Category: Automotive

Last week I was contacted by Chevrolet asking me if I’d be interested in test driving their fully electric car, the Chevrolet Bolt EV. Although I wasn’t interested in the Bolt specifically, I was interested in experiencing life with an electric car so I agreed to borrow the car for the weekend.

Right now I don’t think there is any other company in Kuwait that sells a fully electric car, I know both Toyota and BMW sell hybrids (a combination of regular petrol engines and electric motors) but can’t think of anybody else that sells a fully electric car so Chevrolet I guess are the first.

First, let’s talk about the elephant in the room, the Chevy Bolt isn’t a pretty looking car to put it nicely. If I’m driving around in an electric car I want it to look like an electric car and I guess by that I mean I want it to look futuristic with lots of things glowing blue and lots of sharp and angular shapes, like a car that wouldn’t look out of place on the set of Tron. The Bolt looks like an entry-level budget crossover vehicle and the car I picked up was a super boring white. But, I already knew that the Bolt wasn’t pretty, for me this was all going to be about the electric experience.

I picked up the car on Thursday and it was half-charged showing me I had a range of 161KM left till empty. That was fine since I only had a few errands to run and then I was heading home so I could charge the car there. There are no Chevy fast-charging stations around Kuwait, there is a Tesla fast-charging station at Al Shaheed Park but that isn’t compatible with the Chevy charge port.

If you want to charge the Bolt you need to use the charging cable that came with it which allows you to plug it into any regular power socket. My building’s underground parking lot has power sockets all around so when I got home I just plugged the car into one and headed upstairs. A few hours later I decided to check on the charge status and was surprised to see it barely charged. So I started playing around with the car settings and noticed the car had two charging options, 6Amps and 10Amps. According to the car infotainment screen, the car was currently charging at 6Amps (which is the default setting) and that the car would be fully charged by 1:15AM on Saturday. Keep in mind it was Thursday night at that point so 6Amps wasn’t gonna work for me so I switched the car to 10Amps charging. At 10Amps, the car would be fully charged by 1:45PM the next day. Not fast enough, but still a lot better than the original estimate I got.

Next morning I left the house early around 8AM and the car was around 80% charged showing me I had a 261km range. I later found out after reading the manual that it takes around 33 hours to fully charge with the 10Amp setting. That’s just too long although I guess if you’re charging the car every time you park it then it’s not so bad, but in my case, it was starting to give me anxiety. Friday I had a bunch of things I needed to do and by the time I got home that evening, I had around 60KM range left. Unlike with fuel, if you’re close to empty you can’t just fill up at any gas station, so once I saw my range drop to 60 I was like shit, I need to get home now. I really don’t need more anxiety in my life…

Other than the whole charging debacle the car felt like a normal car to drive. I liked the minimalist dash display which was the most electric thing about the car and it was a fairly comfy vehicle to drive. Although not a fast car, the electric motors made the car feel fast since acceleration from a standstill was fairly instant. You know, thinking about it now, I think the biggest issue I have with the car isn’t the looks, or the interior or the slow charging. I think the biggest issue I have with the Bolt is with the price which is causing me to set my expectations so high. The Chevy Bolt is selling for KD13,000 which might be considered affordable compared to other electric cars, but compared to what you’d get from a similarly priced petrol-engined car, it just feels overpriced.

If you’d like to test drive the car yourself or check it out you can do so by passing by the local Chevrolet dealer. They’re on instagram @chevroletalghanim

In a bid to stop people from parking illegally the MOI have launched new “No Parking Vehicles” to drive around areas and ticket illegal parkers. The vehicles have cameras located on the outside to capture the license plate of violators automatically without having to leave the car making it really convenient.

Not sure how I feel about this, I think I preferred the previous method of removing license plates and towing cars since those were instant punishments that caused a lot of headache to the violators. I don’t think this new system will be as effective since violators will only know they got fined way after the incident.

In any case, not being pessimistic or anything but based on the history of MOI ideas, this won’t last long anyway before things go back to normal.

Thanks Meshari

So this is a funny story that recently happened that made me appreciate car detailing a lot more than I already did.

One of the guys in my WhatsApp group has an old 1995 Acura Integra which he’s turned into a track car. He’s upgraded the engine and brakes on it, stripped out the interior to reduce weight and he has a ton of fun with it on the race track. Since the end of last year though he’s had the car parked in a dirt lot outside another friends place gathering dust. Not that it was in good condition before he parked it, half the car was covered in ducktape while the rest of the car really needed a paint job.

