Congratulations ! Gumball 3000 year 2004 has become in-famous in Spain. It has been covered on TV as one of the most disastrous activities of the year. Several cars have been stopped by police and the so said "Rich" drivers taken to the police department. They have been caught, in groups of 10 cars (!!) - it seems - at speeds ranging from 250 km/h ( 130mph) to 300 km/h (160mph) in public roads.

The news coverage was describing an "illegal race performed by dozens of rich drivers with super cars ".

Of course, I am guilty ( even if I have not been driving together with the Gumball group ), I have occasionally driven at those illegal speeds, but I believe that doing this in "teams" or groups of 10 cars in public streets ( with racing (!?) numbers on the cars, is taking the things to an antisocial extreme. The worst publicity that we ( Porsche drivers ) would like. This is the best way to induce the prosecution of "supercar" drivers.

A mess

 

Couldn't agree more! These guys are showing a total lack of respect to other people and to other countries...
--Pierre

 

Hmm.. I wonder why the Gumball never goes through Switzerland. Probably because they'd do hard time for months each and everyone of them (no kidding). No pile of money going to buy the 'get out of jail free' card for +300kph@120kph here no sir.

 

Actually, I read a few days ago that one participant got caught by the cops in Ticino. He was doing like 215 kph on the highway. Result: he paid CHF 1'800 (USD 1'400), and isn't allowed to drive in Switzerland for 1-2 years. Probably no big deal...
Greetings,
--Pierre

 

boqueron, FYI, 300km/h is closer to 185 mph than 160. But I totally agree with this post, the Gumball has gotten too big and flamboyant for its own good.

 

Here's an off the wall question: I notice that many Rennlisters who live in other countries such as UAE, Switzerland, Spain, etc... have a perfect command of the English language, including the use of certain slang terms. Are you guys American or British nationals living abroad or how did you learn English so incredibly well?

Just wondering because I have taken about 4 years of Spanish classes, and I use it on a daily basis, but my skill level is nowhere near yours.

 

Trojan, nice "of the wall" question.

Let me point out a possible answer : European Renlisters are specially clever people. They have - probably - been studying English for years, visited England and the States several times and they had (have) to speak in English when doing business with British and Americans !

Also, one of them - at least - had Hungarian parents ( which helps a lot as you know ). You could even find some of them speaking French, German, Italian... Hungarian... Who knows !

 

Yup, you should of seen how this was treated in the news, "reckless filthy rich youngsters viciously racing in the public streets putting people's life in grave danger, bla, bla, bla" its the perfect excuse for the spanish police to rack up some more revenue from speeding tickects by demonizing all high-end sportcars and all type of speeding and getting really **** retentive about it. Man, the cataluña region were the gumball webt through was bad enough already in terms of speed enforcement by the cops, now its going to get worse. My region is much more laid back but it only a matter of time.

 

2 boy racers spent a night in jail just 2 days ago here in Switzerland. They were racing on the highway on Sunday evening at around 19h30, and lost control in a turn... Luckily, nobody else got injured, but there were a few close calls.

Oh, the guys are 18 and 19 years old students, obviously from rich foreign families, and were driving a 996 and a M3. And of course, the tv report started with a close-up of the Porsche logo... Sick and sad...

--Pierre

 

Yeaph Pierre,
it was really a mess this history .
It seems that the guy in the 996C4S where driving at more than 240KM/h (150MP/h) when he loss control in this turn limited at 80KM/h (whit a big fix box radar.!!)
Also the Porsche where not HIS but rented in Germany.
..so, the TV journal and newspapers where talking about Porsche then, this rich young amateurs drivers..


Seravi: Gumball 3000 has been 2 times in Switzerland.(2002-2003)

 

Andreas, I've sent you an email to your hotmail account. Got it?
Greetings,
--Pierre

 

Get a copy of Mischief 3000 (on DVD) and see for yourself. These idiots are far from Cannonballers like Dan Gurney, Brock Yates, etc. They are irresponsible idiots. I love high speed point to point driving, but these "drivers" are exactly as described above. If you see the DVD (a quasi documentary) you'll see that they try maneuvers on public highways that endanger many innocent lives, in addition to their own worthless ones.

My wife and I had thought about entering the Gumball 3000 in the US until we saw the video; we both agreed we wanted NO part of that...

 

I just got back from the Film Festival in Cannes and saw a ton of the Gumball cars parked out on La Croisette. I wasn't quite too sure what the whole Gumball thing was. I glad the mystery has been cleared up for me.

There were some SWEET cars out there I took a few pics but unfourtunately the al all too large to post. I saw a HORRID looking arctic silver GT3 with 2 fat neon green stripes running down the car. Way to ruin a nice car. Another guy did the same thing with a Modena. Ironically I had seen the exact same car a few months ago on the forum. YUK!!!

 

The rogue reputation is what drive people to do the Gumball. They wouldn't be interested if it was a classic car rally....

 

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