At the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix in Austin, the man responsible for regulating the world’s most technically complex racing series told The Drive he owns 160 American muscle cars — not as a punchline, but as a statement of preference. Mohammed Ben Sulayem, a 14-time FIA Middle East Rally champion with 61 international victories between 1983 and 2002, has served as FIA president since 2021. His opinions about what a car should feel like are pointed, specific, and heavily biased toward displacement.
Growing Up Where the Road Has No End
Wide roads and inexpensive fuel in the UAE built a lifelong appetite for cars that fill a lane.
Ben Sulayem connects his preference directly to where he grew up. The UAE’s open highways and relatively low fuel costs rewarded exactly the kind of car Detroit produced during its least restrained decades. European cars, he told The Drive, are “like matchboxes.” On a six-lane desert highway, the comparison holds — a compact hatchback vanishes in that landscape the way a studio apartment feels cramped after a week in a ranch house.
His broader collection, according to The Drive, reportedly includes:
- 160 American V8s (self-reported; no independent inventory exists)
- A Mercedes-AMG One, Ferrari F40, Bugatti Bolide, Koenigsegg Agera RS, GMA T.50, Jaguar XJ220, Lexus LFA, and others
- A one-off Studebaker pickup reportedly fitted with a BMW F80 M3 powertrain
- Named favorites: Cadillac, Chrysler Imperial, and Lincoln
He Builds – He Doesn’t Just Buy
A former rally competitor tuning suspension compression and repositioning engines is a continuation of a career, not just a pastime.
What distinguishes Ben Sulayem from a collector who simply commissions finished cars is the process itself. According to The Drive, he describes modifying cars personally: altering front frames, repositioning engines, tuning suspension compression and rebound, and upgrading brakes, wheels, steering racks, and steering columns. The goal is not cosmetic. Large American cars, he acknowledges, don’t always handle or stop well in original form — restomods can improve those limitations.
That perspective carries real grounding. His 61 international rally victories reflect two decades of understanding what a car does wrong at speed. The restomod work is less about nostalgia and more about applying that knowledge to machines that deserved better engineering from the start.
If He Could Keep Only One Car, It Would Be a Cadillac
The FIA president’s desert-island choice isn’t a hypercar — it’s a road boat rebuilt to corner.
Strip away the Bugattis and the Koenigseggs, and Ben Sulayem’s answer to the one-car question is straightforward: “A Cadillac, for sure.” He cited its size, comfort, and road character — the full road-boat experience, updated with the mechanical capability those cars originally lacked.
That choice carries a quiet irony. The person currently navigating Formula 1’s powertrain debates — electrification, hybrid architecture, the ongoing argument over combustion’s future — finds his most personal satisfaction in a vintage American land yacht rebuilt with modern suspension underneath. The contrast between his public role and private garage says more about his relationship with cars than any collection inventory could.
