Category: Automotive

Just a reminder, today (Saturday) is the last day of the Gulf Run car show at 360 Mall. All the Gulf Run cars are displayed around 360 Mall on the outside with a few inside. The raffle for the Vespas will also be held tonight at 8PM. It’s a great chance to check out the cars up close plus the weather is great so see you there.

After my session at Core Fitness I passed by the Al Falah car wash in Kuwait City where the Gulf Run cars were getting all nice and shiny and having their sponsors decals stuck. I took a few pictures which you can check out below and a video which I will post later be.

[YouTube]

Just a reminder since some of you were asking in my previous GulfRun post. Tomorrow and after tomorrow (Friday and Saturday) the Gulf Run cars will be on display at 360 Mall from 10AM to 10PM. In addition to that there will be a GulfRun stand selling gear and raffle tickets to a Vespa. The money from the raffle tickets will be going to the Hayat Cancer Foundation. In addition some of the profits from the female gear will also being going to the Hayat Cancer Foundation.

They will be selling long and short sleeve polos and sweatshirts and hoodies in both white and black. I have the long sleeve white polo (pictured above) but will also be getting the black short sleeve polo.

Tonight starting at 5:30PM onwards all the cars participating in this years Gulf Run 5 will be getting a wash and sponsorship decals placed at the Al Falah Car Wash in Kuwait City. If it’s anything like the previous years it should be a fun gathering. Tomorrow the cars will be going on display at 360 Mall so if you can’t make it tonight you’ll still be able to check out all the cars this weekend.

[YouTube]

The GulfRun car show will be taking place next this week at the 360 Mall with a variety of race cars and super cars on display. The event will be taking place over a two day period which is January 15th and 16th.

There will also be a raffle on January 16th at 8pm for two special edition GulfRun Vespas, a GulfRun pearl white Vespa and a special edition black Vespa. All proceeds of the raffle will be donated to the Hayat Cancer Foundation.

So pass by, enjoy the cars and please make sure you buy raffle tickets from the GulfRun booth at 360 Mall.

For the first time ever the Concours d’Elegance is going to be held in Kuwait this month. I honestly never heard about Concours d’Elegance before today but after doing some research it turns out to be a pretty important and prestigious event. Here is some information which I took from the official event website:

What is the Concours d’Elegance?
Concours is a French word meaning competition. The concept of Concours originates in 17th C. France when aristocrats used to choose their best horse carriages to parade around parks of Paris during the summer week ends and holidays. Later these traditions changed to automobiles from the 20th C. Concours today have strict regulations and cars are inspected by qualified judges. Trophy winners are carefully chosen.

Kuwait Concours d’Elegance Highlight
The first Kuwait Concours d’Elegance set to take place on January 2010 will highlight the great passion for automobiles that the country has had ever since the 1910’s decade when the first car, a Belgium-made Minerva, arrived on its shores. In fact, the year 2010 marks the 100th anniversary since the first car entered Kuwait thanks to Sheik Mubarak bin Sabah Al Sabah (1896-1915).

Date
January 20th to 23rd 2010
10:00AM – 10:00PM

Location
Marina Mall interior, Marina Crescent and Marina Lawn.

It should be a very cool event and its taking place right next to my house so I will definitely be passing by. The designer of the Nissan GTR will also be at this event, Shirō Nakamura who is the Senior VP of Nissan and Infiniti.

For more information here are some links:
Concours d’Elegance – Kuwait
Concours d’Elegance on Wikipedia

Thanks Rita!

The website Rate My Q80 Ride is organizing a show off your car event. It’s going to be held this Thursday the 24th of December at the Hard Rock Cafe parking lot starting from 11:30PM. The event is open to anyone with a car that has been modified.

This is pretty old since the truck was built in the 90s by Seikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan of the UAE but I hadn’t heard about it or seen it until now. The truck is 64 times larger than the original one. 64 times! It’s HUGE. It has a house built into it, and its drivable! [YouTube]

Someone is selling an Eleanor on Q8Car. Eleanor is the codename for the Ford Mustangs seen in both versions of the film “Gone in 60 Seconds”. In the original 1974 version of the movie, Eleanor is a 1973 Mach 1 coupe, while in the 2000 remake, Eleanor is a modified 1967 Shelby GT500. The one on Q8car is a modified 1967 Shelby and he’s asking KD16,000 for it. [Link]

I’ve always wanted a navigation system in the car that uses Google Maps and it seems this is going to happen very soon since the 2011 Audi A8 will be the first production car to include Google Earth. What I would also like to see one day in the future is real time updated maps. Imagine Google Maps with real time updates while you’re stuck in a traffic jam. You could just zoom in to the area in front of you and see what’s causing the traffic or even better you could check the traffic on the roads before you leave the house.

Actually, I just realized, you don’t need real time updated Google Maps, why don’t we have video cameras or still cameras along major roads which people can access and check online? Something like [This] and also the picture above. The technology has been around for some time now and shouldn’t be too difficult to implement here in Kuwait. Can we please get live traffic cams? Pretty please??

