Category: Automotive

I haven’t reviewed a car for some time now mostly because there really hasn’t been a car I’ve been interested in, but also because I love my Lotus so much I’d rather be in it than any other car. But, since my Lotus isn’t with me at the moment (more on that soon), I decided to take advantage of the situation by test driving the Ferrari 488 GTB.

Driving off in a car for the first time that costs as much as a home is a pretty nerve-wracking experience. The fact the car is also super low, and the roads around the dealership in pretty bad shape didn’t help the situation either. But the Ferrari 488 I was driving had the option to raise the suspension to give it a bit more ground clearance, so I managed to make my way out onto the main road without too much drama. It was pretty early in the morning so the first thing I did was head to Arabica in the city for some coffee. I took the long way by going through a bit of traffic on the 4th all the way to the 30th, and then from the 30th exiting onto the Gulf Road. I spent most of my day taking the longest way everywhere I went. Instead of grabbing my usual acai bowl for example from Liquid near Arabica in the city, for example, I decided to drive all the way to Bida’a and pick one up from Be Cafe. After spending the day zigzagging across Kuwait, I headed out to the desert to get some shots before the sunset.

After driving the Ferrari 488 GTB for a day I’ve come to the conclusion that the car has just two speeds, fast, and I’m going to get deported fast. I’m being serious here. The Ferrari 488 hits 0 to 100km/h in just 3 seconds. That’s just 0.8 seconds faster than my Lotus but damn what a difference that 0.8 makes. But that’s not even the impressive part, if you keep your foot down on the gas for just one more tiny second, you’re suddenly in the getting your license revoked territory. The car is insanely powerful, so much so that there just isn’t enough road for it. Usually, when I take out a sports car to review, I tend to drive it like I stole it. The 488 is probably the first car that I drove decently just because stepping on it would get me in a lot of trouble. Ferrari 488 owners are really going to love our racetrack once it opens up, its the only way to really enjoy and take advantage of all the power the car has to offer.

Other than the speed, a few other things impressed me quite a bit. The brakes on the car impressed me more than the speed of the car, the pedal feel is just so on point and the car stops in an instant. The interior of the car is also a wonderful place to be in. The interior is covered in leather with beautiful stitchwork and lots of carbon fiber trimming. I never felt uncomfortable, and even on my long trip with my friend into the desert, we spoke about how great the car would be on super long trips. Even though the 488 is a sports car first, you’re not sacrificing with comfort or amenities. The sound system was impressively good and the car I drove even came with front and rear parking cameras. It’s a luxury car that just happens to also be crazy ass fast.

So are there any downsides? Well yeah, the car costs as much as a house. The 488 GTB starts at KD78,000 which means I’m not really going to end up owning one anytime soon. But on the bright side, the Ferrari 488 GTB does come with a 5-year warranty (that can be extended up to 15) and 7-years free maintenance. So really the only costs you’ll have to factor in down the line are tires and brake pads. Not bad.

If you’d like to find out more about Ferraris in Kuwait then you should follow the dealer on instagram @ferrarialzayanikuwait. You can also go ahead and build your own 488 by visiting the Ferrari online car configurator [Here]

I went to get some car paperwork done last night but turned out I had a fine I needed to pay. When I tried paying it I got a message saying I couldn’t and needed to get the fine unblocked first. I got caught speeding, going 88KM/h in a 45KM/h zone. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out which road that could have been on but figured I’d just go to the traffic department morning and pay it and get it done with.

I headed to Jabriya traffic department first where they told me I needed to head to the Shuwaikh one instead. When I got to Shuwaikh I headed to the department that unblocks the fines and the cop there was like go get me your car registration since we have to impound your car for two weeks. I was like whaaaat why? Turns out I got caught speeding in the emergency lane. Even though you’re allowed to drive on the emergency lane during rush hour, you’re not meant to exceed 45KM/h. Because the speed cameras give you leeway of up to 20KM/h, I completely forgot the speed limit was 45 and assumed it was 65. So I was driving around 85 thinking I was still within the limit but I obviously wasn’t.

