As an off-road fan, you’ve probably seen a video or two about the crazy twin turbo V8 buggies that people build for the sole purpose of thrashing in the desert. Places like Glamis are jam-packed during holidays like Thanksgiving, and it’s always a great time. What you might not realize is that in the Middle East, they do it bigger, better, and crazier. Liwa Sports Festival is a nine-day dune racing event that takes some of the fastest buggies and trucks and puts them against each other in a race up one of the largest dunes in the world known as the ‘Hill of Horrors.’

The US never received the Nissan Patrol, but many other parts of the world did. Under the hood is an inline-six engine which is known for its ability to take crazy amounts of boost pressure. Think of it almost like an RB26 GTR engine. For this reason and others, the Nissan Patrol is one of the most popular platforms for this style of off-road racing. Some racers prefer to remove the inline-six in favor of a V8 such as a Chevy LS or even a V6, like the VR38 under the hood of the R35 GTR. Some racers are pushing upwards of 3,000 horsepower, and as you can imagine, making that kind of power isn’t cheap. Some racers have well over $100,000 into their engine. They don’t race for the money; they race for the fun.

Thanks to Vice, we have this excellent video which allows us to follow around a few racers before and during the event, to see what’s going on behind the scenes. With engine failures, testing, racing, and winning, there is a little bit of everything about this event in the video.