This is one of the very exciting times for me of the year, I love going to GulfRun, getting all the cars ready and just talking shop with so many people is always crazy. Now the count down is here and we are at the final stages before heading to Bahrain.

The Car Show is on the 10th & 11th of January @ 360 Mall with a lot of amazing machines to see. Can’t wait to get to the track, seriously excited about it.

This is the first supercar that I ever loved and saw in real life in London in the early 90s in a car show that I remember sponsored by Pepsi. This is the original supercar, a beast on the road, pure imagination into a machine. Now this video is just insanely cool, an XJ220 drifting around the farms, and I love the kid with the iPad in this video.

Watching this video makes me want to go to the track, the XBOW is a hell of a car on the track, it drives like a go-kart on steroids and lots of fun. It takes skill to control this machine, and the way these guys portrayed the machine in video makes me want to drive it right now. Can’t wait to hit the track as soon as the weather cools down.

There is not real taxi monitoring service in Kuwait. Like the RTA in Dubai, every taxi driver fears the RTA, they have a lot of power on each individual taxi or the company as a whole. In Kuwait its only the police and no real monitoring from other authorities. For the past several months Abdelfatah has been taking licenses away from expats and blaming expats for the traffic when in reality it is the government employees who are causing 90% of the traffic. Their solutions never tackle the root of the problem because they don’t want to knock on the road doors, they want to make it seem like they are taking action in the public’s eye.

Now lets tackle the Taxis in Kuwait, most of them run without their meters, and they carry multiple passengers over many stops without a questions. When in reality it should be from point A to point B with the meter running. They make up values and charges as they see fit. There are a lot of Taxis in Kuwait and there is a need for them, but a bit too many from what I have seen.

A majority of the Taxi companies in Kuwait are owned by people working the Ministry of Interior, colleagues of Abdelfatah, that is why they get their way and some of these taxis don’t give a crap the way they drive, they say their boss is a policeman whenever they get into an accident. Most of these Taxi companies have a limit of 30 permits per company, that is the rule that seems to be in place, but in reality they are upwards of 100 taxis, and a few are at 200 taxis. There is a need in Kuwait for proper transportation management, but abuse of this kind seems to be coming from the employees of the Ministry of Interior. If people are complaining about traffic, then this is the beginning of the problem, more Taxis then they are permitted to have, and taxi services are not being supervised or regulated by the right authority to keep the service level up.

I’m all for applying the laws on the books, but you have trouble with that when a large percentage (more then 10%) of the police are illiterate and barely have any knowledge of the law. Then they abuse the power they have against expats because Abdelfatah wants results. But it doesn’t seem like anyone is tackling the Taxis which is one of the main problems at hand.

When people think police they don’t think Supercars or machines that can fly past a helicopter, but there are a few countries with high speed police that can chase you down. Well at least these police departments have some interesting machines to chase people, I know that some of them are for show but I know the Italian Polizia have used their vehicle during chases.

• Germany – Brabus Rocket – Top Speed: 362 kph
• Dubai – Lamborghini Aventador – 349 kph
• Italy – Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4 Spyder – Polizia Municipale – 324 kph
• Belgium – Porsche 911 997 Turbo – 312 kph
• Holland – Spyker C8 – Flevoland Police – 300 kph
• Italy – Lotus Evora S – Carbinieri – 261 kph

I had a chance to get my hands on the Jaguar F-Type, the newest sports vehicle from Jaguar. The funny part is that when I got the car the first thing a friend of my uncle said to me was congratulations on the Aston Martin, he couldn’t believe it was a Jaguar. The first time I ever wanted a Jaguar was in the late 90s with the XKR came out, that was a beauty, and now I have to admit this is one beautiful looking machine. I not keen on the soft-top convertibles but they said the hard top convertibles will be out next year.

The car looks good from all angles honestly, and i really like the way they made the exhaust for the V6. For a smallish car there is a lot of space in the interior, but don’t expect any space in the trunk, especially if the top is down.

Getting in the car it really is spacious, more then I expected and I like the central console layout. The A/C & Gear controls are all buttons with the infotainment system integrated into the main screen. there is the usual Audio and Phone controls in the steering wheel. When your in sport mode you can shift the car from the F1 Paddles or from the gear lever itself which I really liked when I was driving.

Now the best part of the car is when it is in sport mode, the exhaust opens up, and it is loud, the right type of loud. You can’t help but want to go faster just to hear it around the corner and i loved the tone of that exhaust. For once I don’t think I would change the exhaust of this sports car, its perfect for it.

The handling of the car is just as fun, it really has a good grip. You feel that it is holding on even when your accelerating around a bend and pushing the car. That really surprised me, at certain times I was driving at idiotic speeds just to see how much it can go, and this car could go.

The infotainment system on the car is impressive, it’s simple enough to use but with a lot of features, makes it easy to navigate. The navigation maps are very clear and simple to use, I tried it out a few times and it worked perfectly. Bluetooth integration worked very well, I was streaming Sirius XM & Spotify from my Samsung S4, and I did the same with an iPhone and my Windows phone. Even controlling the songs through the steering wheel controls.

