Head-to-head on mountain roads in HSV

By BRAD DUNSTAN

One of the joys of working for HSV is that things never stay the same. Take the market review and reliability audit I did in the Middle East.

The trip involved driving a left-hand-drive variant of the HSV Grange in the Emirates of Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and travelling the breadth of Saudi Arabia, from the shores of the Persian Gulf to the sands of the Red Sea.

The reaction to the vehicle was exciting. Most surprising was their awareness of HSV, even in the most remote areas of Saudi Arabia. This awareness has been generated through two sources - the press coverage in Britain of the GTS-R and the Internet.

Young people in Saudi Arabia focus on the Internet. It is not uncommon to see a Bedouin tent with an attached satellite dish for cable television and Internet access. The web site www.hsv.com.au is popular.

Many locals are also aware that the left-hand-drive Chevrolet Lumina is made in Australia as a variant of the right-hand-drive Holden Commodore. This quickly leads them to HSV.

It was common to be approached at dealerships and service stations by young men pointing and saying: "HSV? Where is the GTS-R?"

The V8 Lumina SS with the Gen III engine has proven to be a popular car for Chevrolet in the Gulf area.

With petrol priced at under 50c a litre, why wouldn't it be? We were filling the Grange for around $34 a time.

The tip was conducted during the Saudi summer and we ran into temperatures of 51C in the flat sandy deserts around the capital of Riyadh.

The coastal cities of Dammam and Jeddah were much cooler, around 40C, but with high humidity, sometimes at 100 per cent.

On some nights the air-conditioning cooled the Grange's roof just enough for dew to condense, despite the fact that the air temperature was still around 38C.

In the mountains outside Jeddah and along the Red Sea coast, which peak at 2800m, the temperature dropped to a pleasant 28C. The constant dust haze reduced the sun's bite.

These conditions have made this strip of land popular for thousands of years. As you travel the mountain roads you come across ruins of Bedouin signal towers, ancient forts and centuries-old villages tucked into cliff faces.

Driving on Saudi roads is an experience for those used to a more disciplined traffic flow. Speed limits are policed but nowhere near as aggressively as Australia.

This enabled sustained cruising of around 220 km/h through desert plains.

The main roads are generally good and the main highways are multi-lane and divided. But secondary roads can be patchy with very large potholes.

Police checkpoints dot the roading system and the correct passes must be carried. If you have in any doubts about police authority, the ubiquitous truck with the .50-calibre Machine gun parked beside the checkpoint soon removes them. Who needs checkpoints when you've got .50 calibres of Mr Browning's finest?

Double lines are generally ignored by Saudi drivers, which led to some interesting moments on twisty mountain roads. More than once, we were confronted by wall-to-wall Toyota Land Cruisers overtaking on blind corners.

Saudi drivers do not check before overtaking. This led to a number of "off-road activities" for the Grange. Airbag testing was not on our schedule and we wanted to keep it that way.

As can be expected, such road behaviour leads to a high accident rate. The highways of Saudi Arabia are dotted with wrecked vehicles slowly being buried by the shifting sands. Many new cars never make their first 1500km service.