Last week the guy whose house the car is parked outside of took the picture above and shared it on our whatsapp group. Right away we started teasing the car’s owner with jokes about how he should scrap the car and other silly stuff. As a joke I suggested he should get the car detailed which he replied to saying he was waiting for a sponsor. Within seconds one of the guys captured a screenshot of the conversation and sent it to another friend of ours who owns Al Falah Car Wash. Al Falah have a detailing service called Showshine which I’ve posted about on the blog before and after seeing the screenshot of the conversation, they responded with “bring it on” in full confidence not really knowing how bad the condition of the car was.

A week later they got to see the car in person after it was dropped off to them and I wish I was there to see their faces. They knew it was going to be a challenge, but they didn’t think the car was in this bad of a condition. They started posting pictures on their instagram account and started calling it the “Disaster Car Detail”.

One of my friends even joked that he would give them a trophy if they can get it just decent looking. I dropped by to take some before pictures of the car and when I saw it in person I thought it was a hopeless case. The car had no shine whatsoever, the paint was completely flat and patchy, it was truly a disaster car.

Over the next two days, Showshine worked hard on the car, they started off with a regular wash before moving it into their detailing department to start the difficult process. Finally, when they were done and pictures of the car started leaking into our group we couldn’t believe it. The car looked new and shiny! When I passed by and saw the car in person I couldn’t believe it was the same one. They did such an incredible job detailing the car and somehow managed to bring the color and shine back to life.

My friend who joked that he would give them a 🏆 also kept his word.

For the past couple of weeks, I had been thinking about giving my Datsun 240z which I recently purchased a paint job. But now after seeing what they could do with a disaster car, I’ve actually decided to get the car detailed instead. If they could bring back so much color and shine to my friend’s car, then it should be fairly easy with mine which is in so much better shape.

Thank you Al Falah for going along with this. If you want to get your car detailed their prices start from KD30 (depends on the size of the car). Al Falah are my favorite car wash and they’re on instagram @showshinealfalah.

Not sure why there is a sudden influx in car storage facilities in Kuwait, but it doesn’t really matter since the more facilities like this the more competitive their prices will have to be. Last week I posted about a new car storage facility called Curated, and now this is another brand new facility called Serv.

Serv is also located in Kuwait City, specifically in the basement of the multistory lot behind Behbehani Complex, in the block across the street from Arraya Tower. I dropped by last week to check it out and it was actually pretty cool. If The Vault is the gold standard for these facilities in Kuwait, Serv comes pretty close to offering nearly all of their services.

Other than the usual offerings like air-conditioned parking, 24h security, and power sockets all around to connect battery trickle chargers to, Serv also has a dedicated parking area for bikes, private garages of different sizes in case you don’t want to park next to other cars or need car privacy, and probably most importantly, Serv is also fully insured so in case something happens to your car it’s covered by their insurance. To top it off their parking lot also looks pretty cool design-wise and so the cars parked there also end up looking good.

When it comes to pricing it’s closer to Curated than it is to The Vault. At the time of publishing the prices at Serv are as follows:

Normal Parking
1 Month: KD95
3 Months: KD255
6 Months: KD450
12 Months: KD780

Boxes (Private Garages)
12 Months: KD1,380 and up depedning on box size

Bikes Parking
1 Month: KD40
3 Months: KD111
6 Months: KD210
12 Months: KD360

If you’re looking for a car storage facility for your car and are interested in Serv then check them out on Instagram @serv.kw.

Not sure what’s with the latest car storage trend in Kuwait but right now I’m aware of four of them and three just popped up recently. A car storage facility is basically a managed parking lot for people who don’t have a place to park their nice cars but don’t want to park them in random public parking lots. Different facilities offer different services like trickle charging for your battery, air conditioning, 24h security and more.

Last year I posted about a car storage facility called The Vault which was aimed towards the high-end market, but recently a more affordable place opened up called Curated. Curated is located in Kuwait City behind Al-Awqaaf Center, in the multistory lot next to Centerpoint. The lowest basement level is closed off from the rest of the parking and only members are allowed to use it. Their prices are as follows:

Monthly = KD65
6 Months = KD360
1 Year = KD660

Currently its the most affordable managed car storage facility I’m aware of but there are two more I need to visit, SERV which I think is priced similarly, and Cartel which is described as a luxury car hotel so most definitely more expensive.

