I passed by a few dealerships last week to check out some cars with a friend of mine and below are some of the ones that interested me. These are approximate prices since they will vary depends on the options fitted, but it should give you a general idea of what the cars cost.
The best deal? Has to be the Alfa 4C pictured above. Used to be priced at KD24,000 but now selling for KD18,000. The most disappointing car, on the other hand, had to be the Volvo XC40. The local dealer got the most boring color combos and basically turned whats supposed to be a fun car for young people, into a boring looking car for my parents.
Around six years ago, Ferrari launched the Ferrari FF model. It was a hatchback Ferrari with rear seats that could comfortably carry two large adults, but could also be folded down creating a ton of storage space for those ever important trips to IKEA. It was a very practical Ferrari and quickly became the daily driver for a lot of serious car guys including Chris Harris and YouTube car blogger Shmee. Then two years ago, Ferrari released an updated FF and called it the GTC4Lusso. The car pretty much looked the same with just a minor exterior facelift and the biggest changes coming under the hood and the interior.
People either loved or hated the way the FF looked like and it’s the same with the GTC4Lusso. Personally, I think its a great looking car and it reminds me a lot of the now classic BMW Z3 Coupe which was also controversial in the looks department.
Five minutes after driving out of the dealership I felt right at home in the Lusso. The car didn’t feel intimidating at all and I right away understood why so many people chose it as their daily driver. This is going to sound strange but the last time I remember a car being this comfortable to drive was the Mercedes S-Class. The way the Lusso drove over potholes and road imperfections, the way it took speedbumps and ate up cobblestone roads was just incredible, beyond anything I would expect from a high-end sedan let alone a Ferrari. Then you have the interior cabin which is fairly spacious, quiet and really comfortable to be in. The model I drove also had the panoramic sunroof which beautifully lit up the interior space. The most visual change in the GTC4Lusso over the FF is the interior since the center console now has a very large and sleek looking screen.
Oh yeah and my favorite part of the interior is probably the small screen in front of the front passenger, right over the glovebox. The touchscreen allows the passenger to control the stereo but also allows the passenger access to information like the speedometer, RPM and other car related information. A gimmick of course, but a well-executed one.
I had the car pretty much the whole day to do what I wanted with it, and yet I spent most of the day looking for traffic to drive into or backroads that might prove to be too rough for the car. I wanted to see how good a daily driver the Lusso was, and it just ate whatever I threw at it. In traffic it was comfortable to drive and no backroad turned out to be too much to handle. I completely get it now why a lot of people previously chose the FF and now the GTC4Lusso as their daily and sometimes their only car.
After spending the day with the Lusso I fell in love it with, so much so that I want one now. I test drive a lot of cars and not a lot of them capture my heart the way the Lusso did. Even when I took out the Ferrari 488GTB in January, it was a great car but I didn’t really want one. The way the Lusso made me feel reminded me a lot of how the Lotus made me feel when I first test drove it, and I eventually ended up getting one. The only problem in this case is the GTC4Lusso costs around KD100,000. That’s a lot of money to spend on a car and it would only make sense if I was in a much higher income class. But there is hope! I was at the Ferrari dealer a few days back checking out their used cars and they actually have 2 Ferrari FF’s for sale including a gorgeous silver one. Sadly the interior was a really bright red and gave me a headache so that’s a big no. But I’m not in a rush, and four or five years from now they’ll hopefully have a reasonably priced second hand Lusso for sale.
If you’ve got the budget and are looking for a sports car that you can drive daily, you really can’t go wrong with the GTC4Lusso. At 100K it’s in the price range of the extremely fast Huracán Performante and the hottest looking sports car right now, the McLaren 720S. But, unlike the GTC4Lusso, you couldn’t really drive those every day nor could you have them as your only car. If you’d like to find out more about Ferraris in Kuwait then you should follow the dealer on instagram @ferrarialzayanikuwait.
