In 1986, off-road driving was a leisure activity, enjoyed by a limited number of residents. The desert was a mystery and not many dared to venture into it. Gulf News came up with the concept of the Fun Drive that year, the prime objective was to give the people resident in the region an opportunity to experience the desert. This event was therefore held in March 1986, as a Day Drive and a total of 75 four wheel drives participated.
The Fun Drive was a huge success and had immediately acquired a captive audience. From then on its popularity grew by leaps and bounds and in 1989, Gulf News added another dimension to the Fun Drive - the Overnighter, and made it a two day event with an overnight stay in the desert. This change was received with an overwhelming enthusiasm. In 1997, over 750 four-wheel drives and over 2,500 persons took part and Gulf News has restricted the cars to this number in subsequent Overnighters.
The Gulf News Overnighter Fun Drive app is a mobile application to track Fun Drive event participants while they are travelling on the route. The application is communicating the event participants GPS location to the Fun Drive control team just in case assistance is needed. The app will only be active while the event is on and will be disabled thereafter.
Please note that continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.