Oh the Gumball 3000… Being 29 years old and this being my 5th rally is quite an experience. Gumball always tests your mental ability and patience. The long drives, being cramped with others, and trying to get to each place can really put your brain in a fluster. This Gumball was more relaxing because of the car we took, but harder since there were 4 of us in 1 car. The New Orleans stop was great to see that the city was thriving again, but what a hell of a drive. Our Orlando checkpoint seemed to take days. So far in the rally we had no tickets. With the Blinder M45 laser jammers and Valetine 1 Radar Detector, we have been pretty protected. Matt was pulled over in Alabama as well as the crew from Monster. The officer simply wanted to know “what was going on” and then let us go. Later on in the day Dave Mirra took the wheel and as we cruised passed the Florida state line, he was knabbed for 83 in a 70. Poor guy!
We finally reached Orlando where we were greeted by some super fans. A couple even pointed out that they had been following us and the car by reading this blog, pretty cool! We reached the hotel at 11pm and went straight to bed as our wake up time was early to head to Miami. At 9am we were up and strapped into our cars were we filed out of the Ritz with a Police escort. As we broadcasted live, Jack ripped passed the single file line and took up in the top position behind our friend and customer in the yellow Lamborghini LP640. As we were cruising on the highway, we came into a construction zone. The speed limit was down to 50 but we were still motoring at 83mph. All of a sudden our laser jammers and radar detector went off and Jack locked up all 4 wheels going from 80mph to 40mph while the Lambo braked late. Pissing our pants laughing, poor ole John got pulled again.
We continued on through the massive speed traps until we reached our next checkpoint at the Palm Beach Raceway. This spot looked very familar and I soon realized this is the track I dominated on the 2007 Bullrun in my 996 turbo 🙂 We unloaded the car and Jack prepared to show the world what the 750Li could do on a road course. That was delayed when 1 of the Gumballers who lacked track experience locked up and slid nose first into the tire barrier hard! Luckily he was ok but the rental Aston Martin Vantage was not. After they cleaned up the incident, Jack hit the track and out ran several others in the 6000 pound tank. Doing the current track configuration in a 1:46.50, he out ran a Mercedes SL63 and E92 M3 while we laughed from the pit wall. One of our other customers was in his 997 Turbo cabriolet which we outfitted with the Agency Power exhaust, cold air intake, and VRTuned ECU flash went over to the drag strip and posted up against this “claimed” 800hp Nissan GT-R. Sorry buddy, but the Porsche smoked you. Ian and his co-driver ran a 11.3 1/4 mile time with our 630hp kit!
We packed up the car and made the final drive to our hotel here in Miami Beach. We had alot of fun, some fights, and some lessons to learn. Like all Gumball rally events, I say I am retiring, but who knows. Next year is from London to New York so it could be interesting. We hope you enjoyed our gallery of images, videos, and stories. We will have more videos posted up next week as well. Thank you to all that supported Vivid Racing for the rally, used our luggage service, and took the opportunity to get to know us.
To see all our pictures, go to www.vividracing.com/forums/gallery/browseimages.php?c=422 and watch our videos at www.youtube.com/vividracing. If you are interested in running the 2010 Gumball 3000 Rally, visit www.vividracing.com/gumball3000 for more information!