So if you use the emergency lane make sure you don’t speed!

I need to do this with my drone, except I’d have my drone follow the track on the same path the cars would take. It’s so close to being finished, just three more months!

Thanks lovelykuwait

Over the weekend I dropped by the Ferrari dealership to check out their cars and prices. If you’re curious to know how much their different models cost, check them out below:

Ferrari California T
KD74,000

Ferrari 488 GTB
KD93,000

Ferrari 488 Spider
KD97,000

Ferrari GTC4Lusso
KD100,000

Ferrari 812 Superfast
KD103,000

Although we don’t have Uber in Kuwait yet, we do have various other apps that pretty much do the same thing. Over the years I’ve posted about a few but never in one concise post, and since some have stopped working over the years, this list is of current active ones.

Q8 Grand Limo
This is my favorite app/service right now, and the one I’ve been using constantly. It’s really made my cabbing experience in Kuwait great, the cars are super clean and fancy, the drivers are very polite and tidy, and I haven’t had any issues with them since I started using them back in May. Costwise, they’re more expensive than regular street cabs but the experience really makes up for the price. Plus, they gave me a 20% promo code when I posted about them back in May so for me, trips don’t cost that much more than regular street cabs. They’ve got around 30 cabs in operation including a Mercedes S400 in case you want to splurge. I actually got picked up by the S400 a few weeks back when they were super busy and didn’t have their regular cars available. Let’s just say I forgave them for being late and they can always pick me up late if they’re gonna do so in the S400. You can also book a cab ahead of time which I’ve done when I needed a middle of the night ride to the airport. [Link]

Careem
Probably the closest thing to Uber in Kuwait right now since they’re Uber’s main competitor in the region. I’ve never used them but I’ve got friends who swear by them. Like Grand Limo, they also have a ride later option which many people use to schedule airport rides and they also have their own fleet of cars. [Link]

Q8 Taxi
This is an app I posted about a few years ago and were one of the early ones to launch in Kuwait. I tried using them back then a few times and had a fairly average experience and then one day, it just stopped working. Now it seems they’re back since they’ve been advertising their app pretty heavily. Haven’t tried them and don’t think I will, but they’re the cheapest option in this list since they use regular street cabs to pick you up. [Link]

If there are any other apps I’ve missed let me know in the comments.

The website F1 Fanatic has posted the track map of Kuwait Motor Town with a bit of information I wasn’t aware of previously. Turns out our track will be an anti-clockwise circuit, will feature 20 corners and is going to be 5.6KM long. You can check out a higher res version of the map above as well as some more info on the F1 Fanatic website [Here]

Update: Below are some different variations of the same track

Yesterday some drone photos of the Kuwait Motor Town race circuit were floating around on WhatsApp. Not sure why I didn’t think of going there and taking a drone photo of the circuit myself since Google Maps really hasn’t updated the view since construction started. These drone photos, on the other hand, show that a lot of progress has been made and that the hardest part of the construction, the paving of the track asphalt is basically done. You can also see the dragstrips in the photos as well as the grand stands under construction.

The first phase of the Kuwait Motor Town Race Circuit is targetted to open by the end of March, I’m hoping that’s still on track. I’m so excited!

Later today some parts of highway 50 and the 5th ring road will be closing down due to the GCC Summit. There are expectations that the closures will result in traffic chaos, but as of 9AM, there seems to be less traffic than usual. This will probably change once the roads close down at noon, but not a bad start to the day.

Update: A reader made me realize that at 12PM Google updated the map of Kuwait to highlight the closed roads. Impressive.

So the reason I was in Bahrain this past weekend was to take part in the Bahrain GP Open Track that took place on Friday. During one of the racing sessions, I experienced my first spin out and captured it on video. It had been raining earlier in the day and although the track had mostly dried up, the red and white rumble strips on the corners were still damp and I drove over one after running wide and completely lost traction.

