Category: Automotive

The 2020 Formula 1 season finally kicked off last week after being delayed due to the Corona pandemic. The second race of the season is taking place later today but like last year, you’re pretty limited to how you can watch it here in Kuwait. The only network in our region that broadcasts the races is MBC Action but it’s in Arabic and I couldn’t find a way to stream it online. The other (and better) option is watching it directly on F1 TV.

I’ve posted about F1 TV before but I mentioned you needed a U.S. credit card to sign up since live broadcasts aren’t available for Kuwait. But, my U.S. credit card expired and I still haven’t gotten my replacement card so I was worried I wouldn’t be able to subscribe again this season. Turns out you don’t need a U.S. credit card!

If you’re on an Apple device and have a US Apple Store account, then you can subscribe to F1 TV from inside the app and pay for the subscription using your Apple Store account. It’s a neat loophole that should make Formula 1 broadcasts easily accessible to more people.

So if you’re an F1 fan and want to watch the races, download the F1 TV app.

The new Land Rover Defender is finally in Kuwait, around a month late from it’s original scheduled arrival. The Defender has been completely redesigned and although I wasn’t sure about the design in the photos, in person it does look really great.

From my understanding, the first shipment is all sold out but the dealer has one model on display and I think they have another white one for test drives.

It’s definitely a car I’m considering swapping out my FJ for. Prices start at around KD16,000 but can nearly double in price depending on the specs. The one in the photo is priced at 25,000 but you can also build your own and price it out yourself on the local Land Rover website.

One of my favorite local apps is the PASS App. Pre-Corona the cashless parking app was extremely practical and I used it all the time but now during the pandemic, the app makes even more sense. The way the app works is you top it off with credit, and then add your cars to it. Once you get to a parking lot that supports PASS like the 360 Mall parking lot, the parking gate will recognize your car and automatically open to let you in. On the way out you don’t have to interact with the cashier either, once you approach the exit gate it just opens up and the PASS app charges you. All the payments are handled digitally through the app which during this pandemic makes the app a must-have.

But, if that wasn’t enough they’ve recently added another new and cool feature, pre-booking your parking spot. This Friday when I passed by the Avenues I wasn’t sure if it would be busy or not so I pre-booked a parking spot with the app. When I got to Avenues I headed to the Phase 4 PASS Prebook lot and the gate automatically opened to let me in where I found plenty of parking (it was actually empty except for one other car).

The Prebooking parking fees at Avenues is 500fils per hour from the moment you book your spot (not from the moment you enter the parking) and you’re charged per hour till you leave or cancel your booking. This makes sense since they don’t want people to book spots but then not show up. Although Avenues parking is free, booking a parking spot makes the Avenues experience a lot less stressful when you know you’re guaranteed to have a parking spot waiting for you.

I don’t recommend a lot of local apps on this blog nor do I like installing a lot of apps, but, I highly recommend this one. You can download it by clicking here.

Kuwait had one of the first Karting tracks in the region and was a pretty popular sport before the 1990 invasion. Back in the 80s the Gulf Championship, the Middle East Championship and the World Championship were all held in Kuwait at the karting track in Ahmadi. One of the former racers Graham Hobson sent me the video above featuring his team back then called GH Karting. Graham used to work for KOC between 1983 and 1986 but now lives in Australia.

The video is an hour-long so you can skim through it if you want. He’s got one more video he’ll be sending me and I’ll upload that as well once I get it.

Update: Just uploaded a better version of the video with better sound
Update2: Below is the second video of the Middle East Karting Cup that was held in Kuwait back in 1986.

Recently there have been photos circulating of what looks like new cop cars. Usually, this happens when the Ministry of Interior are looking for new cars for their fleet and different dealers provide them with test units. So far the two models I’ve seen are the Volvos (above) and the new Nissan Patrols (below). Not that crazy about the Patrols but the Volvos look hot.

Update: Here are better shots of the Patrol

Starting from June 6th, anybody whose driving license expired and renewed it online will be able to pick up their new one from the kiosks at Al-Naser Sport Club in Ardiya. They are open from 8AM to 5PM and here is the location on Google Maps.

source

I just took out my Alfa for a quick drive expecting the weather to be hot but surprisingly, it was great! I was initially going to just drive around the block but ended up driving all the way to the city via the Gulf Road. Would have kept going if it wasn’t close to curfew time.

I don’t think it’s always been like this. Back when I had a convertible I used to tell people you could drive it with the roof down 6 months a year. I’m going to have to revise that number since I’ve been driving my Alfa since mid-October. That’s nearly 8 months if I got the maths right. Obviously it’s too hot during the day but 5 onwards it’s really doable, I didn’t even break a sweat!

