This is a little more then it seems, at the launch of the Diavel there was some exciting news about AMG and Ducati collaborating on a few porjects. At first I thought it was just for marketting reasons but after reading A&R’s article below it seems that Mercedes has interest to buy Ducati but they are feeling things out before proceeding. Ducati has had a spectacular 5 years with the debut of the 1098, they have really worked on the quality of their products and slowly expanding their product line. Ducati have had a bit of rough time earlier but these days they are on top and it seems that Mercedes has noticed, but they don’t want them because they are on top. They want them so that they have another arm of their business which is in direct competition with BMW, with an established product portfolio and distribution line, Mercedes wants to take on BMW. But what Mercedes and Ducati are trying to do is to see how they fit together, they each don’t want to alienate their customer and fan base, and Ducatiests are known to be loyal to the brand and don’t want any interference. I wonder how this would work out? Would they share their technical knowledge? Would distribution lines be streamlined? Would you start seeing Ducaties at Mercedes Dealerships? It is a shocking development and I’m not sure if its a good or bad thing, and it seems to Mercedes that there is a lot of good to take Ducati but they have to do carefully or a lot of damage will be done to either brand.

Link: AsphalyAndRubber

A little over a month ago I was driving on the inside of Mishref going to the NBK by the co-op. Its an internal road leading to it, two lane going and two lane coming. As I was driving down on a Saturday morning at around 8:15 am, I just needed to get some cash to pay for a few things and they have a drive through ATM. I was going about 30 kph, not in a hurry to get anywhere since I had only a few things to finish in the morning.

I could see the coop on the left side of the road about 300 meters down, and about 30 meters ahead there is a U-turn coming around. There was a Nissan Patrol on the other side of the road as I was driving, at that point I’m about 10 meters form oncoming u-turn when the car turns into the u-turn, and I thought that the person would stop, but I was completely wrong, the car continued and at this point I was traveling at 30 kph with about 7 meters from the U-turn and I slammed the brakes and made a hard right to avoid the car. I thought I could cut into the second lane but this lady went right through and I hit her car’s front end, I went on the garden of the first house went through the bushes to end up in the drive way of the second house. I was fine, the airbag didn’t come out, I was angry, very angry, I tried opening my door but because my left fender was pushed back I had to kick out my left door to get out.

I took a look at my car and I was devastated, my car was very damaged, but hamdilla I was fine. I called 777 then remembered it was 112 and reported the accident, they said go to a police station, I told them my car is not moveable and we need a police officer urgently. I was very very angry and tried calming myself, what kind of idiot would make a u-turn without stopping with a clear view of an oncoming car within a 7 meters of the u-turn and not even trying avoid me when she looked. The front left side of my Landcruiser was damaged and I hit her right fender and tire. The funner part is that my front bumper was coming off but the paint wasn’t damaged because of the Huperoptik protection on it.

(This is a very long story)
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This has been one crazy year with GulfRun 6 and it was a great car show at 360 Mall even with the rain that we got on Saturday. It was a blast and during the rain we went to see a movie so it worked out perfectly, but the great part was people were still checking out the cars in the rain. There are some very crazy machines going to GulfRun 6 this year and the one car that scared the hell out of me was the Corvette ZR1, it is an amazing piece of engineering which literally scares me, I have driven a lot of cars but this one is something else.

This Wednesday was the loading day of GulfRun and this time we met up at Tilal Complex in Shuweikh which didn’t have enough parking for so many cars but it worked out at the end. The amount of cars caused a little havoc but it isn’t too bad for an hour or two before heading out. We left by 6 pm and got to the Agility loading facility in Doha in 20 mins. We were a caravan of about 40+ cars and this was only a partial amount of the cars that were joining us. We got to Doha and loaded up the cars on four trailers in record time, and they were extremely organized, it was fantastic. I can’t wait to get to the track and rip it apart! I’m excited! If people want to visit GulfRun 6 its open to the public just mentioned that you are visiting on the 27th and 28th of January.

GulfRun 6 is coming up in a few weeks and I decided to change my tire to the new Michelin PS2 tires since my tires were all eaten up. It was a total 485 KD for all for sport tires, mounted, balanced and installed. Which is about 130 KD per tire, which is about the price of sports tires.

I ran into a problem, my rims are G-Power Silverstone Rims which a special valve to inflate and deflate the tires. That special valve was lost by the dealership so I couldn’t do anything with my tires, so I asked them to hold the tires for me. I called the dealer in Abu Dhabi and called Germany they said it would take about 3-5 days to get it, and time wasn’t a luxury I had. I asked to have them shipped FedEx or DHL next day but they were slow to react, I got a little worried.