The interesting part for me was how the experience felt a lot longer than it actually was. As soon as I started spinning out, in my head I started to go back and try and remember what I learned when I took drifting lessons a few months ago. I then let go of the steering wheel while at the same time I started thinking, ok, I might be heading towards the wall on my right side, if I hit it, I’ll probably mess up the whole side of my car. Then I started wondering how much that might cost in repairs and how long I was going to have to wait for the parts to arrive. During this time I was also trying to figure out where on the track I was and which way I was facing. When I saw that I was starting to point in the right direction, I took a hold of the steering again to control the spin. Luckily, I ended up with a perfect 360 spin and didn’t hit a wall or another car (I was going somewhere between 150-170km/h at that point). As soon I was facing the right way again I just stepped on it.

All those thoughts and discussions I was having in my head happened in just 2 seconds although it felt a lot longer while it was happening. I think I now kinda understand when people say life flashes before your eyes just before you die, or in my case, spin out. Anyway, you can check out snippets of Friday’s open track day in the video below compiled by the Bahrain International Circuit.

A post shared by Bahrain International Circuit (@bah_int_circuit) on Nov 24, 2017 at 12:14pm PST

I’m having a hard time keeping up with the new car impoundment campaign. When it was first launched they said they’d impound your car for 2 months if they caught you using your phone while driving or not wearing seatbelts. Then I heard the campaign was cancelled a day after they launched it. Now I’m hearing the campaign is back on but that it only applies to men, not women or old people? Whatever the situation is, Kuwait Impound is a website that allows you to find your car after it’s been impounded. So if you got your car impounded and want to know where it’s stored, use this [Link]

Thanks Fahad

As someone who interacts with cops on what seems like a weekly basis, I don’t have an issue with the cops being strict, I have an issue with their inconsistency. Either punish illegal parkers all year round and punish them wherever they might be around Kuwait not just the downtown area, or don’t. These short campaigns don’t do anything in the long run. I liked their idea of taking license plates off since it seemed like less work for them when compared to towing a car, and so something they could do on the long run. But even that they weren’t doing consistently.

I got pulled over last month for not using my turn signal but this morning for example I saw a car drive the wrong way down the street and even though she passed a cop car, the cop didn’t pull her over or anything. Why is it ok to break the law sometimes? I love driving in Lebanon because its complete anarchy, you do whatever you want and nobody cares. But I’m also perfectly fine driving in the States or any European country where the rules are pretty strict and everyone follows them. I just don’t like being in this grey area right now where sometimes we’re punished and sometimes we aren’t.

Funny story, a few weeks ago some person cut in front of my friends car while I was with him and a cop happened to be behind us when it happened. The cop pulled both of our cars over and then the cop came up to my friends window and told him to come down and beat up the other driver who cut him off. NO JOKE. My friend told him he had a broken toe and had a cast on so he couldn’t go down so the cop told him ok he could drive off.

The other day on my way to the gym I saw police cars and tow trucks removing illegally parked cars in the downtown area. An hour later after leaving my gym, that same strip had cars illegally parked again. So I don’t think towing illegally parked cars is gonna solve the issue, not unless this is something they’re willing to pursue all day long and all year round. Thats just my opinion though…

Over the weekend while in Dubai I passed by Tomini Classics with a friend of mine. Tomini is a classic car dealership and my friend wanted to check out a 1971 Jaguar E-Type and asked me if I wanted to join him, obviously I did. As soon as we walked into the showroom the first car the greeted us was a 1964 Ferrari 330 P4 race car. An insane car but the whole showroom was filled with insane cars. Because its Ferraris 70th anniversary, they filled the showroom with classic Ferraris. It was like walking around in a museum except everything was for sale. They had Testarossa’s, a Berlinetta Boxer, GT4, 308GTB and a lot more and they were all in excellent like new condition! It was mind blowing, just one classic Ferrari next to another. They also had some vintage Maserati’s, Lambo’s and even a Lotus out on display but most of their collection was hidden inside what they call “the vault”.