So if you’ve ever considered getting a convertible or a classic car but dismissed the idea because you figured you couldn’t drive it for most of the year, well, now you know you can.

One item I was lucky enough to purchase just before the lockdown was a CTEK battery charger to use on my cars. I was planning to get one anyway for my Alfa since I was planning to park it during the summer but it turned out to be useful for the lockdown as well. If you’ve ever traveled on a long trip and got back to find your car battery dead, it was most likely because your car managed to drain the battery while you were away or the battery just lost its charge. A battery charger is a great way of keeping your battery healthy when parked for long periods of time and the CTEK is one of the best money can buy.

What makes the CTEK so great is how it takes care of your battery with its 8 stage approach combined with the simplicity of it. All you need to do is connect one end of the CTEK to your car battery and then plug the other end of it into a regular wall power socket and the CTEK will automatically take care of the rest. It will run the battery through some tests, check the condition of it and then charge it. Once the battery is fully charged it then trickle charges your battery to keep it alive and healthy until you need to use the car.

I’m lucky that my building parking lot has power plugs in various spots so right before the lockdown I charged the batteries of my cars just so I know they’d have enough juice to last through the lockdown. The CTEK came with two different plugs to connect to my battery, alligator clamps which just easily clip on to the positive and negative terminals on the battery, and eyelets that screw onto the battery. I installed the eyelets on my Alfa since it would be using the charger the most while I used the alligator clamps for my FJ and Lotus. In the photo on top you’ll notice the CTEK placed outside the car but that was just for the photo. You can actually place it under the hood so that way it’s protected from the weather as well as from getting stolen. If you have your own private garage then you can just leave it outside or on the floor.

If you have a car or motorbike that you plan on parking for a long time it’s worth investing in a battery charger. The CTEK is one of the best you can buy and the MXS 5.0 model which is the one I got sells for KD39.5. If you’re interested in picking one up you can order one from the local dealer, their Instagram account is @ctek.kw and their website is audodepotkw.com

These two videos embedded here document the Kuwait International Rally back in the 70s. One of the videos was shot in 1976 while the other 1978. Both feature a lot of great 70s style racing footage as well as snippets of Kuwait like the old Hilton Hotel and the Kuwait Towers.

These aren’t homemade videos but properly shot videos with groovy music and a 70s style British voiceover. It’s actually really entertaining to watch even if you aren’t into cars so please check both videos out.

If you’re looking to get away from the city for a weekend (or more), there is a company in Kuwait called RV Way that rent out (and sell) RV’s. They’re actually the goto guys for everything RV related not just the caravans, but everything else you also might need for camping with an RV. Their RV rentals start from KD 90 and you can get more information by visiting their instagram account @rv4way or their their location in Qurain.

The all-new Land Rover Defender 110 will be launching worldwide any day now and the first shipment arrives in Kuwait in May. The first shipment is already sold out but I was told there is a second shipment coming in July with cars still available. Prices for the 4-cylinder model start at around KD18,000 while the 6-cylinder model starts at KD24,000. These are the prices of the models that the dealer has specced out but you can also build your own Defender with the 4-cylinder starting at KD16,600 and the 6-cylinder from KD22,130. If you do build your own then expect delivery sometime in September/October.

Here is the link to the local Land Rover website where you can price and build your own Defender.

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to go visit Al Bohayra Farm and since it was pretty far, I figured I might as well take the opportunity to test drive a car that’s more comfortable than mine. I mean out of the 4 cars I own at the moment my FJ is the most comfortable one which is weird because my FJ isn’t even comfortable. So I got in touch with Mercedes and to see if they had a new GLE I could review. I had seen the new GLE at their Avenues showroom and really liked the way it looked so I was very curious to see how it would drive as well. Luckily for me, Mercedes had just put a brand new silver GLE 450 into their test drive fleet and I would be the first person to take it out.

The new facelifted GLE launched last year and like with their other models, I really like the design direction Mercedes has been taking recently. I never used to be a fan of the Mercedes styling and had always been a Beemer guy but their new cars just look so damn good. Even when I went to pick up the GLE from their showroom I spent a good amount of time checking out the new small Mercedes A-Class since it looked pretty great too.

The GLE as expected turned out to be the perfect car for my road trip. It was spacious, super comfortable and just a really nice and quiet space to be in. Even when I ended up on a pothole-ridden road the car ate it up like it was nothing. But the main reason I’ve become such a huge fan of Mercedes is because of their dash cluster. From all the car manufacturers out there, I think Mercedes have gotten the whole digital dashboard thing right. I first experienced it in the Mercedes S-Class years ago and now it’s trickled down to all their models including the GLE. I can’t think of another car manufacturer that combines the dash screen with the center control screen more elegantly and cleanly that they do. And unlike the new more expensive new G-Class, the center screen is actually a touchscreen in the GLE. It was something I found annoying in the G-Class and it’s been fixed here.

