Category: Automotive

My Wrangler’s battery died today while trying to leave the Avenues. Its not the first time this has happened, the first time was two years ago when I was trying to leave Souk Sharq. That same day I posted about it on my blog on how Jeep’s Road Assist was amazing, that was on June 4, 2006. Thats nearly exactly two years later (off by just two days) except this time Jeep’s Road Assist wasn’t there to save me. The Road Assist number wouldn’t connect me to anyone, I would call and it would ring twice then I would get a beep and the line would die. I tried over and over and it wouldn’t work.

I didn’t even have jumper cables so I just walked back into Avenues and headed to Carrefour and bought some cheap ass cables for like KD1.300 (they sucked, need to get a better pair). When I got back to the car I asked the parking security if they had a plan for a situation like this, I figured they might have a tow truck number or maybe an emergency jump starter kit but turned out they didn’t have anything of that sort. Instead the security guard was kind enough to help me find a car that was willing to help me jump start my Jeep.

After jump starting the car it turned out if I removed my foot from the gas pedal the car would die on me instantly so after restarting the car again I had to drive with two feet, one on the brakes and the other constantly holding down the throttle. Luckily I didn’t have to drive too far, I was planning on taking my Jeep to service it at the dealer tomorrow so I just drove the car to the garage which was just 5 minutes away. Once I parked the Jeep outside and removed my foot of the gas pedal the car died again, perfect timing. I found a cab passing by and just took it back home. Tomorrow will pass by the dealer and have them replaced my battery. I am kinda glad I purchased the extended warranty back then. What I now regret is not actually going ahead and purchasing the Emergency Jumper Starter which I posted about in March!

5car5 just posted photos of a new Ford Mustang thats being prepped to join the local police department soon. The Mustang is supercharged and will have 500HP so it should be able to keep up with all the super cars out there. Who doesn’t want to be a cop now? Check out the 5car5 website for more pictures. [Link]

Back in December I posted about a user on YouTube called paradise1man who had just received his Bugatti Veyron and shot a video of it and uploaded it online. Well I just checked his account now and he has a ton of more videos the latest is of Paul Dalton, “The worlds best car cleaner” who came in all the way from the UK to clean his car. You can check out all his videos by following this [Link]

The video above is of Paul Dalton waxing the car which alone costs $10,000. [YouTube] If it was me I would have probably gotten bored of the car a month later and just started taking it to the Bayan car wash…

Q8car have a beta version of their new site online now and although it seems better than their previous one it still needs a lot of work. For one thing the site seems a bit sluggish probably because of the amount of flash on the site but at least they’re still testing it out so thats a good thing. Here is a link to the beta site. [Link]

While walking back to my hotel today in Munich I spotted a weird Z4. At first I thought it was very tacky customized Z4 but then I realized it was actually the new unreleased 2010 model. The car was camouflaged pretty well with black body work and tape but as soon as I figured out what the car was I quickly took out my camera and turned it on. By then the traffic light had turned green so I was only able to take two shots.

It was pretty cool seeing an unreleased test car but sadly only a few car freaks will appreciate this! For me this was an amazing experience, I spend soo much time checking car blogs and magazines and seeing “spy shots” just like this all the time. Now that I was able to take these same kind of shots feels pretty great. Below are the two pictures which I managed to shoot, they are in full resolution.

2010 BWW Z4 Rear
2010 BMW Z4 Side

update: This post made Jalopnik, yay!

Interesting Kuwaiti site where you can upload your car and have people rate it for you. [Link]

via zDistrict

I’ve been spotting this huge ass truck every now and then but I never had my camera with me to take a picture until today. This isn’t an ordinary Ford F650 which is already huge and super expensive, this is an extreme version which is even bigger and taller. The picture below although not a good one at least gives you an idea of the height of this beast and I was in my Wrangler when I took the picture.