If you’re interested in Curated, they’re on instagram @curatedkwt

Back in 2016 I bought a 1973 Datsun 240z. I used to really love that car and fixed it up so I could daily drive it and I was doing so until I decided to buy my first Lotus. I ended up selling the 240Z to a friend of mine so I wouldn’t feel too guilty about spending so much money on the Lotus, and I always regretted it. What’s worse is that he offered to sell it back to me at the end of last year, but I said no because I was in between jobs and that wouldn’t have been the responsible thing to do. By the time I realized my mistake, the car was sold off to another friend of ours who sent it to Bahrain where it’s getting a full restoration job.

I really needed a classic car in my life and I tried to find something interesting locally but couldn’t, so I started looking outside of Kuwait. I eventually ended up finding a beautiful red 1970 Alfa Romeo GTV in Holland and bought it back in April. But that car is still in the process of getting registered for export in and then needs around a month to get to Kuwait. So while waiting for it I kept my eye open for a 240z and a couple of weeks ago I finally found a good one that was located in Sulaibiya. It was blue like my dad’s Datsun in the 70s, and the guy was asking a reasonable price for so I went and checked it out.

At first glance, the car didn’t look like much, and I think that’s what might have scared other buyers off. The seats were ripped, the interior had been fully carpeted by the owner covering up all the original diamond stitched vinyl that covers the interior, and the original engine was swapped out with a 280z engine. But, the dashboard with all the dials and knobs was super clean! It was in much better condition than the one in my older Datsun and it’s actually the most expensive thing to restore in the car. Everything else like the seat covers, interior vinyl trimming, carpets, plastic panels etc.. are readily available and not for much. But a new dashboard without any of the dials and different buttons on it? That would easily cost you a third of the price of the car. The whole dashboard and center console area looked like it was refurbished or swapped out with a new one by one of the previous owners, so I quickly realized this was the car to get. Even the fact that the engine was off a 280z was a good thing for me because it meant I could install air conditioning and more engine parts were available for it.

So now I’m a proud owner of a 1972 blue Datsun 240z. I spent the weekend ordering a whole bunch of parts for it and I already scheduled an appointment with my mechanic to start work on it. By the time I’m done it should hopefully look similar to the 240z pictured above which was featured on Petrolicious. I’m super excited!

When I passed by they had three cars on display, the new GLE, G-Class and the new A-Class. Such a smart move.

I got into a kinda awkward situation this weekend. I was in Avenues with a friend and after we left I decided I’d show them the new causeway bridge because they hadn’t been on it yet and wanted to see it. I wasn’t gonna drive the whole bridge, just up till the first island, u-turn and come back. I looked at my fuel gauge and it was less than half full but more than enough for the short trip.

Well I nearly got screwed because it turned out the two island exits on the bridge had been closed off. Once you get on the bridge you can now no longer exit and turn back but instead, you now have to drive all the way to the other side (a 20~ minute drive). To make matters worse, once I got to the other side, instead of taking the correct exit that sends me back over the bridge towards Shuwaikh again, I accidentally took the exit towards Bubyan Island which wasted even more fuel.

There are no fuel stations on the other side!

Anyway, luckily I did make it back down without running out of fuel but someone else might not have been as lucky. So in case you’re planning to do the drive over the causeway bridge, make sure you have a full tank of gas.

Got this video forwarded to me yesterday. Looks like it was taken sometime in the 80s on Plajaat street in Salmiya. Wish it was a bit longer.

Generally, when you travel you can rent and drive cars with just your regular Kuwaiti license. But, back when the driving license was just in Arabic, you needed to get an international driving license. Not really sure which country nowadays won’t accept your Kuwaiti license, but in case you need to get an international one you can now do so online.

Price is KD10 for the license and you then have the option to pick it up yourself or have it delivered to you for an additional KD3.

Thanks Fahed

Showroomz is a new app I found about that I actually installed and didn’t delete. The app is like a digital car showroom for local car dealers and is a really convenient way to find out how much different cars cost.

But there are two minor issues I have with the app. Firstly, not all the dealers are listed, for example, BMW, Mercedes and Toyota are not on the app although I’m assuming they will be added eventually. Secondly, the brands aren’t listed aren’t in alphabetical order, so if you’re looking for a specific brand you have to scroll down the list and hope to find it. Other than these two quibbles, its a nice looking app that’s fairly straightforward to use without too many bells and whistles.

