At 3 in the morning on a Dubai street, a 2002 Nissan R34 GT-R M-Spec Nurburgring Edition drew more attention than the Lamborghinis and Bugattis that normally rule this city. The driver, Enes Yilmazer, could feel the twin-turbo inline-6 kicking against his spine with every clutch release, the car impossibly composed for something a quarter-century old. The moment mattered because it captured something the supercar market rarely admits: the most coveted machines are not always the most expensive ones, and in Dubai right now, the gap between desire and price is closing faster than almost anyone predicted.
F1rst Motors sits at the center of that story. With 84 cars on the floor, director Chris oversees an inventory that runs from a 180-kilometer Ferrari Enzo, the lowest-mileage example believed to exist, through to two 2026 Bugatti Mistrals, both of which sold before a single car left the production line. Chris put the business model plainly: ‘the hardest part is sourcing the car, not selling the car.’
When a six-month gap becomes three million dollars
The numbers at F1rst Motors have a way of reordering expectations. A Ferrari Enzo the showroom sold in January returned to the market six months later worth roughly 10 million dirham more, approximately $3 million in appreciation over a single winter season. The 180-kilometer car, which has not used a full tank of fuel since it left Maranello roughly two decades ago, is now priced between 30 and 35 million dirham. Beside it sits a 1-of-9 Argento Nurburgring Enzo, one of only three finished with a black interior, 7,500 kilometers on the clock, delivered new to Holland in 2004.
The LaFerrari Aperta on the adjacent stand followed a similar arc. At 0 kilometers and finished in Nero Daytona, it was trading at 20 million dirham six months before the visit. The current ask is 30 million dirham. Chris noted that non-red examples of the LaFerrari, Enzo, and F50 have become disproportionately valuable precisely because the cars were overwhelmingly built in red, making any other factory color a genuine rarity.
The Porsche Carrera GT told a longer version of the same story. Cars that were trading at 2.5 to 3 million dirham a decade ago now sit at 11 million dirham. The 13,000-kilometer GT Silver European example on the floor is Chris’s personal top-three car of all time, and he argued it remains underappreciated even at that price. The 918 Spyder moved even more sharply in the short term: a non-Weissach example with 10,000 kilometers went from 5 to 5.5 million dirham in March to 7 to 7.5 million dirham by the time of the visit, a 30 percent move in roughly three months.
A room behind a slow door and what it contained
Near the back of the showroom, a door opened slowly enough that the shape inside became visible before the reveal was complete. Behind it stood two 2026 Bugatti Mistrals, 99 pieces produced worldwide, the final expression of the W16 engine and the fastest open-top car the brand has made. When Bugatti set the record with the car in 2024, it recorded a little over 218 miles per hour with no roof in place. Both Dubai examples arrived through F1rst Motors’ sourcing network after every allocation sold before production began.
The Koenigsegg room offered a different kind of rarity. One car sat beside a CCXR Trevita, named for the Swedish phrase meaning ‘the three whites’ because the body is built from white carbon fiber. The car was intended as one of three. The third was never completed because the white carbon fiber process produced slight imperfections, and so the panels of that third car remain in the Koenigsegg factory today. This example was later returned to the factory and converted to a 6-speed manual under the current owner’s guidance, making it, in practical terms, a one-of-one within an already two-car production run.
Yilmazer eventually took the keys to the R34 just after midnight. The car is officially rated at 280 horsepower, the result of a gentleman’s agreement between Japanese manufacturers, but this M-Spec Nurburgring example carries an upgraded N1-based RB26 producing 592 horsepower. Driving it through empty Dubai streets, he noted that even in a city conditioned to Paganis and Chirons, the GT-R stopped people. ‘There will never be a car like this,’ he said afterward. ‘So mechanical, so raw.’ Sixteen R34s sit in the collection below the main showroom, but this specific car, photographed with Paul Walker at the factory, is the one he asked for by name.
A yellow Mistral parked outside a brand-new workshop
The chairman’s personal Mistral, finished in a one-of-one yellow that Chris described only as ‘insane,’ served as transport between the showroom and the newly completed service center directly behind the building. The facility, finished in the two to four weeks before the visit, includes seven mechanical bays, a three-car washing bay, two quality control bays, and three PPF and detailing bays. Every car entering F1rst Motors has its existing paint protection film removed so technicians can verify original paint across every panel before the car reaches the showroom floor. PPF application runs approximately 25,000 dirham per car, varying by panel complexity.
Chris chose the LaFerrari Aperta as his pick under $10 million. Yilmazer chose the Mistral. Neither was a surprise given what the cars had just demonstrated about where this market is going and how quickly it moves.
