Category: Automotive

Anybody know anyone selling a Unimog by any chance? If yes then please let me know!

I wonder if they finally ended up catching him.

Last week the cops announced they were going to start removing the license plates of illegally parked cars and they weren’t joking around. Yesterday I had a meeting at Arabica and while I was driving around looking for parking, I spotted not one, not two but at least a dozen cars with their plates removed. Just a whole line of illegally parked cars with no plates on them. Super freaky shit, obviously that deterred me from parking illegally so their plan is definitely working.

On the bright side, I noticed for the first time there is actually a multistory car park on the street behind Arabica so ended up parking there.

A reader just let me know there is a huge new parking lot that was recently constructed very close to the airport. Could this be our new long term parking lot where they shuttle passengers to the main terminal and back? I can’t imagine it being anything else since there is no building next to it and the lot seems huge, more than double the size of our current long term parking lot.

My theory is they’ll most likely convert the current long term parking lot into a short term lot since the current short term lot isn’t big enough. They would then completely move the long term parking lot away to this new location if it is in fact the new long term parking lot.

Does anybody have any information on this?
Here is the location of the new lot on [Google Maps]

Although I think drivers in Kuwait can be the worst sometimes (people stop driving while whatsapping!), what I’ve also realized because of my Vespa and Datsun 240z is that there are a lot of drivers out there that can be pretty nice. When I used to have the Vespa and I’d be stuck in traffic, people always moved their cars a bit when they saw me so they could let me ride all the way to the front in between the standstill traffic. It felt like everyone was rooting for me to get out of the traffic that they were all stuck in.

With my 240z I’m now experiencing a lot of niceness as well. Because the car is so low, usually the headlights of other cars (mostly SUVs) is higher than my car as you can see in the picture on top. So if their lights are on it pretty much reflects off my rear view mirror and into my face. Nearly all the drivers who pull up behind me at a traffic light turn off their lights so not to blind me. It’s a small gesture but I love it since its from total strangers.

I’ve also gotten so many compliments on the car from total strangers. For someone like me who doesn’t like attention, the amount of attention I get because of the car is so uncomfortable. On Friday I was heading back home on the Gulf Road and listening to my music loud while driving like a nutcase when I get to a traffic light. So I’m sitting there checking my phone when I here a beep of a police siren. I ignore it. Then I hear it again and I look out my rear view mirror and can’t see anything so I continue to ignore it. Then I hear the quick siren burst again the third time so I look to my right and there is a cop car right outside my window with a cop inside it trying to talk to me. So in my head I was like shit I’m screwed either because of my erratic driving or the fact my music was loud or because I was on my phone. So I quickly pause my music and yell out “Sorry?” cuz I couldn’t hear anything he had said. The cop then points at my car and says “very nice very nice” while giving me the thumbs up. I say thank you! and in my head I’m going wtf this is all so weird.

I feel like I’m in bizarro world sometimes.

I’ve asked a few people and it seems the video above is current but don’t take my word for it. Lifting a car with a forklift is a pretty extreme move considering the cars would most likely get dented or scratched. In any case, I’d avoid parking illegally for the next few weeks until the cops go back to their usual routine.

I also got the screenshot below supposedly showing the new fines for breaking the law. I doubt its real though since there are a bunch of spelling mistakes and translation errors, but then again, that could also mean its authentic. If it’s true then those new speeding fines are gonna make me go broke. UPDATE: It’s false!

Thanks Holla

A friend of mine read my post from yesterday and sent me the link below this morning that is basically a list of all the Kuwait traffic laws in English. I went through the list to see if there was anything mentioning car lifts but didn’t find anything about it. But, there are a lot of laws that are too generic and could mean anything and I’m willing to bet because of that, everyone here is breaking at least one law from this list. If you want to view or download the PDF, click [Here]

Thanks Musaed

So this morning I’m driving casually on the Gulf Road (not speeding) and suddenly I see a cop car with the flashers on racing towards me in the rear view mirror. At the speed he was going I thought he was responding to an emergency and was expecting him to pass by my side but instead he slowed down and started tailgating me while yelling over the speakers to pull over. I was thinking Jesus wtf did I do now? I double checked my speedometer and I wasn’t speeding but the way he pulled up quickly behind me I figured it was a lot more serious, like maybe he mistook my car for one of a serial killer on the loose or something.

So I pull over into the McDonalds parking lot on the Gulf Road and roll down my window. The cop comes up to me and asks for my car registration and my license in Arabic which I hand over and then he mentions something to me in Arabic about my car being lifted. So I reply in English saying “Sorry what did you say?”. He looked at me, looked at my license which has my nationality listed as Canadian, then in a state of panic quickly hands back my papers and says sorry sorry go go. So I was like “Is everything ok?” and he responded in broken English that he didn’t speak any English and apologized again while stepping backwards. The whole thing looked so bizarre, like he had just seen a ghost or he had accidentally pulled over the chief of police.