Next morning Michelin guys called me and told me the tire guys fabricated some valves to they can inflate and deflate my tires, I was very happily surprised. I drove right over as soon as my meeting was done and had my tires changed and tipped the guys who did the work. They made two valve adapters one to inflate and the other deflate the tires. They did an amazing job and these guys remember me year after year so I make sure to tip them, and they finished all the work on my car in 20 mins which is fantastic. The best tire service in Kuwait is always at Michelin, they even have BFGoodrich which is my favorite truck tire brand.

For the first time my eyes feast on a machine such as this, born from pure precision and art. I knew this was going to be a beautiful machine but I wasn’t expecting it to be this beautiful. The lines on the MP4-12C just flow perfectly and the doors open smoothly, there are no key holes or handles, only a sensor just under the door panel that senses your hand and opens up. The interior of the car is extremely comfortable for a race bred machine, and the all digital instrument panel looked amazing. I didn’t have a chance to start up the car but it felt very comfortable sitting inside.

The car will be selling in Kuwait starting at 62’000 KD up to 85’000 KD depending on the options, and it has a lot of options. The silver one looked amazing, I’m assuming the other colors look just as good. Only 1000 of them will be made and 16 have been allotted to Kuwait and half already sold before this show, I’m assuming all will be sold in the coming weeks. Delivery is expected to take place any time between June and August of 2011 for the lucky owners. Its a beautiful and unique machine, McLaren have perfected the formula of the supercar.

For your viewing pleasure the most powerful Porsche ever built. That is one very scary machine, 620 bhp pure power, and the RS version of the GT2 is just a shocking combination. They make it look so easy to drift this car around corners when I know it takes extreme precision and control, I have seen how easily the GT2 spins out.

Only in London could you park a car like that, stuffing one tiny car between two small cars. It looks funny that this electric car is parked its nose to the sidewalk while all the others are parked normally. I really detest this little electric car, makes me want to kick it over every time I see it, I even think that I would be able to kick it over with just one kick. Even the smart car looks like a thing of beauty compared to this contraption. I think that everyone who drives this car thinks they are doing wonders for the environment and they are better then everyone else, I don’t think its doing anything for the environment but thats just my opinion. I love the mini cooper, and they think the Tesla & Chevy Volt are amazing machines, but this little machine is a piece of crap that should be thrown in the trash.

After seeing the announcement on Marks blog last night I knew that there is a lot to look forward to for GulfRun. This year I want to be a little bit more prepared for it then last year and I know a lot of people area geared up to go. I’m not sure what to expect but I know its going to be good. A lot of people are getting ready for the track, they have been asking about the dates for a while now but at last they are set and I can plan around it. Now to order some car parts before the year end and get it installed. Above are my favorite pics from the GulfRun 5 Car Show, you can check them out at the recently updated GulfRun website.

These are some of my favorite pictures, that kid looks like he is the King of all the cars and the guys below checking out their times at the track.

Now the dates are set and we have a target ahead of us. Now the website has all the pics and all the racing results from past years, too bad I never get up there!

Link: GulfRun

I usually restart my computer every once in a while to stop it from crashing all the tabs I have open in my Firefox browser. I make sure to check that all that pages loaded up nicely, and then I saw this on the GulfRun. I started trying to sneak around the website but nothing was coming up so I emailed and they told me to wait a little while, something is coming up.

When in Las Vegas one of the top things on my list to do was to go to Exotics Racing. The best choice of high end vehicles to drive all in one stop and for a relatively cheap price for what you could do with these machines. Have a choice of several super cars and for a bunch of guys its like a kid in a candy store. I have always wanted to drive a Scuderia on a track before since I have heard that it’s just an amazing machine to drive. Then there are so many other beautiful machines, and you have these amazing track instructors with you. There is also a drift ride in a Corvette Z06, and they go through 10 sets of tires a day for that corvette. Honestly the whole thing was a hell of a lot of fun for a cheap price.

You get in the car you chose, you get about 5 laps per car and you have a combination of vehicles if you want. In my case I only want to drive of the Ferrari F430 Scuderia, some of my friends took the Ferrari F430 F1 and the Lamborghini LP560. The is endless, you have all these vehicles on the track: Lamborghini LP640, Lamborghini LP560-4, Ferrari F430 F1, Ferrari F430 Scuderia, Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Audi R8, and Porsche Carerra. The only thing they were missing was a Porsche GT3 or Turbo, but they have every thing else you could imagine. You jump in the seat and the trainer gets in the car with you, you would think they would tell you take it easy, but in my case the guy made me floor the gas and turn hard, and at time I thought I was going to spin out but it held on. I was loving every moment of it, the only thing I wanted was a bigger track to enjoy some more high speed turns then this short one. All the driving range from $200 to $500 which depends on the car and combinations, I would recommend it for anybody going to Las Vegas and they are supposed to be opening in Los Angeles soon, I’m just hoping its going to be very soon.

Link: ExoticsRacing