There are a lot of companies or brands I don’t like, and only a very few I really really dislike or hate. To get me to really hate you would take a lot of effort (suing me is one way *cough* Benihana *cough*), and somehow beIN have managed to really piss me off. I’m not going to spend a lot of time dwelling on this but to summarize, I only use them to stream Formula 1 races, and when I’ve run into problems, they had extremely horrible customer service. But, I finally found another way to legally (kinda) watch the F1 races… F1 TV.
Before I continue, yes I am aware there are multiple ways to stream the F1 races illegally. Personally, I always try to go the as legal way possible route, unless I hit a wall and then I resort to piracy.
If you’re a Formula 1 fan and you follow the news, you might be aware that Formula 1 just launched F1 TV. Depending on where you reside, you’ll be able to subscribe to F1 TV and have access to their full archive of races as well as being able to stream their current races live via their website.
F1 TV in Kuwait
Kuwait sadly isn’t one of the countries where F1 TV will work. I think that has to do with the agreement F1 have with beIN but since beIN is so buggy, I had to find a way to get F1 TV working in Kuwait and I managed to do just that. To get F1 TV working in Kuwait you need two things:
– VPN with an American server
– Credit card issued by an American bank
The first is easy to get, there are hundreds of options available online and my guess is that pretty soon you’ll also be able to use smartDNS to access F1 TV like we do to get access to US Netflix and Hulu. The credit card on the other hand is much harder to get. I got mine while vacationing in the States but I think there are ways of getting one online although I haven’t tried them. Once you’ve got these two things you can just subscribe to F1 TV and get access.
What’s F1 TV Like?
There are two F1 TV packages, F1 TV Access, and F1 TV Pro. Access doesn’t allow you to stream the races live but with the Pro package you can. If you pay month by month, Access is $3 a month while Pro is $12. If you sign up for a year then the prices drop down considerably with Pro coming to $8 a month, the same price beIN charge for one day access.
This past race was the first time F1 TV went live and it was super buggy. It was so bad that F1 TV sent out an apology and a refund because they weren’t able to cope with the load this past weekend. But, thats fine, it was their first weekend live and nobody was expecting them to be perfect.
When it did work though the service was spectacular, more than anything beIN could offer or any other channel for the matter.
– During practice, qualifications and the race you get access to the cameras inside every single car. So if you’re a Verstappen fan, you can choose to view the camera in his car, and then watch him race until he crashes into something.
– During practice, qualifications and the race you get access to different audio channels. When watching the main stream you can choose to listen to commentary in different languages, or you can choose not to have any commentary at all and just have car sounds. While watching the race from inside the car of your favorite driver, you get an additional option of being able to listen to the team radio.
– With F1 TV you get access to 68 seasons of races! SIXTY EIGHT seasons of Formula 1 racing, that’s just insane. Last night I was rewatching the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix when half the cars crashed at turn one of the race. I then watched a documentary on one of my favorite drivers of all time, Mika Häkkinen. Even if F1 TV didn’t include the archive, I would have easily forked out $8 a month just to stream the races live. The fact that they’ve included so much content with this $8 is an incredible bonus.
As you can tell, I’m very excited about F1 TV. If you’re an F1 fan and have any questions about the service let me know. There are some negatives right now with F1 TV including the lack of an Apple TV app being one. Currently I’m using the browser on my iPad to watch F1 TV which is annoying, but they only properly launched a few days ago so they’re still super busy working out all the kinks and I’m expecting them to launch an app soon. Things will only keep getting better from this point onwards.
Previously, whenever you renewed your driving license it would get renewed for 10 years. I’m not really sure when that law changed, but now you have to renew it every year. Last year it took me 2 hours to get my license renewed, and that’s after I got super lucky when an officer ended up signing my papers for me without me having to wait in a line that was easily 100 people long.
I usually get all my car related paperwork done at the Jabriya Traffic Department. They’re really organized and every year when I go to renew my car registration, they would have changed something to make the experience smoother and faster. I was expecting the license renewal process to be easier this year because of that but boy was I wrong.
The line when I passed by yesterday to renew my license was crazy crazy long! The picture above was taken as I was walking to the back of the line, around half way to the back (check map above for exact location). The line stretched down a super long corridor and then turned around the corner because it was so long and it wasn’t even people standing in a single file, it looked like a complete mess.
Clearly the traffic department isn’t capable of handling this many renewals, so why don’t they just revert to the older system and have people do this once every 10 years? I ended up leaving but now I’m trying to figure out if I should get there early and line up or what exactly. The renewal for expats only starts at 4PM and they only take so many requests before telling everyone to come back the following day and line up again. So stressful!
Update: A reader just told me about a company that can handle your license renewal process as well as other things. They charge KD10 to renew your license which I think is so worth it. Here is a link to the [Flyer]
If you’re part of any local whatsapp group, you’ve most likely seen videos similar to the one above. The videos usually show a bunch of guys performing dangerous stunts with their cars, and then a cop car shows up to stop the whole thing and arrest the drivers, but instead, they end up getting attacked or bullied around by the crowd.
Why don’t cops have partners in Kuwait? Instead of one cop per police car why aren’t they two cops per car. That way one has the other persons back. Is it because there aren’t enough cops? Also, are cops here not allowed to use violent force? By violent force I mean shoot the perps because from these videos it looks like the cops aren’t really feared…
Back in January I swapped out my Lotus Exige S with the Exige 380 Cup, a lighter and more powerful version of the Exige that was more track focused. I still remember when I posted about my Exige S after getting it, I had linked to a Exige 380 Sport video and I remember thinking, damn I wish I had the 380 Sport instead. It was faster, more aggressive and looked slightly better. And now, I’ve got the 380 Cup which is an even more extreme version. Someone pinch me!
Anyway, here is a rundown of the car after doing around 4,500KM on it plus taken it to the Bahrain International Circuit for a track day.
The Good
I was hoping because the car was so stiff and rough, I wouldn’t drive it a lot so I could keep the mileage low, but that didn’t happen. I’ve been driving the car daily since I got it, racking up miles like I would in any normal daily driver. I don’t have sound isolating carpeting in the car, just floor mats, so I can see the aluminum car frame as well as hear alot of the road noise. And I love the sound of the road under my car even the sounds of little pebbles hitting the underside of the car. Just makes me feel more connected to the road.
I also still love climbing in and sitting inside the tiny cockpit, and I love how the car feels on the road. Road clearance isn’t that much of an issue and since I tend to spend most of my time driving from my home to the office using the Gulf Road, I don’t have problems with crappy roads.
Unlike my previous Exige this one has a manual gearbox and I do have mix feelings about it. Not the specific manual gearbox in this car which is incredible, but more on the idea if I prefer an automatic over a manual gearbox. Car guys are going to say manual is the way to go but personally, I’m 50/50 split on this. On the one side, the thing I like most about this car is the analog feel of it. There isn’t much technology in this car, the interior is very simple and so the manual gearbox works really well with the overall feel of the car. I like the metal clunks the gearbox makes when I shift gears, I like trying to match my revs or practicing my heel and toe skills when slowing down. But, I also miss the convenience of an automatic gearbox especially when I get stuck in traffic.
The Bad
I haven’t really had any issue with the car other than the fact this past weekend while on the racetrack the hatch on the front of the car was coming loose whenever I hit 200km/h. Not fun and I had to keep coming back into the pits to push the hatch back down. You can actually see it happening in the video above, if you look at the left corner where the black carbon fiber hatch meets the blue bodywork at the 3:12 minute mark, you’ll see the front hatch lift up.
The Ugly
The only other issue I’ve had isn’t really an issue for me, but more for the cops. The car exhaust has a valve, in normal driving the car is quiet, too quiet which I don’t like. So I usually have the car in sport mode which opens up the exhaust valve. The problem then is the car becomes too loud, like I’d be driving 40km/h but from the sound of it you’d think I was doing 140km/h. It attracts tooo much attention from the cops and since I get stopped for no reason anyway, this doesn’t make life any easier. Oh and I’ve definitely been traumatized by the cops! This weekend while I was on the racetrack, I swear at some points I was worried I was gonna get pulled over or get caught by a speed camera. I’m convinced its some sort of PTSD.
Mods
There isn’t much in terms of modifications I can do to this car since Lotus already upgraded everything in it that can be upgraded. The sound system is really shit but I’m not going to upgrade it since I did that with my last Exige and the sound wasn’t that much of an improvement since the speakers that fit are pretty small. So the only upgrade I did was install a harness bar along with a 4-point racing harness for the driver’s seat. I can still use my regular seatbelt for day to day driving but for track driving, I can now use the 4-point belt instead. The advantage of the 4-point system is that it allows you to become one with the car. Once you tighten it up you can’t move anymore, you’re just glued to your seat which allows you to feel the car a lot more.
Plan B
Before I got the 380 Cup I did consider other cars. The most obvious car was the Porsche 911. They’re hot, super practical and really easy to drive. I’d love a 911 GT3 or GT3RS, and I think a black Targa is one of the most beautiful cars out there. But, the problem with Porsches is that everyone has one. They just aren’t special anymore, it’s like owning a Rolex. On track days they’re the most popular cars on track and I wouldn’t want to spend so much money and not feel special. Other cars I considered were second hand Ferrari 430’s and 458’s, as well as second-hand McLarens. My dream car right now is the baby McLaren, the 540c, but even second hand they cost around 50K. Then you’ve got the maintenance costs associated with Ferrari’s and McLarens, I don’t want to worry about that shit when I buy a car. With the 380 Cup on the other hand, because the car is so rare (1/60) it’s instantly special. On the track this past weekend it must have been the most photographed car even though there were McLarens, Ferraris, Lambos and Porsches. I like that.
So yeah, I still really love the car, I love the brand and the online Lotus community. I love the way my car looks and I love it even more with the roof off. I love the sounds it makes, the un-practicality of it, and I love watching my friends try to climb in and out of the car. Do I wish I had a McLaren 540c? For sure but I also wish I had a Ferrari F40, a Porsche 918, a Lancia Delta HF Integrale, my old Datsun 240z, a BMW E30 M3, a Golf GTI MK1 etc.. I’m a car guy so I’m always going to want more.
My favorite two places to drive in are Lebanon and LA. Two very different places, but both have super laid back law enforcement, well in Lebanon’s case, no law enforcement. It’s so chill driving here, the highways are huge and there are so many great roads. But most importantly, as long as you’re not driving like an asshole, the cops don’t bother you. In Kuwait, on the other hand, I’m constantly looking in my rearview mirror hoping there isn’t a cop around me that will stop me for no reason. And I’m serious about the no reason part.
A few weeks back I was in a multistory parking lot and was having a conversation with a friend who ordered a Lotus similar to mine. I was joking around telling him good luck with the cops since they’re gonna stop him all the time once he gets the car. Two minutes later I pull out of the parking lot and just as I do, a cop car asks me to pull over. I’m not exaggerating I had literally just driven out of the parking lot. So I pull over and I’m sitting there in my car, the cop walks up to my window and I’m like “Hi”. The cop is like “Go”. I’m sitting there like wtf, why did you pull me over then?!?
So yeah, I’m loving driving in LA and I really wish I had my car here.
If you want your car washed at home then there are a lot of companies that offer the service, and there is even an app that can connect you to most of them. But not all car washes are equal which is why I found this latest service from ProTech Monte-Carlo interesting.
