RUF is a german company which works only on Porsches and extensively modifys them to fit their requirements of performance and customer needs. The machines that they brought to the BIC track were beautiful, and it was a very nice surprise from the GulfRun people.
There were two vehicles a they yellow RUF which seems to be based on the Carrera but is modified to the point it produces 900 bhp and costs 85’000 KD. The silver RUF is a modified Cayman which produces 428 bhp and costs 45’000 KD.
You get these beautiful machiens as well as the excellent service. RUF has recently moved their head quarters from Germany to Bahrain, and the funny part is their facility is made completely of German equipment, even the fencing and pipes, vehicle lifts, I couldn’t find anything that wasn’t German. They are so proud of Bavarian engineering that they one of the engineers has a BMW R1200S!
They only work on Porches, not even Audis, and they are very hood at it. They even helped us trying to fix the Audi RS4 and hey didn’t charge us for any of their services and these guys are extremely expensive, they have top of the line engineers with amazing skills, I was watching them systematically figure out what the problem was in the RS4 without removing any parts.
If you want a fast car, with perfect handling, and a company with excellent service then RUF would be the only way to go.
I have to say that I was impressed with the way they were handling things for this whole event, there was a lot taking place and for the return trip they had to prepare a lot especially since going through the Saudi Border is like going through hell for them. They make it as difficult as possible, but the organizers are the only ones handling the cars and not the transporters.
The trailers themselves are high end and have been prepared for very low sports cars, it was very difficult to scratch the bottom of the car while loading because of all the pieces used to angle the vehicles. I’m impressed with the capabilities of GulfRun and Agility to make the transport this way. The only thing I think they need is someone to fix the Saudi check point, there is a difference between doing their jobs and abusing their positions which is what the Saudi Customs Officers were doing.
The people who were loading the vehicles at the Bahrain International Circuit from Agility were the same people from the loading evening on Monday and they were as professional as they were the day of loading the vehicles.
There were a lot of things going on in the track, and a lot of people were getting some insane numbers. Also I learned a lot after driving around the track and trying to improve my skills, the whole point is to also learn the limitations of your car.
Best Car on the Track:
- Noble M400
- Porsche 997 Turbo
Worst Car on the Track:
- Mercedes SL55 AMG
The fastest I reached on the straight away was 271 kph but then I couldn’t make the turn so I had to slow down and enter the safety run-off but we were laughing when it came to a stop. My friend was saying, “Turn .. Turn… Turn.. TTURRRRNNNNN”. I told him “We are going straight and will make it past the WALL!!!!” With music blasting and driving we were just laughing, and kept going after that I figured out the fast I could reach to make the first 100 degree turn is 245 kph. I was surprised from the capabilities of my vehicle, and I was very happy even though I was running some very crappy tires, next time I know what I need.
Technical Issues:
- Break Downs:
- Porsche Turbo – Coolant Issue
- Audi RS4 – Clutch Cylinder Issue
- Noble M400 – Gear Box or Clutch Issue
After the Track there a few thing that needs to be done to bring my car back to health since what I did was total abuse of Bavarian engineering, all I have to say is that Germans know how to build them.
There are some support vehicles for GulfRun, and this Landcruiser is one of them, to be exact one of the two Landcruisers.
I’m carrying some spare parts for people’s vehicles as well as other items for the event. We are going to be three guys driving to Bahrain which hopefully won’t take more then 4.5 hours if we are taking our time. I think we are one of the last groups to leave, there are some people driving and some flying.
Its going to be a fun road trip since we are going to watch a few old action movies, I want to watch Bad Boys, and Bad Boys II which is just filled with non-stop action and Will Smith wit. Then on the way back we watch MIB and MIB II for the conclusion of the trip, and I chose the movies without listening to other people’s opinion. The Driver is King.
I was told that I needed to change my rear tires and the front tires were fine, so I thought it would be a simple task to get that done. I have Continental ContactSport 2 as the rear tires, and they gave their measures to see if they have it at the dealership which they said they didn’t. Then I contacted the tire dealer in Kuwait and a few other shops, turns out they don’t have them either. I called up 5 shops and they all told me it would take 4 to 6 weeks to get any high speed tire, so I called a friend and ask him to look around as well. Then they told me the Michelins were available but my problem with that is that I don’t want to get tires that I’m not familiar with, they might be better, they most probably are, but I just wanted tires that I am used and know their limitations. The funny part that my rear tires were basicaly slicks when they took them out, they had almost nothing left.
