Filed under: Etc.
Gumball may be headed to North Korea
After this year's snafus, the Gumball 3000 has come out with an ethos and a route for 2008 that is positively loaded for bear. The party on wheels is moving to the Far East via the American West. Not only is it going to have shorter stages to help reduce accidents, it's going to showcase alternative energies and be entirely carbon neutral, which includes factoring emissions from transport planes.
What's more, after kicking off in San Diego, LA, and Vegas, it's going to jump across the water to Shanghai. While the cars hang out in China, the entrants will be escorted to Pyongyang, North Korea, to see the "Mass Games" in a gold-plated stadium as guests of fearless leader Kim Jong Il. That's right, badass cars, badass parties, and badass dictators in one great big bang of a rally. After that, drivers will return to China to continue their opulent capitalist lives.
Oh, and you can be one of the lucky 100 entrants for the ridiculously low price of $120,000. Operators are standing by. We're all for supercars, parties, and high-speed runs (but not on public streets). However, we're starting to think that the whole Gumball thing is getting a little, um, bizarre.
[Source: Polizei 144]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Shawn 8:12AM (9/06/2007)
There is something disgusting about celebrating expensive sports cars in a country where people die of starvation on the streets...
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geo.stewart 8:34AM (9/06/2007)
gee, we have the same problems here in the US, though maybe not to the same scale. There is certainly more than enough money wasted here in the US on opulence and decadence that could instead be spent on training/ education for the jobless and homeless, medical research for the many diseases out there.
But alas, it is not up to us to spend other people's money or dictate how they should live their lives...
Shawn 9:05AM (9/06/2007)
geo.stewart, your answer amounts to apathy and indifference to equate the sufferings in PRK to the lives of people in most previleged country in the world.
Fabri91 9:31AM (9/06/2007)
Exactly what i think...
howard 10:07AM (9/06/2007)
Did none of you pick up on where this B.S. is going to be celebrated? IN A GOLD PLATED STADIUM! how's that for being hypocrtical! I know the ASIAN people, if they say GOLD PLATED that's exactly what they mean! Their people starving and they GOLD PLATE a stadium to impress people from around the world who don't give a damn about what the place is plated with as long as they can race!
geo.stewart 10:18AM (9/06/2007)
Dying of hunger is painful no matter what country you are in. Obviously, your ignorance of the poverty in this country shows how much you get from watching commercials if you dont think there are problems in this country.
Besides, no one in this country wants to go to war for an extended period of time to free the N Koreans from the oppressive regime, just look at the public outcry re: Iraq, so quit whining and help thiose in this country that need it.
Shawn 11:00AM (9/06/2007)
geo.stewart, once again you are equating the sufferings of North Koreans to Americans. At this point, you are just showing your complete lack of understand of what actual suffering is and what actual poverty is.
John R 8:14AM (9/06/2007)
Too bad they're not going to Japan to hit up the Wangan. That'd be intresting. The North Korea thing, however, that is bizarre.
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former WCLer 8:31AM (9/06/2007)
Does it remind anyone else of the scene from Team America where the members of the Film Actors Guild are special guests of Kim Jong Il?
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jg3 9:07AM (9/06/2007)
Shawn, you nailed it. And something doubly revolting that they are pretending to have a concern for the environment while partying with the NK oppressor. Disgusting indeed. We'll save energy! You can starve with the lights on!
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Jeff 9:07AM (9/06/2007)
Carbon Neutral?
Closed street runs? WTF
The Gumball is supposed to be about a bunch of rich guys who don't give a crap about anything except having fun. The ones I have seen... they run all over the place doing what they want, speeding, etc etc and it turns out to be pretty funny/cool.
Talking about being carbon neural and all that other foo foo stuff makes it sound like its nothing but a bunch of rich tree hugging hippies this year running this years.
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felipe 9:10AM (9/06/2007)
so this is for real?
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Johnny Rotten 9:16AM (9/06/2007)
Hey Shawn, Communism is alive and well (actually sick as a dog) in Cuba. Why don't you move there and stop whining about how successful people spend the money they have worked hard to earn. Or why don't you actually work hard instead of leaching off the successful.
And Jeff, I agree. Who cares about a carbon neutral gumball. What a waste. Nothing about sports cars is carbon neutral and nothing about them ever should be.
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Shawn 9:29AM (9/06/2007)
Johnny Rotten, I was criticizing a communist government. Why would I move to a communist country? Think before you write.
Rich and successful doesn't mean there aren't right and wrong. I know morality is a foreign concept to you, but if your parents couldn't get it through to you, I won't bother explaining it.
geo.stewart 10:24AM (9/06/2007)
Shawn, you are too advocating a communist or dictatorial regime, just one with different values than dictator Kim. You obviously believe you would be an elightened despot but a despot you would still be.
I think its a waste but I wouldnt want to live in a country where its not their right to waste it if they earned it, just like its my right to give to where I want rather than someone else decide for me.
Shawn 10:42AM (9/06/2007)
geo.stewart, you need to distinguish between someone who is verbally opposing the action of others vs. someone that unilaterally bans something.
I would be "advocating a communist or dictatorial regime" if I had suggested banning or punishing those involved.
When I merely point out how disgusting the very idea of this celebration, it is called protest speech. You know that very thing North Koreans are being executed for.
Dirk 10:36AM (9/06/2007)
This has potential for really bad happenings. If they get into some absurd accident, they are kinda screwed.
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Stoneman 10:43AM (9/06/2007)
Anyone who wears that shirt should live in DPRK for a year like those suffering under that idiot Kim Jong Il.
Are these (Gumball drivers) the same idiots that drive around in daddy's Supra TT's and wind up slamming it into telephone poles?
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TheChaz 11:45AM (9/06/2007)
These rallies are just circle-jerks for the rich. Say what you want about morally wrong or hypocritical -- though I don't disagree, how about BORING! I couldn't be less interested. At least Autoblog is more measured in their coverage, usually with just a post at the start and end. I avoid Jalopnik like the plague when one of these is going on, what with the incessant posting about every detail.
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iamhoff 12:14PM (9/06/2007)
I just want to know where I can get that T-shirt.
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