Luckily I got to be the first person to get this service done, I have been nagging these guys for ages now about front protection. They called me up a few days ago and told me that they would take my car for on Tuesday and have it done by Thursday afternoon, I was happy to give them my car to have the work done.
I went to check on the car before my flight to Dubai and there was the main installer and I saw the cutting machine ready to go. It seems all the guys now have pre-cut designs for these vehicles, and they had a huge list of them, pretty much every vehicle from every manufacturer, its an online database that is updated on a daily basis.
The guys started with my car later in the afternoon and so I took off, I called the next day to check on the progress and by noon it was done but they said they need to keep the car overnight to make sure that it is to their approved standards. They did the whole front, including the front lights and fog lights, side view mirrors, A-Pillars, and 3 inches of the roof. All of that for 260 KD which is the standard price of protection, and it fit perfectly. When I picked up the car it was in perfect condition, and nothing looked off instead it was a completely perfect and and in some place in the front I couldn’t even tell it was there, when your standing a bit away you can’t see the lines, its perfect. I also mentioned to them that I might have some paint work done in the front and they said they would put on the protection for free, I was happy to hear that. They will be starting the service for all cars this coming Saturday so all the cars who want protection know where to go.
Link: Huper Optik
Something came up and we had to go to Bahrain for a meeting, checked on the flights and there wasn’t anything that fit our schedule so we decided to leave early in the morning. Took off to the border heading to Bahrain, the Khafji border didn’t take us 20 minutes and stereotypes are very true, we had nothing in the car and we wore dishdashas so at the border they stamped things quickly and at the Saudi Customs check they didn’t bother they just stamped and we went right through. We were on our way straight to Bahrain, we were discussing work, movies, and a ton of other things on the way there.
We go to Saudi/Bahrain border in under three hours which is pretty damn good but I also had a high average speed. This was pretty much a test for the Landcruiser crossing all the way to Bahrain, I wanted to see how the car handles and what it feels like. All I can say is that Toyota has created perfection with this machine, the drive was extremely smooth at speeds over 180kph, the brakes were fantastic and even with the heat we didn’t feel anything thanks to the excellent air conditioning and Huper Optik tint, the seats were very comfortable, great sound system, and the little fridge in the middle was very useful. We both had a spare dishdasha and chemaq ready for our meeting when we get there, it was that simple.
45 minutes from the border the gentlemen called us and delayed our meeting which worked to our benefit, called one of my friends and he gave me the address to Meat Co in Bahrain and we got to it, its in an Area called Aadliyah but they really changed it and it looks very nice. So many nice restaurants, I remember coming here back in November for GulfRun and it was all asphalt but now they made it even nicer with all the nice restaurants. Crossing the border in Bahrain took us about 45 minutes because of the traffic but we got in and had our lunch, we even had 45 minutes to spare which was perfect, we went into the meeting energized and ready. That went decently well to start with, but we need to have a few more meetings before we get into the project. We were done around 3:45 pm and we had some tea at a coffee shop and then headed to the border, we got there around 4:00 pm.
We got stuck at the Saudi/Bahrain Border for 1 hour and 36 minutes, I think snails were passing while we were stuck in that traffic and it wasn’t even a weekend. I was going nuts waiting, and we were getting tired from the wait, thats half the trip to Kuwait and I was hoping to be on the while there was sun light. We took off at around 5:40 pm, we just stopped at the gas station about 20 km from the border to pray, fill up gas, buy some candy and drinks to keep us energized the way back. Then I just took off, the lowest speed I was going at that point was 180 kph and tried keeping it at 200 kph. When in Bahrain and in Kuwait I drive around 120 to 140, but Saudi is like no man’s land, if you drive slow they run you off the road, so i just kept a high pace but you have to keep your eyes out for those changes in the road because of construction, there is always construction on that road, but its a straight line from Bahrain to Kuwait. We made great time, we go to the border at exactly 8:00 pm and it took us about 30 minutes to get through and even in Kuwait they didn’t bother checking the car which is funny because we could have snuck anything in. It was one hell of a trip but got a lot of work done and I got to test my car on a very long trip.
So I have been testing Huper Optik on my Landcruiser for some time, I installed the C40 which has a decent amount of heat resistance and my M6 has the same but from Llumar. I wanted to try them out since I kept hearing about the product and reading up on the differences between metallic tint and ceramic tint, and turns out that this is true. I tried out a couple of walkie talkies inside the Beemer and the Landcruier, we could get farther with the Landcruiser and its substantially clearer, and we tried it with another car with metallic tint and that also had the same results, Nano-Ceramic tint has no bad effect like metallic tint.
After the little experiment with the Landcruiser I decided to change my Beemer tint since Llumar wasn’t honoring their warranty, the tint was peeling from the windshield and passenger window. The Landcruiser cost me 220 KD to tint every window including the windshield, the Beemer cost 160 KD and they offered me a 10% discount on the car because it was my second car and even though it was more work for them. The difficulty with the beemer is that they had remove the tint and without damaging the rear window, which are those thin defogger lines. They did a great and thorough job of removing it and installing their tint. They told me that it would take about a week for some of the small bubbles to go and they did, couldn’t find any after a week. What I did like is that you are in contact with the owners, and he even told me that there is nothing wrong with my tint, he said he would just replace those two windows instead of taking the whole thing off, I was so pissed with Llumar that I wanted to remove the whole damn thing. It did also help that they were working on a car a little more sensitive then mine and I could see the car they were taking with it. I went for a combination of C40 and C30 tint which is basically very dark and a great amount heat protection, I will be stopped by the police but I don’t care at this point since it looks great on the car, the car next to me did a C60 tint which is pretty close to clear but with a lot of heat protection. I was surprised they did a heat test of my window with the Llumar tint and with the Huper Optik tint, Llumar claimed 80% heat rejection when it was only 23% and the Huper Optiks was 55%, thats another thing to add to the list of Llumar, false advertising, they claim UV rejection not the total heat rejection which is the only thing that matters in Kuwait with our sun. They have a great product and great service with decent prices, I just hope they continue at this level, they now have a loyal customer.