The vault is their large garage where they store the cars that have already been purchased as well as cars that are not on display in the main showroom. Photography is strictly not allowed inside so I’m gonna try and describe it the best I can. From all the car museums I’ve been to, and I’ve been to many, I don’t recall a single one that had so many great cars all in one place. Sure the Petersen Automotive Museum has some great cars, but they’re mostly great because of their historical significance. They’re cars with great stories, but not necessarily cars I would want to own. The vault at Tomini on the other hand is what my garage would look like if my last name was Zuckerberg. They had maybe half a dozen E-Types, a ton of vintage air cooled Porsches from the 60s all the way through the 80s (including at least two 356’s), they had a Pantera, a few more vintage Maserati’s, a couple of 60’s Mercedes SL’s, a Lamborghini Espada, the 1982 Ferrari Formula 1 car and even more but this is just what I remember right now. They also had a couple of new cars like the new Ferrari LaFerrari Spider and Porsche 918 Spyder. But the car that caught me by surprise the most was the Renault 5 Turbo 2. I had never seen one in person and I couldn’t believe they had one in their vault. It’s not that popular of a car and compared to the classic Ferrari’s and Lambo’s it kinda seems out of place. But it has a strong cult following especially if you grew up in Europe or in a place with a lot of European cars like Lebanon in my case. It’s definitely a car you would want to have in your collection.

In conclusion, that was some crazy shit. If you’re into cars especially classic ones then I’d highly highly recommend you drop by Tomini the next time you’re in Dubai. It seriously felt like visiting the best car museum in the world and the best part is… everything is for sale if you can afford it. To check out all the cars they have you can visit their website and flip through their for sale list as well as the sold list (which contains some of the cars I saw in the vault). Their website is tominiclassics.com. You can also follow them on instagram @tominiclassicsdubai

I’ve been wanting to review this lithium jump starter ever since I got it, but I didn’t have a reason to use it until last night. While leaving the gym my car wouldn’t start because the battery had died. Usually in a situation like that you’d start asking cars around you if they had jumper cables and if they could help you jump start your car. Super awkward and involves you having to rely on and get help from complete strangers.

But a few months ago I read about lithium jump starters and decided to order one to keep in the car for situations exactly like the one I experienced last night. Lithium jump starters are small lithium battery packs that you connect to your car’s battery when dead to help restart it. It’s super easy to use, you just turn on the battery pack, connect the red jumper cable to the red terminal on your car battery, the black jumper cable to the black terminal and thats it. You then go back into your car and turn on the ignition and voila! Even if you’re not a car expert its pretty easy to do.

There are different brands of these battery packs with different strengths, I got the NOCO Genius Boost Plus GB40 1000 from Amazon which has 4.5 stars and over 1,300 reviews. The battery is good enough to jump start a car 20 times and the model I got can jump start engines as large as 6 liters (so basically overkill for my needs). This battery packed saved me a lot of time and awkwardness last night and got me out of the horrible humid weather back into my air conditioned car pretty quickly. Even though it’s not something you’d use often, a battery pack like this should definitely be in your car as part of your emergency kit. You can even use it to charge your phone and has a built in flash light.

I’ve seen similar jump starters available locally, but I wanted the NOCO branded one and so bought mine from Amazon for KD29. It’s extremely well built and the overall quality of the case and cables is top-notch. Here is the [Amazon Link]

Back in November the Ministry of Interior announced that cops were going to start removing the license plates of illegally parked cars. A month later I posted about how impressed I was that the cops were actually still actively remove car plates. Fast forward to today and the cops are still at it. New laws pop up all the time and most of them don’t stick around so its pretty damn impressive that cops are still going around removing car plates, even with the ridiculously hot August weather.

From what I’ve been hearing, it looks like March is the targeted opening date for the first phase of the Kuwait Motor Town Race Circuit. The first phase will be the main F1/Moto-GP circuit and drag strip while the completion of the rest of the circuits as well as the hotel and mall will follow at a later date. Personally I don’t care about the hotel or the mall, I just want the main track to open so I could take part in open days.

Kuwait Motor Town will have karting, moto-cross, rally-cross, super-cross, 4×4 technical and ATV circuits as well as the main F1/Moto-GP circuit and the drag strip. For previous posts on the Kuwait Motor Town, click [Here]