If you love cars or maybe if you’re looking to buy a new one then it’s worth downloading the app. Here is the link to the Apple Store.

A few days ago the new Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah Causeway was officially opened and everyone’s been really excited about it because it’s our first overwater bridge. I decided to drive up and down both bridges (yes there are two) this past Friday and I have to say, it’s one super boring drive. Although in theory, the drive across the bridge sounds cool because you’re surrounded by water with a beautiful cityscape on your right, in reality, it’s just a pretty straight long 3-lane highway, you can also barely see the water or cityscape because of the high side rails and because of all the speed cameras, it’s a very monotonous drive. The nicest part of the bridge is pictured above when coming down from the highest point of the bridge.

As I mentioned there are two bridges, a long one that takes you from Shuwaikh Port all the way north towards Subiya, while the second smaller one takes you to Doha. The total drive time is around 18 minutes long on the main long bridge and once you get to the end there really isn’t anything there, just an empty desert. There are plans to build Silk City there (can we rename it to Sin City please?), but right now the road is blocked off and you have a choice of either heading back to Shuwaikh via the bridge, or taking the older and longer inland road back down to the city.

There are a total of 9 speed cameras laid out across the long bridge as well as average speed cameras. So if you were hoping for some spirited driving you’re out of luck. There are also two artificial islands along the way, the Southern Island and Northern island. These are two exit points along the way where you can get off the main bridge to stop and check out the view or to u-turn back. Eventually, there will probably be services on these islands like restaurants or mini markets, but right now they’re not open yet. The first island exit comes up 3 minutes into the bridge drive while the second exit comes up around 10 minutes in.

For some stupid reason, people have been parking along the bridge to take photos and selfies. It’s pretty dangerous since it’s basically a 3-lane highway with a speed limit of 100KM/h. But, when I was driving on the bridge there were police patrols making sure people kept moving and didn’t stop on the side. There’s a guy who posted the hilarious video below of him being the first one to make tea on the bridge, I doubt he was being serious, he’s most likely (I hope at least) poking fun out of the way people have been treating this bridge.

The second smaller bridge starts in Shuwaikh Port and heads west towards Doha. The total drive on this bridge is just 5 minutes which means you could be at Entertainment City in less than 10 minutes from Shuwaikh. Too bad Entertainment City isn’t open though or they would be getting a lot more visitors now. There are 2 speed cameras on this bridge as well as average speed cameras so no spirited driving here as well.

I recorded a video of the full drive across both bridges starting from the first island exit all the way to Subiya, turned around headed back down to Shuwaikh and then up the second smaller bridge to Doha. It’s a pretty long and boring video but here are some timestamps in case you want to skip through it:

0:00 – Southern Island
2:50 – Popular selfie point
7:50 – Northern Island
16:00 – End of the bridge
29:05 – Police car telling a guy parked to keep moving
29:55 – Lots of cars parked on the side
35:20 – Back to Shuwaikh taking bridge to Doha
41:15 – End of bridge to Doha

If you’re interested in cycling on the bridge it’s doable but there isn’t a protected bike path. You’d have to ride on the emergency lane and I didn’t see any “no cycling” signs, but I did see some cyclists. The way I’d do it if it was me is to park on the first island, get my bike off the car and then ride back and forth between the first and second island. But it’s too scary with idiots parking on the side so do so at your own risk.

Update: According to the MOI, since the opening of the bridge they’ve issued over 1,800 fines. It seems anybody who’s been parking on the side of the road, littering or doing anything illegal is being spotted by the hundreds of surveillance cameras located all over the bridge and are being issued tickets.

pic.twitter.com/R70AGY0wAZ

— وزارة الداخلية (@Moi_kuw) May 5, 2019

I’m currently in Dubai courtesy of Ferrari. They’ve put me up in the gorgeous and very lavish Bvlgari Resort, and they’ve given me access to two cars to drive, their new Ferrari Portofino and the Ferrari 812 SuperFast. I actually have a lot of work back in Kuwait and shouldn’t really be here, but how could I say no to this right? When they first got in touch with me about this trip I was excited obviously but in my head I was also thinking, ok so I’ve already test driven these two cars, and I’ve already posted them on the blog, so how can I post about them again? Then it hit me, I could do Jebel Jais!

