Visiting the Middle East’s largest car show, Dubai’s Icons of Porsche proves money sometimes really can buy taste… writes Iain Curry
In a divided and often confrontational world, it’s important to celebrate and embrace things that appear universal and uniting across every country and culture.
Enthusiasm for cars is one, and it’s heartwarming to know that no matter where you travel – and despite any language of cultural barriers – you’ll always find a bunch of people as nuts about cars as you are.
You only need watch Top Gear’s back catalogue to see wherever Clarkson, Hammond and May went in the world, they’d always find locals appreciating their cars, showing off modifications, innovative repair jobs and enjoying motoring culture any way they can.
You may view the Middle East as a wealthy playground dripping in oil money, outrageous consumerism and locals showboating their mega-yachts, private jets, racehorses and gold toilets… and in some instances, you’d be spot on.
Many locals here have the kind of disposable only Australian mining magnates dream about (have you seen Clive Palmer’s hundreds-strong car collection by the way?), but that doesn’t mean those in these sand-kissed kingdoms aren’t utter rev-head enthusiasts speaking the same car language as us.
They can just indulge their passion a bit more thoroughly.
And expensively.
It’s why the largest annual car show in the Middle East isn’t an “all marques welcome” event where you’ll see old Fords, Toyotas and Austins mixing it with pricier exotica. No, biggest of all is dedicated to just one marque: Porsche.
Das auto
The German sportscar brand (arguably “SUV brand” these days) strikes at the heart of exactly the kinds of cars locals in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and more are after. They’re luxurious, fast, dynamic, beautiful to look at and usually cost bucketloads of dollars.
Special editions, one-offs, endless cost options and bespoke customer-is-always-right special requests all appeal to the cashed-up locals here. And let’s remember, in the Middle East, flaunting one’s wealth is positively encouraged.
The Dubai show is called Icons of Porsche, and this year was its fifth and largest edition yet. Over 1000 Porsches were displayed, some 30,000 spectators visited, and Porsche chose the event to globally reveal two new models: the all-new Cayenne Electric and latest 911 Turbo S.
New cars are one thing, but Dubai locals know classic Porsche rarities are the true show-stoppers. The types of cars that invariably climb in value, are the envy of collectors around the world, and are the reserve of the hyper wealthy able to maintain, repair and insure these vehicles often worth millions of dollars.
Take the Porsche Carrera GT. It celebrated 25 years at Icons of Porsche, this V10 supercar having a reputation for mega performance but spiky handling at the limit. This adds to the myth of this sleek, impossibly low two door, and hence if you were to find one on sale in Australia, reckon on needing around $2 million to secure it.
Collectors items
Sixteen examples were on show in a Paris-themed display area, giving a nod to where it debuted a quarter of a century ago. And fair play to the collectors; they know to properly stand out you don’t pick a silver or black colour. Far showier was a burnt orange Carrera GT on Qatar plates, while a Dubai local outdid them all with a metallic brown effort.
Travelling further back in time, Porsche was celebrating 60 years of its 911 Targa model – those being the ones with removable hard top panels. And in true Middle East style, a glittering classic gold example had centre stage.
In Targa Town, we also spotted one of the strangest collabs you’ll ever see. A 2025 911 Targa with a giant Labubu character sitting in the driver’s seat.
For those not currently blessed with family members under the age of 10, a Labubu is a Monsters character designed by Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung. So profitable are these little suckers, Lung could no doubt afford himself a fleet of Porsches as a result.
Far more interesting for we grown-ups were the motorsport Porsches shown.
Locals provided some of the racers, but so important is this Middle East market to the German brand, they shipped in several mega-value offerings from the Porsche Museum.
That included a 1986 Paris-Dakar 959, still bearing its desert-crossing battle scars, cigarette sponsorship (didn’t they just do it better back then?), raised ground clearance and all-terrain tyres. This was a car not for polishing, but for showing off the dents and scrapes of proper competition.
A 1980s Le Mans-type 962C sat beside the latest 911 GT3 Cup sportscar, but highlight (for this attendee anyway) was a 917/30 Spyder used in North America’s Can-Am race series. This formula was basically “anything goes” so the cars were absolutely off the charts in terms of numbers and performance.
Despite being over half a century old, this 1972-built 917/30 could hit 100km/h in around two seconds, and on to almost 400km/h thanks to its 1100kW 5.4-litre twin-turbo flat-12-cylinder engine, buried beneath wildly aerodynamic bodywork.
Juiced
This fan favourite was presented in fluoro-bright Vaillant sponsor colours from 1975, then placed alongside a modern Porsche Taycan Turbo S EV with the same livery. Some lucky chap fired up the 12-cylinder, rather embarrassing the silent electric Porsche. There really is no substitute for a smoking, barking and raucous petrol sucker.
Even rarer was the madly aerodynamic one-off 963 RSP, street-legal on French licence plates. This was a tribute vehicle to the only road-going Porsche 917 of over 50 years ago, proving that with some clever rule-bending, true race cars can become street toys. Albeit uncomfortable and impractical ones.
Along those lines, also shown was a 911 GT1 Strassenversion, one of only around 20 made in the late 1990s. Proving only sheikhs need apply, you’d need around $20 million to secure one of these, should one come up for sale.
Hosted waterfront at Dubai’s Design District, and with the kingdom’s mighty skyscrapers serving as backdrop as the sun dropped, the lines of Porsches of all vintages was like a colourful fantasy land of exotica.
But beyond all this shimmering glitz, it’s a country surrounded by deserts and dunes, and people need vehicles to suit. Which is why the show presented the eye-popping Camp Cayenne.
Luxury bazaar
While we Aussies put lift-kits and all-terrain rubber on our Ford Rangers and Nissan Patrols, here they choose luxury for their desert duellers.
Of the dozens of tricked-up 4×4 offerings, most were the giant Cayenne SUVs, often with knobbly tyres extended way beyond the bodywork. But even more impressive were those with madly modified sand dune-ready 911s and Caymans. Modern-day beach buggy replacement? If you’ve got the dollars, then why not?
Speaking of Cayennes, the new fully electric version was presented in its flagship Turbo guise. It’s hard to believe, but this battery-powered lump weighing over 2.6 tonnes is the most powerful production Porsche road car ever. When you look back over the brand’s performance back-catalogue, it’s weird to think a five-door, five-seat family SUV holds this honour.
Its numbers are mind-bending. There’s 850kW and 1500Nm from its electric motors, and with all-wheel-drive and very hard-working fat tyres, it’s able to hit 100km/h in only 2.5-seconds – same as a 911 Turbo S.
The new Cayenne EV also somehow manages to have towing capacity of 3500km, but expect its 623km range to be cut in half. If you’re interested, this car lands in Australia next year priced from $259,900.
Going back in time, there were a few superbly restored examples of Porsche 356s from the 1950s and 1960s – this being the sportscar that started it all for the brand. They were joined by classic 911s, which despite some being up to 60 years old, still have design cues spotted in the very latest versions of today.
But Porsche’s business has changed over the decades, including courting the lucrative Middle East market. So it was of no surprise to see how popular the Porsche Sonderwunsch, or “special request” area was.
It’s here where you can pick from an endless number of colours, trims and options, or make up your own to ensure your Porsche is absolutely unique. It’s the kind of thing that goes down very well here.
Much is done to excess in the Middle East, but if you’re going to flaunt your wealth, doing so on special Porsches gets our respectful nod of approval.