Dave Dresen, the head of West Coast Customs Middle East, the Dubai branch of the US-based car modifications company that is part of pop culture now thanks to MTV show Pimp My Ride, is at his eloquent best when he talks about car modifications and why cars in this market are so ready to be pimped.
Car-crazy
We're getting a lot of interest from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and also a fair amount of business from Oman. Since people have huge disposable incomes here, we face peculiar situations at times. A car that would take necessarily eight months needs to be done here in three. It's physically impossible to complete the job in that time. But when you tell a client here that it would take five days to deliver the car due to shipping, expect a response like, "Don't worry I'll have my plane go pick it up."
Memorable modifications
The most high profile modification I've been involved with here has to be the Range Stormer, the two-door Range Rover. The first two that we did were for the members of the Dubai ruling family. What's the Range Stormer? Well, Land Rover came up with the concept for the Range Stormer and decided they weren't going to put it into production, so we took it on. Another car was the Corvelle (a 1966 Chevelle sitting on top of a 2007 Corvette chassis).
Rock 'n' Rolls
The last car I drove that really left me stunned was the Rolls-Royce drop-head convertible. I was just floored when I stepped on the pedal. The car just had so much power under its hood. I would definitely choose it over the Maybach.
The cars that get me
I own a Range Rover, a Volvo XC90 and a Mercedes E320. But I prefer the Range Rover because of its versatility. It's a luxury car, and it's an SUV. It does everything; I haul tyres from this place (WCC) in it, even go for black-tie events and I never look out of place.
