Gumball 3000 Is The Most Ostentatious Car Event You Have To See To Believe

I realised I was caught up in the middle of something truly bizarre when a Tron-liveried Ferrari F12 Berlinetta attempted to run over my foot. Pushed forward by the thronging crowds whilst trying to save my limbs from an expensive amputation, I asked myself whether this would finally mark my demise as a rookie supercar spotter.

Nope. This was simply my initiation into the crazy world of the Gumball 3000.

Established fifteen years ago by British entrepreneur Maximillion Cooper (known affectionately on the scene as Mr. Gumball), the rally covers 3000 miles of tarmac, spanning locations as culturally diverse as Istanbul to the concrete jungle of New York City.

This year, for an eye-watering entry fee of £40,000, participants get the chance to drive in an exotic convoy from Miami to Ibiza - taking in the sights, showing off their ridiculous rides and partying all the way through. And for this dizzying price-tag comes a chance to live out the ultimate car fan’s wet dream.

On Sunday, this year’s Gumball 3000 passed through my home city, London, and so I thought it’d be rude not to rock up for a spot of spotting. You could say that I was channeling my inner Shmee. I fancied the idea of a quiet afternoon on an urban street littered only with a few kids, shoppers and complaining spouses. How wrong I was.

“In one 15-minute period I saw a camo-wrapped C63 AMG Black, a rather tasteful Ferrari 458 and professional skiier Jon Olsson’s Rebellion R2K.”

People; people everywhere. Regent Street on a Sunday afternoon in the London sun is not normally a location you’d visit out of choice. But on this particular Sunday, the Gumball overlords had managed to find a way to shut down one of the busiest shopping streets in England, and fill it with people and attractions. Skateboard ramps, a live music show and a supercar paddock were all on display, but the first strange sight of the day was the appearance of British heavyweight boxer David Haye, who was driving an original Batmobile with what appeared to be a masked dwarf riding his shoulder.

And then the cars. Gumball 3000 usually manages to pull in a wide variety of supercars, exotics and one-off crazy builds. And this rally was no exception. In one 15-minute period I saw a camo-wrapped C63 AMG Black, a rather tasteful Ferrari 458 and professional skiier Jon Olsson’s Rebellion R2K.

But the noise on Sunday was by far the most impressive thing that my cochlea has ever experienced. The same 458s and Aventadors I’ve often ‘mired from afar were this time within touching distance and reacting to the crowd’s chants of “Rev it mate, rev it!“ with a generous pedal-to-the-floor mashing of the throttle. Whilst my ear drums didn’t bleed, our Car Throttle camera nearly did suffer an audio crisis’ as you’ll see above.

And to top it all off Spiderman decided to make an appearance, riding shotgun in a Ferrari, but sadly not the ‘Purarri‘ driven by Deadmau5. Who incidentally was nowhere to be seen in the five hours we were standing on a small sidestreet surrounded by petrolheads, starry-eyed youngsters and scaffold-climbing opportunists, all of whom were whooping, cheering and revelling in the extraordinary summer extravagance.

And in that kind of company, who wouldn’t love being part of the world’s most ostentatious rally, the Gumball 3000.