There have been supercars built in places as unexpected as Argentina, New Zealand and, yes, South Africa - but not, until now, in the Middle East, unless you count a concept built some years ago for the late unlamented Muammar Gaddafi.
Which is odd, because that's where a big percentage of the world's supercars wind up, no matter where they were made.
But that is apparently about to change, with the advent of a Beirut start-up company called W Motors, headed by Ralph Debbas, a graduate of the Coventry University School of Art and Design with a major in automotive design.
He describes it as “the first Arab Brand of Hyper-cars based in the Middle East as an official automotive coachbuilder and developer”.
LIMITED EDITION = FIVE CARS
Official or not, Debbas says he plans to build two variants of a performance car, the Super-Sport and the Hyper-Sport, with the help of Austrian manufacturer Magna Steyr, German Porsche specialist Ruf and Studiotorino, a young design studio based in Rivoli.
First to arrive will be the Hyper-Sport, billed as “the most exclusive, luxurious and technologically advanced hyper-car in the world”, of which only five will be made.
Built on a carbon-fibre monocoque, it will have a mid-mounted, 550kW, twin-turbo six-cylinder engine, a 0-100 time of 2.8 seconds and a top speed of 385km/h - which sounds suspiciously similar to the tweaked Porsche engines Ruf has been putting into its 911-based specials since shortly after the 911 was invented.
IF THE MONEY IS LEBANESE...
It will also have, according to the W Motors media release, a holographic instrument panel, diamond-encrusted LED head and tail lights, a gold-plated bonnet, and either gold or platinum ignition keys.
Debbas has promised it will be unveiled in Dubai in December 2012, followed by a public launch at the Qatar motor show in January 2013 and first deliveries to customers by the end of 2013.
Maybe we're splitting hairs, but we fail to see how something designed in Italy and assembled in Austria from German components qualifies as an Arab car, no matter how expensive it is. Oh well, if the money is Lebanese than we suppose that counts…