#qatar

Each year on December 18th, Qatar celebrates its National Day of unification and and independence. And on that day, the citizens of Qatar get to admire the fleet of Porsche police cars the country has as the fleet parades through the city.

So why exactly does Qatar’s police force have so many Porsches in it? Well Qatar Investment Authority is the state-owned investment arm of Qatar, which is a subsidiary of Qatar Holding LLC. Originally setup to diversify the wealth of Qatar, both control over $60 billion in assets which include 17-percent of Volkswagen and 10-percent of Porsche AG.

Clearly the wealth is being diversified in Qatar – even the police force is benefiting with Panameras and Cayennes.

Check out the video clip below:

Take the Volkswagen Touareg for example. The one that races in the Dakar Rally has little in common with the one you’ll find in the showrooms. That, however, could change if they decide to put the Race Touareg 3 concept into production.

General Motors has long had a major presence in middle eastern markets, particularly in Gulf countries such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, where it has sold large numbers of its American sedans (particularly full sized ones) like the Chevy Impala and Caprice, but with slight equipment differences.

Car companies pay close attention to the Middle-East market, but it’s usually in relation to high-priced exotics and luxury cars.

In perhaps the ultimate example of schadenfreude, more details have surfaced surrounding the story of the turquoise Koenigsegg and Lamborghini that were given the boot outside the ultra-ritzy Harrods department store in London.

It turns out that the owners of the supercars were also members of the Qatari royal family, the owners of Harrods. Most people take some joy in seeing the wealthy get taken down a peg, but when you consider that they just bought Harrods for $2.3 billion, it almost makes sense for them to park in an illegal but convenient spot. Not only can they afford to pay the fines, they can probably afford to abandon their cars and buy another one if it proves to be more expedient than waiting for a traffic warden to come remove the device.

[Source: Jalopnik]

Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking is leaving his position at the helm of Germany’s most renowned sports car maker and he isn’t leaving voluntarily. Wiedeking was sacked by the Porsche’s executive board late yesterday so that the company could move forward with a “merger” with Germany’s largest automaker, Volkswagen. The now former CEO opposed the deal and so has been removed, along with the company’s chief financial officer Holger Haerter.