Category: Automotive

Kuwait will be hosting the “Formula 4 UAE” and “Formula Regional Middle East” Championship this weekend for the first time ever. Both these events are governed by FIA, the same sporting federation that governs “Formula One”.

This is the second time that Kuwait Motor Town is hosting an international event this season and because this is a FIA event, it’s pretty big. The way the organizers are handling things behind the scenes is extremely professional and they’re being very strict. I just left the media briefing and safety is being prioritized above everything else with every decision being made, even with simple things like track access for the media which for this event is only being given to media who’ve participated in previous KMT events.

You can watch these races at the track!

These races are open to spectators to come and watch and there will be various activities happening at the track for all ages ranging from food trucks to bouncy castles. This event should be fun to watch.

The ticket price is KD2 for the day or if you want to attend all 4 days including testing and qualifying its KD5. The full detailed schedule is available on the KMT website but here are the race start times:

Friday, January 27
2:30 pm – F4 UAE (Race 1)
3:45 pm – FRME (Race 1)

Saturday, January 28
9:40 am- F4 UAE (Race 2)
10:30 am – FRMEC (Race 2)
2:25 pm – F4 UAE (Race 3)
3:20 pm – FRMEC (Race 3)

For tickets or more information, visit @kmtkw or kmt.kw/events

Tickets can also be purchased at the gate if they aren’t sold out.

The MOI has started the process of replacing the old traffic cameras with the new ones all around Kuwait. Below is a list of most of the violations these new cameras will be able to capture.

The strangest violation for me is the fact they will now fine you for using your phone while stopped at a red light. EVERYONE gets on their phone at red lights, so not sure how that’s going to work.

Anyway, here is the list of violations the new cameras can capture:

• Driving above the speed limit
• Using the phone while driving
• Using the phone at traffic lights
• Driving without the seatbelt on
• Running red lights
• Changing lanes without using the indicator
• Stopping in the yellow box at intersections
• Driving on the wrong side of the road
• Taking illegal u-turns, right or left turns
• Not driving in the designated heavy vehicle lane

Yesterday the Ministry of Interior announced they would be installing new smarter speed cameras around Kuwait. The new cameras are pretty high-tech and can detect things like illegal turns, cars blocking pedestrian walkways, people using their phones while driving, and even spotting if you have a seatbelt on or not.

One of the things I hate the most is driving behind someone going super slow on the fast lane because they’re texting or taking a selfie so I hope they install a ton of these new cameras all around Kuwait.

The cops have started getting their new cars with the updated livery and I’ve already seen a few on the streets and I think they look pretty hot. They’re much nicer than the current cars and I love the new metallic blue they’re using.

But, a lot of people seem to dislike the new livery, no idea why though.

The 12H HANKOOK KUWAIT race started at 12 PM today and will last till midnight. This is the first-ever international circuit racing event to be held in Kuwait so you probably don’t want to miss this important moment.

It’s a 12-hour endurance race which is why it’s going on till midnight, but the benefit of that is you can come by anytime during the day to chill in the grandstands and watch the race. It’s open to the public and tickets are 3KD. There are also food and coffee trucks as well as a kid’s area.

If you’ve never been to the Kuwait Motor Town race track, here is the location on Google Maps.

Although Winter Wonderland is gonna cause traffic chaos in Salmiya, one of the benefits of having them in the neighborhood is that they’ve started fixing all the roads around the area. There are now zero potholes or any broken roads from my apartment to the Gulf Road because they’ve been paving all the roads during the evening. Thank you Winter Wonderland!

Kuwait Motor Town will be hosting the final round of the 2022 24H Series endurance race early next month and tickets just went on sale for it.

The ‘Hankook 12H Kuwait’ is a 12-hour uninterrupted race that starts at 12 PM and goes on until midnight to ensure competitors experience racing during the day and night. The race takes place on Friday, December 2nd, but there are qualifications and practice sessions the day before. Tickets start at KD3 for a one-day pass, and KD5 for both days. They also have VIP tickets.

If you’re interested to find out more or buy tickets, visit the KMT website kmt.kw

Last December, @classic_rides_q8 started posting pictures of his 1994 Landcruiser FZJ with Kuwaiti plates but all the photos were in Arizona. I’ve never met the guy but we’ve been in contact for a few years now through Instagram and it was because of his account I was able to find my first Datsun. So I sent him a message asking how he got the car to the States and he told me it was was a simple process using a RORO service and it cost him only $3,500 including taxes.