After I was about to go to Michelins I got a call for a tire place just off of the 4th ring road, opposite Chevrolet. I went their and to my luck they had the same tires I had going for 146 KD a tire, but was negotiated down to 112 KD, and I’m sure they are making a huge margin from it. I’m just happy I found them, and when I was driving I feel that there is more traction available with the car.
My hat goes off to the GulfRun organizers for making this happen, I was really surprised how many cars there really were, you can’t tell how many there are when its at night. I came directly from work to the parking lot on the Gulf Road but it turns out I am one of the few that came directly from work, everyone went home and changed, then came. Many cars met up on the way there and you could hear them coming. I met up with one of the support vehicles and a Monster of a Porsche, and we were searching for the parking lot.
We were the first bunch of cars to arrive and then more and more cars started showing up. They all looked great during day time and the parking lot was blocked off by some of the support vehicles. When you come in, you register the details and sign the track disclaimer agreement, then you get your tags and vehicle tags. I thought there will be a few onlookers but it turned out to be a lot more then that. The parking lot was packed full of people, and some people came to me and told me they found this place from my blog and they remembered the number 24.
You could tell a lot of the cars kept passing the parking lot because you could hear them screaming by, and a few times the guys were told off by the police officers that were at the event. The organizers managed to organize with the police to be there and escort the vehicles to the location, at first there were about two police cars, and when we were about to move out it was six police cars, but that turned out not to be enough.
There was a lot of press at the event this time, Al Watan TV and Al Rai TV showed up with their crew and announcers, it also seems that the TV crew from Al Watan will be traveling with us to Bahrain. Then there were the news papers, Lialina (who annoy me), and other reporters. I was busy taking pictures of the event for the organizers and myself, and then some more stickers were being applied to all the vehicles. By 4:30pm all the vehicles had arrived and it turned out to be a larger group then I thought, a number is different when you see them in front of you. I think I took about 150 pictures by myself, not including the other cameras I was taking pictures with. We were all talking to each other about how it was going to go since we weren’t sure of the route, but we found that out when we were leaving.
Then when we were leaving the police spoke to us to stay together and in an organized manner. I have to say that I thought that would be difficult because I know how a lot of the drivers are, especially myself, but it turned out great and we were extremely organized together which is great. The only issue was that six police cars and four support (96 Landcruiser, 08 Chevrolet Silverado, G55 Mercedes Wagon, and VW Toureg) cars weren’t enough to keep people off our backs and block the roads. There were a lot of people who couldn’t deal with this long line of cars following each other on the route. We took the Gulf Road to the Sheraton road, then the Sheraton Round About to the First Ring Road, then the Gulf Road to the Second Ring Road, then made a left at the end to head towards Doha. The guys were trying to be as safe a humanely possible because their were some curious people and a lot of idiots on the roads. The drive itself wasn’t bad and the weather was fantastic but everyone was concentrating on the road and trying to keep the pack tight but leaving some room just in case if we needed to maneuver, and I was part of the end of the pack so we were moving around a lot to make sure we can get out of the way.
When we were getting close to the end of the route the roads were clearer and we were enjoying ourselves towards the end. Then we had to load all the vehicles on the Agility Transport, and these guys were professionals, their transports are top of the line for these types of vehicles, I was impressed. The whole event was well done and their were a lot of people the contributed to the success of this day, but this is just the beginning then there is the day of the event and everything else to follow.
(A lot of pictures below)
I love everything about my Landcruiser except for the horn, it moves like a beast but squeals like a pig! The sound is embarrassing, I think it is the same horn used in the Toyota Camry, I have heard many of them and they sound like mine. I have at last found the perfect modification for the my horn problem, but overkill is an understatement.
This is the Train Horn from Hornblasters.com, its a genuine high grade three stage train horn, simply its very loud. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing in the videos this is probably one of the most entertaining modifications that can be done to car. It would scare the hell out of people just as you are driving, if it was available in Kuwait it would be abused ridiculously, but if only one car it would be hard to find. The prices range from $300 up to $2300, how great would that be to have one.
Link: Video
Link: HornBlasters
Since I had my stickers all ready and done, I just went to see some friend and the other people going to the event. The build up is great it feels like its getting closer and I can’t wait for everything to get started. The organizers did a great job with the sponsors, and the Al Falah Car Wash have been great about everything. Systematically cleaning each car and applying the stickers to them, this night there were around two dozen cars which were three rows not including the support vehicles.
