Drag Racing in Almaty, Kazakhstan

[Mr Dave]

http://englishrussia.com/2011/08/20/need-for-speed...

From English Russia.

Borat goes drag racing pretty much.

With some great advice from the locals "Arslan, 24, a businessman, prefers driving to smoking and drinking and advises not to buy licences, but go to a driving school."

Some nice enough cars and looks like a pretty professional set up.

[tinoproductions]

Some tasty metal over there.
I guess European views of 'lesser' countries is quite distorted.
All these 'poor' countries have some very wealthy people who enjoy cars etc.
Shame that there will also be people starving...

Biggest contrast I ever saw was in Russia.
Moscow makes London look like a 3rd world city. The level of luxury is just beyond.
But then you step outside the city boundaries and you are in the 15th century!

[aponting389]

damn, i was in Almaty a couple of weeks ago, would have loved to have gone there. although may not have been very welcome, most of the businesses in that area appeared to be Mafia/gangster run (shiny suits and all that), and did NOT like western tourists anywhere near their places.

[bob1179]

Interesting stuff, my wife is Kazakh and when we go back I'd like to have a look at the drag racing strip, though as mentioned, a lot of it is very dodgy and mafia run!

I'm currently a couple of hours just east of Moscow and it is true about the city centre, the amount of money and wealth in Russia (and parts of Kaz) have to be seen to be believed. Things are a bit different where I am however and it really hasn't changed much in these parts since the fall of the Soviet Union.

You still see some monster cars (mafia owned) mind, but then the young lads also drive up some really horrifyingly chavved up Ladas!

[redstu]

Do not scroll down too far , it gets a bit NSFW towards the bottom!

[J4CKO]

Wonder if they buy insurance of the Meerkats as well ?

I think we get a false impression from the media, basically all I know about the place is Oil (though work) and Borat.

Would be fun to turn up with a VW "BoraT DI"

[Mr Dave]

J4CKO said:

Would be fun to turn up with a VW "BoraT DI"

Would be fun until they shot you.

They tend to get a bit upset when Borat is mentioned.

[crmcatee]

I see Almaty has improved a lot since I was originally there. It actually looks like they've got a flat piece of road to race on unlike the crater filled tarmac/concrete of the very early 90's.

[J4CKO]

Mr Dave said:

J4CKO said:

Would be fun to turn up with a VW "BoraT DI"

Would be fun until they shot you.

They tend to get a bit upset when Borat is mentioned.

It was a highly hypothetical scenario and ironically would perhaps confirm a bit of the stereotyping that has been going on, I am sure there is a lot more to the place than that (at the risk of sounding a bit like Alan Partridge)