Scooby Doo’s mystery machine was spotted in Shuwaikh. I guess they were called in to help out with the GCC Summit security.

Picture by pendolino

Got this from the MOI website (fixed some spelling mistakes but too lazy to fix the grammar). Looks like its going to be one crappy week:

In preparation for the GCC summit some roads will be closed starting from Monday 14/12/2009 from 11:30 AM-1:30 PM

1. King Faisal motorway will be closed from the Airport to Fifth Ring Road.
2. King Faisal main motorway the side coming from Kuwait city after Yarmok area towards the Airport will be closed and diverted to Fifth Ring Road as an alternative road for both sides to Jahra and Salmiya.
3. King Fahad main motorway coming from the city will be closed and diverted to Fifth Ring Road both toward Jahra and Salmiya.
4. King Fahad main motorway coming from Fahaheel will be closed and diverted to Six Ring Road of both sides left side to Jahra and right side to Salmiya.
5. Side road of the Fifth Ring Road going to King Fahad motorway which coming from Salmiya towards Ahmadi will be closed only but towards city is permitted.
6. King Khaled bin Abdulaziz with all intersections will be completely closed starts from Khaitan Club bridge to Mishref bridge of King Fahad motorway.
7. Sabhan road, from Seventh Ring Road to Sabah Airport road will be completely closed for both sides.

For all who want to go to Kuwait International Airport, they either to take airport road towards Six Ring Road on the right side to cargo station or through Ghazali motorway to cargo station then to the airport.

And for all who want to go to Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Airport terminal have to go towards Sabhan Qurain bridge road and King Fahad motorway and take road (208) the military show road.

Alternative roads
All road users in case of close of all previously mentioned closed roads can use the following routs:
– All seven ring roads (First Ring Road-Second Ring Road-Third Ring Road-Fourth Ring Road-Fifth Ring Road-Sixth Ring Road-Seventh Ring Road) of both sides are open towards Jahra and Salmiya.
– Ghazali motorway.
– King Abdulaziz (Fahaheel motorway) both sides.
– Airport road, Farwaniya side.

The Traffic General Department is calling upon road users to cooperate with policemen and follow the issued instructions for the success of the summit events.

[source]

GulfRun is coming up pretty quickly and the video above is the new trailer the guys just released. I personally think this is their best video so far. GulfRun 5 is going to be held from January 28th to the 30th in Bahrain and everyone is invited to come and watch.

This year they’ve got a special treat for spectators with something they’ve called the GulfRun Taxi Ride service. Basically they will have three cars in which spectators will be able to hop into the passenger seat and ride around the track. The three cars are the Lotus 211, a Radical and the Westfield SE, all of which are track machines. I haven’t seen the list of cars that will be participating this year but Marzouq over at zDistrict did and he says its going to be even crazier than last year.

All the cars are going to be on display next month at 360 Mall and I will post about that event ahead of time so you guys can pass by and check them out. As I mentioned earlier, everyone is invited to GulfRun 5 in Bahrain next month. There is no entrance fee or anything of that sort just get a ticket and fly over to Bahrain. [YouTube]

For more information on GulfRun visit their website [Here]

Someone fucking broke into my Z4 this evening. I went to Avenues for dinner and because it was packed I parked my car across the street from Avenues. I was gone maybe an hour max and when I got back to the car the passenger window had been smashed in. There wasn’t anything in my car except for my house and wrangler keys which I had put behind the hand brake (check picture below). They took my keys and I have no idea what they are planning to do with them. I am going to change my home locks now and will probably need to change my Wrangler locks which is probably going to be expensive. Why would anyone steal my keys? Are they seriously contemplating on robbing me? How would they know where I live? Will they try to steal my Wrangler? Who the fuck steals cars in Kuwait? I’ve never heard about anyone’s car getting stolen…

My theory is someone smashed the windows to see if there was anything they could steal from inside (a phone, glasses, radio etc..). They then saw my keys and took them thinking they were the Z4 keys and maybe they could open the trunk or something. When they realized it had nothing to do with the Z4 I would assume they would throw the keys away. That is why I am going to go back now with a flashlight and look around and see if they threw my keys somewhere. I’m pissed.

Update: Went last night looking for the keys with a flashlight. Searched the whole block around where my car had been broken into but didn’t find anything. Passed by the BMW dealer earlier to have my window fixed. The window will cost only KD50 which is not bad except for the fact they don’t have it in stock. Will take over 2 weeks for them to get the part so I’ve got to search the scrapyard or glass shops in Shuwaikh for a replacement.

The video above is the new teaser trailer for GulfRun 5 thats going to be held at the end of January in Bahrain. The guys promised me I will have another video and more information to post in a few more days so will keep you posted with any updates. [YouTube]

Here is a link to the Gulf Run website [Link]