I’ve been thinking about replacing my FJ Cruiser with another SUV since I’ve had my car for 10 years now, and one of the reasons I wanted to take the GLE out was to see if it could be a possible replacement. Well, the answer to that is going to have to be a solid no. Basically I realized I can’t own a comfortable normal car or I might not want to drive any of my other cars. First world problem for sure, but that’s currently my reality at the moment.

That’s not to say the GLE was a perfect car, over the short period of time I had it I did discover some minor annoyances. One thing I was surprised with was the fact the car didn’t have adaptive cruise control. It had all the other bells and whistles like lane-keeping assist, automated parking, assisted emergency braking and 3D surround cameras, but no adaptive control which was odd on a fully loaded Mercedes at this price point. It’s kind of a must-have option nowadays especially systems that can work in slow traffic. Another issue I had was with Apple CarPlay. Although it worked flawlessly in the G-Class, my experience with CarPlay in the GLE was fairly buggy with the system crashing on me more than once. But more importantly, unlike in the G-Class, CarPlay wouldn’t take up the full width of the display but instead just occupy a smaller boxed area in the middle of the screen with black bars on the side. I hated that since it made what is a large gorgeous display seem a lot smaller than it is. But, it’s just a software issue that can be fixed with a software upgrade.

The GLE starting price is KD 22,700 but the model I drove cost KD 27,500. It’s a really good looking car with plenty of power and all the options you could want (except for adaptive cruise control). If I didn’t have any of my other cars this would definitely be one I’d consider. I loved the silver color and I didn’t even mind the interior color although if I had to choose I’d probably go with black. When I went to pick up the car from the dealership I walked through the quick service garage (pictured above) and it’s one of the nicest and cleanest garages I’ve seen. If you want to test drive this car you can, here is a link to the GLE website with a form you can fill out.

I knew we had at least one automated parking facility in Kuwait (at The Palms) but I didn’t know we also had the largest one in the world. The parking lot of Al-Jahra Court Complex is fully automated and provides 2,314 parking spaces.

The automated parking facility provides 3 times as many car parking spaces as it would in a regular car park of the same volume – and only takes around 177 seconds for car retrieval (source). If you want to see how it works watch the short video on top. Pretty random tidbit for you guys today.

Thanks Mrs. Mohammad

Back in October I briefly mentioned that my 240z was getting a full restoration job and since it’s a slow news day, here is an update. Back in October after getting my 1970 Alfa registration done and I could drive it I decided to drop the car off at a garage called Blue Collar to get it fully restored. Blue Collar was a body shop in Shuwaikh that kept getting more and more classic cars to work on so they decided to open up a separate garage just for classics and I was going to be their first customer.

Progress has been going really well, they nicknamed the car Rusty because of the amount of rust it had on the undercarriage. Instead of the rust getting repaired over its lifetime, previous owners just had metal panels bonded over the rust spots which didn’t really fix things. So they basically had to cut out all the old flooring and install new panels and you can see the difference between the photo above and below. I knew the car had rust issues when I bought it, I just didn’t think it was this bad. There were some other bodywork issues around the car as well but one by one they were all fixed.

A reader who’s restored six other 240z’s previously is also helping me with the car restoration as well. He hooked me up with a guy who rebuilt an engine for me and has been handing me lists of parts to get for the car so that it eventually ends up brand new. When I started the project I honestly wasn’t planning a full restoration but the more I got into it the more I realized it’s something I really wanted. I set a budget for myself upfront on how much I was going to spend on this and based on my expense sheet I’m 80% there but I’ve also pretty much-purchased everything. The most expensive item I’ve had to purchase was a full Fujitsubo exhaust system and the second most expensive item was a fuel injection replacement kit.

I’m keeping the color of the car blue and since all the bodywork is nearly complete it’s going to hit the paint booth soon. I’m really excited and can’t wait until I get the car back. I’m hoping it will be done and ready before the summer hits when I’m going to park the Alfa away for the summer.

CAPSULE, the “Virtual Experience Center” have taken it upon themselves to recreate the Kuwait Motor Town race track virtually. The track is extremely accurate to the point they might have replicated the same tire skid marks that are actually on the track.

So if you’ve been wanting to experience the race track but haven’t been able to then this is a pretty good alternative since the simulation is fairly realistic.

If you’ve never heard of CAPSULE or been to it then you should check out my previous about it here. A virtual experience center is an arcade that allows you to experience virtual reality games. They’re located near Avenues and you can check them out on instagram @capsulevec