Wam Bam Thank You Mam

Last weekend, while some people were checking out the fancy cars at the Budapest Luxusauto Show I nipped down to the Four Seasons to welcome in the Gumball 3000 Rally Wacky Racers. Believe me, it really was a case of the wacky racers. The itinery for Gumball 3000 is to start in London and finish in Los Angeles. 120 cars driving 3,000 miles across 3 continents in just 8 days.

Read moreThe cars were outrageous. Either fantastically rare, expensive, vulgar or a combination of all three. The finest exotica must have been the Ferrari Enzo that caught everyone's attention. A new Rolls Royce Phantom* probably took the expensive crown. The crown jewels of vulgarity was fought over in a rabid mish-mash of rapid cars but I'd have to give it to the Bentley from New Zealand bedecked in ads for Satan's casion in NZ, with a skull as a radiator cap optional hood accessories of a gattling gun and a windscreen adorned with a huge black dildo.

The cars rolled in every few minutes to the entrance of the hotel, unpacked the little luggage they had (you can't fit much into a Lambo), revved the engines a bit for the crowds then zoomed off round the block to end up in the car park in front of the Akademia on Roosevelt tér. That car park was jam packed with amazing cars. I counted an Enzo, 3 McLaren SLRs, the new Bentley Continental Saloon, the new Aston Martin Vantage, a couple of Lamborghini Murciélago Roadsters, Ford GT40. Normal Ferrari 430s, Lambo Gallardos and Porsche 911s just paled in comparison.

The stars in their fantastically priced cars were also meant to be in town but I only caught sight of Bam Mergara & Ryan Dunn from Jackass / Viva La Bam on MTV, plus sk8trboy Tony Hawk. There were some other familiar faces that I couldn't identify but that's about it.

Notable events included:
- Couple of Hungarian mafioso-looking guys turned up in their mini convoy of Gallardo and Hummer but gettng turned away from the Gumball carpark
- Nice Hungarian Bentley Continental Coupe that seems to have been unlucky enough to smash the whole right-hand side of the car.
- Hungarian police car turning up and then getting chased around in front of the Chain Bridge by a Ford GT40
- Watching Tony Hawk get mobbed (security was very very relaxed at the beginning but they put up barriers after that)
- Letting fireworks off the top of the Satanish Bentley
- Racers chucking a bucket of water from their hotel room onto the Satanish Bentley drivers below
- Listening to the air-ripping sounds of those exhausts. Even the VW camper van with the souped up engine

Full list of drivers and cars

* According to the Gumball blog, the Phantom was written off on the route between Budapest and Belgrade. Shame.

Some more photos...







Enzo






Bentley


Carpark


















Mafioso


Bam & Ryan




Lambo Luggage




Satan's Bentley


VW Camper


Ultima GTR


Tastless




Lambos








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