ProTech consider themselves a car spa, they offer premium detailing services as well as tinting, paint protection and a variety of treatments for your car. Just flipping through their Instagram account you’ll notice they’ve worked on some of the hottest cars in Kuwait from classics to supercars, and I’ve personally used them twice, first time to detail my Datsun 240z, and the second time for paint protection on my first Exige.
Over the weekend I got a message from them letting me know they’re now offering membership packages for their premium car wash service to your home. For KD40 a month they’ll come by once a week at a prearranged time to wash your car. If you want them to come by more than once a week they have packages for that as well which you can see below:
There are a couple of things I like about this, the first being that they actually know how to wash cars the right way. I know washing a car sounds simple and it is, but there are special techniques to washing the car properly and how to avoid getting swirls in your paint. For example, they’re the only place I’ve seen use clay bars when washing the car. If you’re got an expensive car then the extra care is definitely worth it. The second thing I like about this service is the membership aspect, I like the idea of signing up to a washing service and have them come over say every Sunday at 8AM to wash my car. The only thing is you need to commit to 12 months and I don’t like thinking that far ahead.
If you’re interested in signing up to the service, you can contact them by phone or whatsapp on +965-96912001. Here is a link to their [Website]
The inauguration of Kuwait Motor Town is currently being broadcasted live on KTV 1 as I am typing out this post. If you want to watch it you can stream it online [Here]
One of my readers was able to get access to the Kuwait Motor Town race track and shot a video of a lap around it. The track will sadly not be ready to use this season since it still needs a final layer of tarmac. You can actually notice the high curbs in the video, that’s because of the 4cm top layer that’s missing. The inauguration of the track is still scheduled for March 28. [YouTube]
If you can get me access to the track let me know!
The Kuwait Motor Town racing circuit will be inaugurated in 10 days on March 28th which means we might be lucky enough to get a couple of open track days before the summer hits. Open track days are when the track is opened to the public to come and race on and they’re usually held in the cooler months of the year.
The KMT website right now has three live cams on the track. Not really live live, more like the camera takes a few photos throughout the day. It’s also archived so you can click rewind and watch the track being constructed overtime which is cool. The website is kmt-kw.com
Finally, the official instagram account of the track will most likely be @kmtkw but there isn’t anything there at the moment to see.
With JACC, the new museums that just opened and now the race track, Kuwait really managed to up its entertainment game practically overnight. The next big project due to be completed is the new airport and that should be done in two years time. Exciting times!
If anyone can get me access to the track so I can pass by and take some pictures and videos, get in touch with me!
A Redditor spotted a Tesla charging station in the Al Shaheed Parking lot. We don’t have a Tesla dealer in Kuwait so I was curious to how this station came to be. Turns out it was donated to the park by a Tesla owner as a way to support the growing local EV (electric vehicles) community. The charging station is located in the basement of Al Shaheed Park 1 and the spot is reserved only for electric vehicles. Owners of any electric vehicle can park their cars in that spot and use the station to charge their cars for free. And yes, you can use the Tesla charging station to charge other electric vehicles like the Chevy Bolt or BMW i3 if you have the correct adapter.
On Friday (which was probably the hottest day of the year so far), my FJ’s air conditioning stopped working. Luckily the weather wasn’t that hot but it was still an annoyance. What was going to be more annoying though was getting it fixed. I hate taking the car to the dealership since it’s such a time-consuming process. You need to drop the car off, leave it for a few days, cab it back and forth to the garage and I just didn’t want to go through all that hassle. So I decided to try and fix the problem myself.
I kinda had an idea what the problem was. When I turned the air conditioning on no air would come out so I figured it had to do with the AC blower motor. So I googled it and found people who had similar issues like mine and the solution turned out to be one of two things:
1) Blower motor resistor failure
2) Blower motor module failure
The first one controls the speed of the fan, the second is what actually gives out the air. I watched a few videos and both seemed fairly easy to replace so I got my tools and headed to the Toyota parts dealer in Shuwaikh. First, I decided to check the resistor since it was the cheaper part of the two to replace (around KD4). I took it apart and it looked like it was still in good condition. Realizing it must be the blower motor, I walked into the parts dealer to buy a new motor. Fifteen minutes later I was out in the parking lot installing the part which was located under the glove box and connected with just three screws. Super easy swap and once I was done, I turned on the AC and it was working again. I got it all sorted by myself and even though it was an easy swap, I felt like I had accomplished so much. The new motor cost me KD59, I didn’t have to pay anyone for labor and more importantly I didn’t have to drop off my car at the dealership for a few days.
If you like Lego or putting together IKEA cabinets then you should try fixing things yourself. Everything is online nowadays including repair manuals and step by step video guides. If you also own an FJ Cruiser, here is a link to the dealerships [FJ Cruiser Repair Manual]
Kuwait Motor Town is set to open next month and the logo for it has now been revealed. From the reactions I’ve been seeing, most people don’t like it mostly because it looks like the Kellogg’s Special K logo. Although I don’t really like the logo, I think its fine.
It’s not a great logo by any means, but compared to other F1 circuit logos below, I think things could have been a lot worse. I mean other than the Baku City Circuit logo and probably the Red Bull Ring, most of the logos are pretty terrible. If Mexico with all their super talented designers ended up with the horrible Autodromo logo pictured below, we’re pretty lucky to end up with our Kellogg’s Special K one.
If you’d like to see the full branding presentation of Kuwait Motor Town, click [Here] They’ve removed the work from their portfolio but you can still access it [Here]
Last month while visiting the Lotus dealer with a friend of mine, I was given the opportunity to upgrade my car. A friend had ordered a Lotus Exige 380 Cup, but once it arrived at the local dealer he decided he wanted the more powerful 430 Cup instead. So, the dealer gave me first dibs on the car along with a too good to be true buyback offer on my Lotus. So after a lot of deliberation in my head (which mostly sounded like yada yada yada, you only live once, yada yada yada, mid-life crisis, yada yada), I decided to pull the trigger and get the car.
So what are the biggest changes over the Exige I already had? (skip this paragraph if you’re not into cars)
To start with, the 380 Cup is over 100KG lighter than my previous already super light Exige. The Cup weighs in at just 1,057KG! It also produces 375 hp compared to the 345 my previous car made and does 0-60mph in 3.4 seconds. The aerodynamics of the Cup car is also much more aggressive producing over 250KG of downforce compared to my previous Exige. You can really feel the car being pushed down to the ground once you hit high speeds. The wheels are also lighter forged aluminum, and the tires are larger and come with the track and competition Michelin Cup 2 tires. The AP Racing brakes have been upgraded and the gearbox is now a manual instead of paddle-shift and looks incredible with all the metal gearing exposed. The suspension is two-way adjustable so I can make it softer for the road or harder for the track. Finally, the car is covered in carbon fiber, everywhere, from the roof to the interior, even the rear engine window was replaced with a carbon fiber hood to save weight. So yeah, loads of changes compared to my previous Exige and that’s not even including overall usability improvements. I should also add that the 380 Cup is limited to just 60 cars worldwide (and the only one in the region), so its super rare.
I’ve had the car for around 10 days now and I’ve put just a bit over 1,000KM on the car already so I’ve gotten a good feel for it. The Cup is a lot faster than my previous Exige, and because it’s more track-focused, it rides really rough, is pretty noisy and is now even more unpractical than what was already a very unpractical car to begin with.
I was planning to take the car to Bahrain for their open track day on February 15th, but turns out I need to have at least 3,000KM on the car before tracking it and I don’t think I can get that done in two weeks. So not sure when I’ll have the car on the track but hopefully pretty soon.
If you’re looking for a good place to take car photos by the way, I’d highly recommend the rooftop parking of the complex in front of Mayar in Shuwaikh. I took all the photos here with my iPhone on the roof and loved the spot because of the neutral colors and clean lines. Here is the location on [Google Maps]