Jebel Jais is a mountain in the UAE with an elevation of nearly 2,000m. I found out about it from the popular car show Top Gear, (or maybe it was The Grand Tour?) and ever since I’ve wanted to drive it. The mountain has an incredible 3-lane winding road that takes you to the very top and is usually featured in “Top Roads You Need to Drive on Before You Die” style of lists. There isn’t anything on top, the bottom or along the way to the top, it’s just an empty beautiful road to nowhere.

I’ve contemplated shipping my Lotus to Dubai before so I could do the Jebel Jais drive but it was just too costly. I even considered maybe including it as part of a Oman drive where I’d ship my car to Dubai, do the Jebel Jais drive and then drive to Oman and do a drive there before sending my car back to Kuwait. It never materialized so when Ferrari told me I’d have access to the Portofino for a day I thought to myself, that would be a great car to drive up the mountain. So I accepted their invitation and here I am in Dubai.

Ferrari dropped off the Portofino yesterday morning to my hotel at around 10AM. I had two conditions, the first is I needed to have the car back by 5:30PM, the second is I could only do a maximum mileage of 350KM. Both weren’t going to be an issue. Before coming to Dubai I had already figured everything out, the drive from my hotel to the top of Jebel Jais was 160KM and it would take just over 2 hours. So, 160+160 is 320KM and say a 5 hour total journey time, that would still leave me with time to spare. The calculations worked, I was able to take the car to Jebel Jais, come back to the city, grab and lunch and have the car back at my hotel before 5:30 with around 15KM mileage to spare. It was close, but good enough.

The drive to Jebel Jais was pretty uneventful and boring, but I had a bunch of podcast episodes of Business Wars lined up and that made the time pass by quickly. There were also a ton of cameras along the way so I just put the cruise-control on the highway limit of 120KM and just cruised to Jebel Jais. Once I got to the bottom of Jebel Jais, I dropped the top down, put my favorite Spotify music playlist on and just blasted my way up the mountain.

There was no one, just me, the mountain and the incredible 3-lane winding road with no speed cameras all the way to the top. I loved the drive and the Portofino was just insane on that road. It’s such a fast car and it sounded amazing and aggressive all the way to the top. The temperature was around 28 degrees so it was perfect to drive with the roof down and I think I got a bit of tan as well. The drive up the mountain is around 16KM long and it took me around 20 minutes give or take. I stopped a bit on the way up just to check out the view, but I stopped a lot more on the way down to take some photos of the car.

Once I was back down the mountain I really wanted to just U-turn and make my way up again, but I knew if I did that I would end up exceeding the allotted mileage given to me by Ferrari, and I didn’t want to do that. So I put the roof back up and headed back to the city.

I finally got this drive off my bucket list and I couldn’t have asked for a better car to do it in. It was a difficult choice choosing between the Portofino and 812 SuperFast for the Jebel Jais drive, but I made the right choice because it doesn’t get better than flying up the mountain in a fast loud red Ferrari convertible. Ferrari are now dropping off the 812 SuperFast in a few minutes so if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes, sorry but I’m in a rush!

Remember the phase when cops were towing away illegally parked cars in the city or removing their license plates? Yeah well they’re over it now which makes me wonder why can’t they ever stick to a decision?

Recently I realized another benefit Kuwait Motor Town has brought to Kuwait other than just racing, photography hobbyist now have something new to take photos of. During track events, you’ll find photographers walking about taking photos of all the different cars, and some even get media passes from KMT which grants them access to various corners around the track where they can hang out and capture photos of cars speeding by.

When you’re racing on the track you obviously can’t capture photos of yourself, so all of us drvers are always super grateful to have these photographers taking photos of us. The photographers also don’t ask for anything in return other than credit. Actually, none of the photographers who’ve shared photos with me have ever asked for credit, but of course, the least we could do is credit them when sharing their photos on our social media accounts.

There are a lot of photographers, I haven’t met all of them but here are a few whom I’ve interacted with and who have been showing up to practically every event:

@81gram
@azizbo7amad
@hamed__ashkanani
@lomanphotography
@p24photography
@pedrodasht
@phautographer

There are some really great photos on their accounts so be sure to check them and follow them if you’re into cars.

First photo captured by @hamed__ashkanani, second by @81gram