This Ridiculously Expensive Car Crash Was Pure Chaos
What do you get if you combine fast cars, a speedy lifestyle, and an annual gathering of motorheads piloting the most exotic, most potent, and loudest vehicles on the planet? If you answered "chaos," you're right on the money, but the Gumball 3000 is more than just a rich-people car meet. Established by British entrepreneur Maximillion Cooper in 1999, the Gumball 3000 is an epic rally event that takes "thousands of supercars and entrants on an epic journey across the globe." It's also one of the greatest bucket list experiences possible behind the wheel, with every rally event "touching down on every continent." In short, if you love cars and have a seven, eight, or nine-figure bank account, you wouldn't miss the Gumball 3000 for anything the car world offers.
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Organizers of the Gumball 3000 also call it "the world's maddest, fastest, and most eccentric" gathering of supercar owners. But if you combine "eccentricity" and "madness" with hyper-fast cars, the results are typically unpleasant — or fatal. In 2007, organizers canceled the Bratislava Gumball 3000 rally after two British drivers (in a Porsche 911) crashed into a non-participating vintage VW Golf with two seniors inside the car (as per The Guardian). The sadder news is the 67-year-old driver died of a heart attack in hospital, prompting the Gumball 3000 founder to cancel the race. "This is the first time anything like this happened in nine years of traveling through over 40 countries with thousands of drivers, and it is with deep regret that I make this announcement," said Cooper in The Guardian report.
Destination: Atlanta 2022
The 22nd annual Gumball 3000 Rally commenced on May 27, 2002, in Toronto, Canada, and the event landed on May 28 in Indianapolis for the Indy 500. The group headed to Nashville on May 30 and made a stop in Atlanta by May 31, and this is where things got more interesting. According to a video making rounds on Instagram, an incident occurred between three exotic supercars in Atlantic Station, Georgia, just a stone's throw away from Atlanta. The skirmish involved a blue McLaren 570S, a BMW i8, and a white Lamborghini Aventador SV.
The video shows the blue McLaren gunning between the white Lambo and the poor BMW i8, with the McLaren partially going airborne during its partial lapse of judgment. Expectedly, the mishap could amount to eye-watering million-dollar repair bills, but the Instagram video only tells a part of the story. A YouTube video shows what happened to the three cars before the McLaren 570S spoilt the fun. It shows the McLaren swerving to the left lane to avoid a Kia Soul in the middle road.
You'll also notice the white Lambo veering to the middle lane as the McLaren was about to make a pass. Nevertheless, accidents like these are fair game in the Gumball 3000. According to Fox Sports, it didn't take long for the 18th Gumball 3000 in Dublin, Ireland, to claim its first retirement when a Gumpert Apollo "spun over a puddle and crashed into a tree" on the way to Scotland.
Accidents are inevitable when you're piloting a supercar on public roads. Knowing how to react when your exotic hypercar starts veering unexpectedly to the opposite lane should be a prerequisite. The lesson behind these incidents? Don't be so preoccupied with the fact that you can that you don't consider whether you should. If you have the means to purchase a hyper-exotic fast car, you should also do the global auto community a favor by enrolling in performance driving classes, at the very least.