My Favorite Years of the Gumball 3000

23 May 2016

3000 miles, and 3000 smiles. The Gumball 3000 is an annual road rally where wealthy drivers drop anywhere between US$36,000 (25,000GBP) to $120,000 (83,000GBP) to enter one car and two drivers. What does that get an entrant? Wild memories, adrenaline, VIP parties, super-fancy hotels, some fancy meals, live entertainment, alcohol, a brotherhood, and (in some years) plane flights for both them and their cars. The rally was started in 1999 by Maximillion Cooper, and has occurred every year and grown in size. This past year, the rally went from Dublin to Bucharest (the original route was Dublin to Istanbul, but security issues changed that).

Unfortunately, not every year of the Gumball has been well-documented. The age of YouTube helped improve media coverage, and now we fans are able to watch the rally from the perspectives of multiple YouTubers! So with that in mind, let me mention some of my favorite rallies, in no particular order. These are rallies that I have watched a good bit of on YouTube.

For a long time, this one was my personal favorite. The rally started out almost as normal, with stops in the USA. However, there were some interesting surprises. For example, there was a KITT car. Also, parts of the American leg included a Tesla Roadster taking part! After the American leg on this $120,000 rally, the cars were shipped to China, and the majority of the Gumballers made a stop in Pyongyang, DPRK to watch the Mass Games (sans cars, of course). After that, the drivers reunited with their cars, where over the next few days they drove up north into Beijing. The Chinese government was extremely supportive of the Gumball, providing escorts, blocking off highway exits FOR the Gumballers, and essentially letting the drivers loose. There aren’t many other opportunities for an old VW bus with a 911 Turbo engine in it to reach 120 MPH!

Gumball 3000, 2013

This was the first Gumball that I truly watched, and I discovered it thanks to YouTuber Shmee150. The 15th Anniversary Gumball set off in Copenhagen, went across the Scandinavian nations, into St. Petersburg, through the Baltic nations, and eventually finished in Monaco for the Formula One Grand Prix. I loved this rally due to the awesome roads and the insane Polish crowds. Shmee150’s movie of this rally made it easily my favorite over his 2011, 2012, 2014, AND 2015 rally movies. (As for 2016? We’ll see.) Unfortunately, he couldn’t get into Russia to film but as The Dudesons showed, driving through Russia was very, Russian. In an awesome way.

Gumball 3000, 2006

This rally was absolutely bonkers. The rally started in London and then carried on into Serbia. That was it… for the European leg. Then the cars were loaded onto Antonov planes and flown to Thailand (China was the original plan, but weather/natural reasons changed it). They drove around Thailand for a day. Then, they upped the jet lag factor even more by flying AGAIN to the west coast of the USA, finishing in Los Angeles. It was definitely a crazy rally, and luckily we may see something like it again within the next few years!

Gumball 3000, 2016

Upon hearing the news that the final destination was changed from Istanbul to Bucharest, I wondered what we could have been missing out on (to be fair, it was changed for good reason). However, this rally was an awesome treat. Every destination was either a tried-and-true spot (Edinburgh, Regent Street) or something new/unique (Dublin, Europa Park). Fans everywhere were crazy. The car collection was awesome. To my knowledge, only one crash occurred (which was in a Gumpert Apollo, understandable), which highlights the safety improvements of Gumball over the years. And the YouTube (and Snapchat) coverage was pretty good! I have yet to decide if it’s my new favorite year, but time will tell!

Unfortunately, that is all I can put on this list. I don’t want to have every Gumball mentioned here, or else it would lose its value. Also, other past Gumballs were not as well documented, so I will make a separate blog post on my favorite Gumball moments. Comment below on your favorite Gumball years!

Comments

A 458 or 488 crashed on the hungaroring.

Well, they did a good job of covering that up because I had no clue. haha. Then again, it’s a racetrack and not a public road, so it shouldn’t bring bad press. RIP to that Ferrari and the quadcopter that crashed. haha

They probably changed the destination in 2k16 because of the political situation down in Turkey (you know, Erdogan and sh*t)

That’s sort of the “security issues” I mentioned. Then there was some violence and stuff. The nation doesn’t seem too stable at the moment. I think the push to change was also influenced by some Gumballers.

Thanks for reading!

The Yugo #1 I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time, thanks!

Haha, I have a feeling I was one of few who knew that Team Galag wouldn’t actually use a Yugo. For Gumball you need a car that can sit comfortably at 200 km/h. Haha

Anyone remember 2007

I absolutely do remember watching videos of the 2007 Rally, and I sometimes go back to watch Team Latvia’s video. I almost gave it an honorable mention in this post, but due to its sad outcome I left it out. Since I’m doing a post on my favorite Gumball moments to watch, you’ll see a few 2007 bits.