The Gumball 3000 Rally has confirmed the 15th Anniversary route for 2013. For those who don’t know what the Gumball Rally is all about, it’s a gathering of 120 high-performance cars, all partaking in a staged rally, usually from one capital city to another, with mad parties to celebrate each stage.
Ex-skater and British entrepreneur, Maximillion Cooper, is Gumball 3000’s founder and attends and hosts the event. Going from strength to strength, Maximillion has managed to create a brand out of Gumball, his mission to build a global lifestyle of cars, music and art. “Gumball is about challenging tradition,” he says, “and taking a non conventional approach to exploring and developing cultural and creative boundaries.”
Vanity Fair describes Gumball 3000 as the ‘most rock ‘n’ roll car rally staged’.
The saying, “Gumball isn’t a race; it’s a rally”, pretty much sums up the attitude of the event. You don’t win the highly acclaimed “Spirit Of Gumball” award for being fast; you win from being at the forefront of the insane road and party action.
Although many celebrities take part, anyone can enter; however, if you are selected from the application process, there’s the £30,000 entry fee to deal with. If you want to go for the “Spirit Of Gumball” award, be prepared to sit in the back of foreign police cars whilst you receive speeding tickets, apart from Italy, where the Carabinieri will usually nod their approval. Your liver will need to brace itself for a real hammering, and your brain, suffering from severe sleep deprivation, will need to learn how to adapt to 10 hours driving by day and the same for parting at night.
All kinds of celebrities enter the weeklong party, from pro-skaters Tony Hawk and Rob Dyrdek to TV stars such as David Hasselhoff and the Jackass and Dirty Sanchez crews. Supermodels Jodie Kidd and actress Daryl Hannah and have both attended, along with musicians, Xzibit and Travis Barker. One of the most enigmatic and entertaining Gumballers is basketball star, Dennis Rodman in his Playboy truck. With models in tow, showing real Gumball spirit, he caused mayhem throughout the previous rally, running up astronomical bar bills.
On May 18th, the collective roar from the multitude of supercar engines will probably be heard from space as the Gumballers roll out of Copenhagen to begin the first stage. Then it’s on to take in the glamorous Monaco to watch the Grand Prix via Stockholm Turku, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Riga, Warsaw and Vienna!
