H3 Ride & Drive

On Friday I picked up my friend and we went and had lunch at IKEA before heading off to the H3 Ride & Drive event. When we got to the location it was like arriving in the middle of no where, we couldn’t see anything it was all desert and hills. Then we noticed some dust coming up from behind one of the hills and we decided to go and investigate. Luckily I was in my Wrangler because there was no paved road, its like you needed an H3 to get to the H3 event. I didn’t mind that since it felt like a true off road event even before I got to the place. When we reached the top we found the H3 camp, it was located at the bottom of the hill surrounded by a ton of Hummers and random visitor cars. We drove down to the camp and parked the Jeep… first impression was very positive so far.

We walked into the tent where we were greeted by some cute girls who took our names and made us sign a disclaimer stating if we got hurt they wouldn’t be responsible. I found that odd since its supposed to be just a test drive.. how bad could things go you know? Once we signed the papers they gave us a goodie bag and pointed us to another person who would put us into a Hummer.

This is where the fun starts. We get into the Hummer and drive off a hundred meters down the road where the Hummer driver tells me to swap seats so I could drive. I get into the drivers seat, adjust everything to my liking and then drive off towards a Hummer flag further down the road. When I first was told about the event, they told me that there were two tracks, a soft one and a hard one. I would be allowed to drive on the soft one while a professional driver would drive on the hard one. So automatically I assumed the soft track would be a stupid flat circle where I would safely drive around looking like an idiot. Well that turned out to be a completely wrong assumption. When I got to the Hummer flag I saw a deep fucking ditch in the ground filled with water. I figured that was the end of the test drive and I probably need to swap seats with the Pro driver so he could take me around the hard track. To my surprise the driver was like ok go in. I was like where, in that ditch? He was like yeah so I was like fucking cool. At first I thought this was a privilege I got because I knew the organizers but it turns out it wasn’t a privilege but in fact this was actually the start of the soft course! I got down the ditch and drove through the water till the end where I reached to a wall. I am not exaggerating here it was a nearly vertical sand wall that was soo high up I couldn’t see out of the ditch. The driver told me to step on the gas and not to press the brakes. I thought for sure the front end of the car would hit the wall before the tires but it didn’t. Up the wall I went and out of the ditch I drove. It was very cool and kinda unreal. I drove down to the next check point and this time the road ahead turned into holes. Each hole was maybe around 40cm deep and they were placed on both the left and right sides of the track. We drove through the track without any problems and very smoothly. Sure the car was moving up and down like a fishing boat in a perfect storm but we were driving through a track filled with 40cm deep pot holes! The whole time I was thinking shit my Wrangler can’t do this…

When we were done from the soft track which involved numerous impossible to climb looking obstacles, it was time to give the control back to the pro. He drove us to the hard track and put the H3 on 4x4low and told us to fasten our seat-belts. The first obstacle involved the H3 driving across two small dunes where half way through the driver stops and explains to us how the H3 at this point has only 2 wheels touching the ground. We then continue off to what I can only describe as a roller-coaster ride. We went up and down so many obstacles that were so high up and so steep it was just unbelievable. I tried to take pictures out of the window but all I could capture was either the sky or the ground. It was seriously jaw dropping. Once the drive was over I called up Nat and told her to get ready because I was going to come and pick her up. I drove all the way to Salmiya and back just so she could experience the drive. That ofcourse was a big mistake because now she can’t stopped nagging me about how she wants an H3 and when I could take her to the showroom.

I took a lot of pictures that day but something happened to the memorystick and all my pictures got erased. But, Alghanim sent me pictures yesterday that were taken by a photographer who came in from Dubai and they are way better pictures then the ones I had taken. Check them out, they are all from the Ride & Drive event here in Kuwait. The H3’s have Dubai numbers because they were brought in from Dubai. [Pictures]

I had a lot of fun.