Good things about Huper-Optik Nano-Ceramic Tint:
- Does not fade, unlike other tints, because it has no additives
- Better heat protection, I can hold my steering wheel after leaving it in the sun for 8 hours
- Doesn’t interfere with GPS, Bluetooth, Radio signals unlike metallic tint
- No hassle service with these guys, car was done in 4 hours
- Price is reasonable for a quality tint
- 10 year warranty
The address and contact details of Huper Optik Kuwait can be found in the link below. For all your tinting needs this is an amazing product, and the service is great.
Link: HuperOptik
Corvette ZR1 640 bhp, RWD Journalist Driving
Lamborghini 670 SV 670 bhp, AWD Lamborghini Track Driver
Two very different machines which are the perfection of their manufacturers chasing each other down side roads. The challenge is simple can the Autocar journalist in a Corvette ZR1 keep up with the Factory test driver in the Lamborghini 670 SV. These machines are both works of art, I’m still biased towards the Corvette, its just such a piece of work and so much fun.
I was just reading through Uptill1.com and I came across the new Desert Kings 2 Jokers video, this time its wet and wild. This is from the drivers of GulfRun, seems like they are keeping themselves busy this summer and some of those water tricks would cause me a ridiculous amount of pain. The editing and production work is from Negativeffects, just as great as the last video, these guys were really riding the wake. I was wondering what they were doing when I saw them out by the water, now it makes complete sense.
Now with all these cool videos, I want to see some more work, maybe some more action in the water. My favorite parts are always the bloopers, there had to be a few of them in water, keep up the great work.
Who would have ever thought that the biggest US car enthusiast would ever be on the best car show in the world. Having Jeremy Clarkson and Jay Leno sitting opposite each other is the best of American and British Satire. He is even funny when they were talking to each other, usually its Clarkson cracking the jokes but Leno can handle his own and he is a pretty damn good driver too. He is even cracking jokes when he is driving that crappy car with a roll cage, I honestly don’t think I can beat Jay Leno’s time even though I’m pretty confident of my driving skills.
This is nothing short of genius, there is a reason why the Top Gear guys are hilarious, they come up with these genious ideas of taking small cars and putting them into teams to see who is the winner of car football. This is basically a big version of bumper cars with real cars, this is more fun the demolishin derby because you are trying to get a ball in the goal and most of the drivers are either race drivers or stunt drivers. And some of these stunt drivers pull some amazing moves to get the ball back or out of the way, some of these cars get really banged up and its hilarious.
Top Gear does it again, they take a new car and thrash it around their track. I would really like to try my luck on that track, at least the straight away. I have been hearing about this car for sometime now but I didn’t realize how powerful the XFR is with 503 bhp, and now they are comparing it to the BMW M5. I honestly think that the M5 can never be compared to any Jaguar even if it has figures to match. But it does seem like a powerful car but the looks does not convey its power, its cheaper, but I don’t think a Jaguar can ever really compare to German engineering.
Ken Block is forever famous for his rally driving skills and those insane videos, but Ricky Carmichael isn’t as famous to the general public but he is one hell of a dirt biker probably one of the best period. This video is probably one of the most intense I have seen from Kenny Block, less stunts and more insane driving and it gets a lot better towards the middle. Top Gear did a great job of putting this video together, these guys seriously know how to get our bloods pumping.
I got my Flip MinoHD a while back now but I didn’t have a chance to really use it except a little recently. The box is nice and compact, comes with a few wires, a pouch, and the manual. The camera is smaller then I expected, its smaller then my Blackberry 8900, fits very nicely in my hand. Switched it on and it has some very simple settings, and you pretty much point and record right away. It records at 720p video which you can connect to your computer through USB, the USB connector is built into the Flip MinoHD, its at the top and flips out, then you connect it to your computer to either take the videos or charge it, to charge the Flip you also connect it to the USB.
It has very simple operations when recording, you just have one big red button to record and point in the direction that you want. There is a simple built-in software which I used to create the test video below. The sound recorded quality is excellent and so it the video quality, if you are looking for a simple point and shoot video camera for under $200 then this is the perfect camera. I was looking to use a camera to mount to my bikes while riding and mount it to the car while driving to make some fun videos, and it really did the job. You can do edit the video insert any effects but that must be done in something like Adobe Premiere.
- Holds 60 minutes of HD-quality video (1280 x 720 resolution at 30 frames per second; 16:9 widescreen) on 4 GB of built-in memory
- Weighs only 3.3 ounces, sleek design, fits into your pocket or purse
- Features one-touch recording and digital zoom
- Flip-out USB arm plugs directly into your computer to launch built-in FlipShare software
- FlipShare software lets you save and organize your videos, simple editing, make movie, email, or upload online
Flip MinioHD Test from Marzouq on Vimeo.
I honestly think they did a great job with this camera targeting a specific usage for it. I do think there is room for improvement but I gave it high marks because of the video quality I kept getting and sound capture, and overall extreme ease of use. Now you can the Flip UltraHD which does a little bit more for the same price, so I would go for this one at this point.
Price: $199
Link: Amazon
Rated:
