Elie Deeb is a second generation Corvette lover, an automotive obsession passed down to him by his father, who has 20 Corvettes in his garage. Elie, however, is catching up - he is the proud owner of eight Corvettes, but his black 1999 hardtop, nicknamed "The Black Knight", is his daily drive.
"All my other Corvettes are classics so I don't drive them so much," he says of a high-powered collection where his oldest car is 31 years old. But his black beauty is not your typical daily commuter car, standing out in the traffic in a sea of SUVs and rentals.
"It has been fully modified," he says. "It has Lambo doors [vertical doors] and chrome wheels, a manual transmission with six speeds, it has 500-plus horsepower, it can do 0-100kph in around 3.8 seconds and it has a top speed of 320kph."
At the age of 16, Elie learnt to drive in the UAE in his first Corvette, a 1988 Z4. "I still have it," he says. "I'll never sell it. It is too special to me, my first car."
The Z4 is in the process of being upgraded. "It is in the garage being modified - I've changed the engine and it should be able to reach 700hp."
He describes Corvettes as excellent for "sport and speed" without the excessive price tag of a Lamborghini or Ferrari.
The Corvette obsession has also been passed on to his wife and he encourages more women to get behind the wheel of these all-American sports cars. "My wife has a Corvette and she loves it," he says. "The ladies enjoy seeing one another in the cars and more [women] are becoming interested."
Elie says anyone can join Corvette Arabia, whether they own a Corvette or not. "We have fans as well as owners in the club, there are about 95 active members and about 472 people on our contact list."
His 1999 car had its most recent public outing in a drive along Abu Dhabi Corniche earlier this month. It was a rally organised by Corvette Arabia, the UAE-based Corvette club of which Elie has been president for nearly two years.
He drove the 1999 black Corvette and his other cars were also involved in the rally, driven by his mother, father, wife, sister, brother and a friend.
Elie has two more big public appearances planned for his pride and joy in the next few weeks, one being just for fun while the other is for a worthy cause.
"The next big event is on March 26, it'll be a road trip to Khorfakkan with Corvette Arabia - we'll drive to Khorfakkan and then there'll be a beach party at one of the five-star hotels there," says Elie.
But much closer to his heart is the annual "Lap with SNAP" event that will be held at Dubai Autodrome on April 3. Every year, members of different car clubs get together as part of the Special Needs Awareness Programme to offer special needs children laps around the Autodrome track in cars such as Corvettes, Ferraris and BMWs as well as professional race cars. It is endorsed by Mohammed Bin Sulayem, president of the UAE's Automobile and Touring Car club and the country's most successful racing driver.
"It is a charity event so all the clubs co-operate together, it is a good thing to do," says Elie.
In the meantime though, he will be diligently promoting Corvette Arabia's events via a busy website and Facebook group - and making sure the Black Knight keeps ticking over.
motoring@thenational.ae
Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi
Director: Kangana Ranaut, Krish Jagarlamudi
Producer: Zee Studios, Kamal Jain
Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Ankita Lokhande, Danny Denzongpa, Atul Kulkarni
Rating: 2.5/5
The essentials
What: Emirates Airline Festival of Literature
When: Friday until March 9
Where: All main sessions are held in the InterContinental Dubai Festival City
Price: Sessions range from free entry to Dh125 tickets, with the exception of special events.
Hot Tip: If waiting for your book to be signed looks like it will be timeconsuming, ask the festival’s bookstore if they have pre-signed copies of the book you’re looking for. They should have a bunch from some of the festival’s biggest guest authors.
Information: www.emirateslitfest.com
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre, twin-turbocharged V8
Transmission: nine-speed automatic
Power: 630bhp
Torque: 900Nm
Price: Dh810,000
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champioons League semi-final:
First leg: Liverpool 5 Roma 2
Second leg: Wednesday, May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
TV: BeIN Sports, 10.45pm (UAE)
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
Five famous companies founded by teens
There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:
- Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate.
- Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc.
- Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway.
- Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
- Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.
The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
How Voiss turns words to speech
The device has a screen reader or software that monitors what happens on the screen
The screen reader sends the text to the speech synthesiser
This converts to audio whatever it receives from screen reader, so the person can hear what is happening on the screen
A VOISS computer costs between $200 and $250 depending on memory card capacity that ranges from 32GB to 128GB
The speech synthesisers VOISS develops are free
Subsequent computer versions will include improvements such as wireless keyboards
Arabic voice in affordable talking computer to be added next year to English, Portuguese, and Spanish synthesiser
Partnerships planned during Expo 2020 Dubai to add more languages
At least 2.2 billion people globally have a vision impairment or blindness
More than 90 per cent live in developing countries
The Long-term aim of VOISS to reach the technology to people in poor countries with workshops that teach them to build their own device
Guide to intelligent investing
Investing success often hinges on discipline and perspective. As markets fluctuate, remember these guiding principles:
- Stay invested: Time in the market, not timing the market, is critical to long-term gains.
- Rational thinking: Breathe and avoid emotional decision-making; let logic and planning guide your actions.
- Strategic patience: Understand why you’re investing and allow time for your strategies to unfold.
Cryopreservation: A timeline
- Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
- Ovarian tissue surgically removed
- Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
- Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
- Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
Company profile
Company: Verity
Date started: May 2021
Founders: Kamal Al-Samarrai, Dina Shoman and Omar Al Sharif
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Size: four team members
Stage: Intially bootstrapped but recently closed its first pre-seed round of $800,000
Investors: Wamda, VentureSouq, Beyond Capital and regional angel investors
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
THE%20SPECS
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A list of the animal rescue organisations in the UAE
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder MHEV
Power: 360bhp
Torque: 500Nm
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Price: from Dh282,870
On sale: now
Pots for the Asian Qualifiers
Pot 1: Iran, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, China
Pot 2: Iraq, Uzbekistan, Syria, Oman, Lebanon, Kyrgyz Republic, Vietnam, Jordan
Pot 3: Palestine, India, Bahrain, Thailand, Tajikistan, North Korea, Chinese Taipei, Philippines
Pot 4: Turkmenistan, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Yemen, Afghanistan, Maldives, Kuwait, Malaysia
Pot 5: Indonesia, Singapore, Nepal, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Guam, Macau/Sri Lanka