By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

So there aren’t any examples of gratuitous law-breaking, crashes, or police in this clip, but I can assure you it’s Gumball related. When the rally was passing through Anaheim, the contenders stopped by the D1GP and did a slow parade for the fans. Fortunately, StreetFire was there to get it on tape. While there’s obviously a grip of exotics—including an XJ220!—one car that’s conspicuously absent is Richard Rawlings’ Escalade-powered, breakdown-prone ’78 Chevy Caprice. It’s apparently giving him a hell of a time, just like it did on Bullrun last year.

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

From the reports coming in, it doesn’t sound like the cops are playing particularly nice with the Gumballers this year. Big surprise. As you can imagine, the smokies probably aren’t pumped about a bunch of rich dudes piloting exotics through their jurisdictions at Mach 3. But while I’ve seen cars get impounded, I hadn’t even heard about anyone getting their license plate jacked—until now. According to the LuxuryVice’s video description  over on StreetFire, after getting pulled over for speeding in Arizona, the officers popped the plate of their Bentley and told them they’d have to go down to City Hall to get it  back. Ouch. But the team was undeterred, and vowed to continue on to Miami Beach sans plate.  Something tells me next time they get popped, the lack of a plate will be the least of their worries…

Yesterday John and I went over to hang out with Blake and the rest of the guys at NorthWest Auto Salon. As you can see below, they have some nice cars over there. That Ford GT was in Gumball this year—you may have seen the video of it doing donuts. With a Whipple supercharger and 715 rwhp, donuts come naturally. John and I both got ride in the car, and I can safely say it’s the fastest car I’ve even been in—stay tuned for more on that. Actually, stay tuned for more on all of these cars. That Carrera GT is no slouch, either.

So here’s the cool thing: in the coming weeks and months the NorthWest Auto Salon guys are gonna help us write up some detailed detailing tutorials. And these guys do it all, from basic hand washes all the way up to concourse level detailing. They also do paint correction, and have recently added full vinyl vehicle wraps, like the matte black wrap you see on the GT. We’re thinking a time lapse video of a vinyl wrap might be kind of cool.

NorthWest Auto Salon was recently nominated by the local NBC affiliate to be included in the "Best of Western Washington" in the Automotive Detailers category. They’re hoping to be get the top spot in that category, so help ‘em out and vote ‘em up! A ton more pics after the jump.

Continue reading "NorthWest Auto Salon" »

Well, after a successful blast through California and Nevada, the Gumballers are off to China. The US leg wrapped up on Monday with a bash at the Hard RockHotel in Las Vegas, and afterwards the cars were loaded into cargo planesand shipped to Shanghai. All reports indicate the rally has gone incredibly smooth this year, and by the looks of Vivid Racing’s blog, some seriously high-caliber rides participated. We were bummed we weren’t able to attend—maybe we’ll get to join the action next year. In the meantime, check out the  pics we stole from Dan at Vivid Racing after the jump!

Continue reading "Gumball 3000 Wraps Up the US Leg, Heads for China" »

As the Gumball rally blasted through California on the I5 this week, a Ford Excursion towing a camper trailer got squirrelly, jack-knifed, and (reportedly) flipped over—and the driver of a black Lamborghini was blamed for causing the accident. Looking over the grainy footage shot by another Gumball participant, it’s really hard to see how or when there was any interaction between a Lambo and the Excursion. One possibility is that the Lambo, which may or may not be one of the black dots in the second-from-the-right lane (not the car directly in front of the shooter), spooked the Excursion driver by appearing alongside him. Perhaps the driver went to change out of the far-right lane, saw the Lambo suddenly there, and got startled. But would that make it the Lambo’s fault? Maybe there’s a clause somewhere stating that when a Lamborghini is within a half-mile of any rollover wreck on any public road, its driver is automatically at fault. See for yourself!

Via Carscoop.

One of the most attractive things about this year’s Gumball 3000 was the well-planned US leg. Like I said before, CarDomain had every intention of being right there in the action, but when all the details didn’t work out, I decided to play it safe and spend a nice relaxing weekend here in Seattle. 

Either way I’ve been scouring the net for any updates, and while I can’t find a single story or blog, I did stumble across some great pics on flickr! See more rides from the starting line of the rally after the jump!

Continue reading "Gumball 3000 Brings Out Some Sick Cars" »

Even though CarDomain won’t be having a blast on the 10th anniversary of the Gumball 3000 like we originally planned, we are still excited to see what celebrities and rides come out the woodwork this weekend. The rally kicks off here in the US Saturday and ends in China at the Olympics! If you’re in So Cal this weekend, keep your eyes peeled and you might be lucky enough to see some crazy exotics. In the meantime, we’ll be watching Dan’s blog over at VividRacing as he uncovers the who and what of the 2008 Gumball 3000!

Here’s a pic I grabbed from Dan’s latest blog post.  More pics after the jump.

Continue reading "Gumball 3000 Kicks Off This Weekend" »

The Gumball made headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2007, when a pair of participants plowed into an elderly couple’s car. The woman was critically injured, and the man died of a subsequent heart attack. This year, the glittering spectacle will travel from San Francisco to Beijing, with an overnight stop in warm-and-fuzzy North Korea. Think anyone will be able to get a shot of the Ryugyong Hotel? Get all the details in the press release after the jump.

Gumball 2008 press release from Max
19th February 2008

The dates and route of the “10th Anniversary” Gumball 3000 Rally are officially announced.

The
Gumball 2008 will take place in August this year starting in San
Francisco and finishing 8 days later in China at the Beijing Olympics.
Dates of the rally are August 9th-16th 2008.

Being the 10th
anniversary this route is nothing short of spectacular, and ground
breaking to say the least! Setting off from San Francisco, the Gumball
2008 route incorporates Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas, with
checkpoints each day and VIP parties each night. From Las Vegas all 120
vehicles (low-riders to supercars) will be flown on 3 of the worlds
largest Antonov Cargo Planes to Nanjing, China; and all participants
will get to experience an unprecedented 1 night in North Korea as part
of a global ‘friendship’ initiative, getting to watch the Mass Games
(their version of the Olympics) en route to rejoin their cars in
Nanjing. From Nanjing the Gumball 2008 route heads north to Shanghai
and then Xuzhou, before crossing the Gumball 2008 finish line in
Beijing during the Olympic Games.

Gumball 2008 entry fee is
£60.000 (90.000 euro or 120.000 dollars) per car (2 people) and of
course includes everything throughout the 8 days, incl. hotels,
parties, flying the cars around etc…and tickets to the Olympics.

The
clock is now counting down to the launch of Gumball’s completely new
website that goes live on April 1st. The new site will represent all
elements of the ‘Gumball 3000? lifestyle, incorporating a social
network to bring fans all over the world together, along with a user
generated videos section (so you can show us what you get up to), as
well as celebrity blogs, and a fully loaded store with the new Gumball
3000 Apparel Collection, and a Gumball Cars ‘for Sale’ section to
advertise your classic, super or daily run around to the masses!

Along
with daily news, and everything you’ll ever need to know about the
rally and everything automotive, the site will also cover everything
else that we love, including news and reviews on music, films, sports,
sneakers, street art and entertainment.

Maximillion Cooper