Last night i went with Alexander (ALX355GT) to the first checkpoint at the 'chateau d'Acoz' in Belgium! It was very very crowded and it was a little bit of a chaos actually! Gumballers getting stuck in traffic between spectators and fans! An unbelievable sight!!! There we were, first in the middle of nowhere (the road to the castle is some deserted countyroad) and then suddenly thousands of spectators on the road blocking everything! We decide to park the car (Alex his nice Alfa!!! ) and go further by foot! Then we hear some engine reving!! My ears say 355,.... i was right!! A red 355 Spider (top down ) tries to find his way between the crowd and cars! After a few kms we arrive at the chateau, even more spectators here!! On our way we pass several other gumballers, lots of Porsches, Bentleys, SLR, a funny Volkwagen bus of the 60's,... We walked a bit around the domain of the chateau and we saw some more nice cars!! Also 2 Belgiam participants with a 355 Berlinetta and a Subaru WRX! Most of the Gumballers left the checkpoint fairly quickly after some food and drinks! They left the castle via the back, this was some very small and steep forrestroad! Two red British 360 Spiders left together and raced away on this road between the trees!! Crazy!!!! But this way they escaped to have to drive through all the crowd standing outside and losing precious time!! After walking around some more we decided to walk back to the car and have some driving in the neighbourhood so maybe we could spot some more cars 'on the way'! In the mean time it was almost 4 AM in the morning so we decided to drive back home! It was a pretty long trip for us! We drove straight to Antwerp where my car was parked! Had some (gumball)fun myself on the way to my home afterwards! Some Boxster owner really thought he was faster then An S2000! wrong thinking!!! Came home at 6 AM, top down and i really think it was a great evening out!!! Something else then the usual partying!! I made some pics but they really are bad quality (dark outside and too much crowd) and can't post here!! But if you search the net you'll find hundreds of nice pics from the start in London, Belgium,... BTW: Alex, remember that ice cream van we passed on our way home?? (around brussels??) It really was a Gumballer!!!! Take a look at the pics in this link http://forums.gumball3000.com/viewtopic.php?t=122 Someone took the wrong road there!!! LOL CIAO Guy
Yeah, crazy and funny night indeed! NUTS! I really never expected that much people in that small village! That castle made a very nice location BTW! Really nice cars and insane people we saw Too bad we didn't spot an Enzo though... but still a very funny experience to feel and witness the Gumball-madness! Really funny license plates on some cars!!! Let's hope the rest of their trip will be accident-free! I'm really glad that we decided to take a look in Acoz, will never forget that little place, they will most likely not see cars like these passing by there everyday! What a chaos! On the news they said there were 15.000 people watching the show there!!! Police was there in full force too, with heli's and everything!!! Thanks for the compliment on the Alfa too Hehehe... so that ice cream van was Gumball-related after all That site says that Q.Tarantino was the driver!!! Very strange route to drive to Prague this way IMO! Maybe he really wanted to visit Antwerp once! LOL I'll watch out for more updates of the race... eh sorry rally , the next days! So you had some fun on the way home too Thanks for the company on this crazy night and CU in two weeks for SpaItalia Guy!
Yeah in real life it was pretty obvious that it's a fake!! Do you know if the engine is still original Steve? I saw the car at the castle, it sounded original but you never know! I'm not the biggest fan of these conversions! Unless it's a perfect one with a matching engine,... BTW: ain't the gumball something for you Steve? You've got two great toys to choose from! Guy
Some pics from the underground parking in London! http://board.ultimaterally.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1205
Hi mate, the engine is stock, Tris races it in the ferrari series over in englad with the owners club, he has another 308 too which is original. This one is his play thing . As for me doing the gumball, was infact supposed to do it this year but thats a long long story
Me too Hope nothing serious happened?? Life is too short!! Enjoy it!! If i had enough money to burn, i would join this ****ing crazy Rally!!
There's a video on zattevrienden.be that I am watching right now. For the Belgians: Telefacts tonight
Like I said in Acoz Guy... if you need a co-driver in the S2000 in next year's Gumball! Hehe... Some pics of the arrival of the cars at the castle of Acoz... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
ah, all to do with a mate who was supposed to be doing the press coverage for max, we were supposed to be doing the driving whilst he was taking photo's/coverage then his wife fell pregnant and it all went to pot
Hehe.... you happen to have 15.000 Euros to burn?? Then we're in!!! I'll pay for fuel and speeding tickets! Not that i was planning on speeding but you never know! I don't have some alarm in my car which warns me if i'm going over 130, eh Alex!!! (inside joke!) I really think it's too expensive! But they have to keep it that expensive otherwise there would be thousands of people who would take part!! Especially when you look at all the Gumball fans who show up at the checkpoints!! Unbelievable how popular it is, even in this small country like Belgium!!