I think his plan was to use the car while he was there and then sell it before coming back to Kuwait. That plan changed when the car was accepted at the Barrett Jackson auction, the worlds great car collector auction. The car went on the chopping block and quickly sold for $38,500. You can watch the whole thing unfold in the video above which was originally posted on his Instagram account. It’s a pretty good-looking Landcruiser.

Next weekend there is a new racing event taking place at KMT called Kuwait Track Challenge. What sets this race apart from other local races is the fact that they’re offering fairly large sums of cash for the winners totaling KD65,000.

When they first announced the event I was pretty impressed by the prizes but I didn’t really realize how much more exciting it would be making the competition until this week. For those of you not into cars or racing, there are different classes for the cars during races to make it fair. The classes for Kuwait Track Challenge are divided by tire size because usually, the more powerful and larger the car, the larger the tire sizes. So for KTC, they’ve split it up into the following three classes:

Pocket Rocket – 245 tires and below
Sleeper – 285 tires and below
Outlaw – All tire sizes

Every category will have 5 winners who will each win:
1st – $32,000
2nd – $13,000
3rd – $9,700
4th – $6,500
5th – $3,250

Because of the large cash prizes, what I realized this week is a lot of people are taking this competition very seriously by actually investing money into their cars with hopes the upgrades they make will pay for themselves if they win. It’s actually gotten me excited to watch the races because I now want to see what everyone has done to their cars.

The event will be taking place next week over two days, November 4th and 5th at Kuwait Motor Town. There will be food trucks and music as well for people who want to come by and watch the event. If you’re interested in participating in the races registration as of now is still open. Here is the link to register, and they’re on Instagram @challengethetrack

Aston Martin have opened up their new showroom in place of where Hermes used to be located in Al Hamra Tower. But, that’s not why I’m posting about it. The reason I’m posting this is that they have the stunning DBR22 CC100 on display right now inside their showroom and you can walk up to it and have a good close look at it. I doubt you’ll ever come across one in person so if you’re into cars you’ll appreciate this. Next on my to-see list is the Valkyrie, so hopefully they get that eventually on display.

I was picking up breakfast from Mcdonald’s next to the Kuwait Towers when I spotted this large military-like truck parked across from Mcdonald’s. I knew it wasn’t military because it had German plates on it and the words tourist printed in large near the front along with a German flag, I snapped a few photos and then later once back home decided to google it.

Turns out the truck is a MAN KAT 8×8 and is being driven around the world by a German lady called Petra. She started her journey on June 2020 and is currently in Kuwait having come from Iran.

I found a video on YouTube where she gives a tour of her truck and you can check that out below although it’s in German (inside tour starts at 19:30).

If you want to follow Petra on her journey or want to check out photos from her previous trips, her Instagram is @katweltreise

The 24H Series sports car and touring car international racing series is coming to Kuwait. Kuwait Motor Town is set to host the final round of the 2022 24H SERIES, marking the first time a venue in Kuwait has hosted an international circuit racing event.

The inaugural Hankook 12H KUWAIT will take place from 30 November to 2 December, just over two months after the final European round of the 24H SERIES at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on 9-10-11 September and just six weeks before the 2023 season opener at the Dubai Autodrome on 13-14-15 January, with a format and a date for the event also confirmed.

To summarize, this is a pretty big deal. KMT opened in 2018 with the aim to eventually host international racing events and this will be the first of eventually many more racing to come. We have a pretty great track layout (video above) so I’m really interested to see how it works for races. To stay posted on this event and other, Kuwait Motor Town is on Instagram @kmtkw

As I mentioned in my road trip to Dubai post, I drove there to get some things installed on my Hilux truck at a place called Arctic Trucks. They’re actually an Icelandic company that build trucks for the arctic but what works for snow also works for sand. While I was at their shop I saw the new Landcruiser above modified with their AT35 kit and it looked hot!

They have kits for all the different Toyotas including the LC200, LC300, the FJ, Prado, and the Hilux. I have the Arctic Truck brochures for the LC200, LC300, and Hilux trucks which include the modifications they make and their prices. If you’re interested in modifying your Toyota then here are the brochures:

Toyota Hilux AT35 Brochure
Toyota Hilux AT37 Brochure
Toyota Lancruiser LC200 AT35 Brochure
Toyota Lancruiser LC300 AT35 Brochure

They also do Nissan Patrols but I don’t have the brochure for that. You can check out more photos on their Instagram page @arctictrucksme

On Thursday morning I headed to Dubai in my car for the weekend and just got back last night. I had a few things I needed to do on this trip, first thing was to stop at Abu Dhabi since I have a car being restored there and I needed to check on it and take it out for a test drive. Then I needed to head to Dubai because I had some things I needed to install on my car at Arctic Trucks (Mountain Top roll cover and sports bar, and Rival4X4 skid plates). Finally, on my way back I also needed to stop over in Khobar for work.

Kuwait to Dubai is a very doable trip. Its long, and it’s not something I’d do often, but it would be something I’d be willing to do if I needed to get something from Dubai which we don’t have in Kuwait. Like a couch or something, I don’t know, I just like the idea that if I found something in Dubai that I can’t ship to Kuwait or bring back on a plane with me, then I can just drive there pick it up and come back.

So here is everything you need to know in case you want to do the same trip. This also applies to driving to Qatar since you drive by the Qatari border on the way to the UAE one.

Trip Duration
I left my place in Salmiya at around 6AM, and got to my hotel in Abu Dhabi by 6PM Dubai time (5PM Kuwait time). The trip took exactly 11 hours including stopping for breakfast, a few photoshoot stops, and all the border crossings. If you’re heading to Dubai directly just add another hour on to the trip.

Google Maps
Trusting Google Maps will take you on the best route is not the best idea in the world but it’s something we do. At one part of the trip it made me exit the main highway and go through a tiny road where I swear I read a sign that said for use by ARAMCO contractors only. I wasn’t sure if 30 minutes later I’d end up at a security gate and have to turn back, I just hoped I’d end up back on the main road eventually. It did take me back to the main road but this brings up an important thing which is my trip could be different from yours. Yesterday coming back from Khobar Google sent me on a different and nicer road than my last trip back so just be aware of that.

Kuwait to the UAE Borders
I’ve already covered driving through Saudi in my previous post and the same rules apply here again. The Saudi leg of the journey although long actually passed by really quickly. The thing about driving in Saudi is the roads and scenery change very frequently. There isn’t just one straight highway from here to UAE and so the journey feels a lot more interesting since you drive through a variety of terrain and road types. You could be on a highway for 30 minutes, then a back road for 30 minutes, then driving through a coastal town for an hour, then through sand dunes for another hour, etc. The only issue I faced on this trip was the lack of fuel stations.

I think I counted 8 fuel stations that were open from Kuwait to the UAE borders, and that’s including both sides of the highway. This was the only thing that made me anxious on the way because I didn’t know if I’d find a gas station on the road ahead or not. Google Maps isn’t helpful and at one point when I needed fuel I used Google Maps to find one in a village I was driving by and Google Maps took me to a gas station under construction, and then another gas station that turned out to be a garage. So in case you need them, here are some fuel stations where I filled up at:

First stop after the Saudi borders. There is a McDonalds there so you can also have breakfast: https://goo.gl/maps/LFhKgeHkmmekjxUi8

Second station I filled at. This was in a village when I wasn’t sure if I’d find another station on the highway ahead (turns out there was): https://goo.gl/maps/CUh3oL2nteFyhfNx7

This is to where you should fill up instead of the village station I mentioned above: https://goo.gl/maps/k6zDv9PrLGMvf3FL9

For my third stop I used this station. It’s located on the other side of the road but it’s easy to U-turn to and get to. It’s located in a beach town called Salwa and it’s near the Qatar border: https://goo.gl/maps/dbY3HRz4dr7bv9Hq9

Last station before UAE border. You should fill up here before crossing into the UAE. https://goo.gl/maps/U7sdkoJRGd868hMD6

So basically there were around 4 fuel stations on the way to the UAE with the rest all closed down, abandoned or located in villages and towns out of your way.

Qatar
As I mentioned at the start of this post, you need to drive by the Qatar border to get to UAE. At one point you’ll get to a roundabout where if you go straight you get to the Qatar border, or if you turn right you head towards UAE. Because I didn’t cross into Qatar and experience the trip to Doha, I didn’t make this a Qatar guide as well.

UAE Border
Once I got to the UAE border the process was fairly easy at the Saudi side. It was just me and another car crossing at that time. The guy at the window didn’t even take my passport, I had opened my passport to the visa number page and held it out of the window to give it to him and he just looked at the number and typed it out on the computer and handed me a slip. The UAE side of the border was super nice, multiple lanes and looks like a proper border. I had to drive through an X-ray machine first before arriving to passport control. Even though I usually use the eGate when I arrive to Dubai, after giving the border guy my passport he told me I needed to drive around to the immigration building and get my passport stamped there. It wasn’t busy so the process there was also fast, I filled up a paper and had my iris scanned and then got the passport stamped. I got back into my car and then drove through the border. I had to get car insurance before leaving the border, the minimum duration was 2 weeks and it cost 210AED.

UAE Border to Abu Dhabi
As soon as you get into UAE you’re suddenly on a proper 3 lane highway with a speed limit of 160KM/h. The fuel stations on this road are also a lot nicer than Saudi, and the convenience stores and bathrooms at the stations are proper. I stopped at the first one to fill up and get a sandwich and coffee for the remaining leg of the trip. This was actually my least favorite part of the whole trip. It was around 3 hours of driving in a straight line going 160km/h with the exact same scenery. It was super boring.

Abu Dhabi and Dubai Toll Gates
So this is something I was hoping to work out but couldn’t really do it properly. So Abu Dhabi has toll gates on the road called DARB. I couldn’t figure out how to get it working with my Kuwaiti license plates and I need to check and see if I have any tolls so I can pay them before I get at fine. In Dubai they use Salik and I picked up a Salik tag with 100aed on it from a gas station on my way to Dubai. I couldn’t get it set up. Firstly I couldn’t access the Salik website using my phone data (you can’t use the App btw if foreign plates). Then when I did access the website using a shops wifi, it wouldn’t send me the OTP to my phone to verify. Luckily Google Maps has an option to avoid roads with tolls and I used that. Next day I set up Salik with my friends phone number who lives in Dubai and it worked. But it also told him that it would take up to 5 days to activate. They then called him this morning because they needed my car chassis number, he gave them my number and they spoke to me while I was typing this post up. My Salik is now active and any toll gates I passed under while I was in Dubai will now be deducted from my Salik account.

The best option to keep things simple is tell Google Maps not to use roads with tolls.

UAE to Kuwait
On the trip back to Kuwait I stopped in Khobar. I was meant to spend the night there but I ended up arriving quicker than I expected and once my meeting finished I realized I could make it to the Kuwait borders by 6PM (when there would still be some light). On the way back I left Dubai at 6:20AM (so 5:20AM Kuwait time). I headed to Khobar first, took the scenic route and stopped a few times for photos. I got to Khobar at 1:40PM (so 2:40PM Dubai Time). I was done with my meeting by 2:50 and figured if I skipped lunch and stopped for fuel only once I could make it to the Kuwait borders by 6PM. You do not want to drive on Saudi roads in the dark. I crossed the borders by 5:53PM. What sucked was that Google this time took me through a very scenic seaside road back to Kuwait and I couldn’t stop to take pictures because of my schedule.

Cost Breakdown
Here is the cost for the journey that includes my fuel stops and car insurance:

Saudi
138SAR – Saudi car Insurance
78SAR first fuel stop
95SAR second fuel stop
50SAR third fuel stop
53SAR forth fuel stop

UAE
210AED – UAE car Insurance
155AED – fuel stop

on the way back:

UAE
190AED first fuel stop
113AED second fuel stop
145AED third fuel stop
37AED forth fuel stop

Saudi
61SAR first fuel stop
111SAR second fuel stop
65SAR last fuel stop

Conclusion
I liked the trip and I didn’t find it really that exhausting. I’m not sure how many speeding tickets I got on this trip. On the UAE road where the speed limit was 160KM/h, I got flashed twice going 155KM/h. I was on cruise control and Waze was saying 155, and my car speedometer was saying 155 and I still got flashed, but only on by two cameras. I’m hoping those were just average-speed cameras that take photos of every car, I hope. Then in Saudi, the speed limit is mostly 120 so I would drive under 140. I’d pass by 20 cameras with no issues and then one would randomly flash me. No idea whats going on there. But, I did get flashed at one point for going over 140 but that was my mistake since I didn’t have it on cruise control and didn’t notice my speed.

Hopefully this guide is helpful in case you want to make this trip. I might have missed something or not covered a subject so if you have a specific question, let me know in the comments.

Here is something you didn’t think we needed, a luxury driving school. UDrive is a new driving school that just opened and they currently have two premium learner cars, an MG SUV and a Porsche Macan.

The Porsche is what caught my attention since I’ve never seen a Porsche learners car with two steering wheels. I didn’t even know they made them or would be willing to make them.

Currently, UDrive offers two courses, the first one is Introduction to Driving 101 and is intended for brand new students who’ve never driven before. It’s a 12-credit course and the cost is 379KD and will use the MG SUV.

The second course they have is called Advanced Driving 102. This is also a 12-credit course but costs 679KD and uses the Porsche as the learner’s car.

Both courses provide you with all the necessary education and training needed to get a driver’s license in Kuwait. If you’re looking for a “premium” learning school, their Instagram account is @UDriveKW and their website is udrivekw.com