I was thinking to myself wtf just happened here? I mean I always talk to cops in English because 90% of the time they find it too much of a hassle to communicate back with me and just let me go, but I’ve never had a cop apologize so profusely while backing away as if he was in fear of his life.

Now the annoying part is how some cops keep making a fuss over my lifted car. I’ve got an FJ Cruiser with a 2” lift (which is really not much as you can see in the photo up on top) and I’ve had the car for 6 years and it’s passed 3 car inspections. I’ve also stopped at countless check points without any issues yet every now and then a cop has to bring up the fact that my car is lifted. I don’t mind rules/laws as long as they’re consistent and I haven’t been able to find any law/rule regarding lift kits. But, if they were illegal I would assume I wouldn’t be able to pass my yearly car inspection which I have been for years even with my previously lifted car which was a Wrangler. So it’s frustrating some cops are making an issue out of it when they let more serious issues pass like people running red lights.

Anyway, if anyone can shed light on what the law is regarding lifted cars I’d appreciate it. What I’d love to have is a printout of all the car related laws and just keep it in my car so when I do get stopped again for having a lift kit I can say “So what?” and then pull out the sheet and have them try and find the corresponding law.

Like every manly man, I have a thing for heavy machinery and I’ve always been kinda been curious to know where one can get lessons. Not only that but I’ve already collected 2 out of 4 possible licenses (check below) and I kinda feel obliged to get the other 2 because I’m OCD like that. Turns out Kuwait Motoring Company (KMC) offer truck driving and heavy equipment operation lessons.

KMC is who ProDrive is partnered up with for their drifting lessons which I posted about a couple of weeks ago. I called them up to get details on their truck/heavy equipment license lessons cost and it’s KD145 and includes 4 lessons (2 hours each), the driving test and the vehicle for the test. Since there is a separate license for truck driving and operating heavy equipment you would have to select which one you’re interested in before hand.

So if you’re interested in getting lessons you can contact KMC on 1878888 or visit their instagram account @KMCKuwait. They also provide regular car driving lessons and motorbike lessons and based on their instagram account seem pretty professional.

PS: That’s not my real birth date on my license. My passport has the correct date of birth, my civil ID has the correct day but the month of birth as September instead of August while my residency has neither the correct day or month. This actually caused me an issue for the first time two weeks ago when I got back from Sofia, the immigration officer was like you have three dates of birth and only allowed me to enter the country after checking with his superior.

A contact of mine sent me the picture above of a new speeding speeding camera being installed on highway 50. According to my contact the new cameras are able to capture speeding motorists from a kilometer away but I haven’t been able to confirm that. The only thing that I have managed to confirm is the fact that these new cameras are digital and transmit pictures wirelessly, eliminating the need to retrieve film negatives.

I did a bit of research and turns out he new cameras are called the T-Series and produced by a company called Gatso. According to Gatso these are some features of the cameras:

– Violations are captured regardless of whether the vehicle is approaching the speed camera or receding from it and only one camera is required to enforce multiple lanes of traffic.

– Integrated Wi-Fi and a web based user interface provide easy and secure control from any web enabled device.

– The RT4 tracking radar simultaneously measures the speed and position of up to 32 vehicles in the coverage area. This technology allows even the busiest of intersections to be effectively enforced.

– The 20-megapixel CMOS camera is designed exclusively by GATSO, combining 30 frames
per second (fps) full frame image capture with unrivaled photosensitivity.

So basically we’re pretty screwed mostly since these cameras are hard to spot. On the bright side (if you can call it that), because the images are new wirelessly transmitted, this means we should get the fines sooner then before.

Thanks Dragos

Update: Ok, looks like this picture was NOT taken in Kuwait. I usually double check stuff like this but since my contact on two previous occasions sent me speed camera information that was accurate, I didn’t think to verify the image. In this specific case it was a picture sent to him from a friend and after looking up the image it seems to be old and taken in Bahrain. So false alarm sorry.

Here is another activity to add to the list of things to do in Kuwait. ProDrive Academy recently soft launched and are offering drifting and manual transmission driving courses.

Drifting Courses
They have four stages of drifting courses with each stage being more advanced. You learn to drift in a Nissan 370z and the prices are as follows:

Stage One: 3 hours long, costs KD130 and includes 2 new fresh tires
Stage Two: 1 1/2 hours long, costs KD100 and includes 2 new fresh tires
Stage Three: 3 hours long, costs KD130 and includes 2 new fresh tires
Stage Four: 3 hours long, costs KD100 and includes 2 new fresh tires

They have a package deal where if you decide to go with all four stages then the total cost would be KD400 instead of KD460.

