Wednesday 8th August 2018

Gumball 3000 Rally 2018: PH Gallery

That most infamous of road rallies kicks off for its 20th instalment; PH waved them off...

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The Gumball 3000 Rally returned to London last weekend for its 20th instalment. Celebrities such as Usher, Afrojack and David Hasselhoff joined hundreds of other 'Gumballers' at Covent Garden with over 150 supercars and performance cars participating in the rally.

Star cars of the rally included at least six of the new Ferrari 812 Superfast, a handful of Lamborghini Huracan Performantes, McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 hypercars, K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider, the very cool Lamborghini Murcielago SV, a Pagani Huayra, and a Dodge Challenger SRT Demon. The real head turners, however, included a yellow Ferrari 288 GTO from Australia, a very nice Mercedes Benz AMG GT R that paid homage to the 'Red Pig', two Lexus LF As (one of which was a 1/50 Nurburgring edition), the E.C Only One P8 which is a V8 1,200kg Italian prototype, and a Mercedes Benz 300SL.

The 300SL in question was one of the 11 retro-modded by AMG (believed to have been commissioned by the Sultan of Brunei) which features modern running gear, engine and interior, but with an original 300SL body.

This year's rally started in London, and at the time we are writing this, heads on through Europe to Milan. The cars then all fly to Japan where the tour continues to the finish line in Tokyo. The Gumball 3000 rally has become infamous for partying and reckless driving; however, there is no ignoring the near £500,000 that was raised for charity by the teams this year before the rally even began. Which of these would you take on the Gumball?

[jfire]

Saw them coming down the M2 on Sunday. Always seen this in the media but never really thought much about it. Reading up on the previous years where pedestrians have been killed, and dozens of participants lose their licenses, the notion descends quickly from one of glamour, to one of incredible frustration at driving at 70mph on British roads, down to France where I hear they've now reduced their limits to 80kph

[jfire]

With the publicity, the participants get attention and charities and sponsors make money, and as a result of their awareness so do the local police forces who are out with speed guns en masse.

Or keep the attention to a minimum and it's not an event.

Zero sum game

[jfire]

ArmouredBiscuit said:

GB3000 in a BAC Mono..........?! Great car, but that's a lot of driving to do solo.

I see what people mean about the attention. Google that and the first result will inform you that Usher was driving it.

[jfire]

It's definitely the preserve of the socialite. i.e. people with expensive hobbies without real jobs.

It's what I'd do if I didn't have anything else to do other then spend money and get in the papers.

Coincidentally I came across a podcast episode (Stuff You Shuld Know) on the Cannonball Run which was a real event portrayed in the film of the same name. They also touched on Gumball, and copycat events where the winner is the vehicle closest to the average speed of 61mph. The interesting fact is that it came out of a desire to undermine the very low speed limits of the time which were implemented to reduce use of petrol, and thus dependence on Middle Eastern oil, but were presented as a safety measure.

[jfire]

chappardababbar said:

It looks like fun to me. As long as no one gets hurt.

Some incredible machinery - good luck to all the participants

I would love to be involved. The new Bentley Continental would be my car of choice.

Yeah I was thinking you'd have to go for speed and comfort.

[jfire]

arkenphel said:

Lovely cars! I'd love to do it if I had the money. If I have made it in life to be able to sticker up a £200k car and be able to laugh off the car being confiscated, why the heck not? As long as I don't kill/ hurt anyone else.

You brits are so weird, not celebrating success. Either that or not wanting to see someone else succeed.

This isn't really the sort of thing your Elon Musk takes time off to participate in. It's for people born with money whose only mark of success is media coverage. It's funny, as a Brit, we have a load of well known socialites. Google any one of them followed by Gumball and they have taken part.