Update: Here is a link with more information and pictures on the F650. [Link]

And here is another picture which better shows the size of this thing

Soon I think we will be getting live traffic updates while on the road via these digital signs as pictured above. I also think the camera’s (pictured below and taken from Marzouqs blog) are somehow related to the new traffic monitoring network. Both the cameras and the digital signs use the same style of metal frame and they’ve both appeared at nearly the same time so I am guessing they must be connected somehow. The digital sign above was taken on the istiqlal highway but I’ve seen the same frame being built in a few more locations including the beginning of the 4th ring road in Salmiya, on the Gulf Road heading towards scientific center before Marina Mall and I’ve also seen it across from KFC on the Gulf Road heading towards Salmiya and the beginning of the Istiqlal Highway in Kuwait City.

I got a chance to check out G-FORCE Auto Worx in the Free Trade Zone yesterday; as they were having a photo-shoot to get ready for their launch in July. The owners have gone all out putting together an unbelievable garage (4wheel dyno, Ferrari-approved prep/paint booth) that is levels above the current offerings in Shuwaikh. In addition to the garage, there is a showroom on the first floor that is going to have some very interesting sports cars for sale and a store carrying racing memorabilia (sadly, the signed Schumacher racing suit is not for sale), gear (shoes, racing suits, helmets) and aftermarket parts (rims, exhausts, etc).

One of the biggest issues with modifying cars in Kuwait is the lack of a capable garage; and GForce is looking to fill that void. They are setting up to be a car-lovers haven and I will be getting more info on the garage, showroom and shop as they get closer to launch.

More pictures below.

Posted by K.

I found this very fascinating. Its pictures taken of people with their car decades ago compared with pictures of the same people with the same car today. Unbelievably cool. [Link]

via kottke

I am not a big Ferrari fan but the new Ferrari California looks pretty sweet. Its also the first Ferrari with a retractable hard top. [Link]

A forum member called Kuwait posted about what looked like to him new speed cameras that were being installed on Beljaat Street. The new kind of cameras are overhead and there were three of them, each covering a car lane and each would be facing the rear of the cars as they passed by. He didn’t have time to take a picture so if anyone could take one and send it to me that would be great. Send the picture to [email protected]

To me they don’t sound like speed cameras, I mean why would they put one for every lane when currently they put one camera for all the lanes? But it does sound like some kind of license plate tracking system maybe?

Here is a link to the original post in the forum. [Link]

update: I didn’t notice this but Some Contrast actually posted about this today and has pictures. Turns out its not new cameras but a new traffic light system. More info on their blog. [Link]

This corner is just ridiculous! [YouTube]

I saw a BMW X6 for the first time on the road yesterday. The V6 is selling for KD24,000 while the V8 version isn’t available yet. I like the way it looks, its like a sports car with big wheels.

I got a new car over the weekend and today I went to transfer it into my name but like everything dealing with the government, it always turns out to be a complicated and adventurous process.

Me and the previous owner of the car who’s a friend of mine first went to the Government Mall (thats what its called) to do the transfer there. Once we went in they told us if the car has old plates we need to go to 3aseema branch and do the transfer from there.

So we drive all the way to the end of the 4th ring road where the 3aseema branch is located and after running around from window to window, they told us because I live in Salmiya we need to go to the Meidan Hawalli branch.

So we turn around and drive back all the way to the other end of the 4th ring road to the Median Hawalli branch. After signing a paper the car got transfered into my name and we went to collect the new plates. I don’t know how the system works but my plate number turned out to be 11617 which I am guessing means the person 6 places ahead of me ended up getting 11611 which would have been a pretty cool number to have. If I was one place ahead even I would have ended up with 11616 which would still have been pretty nice.

On my way back to the car there were a bunch of people outside that offered me the service of installing the plates for me. The plates don’t come with any holes so for KD1 they will make the holes and fit the plate on to the car. This whole process of running around from place to place took around 2 hours and a half!