Category: Automotive

I am watching Gumball 3000 at the moment. What is Gumball 3000? Check out these pictures to get an idea. [Pictures]

Here are some videos on YouTube also. [Videos]

Today morning I went with Nat and the mandoob from TriStar to get our motorbike learners permit. I don’t know what mandoob is in English, but he is basically the guy who helps out with government paperwork. Todays experience like most government related work was exhausting, and the terrible humid weather didn’t help.

I picked up the mandoob at 9:30 and we headed to the Hawlly Traffic Department located in Jabriya. First place we went to inside was the typing room, there you give some guys your documents and for 1KD they fill out the forms for you on the computer and then print them out. Once we got the forms we headed into another much larger room filled with chairs and numbered booths. We headed to the very far end where we waited inline to get our papers signed by a high ranking police officer. This guy was very nice, he took a look at Nats form and he was like in English “you want to drive bicycle?” she was like yeah I want to ride a motorbike. He then proceeded to explain to her how driving in Kuwait is not easy and that if you are in a car its really dangerous so you can imagine how dangerous riding a bike is. He was like I could sign this paper for you if you want but I wouldn’t recommend it, she told him sign it please and he did. After that he told us we needed to go to Qurtoba to get an eye test so we left the place and headed there.

Once we got to Qurtoba I was worried I would fail the eye test. My vision isn’t perfect, I wear glasses when I am in front of the computer but I should be wearing them the whole time. Nat also has glasses which she wears in front of the computer and TV so she was worried she would fail too. So we go into the building and give in our forms and wait for our turn. 5 minutes later they call Nats name and she goes in for the test. A minute later she comes out telling me she passed although she made a mistake, her score was 24/6 for her left eye and 6/6 for her right. They called my name next and I went in. I don’t think I have seen an older eye test setup before. You sit in an old wooden school chair on one side of a room with a tall white plastic lamp behind you with the letters stuck onto it. You look ahead into a mirror stuck on the wall, cover an eye and read out the letters. It was really easy since they let me read out the big sized letters so I aced it with a score of 6/6 for both eyes. They signed the papers and we headed back to Hawally.

The weather was incredibly hot and humid and traffic was a bitch but we got to the traffic department and went back into the big room again back to the nice high ranking cop. He looked at the papers and told us to go to counter number 1. I get to counter 1 show him my papers only to have them rejected. The guy told me because I got my eye test today I needed to come back tomorrow to get the learners permit. I told him why do I have to do that, can’t I just get the permit done today? He was like come back tomorrow. So we were leaving the place when the high ranking cop asks us if we were done. I told him what the guy at counter 1 told us, he seemed irritated at the guy and took out some stamps from his pocket and stamped and signed out papers. He told us we needed to get a 10KD postage stamp and head over to counter 7. We got the stamps and headed to counter 7 where a guy took all our papers and filled them into the computer. He then told us to go get our pictures taken at the far end of the room.

There was a young woman sitting in a small room with a computer, a scanner and a small Canon digital camera attached to a cheap tripod. She told us to sit on the chair in front of the camera and she took our pictures. She then sent us back to counter 7. We got there and the guy started printing out our learners permit on his HP color laser printer. Although all the equipment they were using were off the shelf consumer electronics it was still cool that they were doing this. Finally the guy sent us to office 20, yes office, thats where the highest ranking official is located, we gave him our freshly printed learners permit and he signed it and we were done.

The whole process took around 2 hours and cost us KD11 per person. I am not sure but I am guessing this is the same process for getting cars learner permit. Below you will find some helpful information like papers needed and google map of the locations.

Papers needed for motorbike learners permit:
– 2 photographs, 3×4
– Work permit copy
– Passport copy (picture and visa page)
– Civil ID copy
– Driving license copy (if you dont have it then I believe you are required to do a medical test)

Location Maps:
– Hawally Traffic Department
– Qurtoba eye test place

One of my favorite cars, the Land Rover Defender just got an upgrade. Just minor stuff from the outside but the interior is a major improvement. I really want this car now. [Link]

Pictures of a badly burnt Lamborghini with the driver and passenger still inside. The two people couldn’t get out of the car because they couldn’t get the doors open since the car was upside down and the doors open upwards. The pictures are really graphic so you are warned. [Link]

Video shot from the inside of a Bentley GT Coupe hitting 300km an hour. [Video]

Someone sent me this video of a guy who made his kid sit in the steering wheel while he was driving. Really stupid. [Video]

K.thekuwaiti just emailed me these pictures. Someone in Kuwait owns a K.I.T.T replica from the show Knight Rider. Its really fucking cool.