I honestly would not buy a Jaguar, there are just too many other better options in my opinion, also because Jaguar never made a car that I would want or need. But in this case more then a decade after the original Jaguar XKR they made the F-Type and if the V6 is this much fun I wonder how it feels to drive the V8. The V6 ranges from 22’000 KWD to 30’000 KWD, and the V8 ranges from 29’000 KWD to 38’000 KWD.

Making Driving Fun Again.

That is the main description after driving this car. Toyota wanted a sports car that is affordable and fun, a long time ago there were a lot of affordable sports cars, but once the performance race came into play they just kept getting more and more expensive. The idea behind this machine is to keep it simple and fun, putting in the bare minimum into the car to make a driver happy. I got my hands on the car a while back and had my fun with it, it has to be a manual to be enjoyed.

The machine is underpowered, there is no question about that, don’t expect it to push you back into your seat like a jetplane, but it does give you the rush of driving a fast car, especially because of two simple factors. The car is spunky, if you are driving the manual version you figure out it’s sweet spots, and this car should only be sold in manual because that is the true way to enjoy it. Secondly the car handles like a go kart, stuck to the ground, you can throw the car around, its light and it feels like your driving a toy car, but it holds on the corners and I love that about the suspension.

Toyota built this car in mind with people who want to modify it. It has to be modified, there is no question about that, everyone who has ever wanted a Toyota Supra wanted to modify it, and the GT-86 was based on the rich history of the AE86 that is a legend in the Japanese Automotive circles. This machine will bring back the days when Fast & Furious first came out, there will be no one GT-86 the same as the other, and the parts to modify the car is relatively cheap compared to other sports cars.

This machine needs a power upgrade to be a bit more fun, but when you upgrade the power you also need to upgrade the suspension and brakes to match. The best part of the GT86 is that is honestly very easy to drive and handle, at 200 bhp that is the case, but when you add the much need 100 bhp to get it to 300 bhp this car will handle very differently. So other modifications need to be done to get it back to the ease of driving and amazing stock handling that you get used to.

The interior of the car is simple, and that is the best thing about it, I honestly love the start button on the car, its like you are ready to race, and the AC is great but the sound system is basically crap and you need to modify that. This specific one has a modified head unit but other parts need to be modified such as the speakers and the bass to get it to the quality that you want.

You can literally modify this car any which way you want, but one thing is a fact, this is the perfect car from Toyota and nobody makes one like it. This car was abused during GulfRun, and I abused it for the three weeks that I had it when I took it from K, thanks K.

Finding the right automotive performance parts supplier is always a difficult process. In my case I’m always doing something with my M6, and a good supplier is always a difficult task to go through since you don’t trust them and slowly keep increasing orders.

About 10% of online automotive parts retails are crap, you get a bad apple once in a while and I have dealt with a few. During GulfRun we got informed that FVD Brombacher is opening up in Kuwait and I was excited because this is a German parts supplier and its always good to have more in Kuwait, FAST is also a good supplier from Audi in Kuwait, and Kromozone from Chevy as well.

But in my case I have a German car and recently ordered several parts from FVD Kuwait. Complete new brake system from Brembo through FVD Kuwait, he sorted out the details and including shipping came out cheaper then the online parts seller in the US, which shocked me. Also picked up DOT 6 Brake Fluid through them because of how much I abuse my car I want to make sure my brakes last. I was looking into some other performance parts but he convinced me not to get it, it takes a great supplier to tell you not to get something which will affect him negatively but he won a customer for life.

They provide the parts but don’t install it, in my case I take it to the dealership for installation at BMW, they have a few good guys. A few dealerships do installs like Audi, Chevy, BMW, and Porsche they each have their specialty.

If you are looking for any parts for any European or Japanese car, these are the guys to talk to.

Contact Details:

+96599827577
Fvd.kuwait@gmail.com

Instagram: FVDKuwait

Lamborghini is celebrating its 50th anniversary in style, and that includes a gathering of 350 ‘raging bull’ branded cars, which would take the tour starting from Milan up until Bologna, the end-point being the headquarters of Lamborghini! You know what, not all Lamborghinis were welcomed to join its 50th Anniversary Grand Tour. The brand had allowed only the modern and vintage model entry, that too with a valid license plate.

Thanks to the filtering, the fleet of supercars from the brand has been an interesting mix: 350 GTs, 400 GTs, Miuras, Espadas, Jaramas, Urracos, Countaches, LM 002, Diablos and Murcielagos. The five-day long tour from May 7 to May 11 would pass through breathtaking landscapes of Lombardia, Toscana, Lazio, Umbria and Emilia Romagna, stopping over in Forte Dei Marmi, Grosseto, Roma, San Giustino Valdarno and Bologna, where they will arrive on May 10.

So many beautiful machines in this event, out of the 350 beautiful Italian machines participating there are a few that are participating from Kuwait. How much better could it get to have a high speed escort across Italy being led by a Lamborghini Police Car. I spot four cars from Kuwait in the video, three together in the middle of the video and one orange one towards the 3/4’s of the video. So many beautiful colors, and some of the machines are a bit over the top but still fun, loved the sound of the exhausts in the video.

Link: LuxuryLaunches

750 bhp Mazda RZ7 in an open road, yeah this guy is going to have fun. I can’t get enough of drifting these days its getting more mainstream which is good, and Mad Mike flying 140 mph into some crazy corners looks ridiculous, wish I could pull that off.