The two support vehicles that were there was Stallion’s Landcruiser, and my Landcruiser which are two generations of a great machine. The only spare parts that I am getting at this point is brake pads for the front and back, and I plan on changing my rear tires but it took a lot to find a pair the same as mine, there are better tires available from Michelen but I wanted the same Continental that I have been using since I am familiar with their limitations and I don’t want to learn the limits off new tires in an area that I don’t know.
Within an hour from our arrival a van pulled up which turned out to be the Al Watan TV crew with their announcer. Its great that they are getting some press coverage for this event, and the Al Watan Crew were quite funny, the announcer sat in a few cars and the funny part was seeing a lot of the guys avoid the camera as it was moving, it was a funny site. They kept stopping the guys from washing the cars to take video of all these vehicles, it was driving me nuts since I wanted my car dried and done.
The guys were applying the stickers as fast as they could, there was one Porsche GT2 that got probably 10 times more stickers then anyone else and it looked good that way.
Tomorrow is going to be a crazy day, I really recommend everyone to be check it out on the Gulf Road starting at 3 pm at Saahat Al Salam close to KPC, you can’t miss 22 cars and police cars parked in a parking lot and the move starts at 4:30pm down the Gulf then to Doha to be loaded onto the Agility Trucks.
I got a call to come to Al Falah Car Wash to get my car ready for Gulf Run, it seems that I forgot that it was this night because of work and other things.
As soon as I arrived at Al Falah Car Wash I saw them applying the stickers to other vehicles. They told me to take my car in for a wash and there were about 4 vehicles before me. They took my car right in, and I asked them to clean under the hood by airing it out and wiping it down a bit. Then they started washing my car and it felt nice seeing my car getting washed. Then I was checking out the other cars with the sponsors being applied to each vehicle. There were a lot of stickers to be applied and I liked that. I thought we could chose the stickers but they were all standard on all the cars, I wanted more stickers!
It seems Al Falah Car Wash was chosen as the sponsor to clean and apply the stickers for all the cars and they were cleaning some very nice cars. There were a lot of friends there, and I just found out one of my friends bought a 1098S, I told him that is the best decision he made yet. It was a great event, and this is just the first one with about 7 to 8 cars in total the next day will be 15 cars which is going to be insane. I didn’t pay for car wash since it was paid for by the GulfRun organizers even I asked them to apply the extra shine for my rims and tires. Then they were inspecting the cars and they told me I need new tires before going to the track since I was basically running on slicks. So I need to get new tires tomorrow after work which I hope they have in stock.
I think the stickers calm out very nice on my car and the one thing that I am happy about I got the one thing I requested which is getting the number 24! It seems people have been split into groups for the track, I don’t care which group I’m with just that I get number 24. There was something in the air and everyone was in good spirits, we were all talking about modifications and what is in the market, it was great. Its just building up for the days in Bahrain, I think that going on this GulfRun event is something that every person should do!
This has been something I have been looking forward to for a while, after work my friend calls me up and tells me Al Sayer brought the new Landcruiser so I picked him up right after work and went to Toyota. He said that its going to be very crowded and there will be people prospecting for the current Landcruiser as you are driving in.
We drove and from the fourth ring road you can see the huge crowd at Toyota, so we went in and parked by Behbehani Porsche instead of their side to avoid the traffic. As I was driving in there were kids asking me if I would sell my Landcruiser, I said yes for 10’500 KD and cash on the spot, they asked what year, I said 2000 Manual V8, then they said have good day! I was ready for them, no way in hell would I sell my Landcruiser!
Then me and my friend walked to Toyota and when you enter I felt like it was Friday Market, I haven’t seen this many ninjas in one car showroom at one time. It was the funniest site in the world, it was honestly a great site. All these people came out to buy the new Landcruiser and some people seemed to have cash ready to take it on the spot. The Toyota sellers were overwhelmed by the amount of customers, people were spilling out of the offices.
Now the Landcruiser is only G, GX, and VX models and price ranging from 10’500 KD to 17’500 KD which is lower then the projected 20’000 KD that people thought it was going to be. On another note the Landcruiser V8 is a 4.7 Liter not like the 5.7 Liter in the US, the Lexus LX is a 5.7 Liter in Kuwait. These cars are going to sell like crazy and I honestly like the look of the machine and its amazing from the inside, I’m not a fan of the rear but its much better in real life then it is in the pictures and the color I liked the most was the white one. The new Landcruiser is bigger then the old one so that is why its more comfortable, they will be flooding the streets soon.