Every Tuesday from 5PM to 11PM is an open drift day in which anyone can bring their car to the ProDrive circuit and drift. The cost to take part in that is KD30.

Manual Transmission Courses
With manual transmission courses they charge by the hour and depending on how quickly you learn the less time you need. They offer lessons with three different car options:

Nissan Pick Up: KD15/hour
Jeep Wrangler: KD20/hour
Nissan 370z: KD30/hour

If you’re interested in the above you can call them on 60049000 or 60604418.
For more information on ProDrive including a map of their location, check out their instagram account @prodrivekw

This incident took place last night near Marina Mall and was caught on a dashcam. [YouTube]

via @omar_shafiq

When I originally purchase my Datsun 240z, it had an old cassette player and just two crappy speakers in the rear, one of which didn’t work. I was happy with the cassette player since I still had some tapes but because one of the speakers wasn’t working, I went and bought a pair of cheap ones. A week or two after that my cassette player stop working, and I think the speakers I got had something to do with that. I tried finding another cassette player on eBay but either they weren’t old enough (to match the car’s era) or they were just ridiculously overpriced. So I decided to just do a complete overhaul of the car stereo since I was spending so much time driving the car anyway.

I had two objectives, the first was that whatever I decided to do, it shouldn’t mess with the look of the car. The second objective was that I didn’t want to spend an exuberant amount since I already did that with my FJ. So I limited my budget but still tried to get a decent sound. So after a bit of research I went with the following:

• Pioneer MVHX560BT Digital Media Receiver KD30
• 240z Front Speaker Panels (the 240z only had speakers in rear) KD28
• Rockford P1650 6.5-Inch 2-Way Full Range Speaker KD16
• Rockford Fosgate Punch P152 5-Inch Full Range Coaxial Speakers KD17
• Alpine KTP-445U 4-channel Power Pack Amplifier KD35
• Kenwood KSC-SW11 Compact Powered Enclosed Subwoofer KD42

The Pioneer head unit was perfect since it wasn’t very expensive, had bluetooth and was around half the size of regular units which meant I could hide it in my glove box. That way I could keep the old cassette player visible keeping with the car’s era, but behind the scenes I would have a much newer system running the show. Now when I turn the car on, the head unit automatically connects to my phone via bluetooth and I then can control the music and volume all from my phone without ever needing to open my glove box.

For the speakers I went with Rockford Fosgate because they were affordable and had gotten a lot of praise, plus there was a bit of nostalgia involved since I installed Rockford Fosgate components in my car back in university. For the amp I went with the Alpine model because it was small enough to hide under and behind the dashboard while still being powerful enough to run the speakers. Finally I got a tiny Kenwood subwoofer that fit perfectly behind the passenger seat and away from sight.

The result? The music sounds so much better now obviously but the interior still looks the same so you can’t really tell there is a powerful sound system in the car. I didn’t install the stuff myself, instead I went to my favorite car audio guys Zaharat Al Naseem. It took maybe an hour for the whole install and they did a great job of hiding all the wiring.

For those of you interested I’m starting a build page for my 240z where I will document everything I’ve done and will be doing to it. You can access that [Here]. Also again for those interested, I have a build page for my FJ, its around 4 pages long and I’ve been updating it since 2010, you can find that [Here]

Last week I posted a video of a classic Nissan Skyline doing a burnout in front of Big Ben. Since that video I’ve been trying to track down the guys and I think I finally found them. Well kinda, I think I found three different groups of guys doing this Europe trip. I combined some of their videos below which includes two more of the Big Ben burnout but from different angles. The picture above was taken from one of the touring groups and I thought it was strange since it looks like they did a river crossing? How did they even end up in there…

Anyway you can check out a lot more photos in the accounts below:
@kuw_sd
@fawzi_77
@kuw_ta
@ashtrackya
@__92_q8
@a__k4
@v_190
@910_q
@__51172__
@ajmy_q8
@q8.j1

You can check the hashtag #اشتراكيه_2016 as well since they all seem to be using it.

Also, you’ll notice some cars have Saudi plates. I believe thats because you can’t import and register the cars with Kuwaiti plates since they’re not old enough to be considered a classic car. I think a car must be 30+ years to be considered a classic and be allowed to be imported and registered. So as a loop hole, they keep them with Saudi plates.

Looks like the local Ford dealership battle is over. According to a news article in the Arab Times,”Ford Motor Company has terminated its dealership agreement with Arabian Motors Group WLL for the Ford and Lincoln brands in Kuwait effective July 27.”

Alghanim Auto also recently opened their new Ford showroom in Shuwaikh although I have yet to pass by it. If anyone from Ford is reading this, I call shotgun on the Ford Focus RS test drive!