpine and Panasonic are also involved.
"The Car Connectivity Consortium now has the power to turn Terminal Mode into the global standard for the integration of smartphones into vehicles, bringing together the exciting and [innovative] worlds of mobile ecosystems and applications ... with the automotive industry," said Floris van de Klashorst, the director and head of Nokia Automotive at Nokia, reports cnet.com.
Friends with benefits: Princess-to-be avoids a parking fine
There are, of course, a number of perks by marrying into royalty, and princess-in-waiting Kate Middleton has discovered another: parking without paying.
Prince William's fiancée, on a shopping trip to in the fashionable Chelsea district of London, parked her Audi A3 in a pay-and-display and, according to the Daily Mail newspaper, walked off without paying the £4 (Dh23) it should have cost to park.
When a traffic warden walking by noticed the vehicle had no ticket, he began to take down the car's details and issue a ticket, but a police protection officer rushed over and stopped the warden before he could finish.
A witness told the newspaper: "I saw a warden arrive and he started to take down the car's details. Then an officer arrived, flashed his badge and had a chat. Whatever he said persuaded the warden not to issue a ticket."
Other witnesses reported seeing two separate wardens being stopped from issuing a ticket.
