The Liwa hillclimb at the Moreeb Dune in the UAE is one of the most brutal motorsport activities we know of. Take serious, high-horsepower engines, shove them into older Nissan Patrols, and point them up a dune that has a slope of about fifty degrees and a height pushing a thousand feet. Good luck, sucker…between the major jump in altitude and the sheer scope of what is going on, Moreeb Dune is both the perfect place to host a hillclimb and the perfect place to see all sorts of things go several shades of wrong. Whether it’s grenading an engine in the finest fashion, turning a clutch disc into a mirror-smooth surface the moment the boost comes up, or getting crossed up and turning what had been a perfectly stout racing vehicle into a yard-sale of fiberglass body and chunks of molten piston, this single sand dune is probably responsible for the destruction of thousands of high-dollar race engines and more than it’s fair share of complete vehicles. The Liwa Hillclimb is one of those events we have to see in person to truly understand the scope of what we’re seeing,

We’ve often said that tractor pulling is the ultimate test of every mechanical component of a machine. That’s true. But Liwa isn’t so much a test as it’s a straight-up torture chamber for engines. Heavy boost, all-or-nothing use of the throttle and the sheer struggle of keeping up momentup as these racing machines fight to cheat gravity takes a toll!