Midnight at the oasis

We're still out in the desert at the Liwa Festival near Abu Dhabi in the UAE, witnessing some of the wildest, big-bhp racing I've ever seen. Specially designed sand-drag racing Nissan Patrol 4x4s, some of them pumping out 3000bhp from 14-litre, nitro-fuelled, supercharged V8 engines. Some of them exploding in a ball of flames halfway up the mountainous sand dune racetrack (see the videos!).

The red-hot daylight hours are spent fettling the racecars in the pits or messing around on the vast dunes in dune buggies or on quad bikes; it's only when the blazing sun sets that the serious racing starts. It's also when some of the more weird and wonderful motors come out in what can only be described as a desert cruise.

As the floodlights fill the darkness with bright artificial light, a multitude of barbeques fill the air with the sweet smell of flame-grilled spiced lamb; a favourite in these parts. We fill our bellies as the manmade thunder and lightning erupts.

Eye-watering fumes soon smoother the wafts of mouth-watering BBQ, and plumes of sand fill the night sky as racer after racer attacks the formidable 50-degree slope, trying to beat the clock on a wild sprint to the top.

The incredible action goes hard, deep into the night, and the local, power-hungry crowd are well entertained as records, and engines, are broken in spectacular, sky-lighting style.

Drag racing in California, circuit racing at Silverstone or watching the F1 in Monaco; all great ways to spend a motorsport day, but this desert dune racing is truly something spectacular to behold. The aggression, the noise, the sheer will not to let the mountain beat you - it's what racing is all about.

Behind this 3000bhp, heavily modified Nissan Patrol lurks the Moreeb sand dune
upon which the driver will soon race. Moreeb translates as 'scary mountain'
 

Qatari Nissan Patrols, part of a large contingent of racers from the UAE's neighbour
 

Based on a WWII-era Jeep, but thanks to some very serious modern updates now
producing in excess of 1500bhp. It too must scale the massive dune
 

Sweet dune buggy cruises the surrounding desert. Big V8 engine in the back but weak
as a kitten compared to the real racers
 

Rare, weird and wonderful; 1950 Chevy pickup - amazing what you find in the desert!