Picture 1
Picture 2
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Picture 4

First time I saw this on a car I was like damn that guy must have been doing some major offroading. Second time I saw it on a car I was like wait, it can’t be mud, must be paint primer. After seeing it a bunch of times on various cars I realized this was actually a paint job. It seems some people find this cool.. I don’t understand why.

Here is another picture.

The Top Gear TV show is now available online for download, legally. [Link]

Since we are on the subject of cars here are two cool videos:

Audi RS4 vs BMW M5
Ferrari Enzo vs McLaren F1

I was browsing Autoblog and I found pictures of the new Holden SS which is basically the Lumina SS. Since everyone has a Lumina in Kuwait I figured I would post a link to pictures and specs of the upcoming model. Its supposed to do 0-60 in like 5.1 seconds which is just sick. [Link]

The Land Rover LR3 which is currently my favorite car turned out to be the least reliable luxury car according to Forbes. I knew the old Land Rovers were like the least reliable cars ever but I figured with the new generation they shaped up, guess I was wrong. [Link]

[source Autoblog]

Yesterday I was invited for another test drive by Alghanim Automotive. I was hoping they would give me some small crappy car so I could give it a bad review and show everyone that if the car sucked I would say it sucked. Sadly, that didn’t happen. Yesterday I took the new Cadillac BLS for a drive and it was far from being crappy.

I picked up a gorgeous silver top of the line BLS from the dealer and drove down to the Gulf Road. The BLS is the smallest car Cadillac makes and the one I drove came with a V6 2.8L Turbo engine pumping out 250HP so it was fast. As soon as I hit the Gulf Road I got a call from a friend who had spotted me. He asked me if I was turning into Jermey Clarkson and he then asked what car I was driving since it looked really cool. Now this came from someone who drives an M3 so you can imagine how good the car must look. Pictures actually don’t do justice to the hard edged geometrically cut car so you need to see it in person to really appreciate its beauty.

I closed the phone with my friend and blasted down the Gulf Road. The Cadillac BLS I was driving came with a 6-speed automatic and paddle shift. I am used to the F1 style paddle shift where you use your fingers to change gear but the Cadillac BLS is the one where you use your thumbs instead. It felt awkward at first but I quickly got the hang of it. The interior seems to follow the styling cues of the new Cadillac Escalade which is a really good thing since it means its very un-American. Everything felt very plush and sophisticated and I just love that in a car.

After a long drive I parked the car and took some shots of the exterior and interior. When I was done I drove back to the dealership and handed them the keys. Cadillac really have come a long way when it comes to aesthetics. There is no other car in the market that looks like a Cadillac, its got a style all on its own. The only downside I could think of with the BLS is the engine sound. I would have preferred a louder grunt from a 250HP engine but I guess many people would rather have a quiet engine than a loud one.

The price of the fully loaded Cadillac BLS is KD11,995 which makes its more affordable than a similarly specced BMW or Mercedes. Its a pretty cool car for a sedan.

Alghanim Automotive sent me these pictures of a pimped out Trailblazer. They have an accessorizing arm called Kromozone that specializes in pimpin’ cars and this is their latest creation. I think they should have displayed this car outside Virgin Marina Mall instead of the car they previously had on display which didn’t looked pimped at all. You can check more pictures of the Trailblazer below including some of the inside which is just as pimped.

Trailblazer-0001
Trailblazer-0002
Trailblazer-0003
Trailblazer-0004
Trailblazer-0005
Trailblazer-0006

You can contact Kromozone on 6947719

Update: Here are some better pictures:
Side shot
Inside shot
Front shot

Put on your seatbelts. [Video]