FRANK 40: Gumball 3000

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THE STARTING GRID MR. GUMBALL UNDER THE HOOD SHEIKH MOE ¡BUENAS BUENAS! SUPERCARS FOUR-WHEEL WARRIOR GLORY BOUND SA COAST TO COAST PINK AND GREEN ’BALLER IN BLACK

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Mike and Stephen Malbon Sir Frank Maximillion Cooper Frank Green Adam Pasulka J. Nicely Dan Tochterman Craig Wetherby Anton Schlesinger Thomas Bongiorno Nicholas Acemoglu Travis Simon Leon Chew Eli Dvorkin Julie Brangstrup, Dan Anslow, Adam Barker, Ricky Bowry, Julian Broad, Tim Brodhagen, Jonathan Bushell, Caitlin Collins, Matt Comer, Ray Cunningham, Mohammad Dagman, Sebastian Demian, David Engel, Ruben Fleischer, Fly, James Franklin, Jonathan Glynn-Smith, J Goodwin III, Simon Gray, Gerry Grey, Rob Heathcote, Fredericke Helwig, Christian Hinestrosa, Sesama Lokerman, Erica Luciano, Jason MacLean, Fiona Mcleod, Estevan Oriol, Max Perlich, Claye Ranewater, Will Robson-Scott, Dustin Ross, Johan Rousselot, Brian Scotto, Tango, Michael Tomlinson, Rich Van Every, Nicole Velasco, Lawrence Weyman-Jones Vanessa Bermudez, Caitlin Diaz, Khaled Elsayed, Sage Hazarika

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Photo Rich Van Every

Words Frank Green What’s the last really exciting road trip you took? These days, cars mostly help people get from point A (usually home) to point B (probably work) and back. And if you do decide to saddle up the sedan and take a vacation, chances are the sedan is uncomfortable as hell and barely does 70 MPH. It’s refreshing to know there exists a brand that is dedicated to making driving—and road tripping—an awesome experience. Founded in 1999 by Maximillion Cooper, Gumball 3000 is an annual car rally that spans 3,000 miles, seven days, and often several countries. Partly inspired by the 1981 movie The Cannonball Run, Gumball 3000 attracts drivers as famous and eclectic as the film’s cast. Notable participants include Tony Hawk, David Hasselhoff, Daryl Hannah, Dennis Rodman, Hugh Hefner, Travis Barker, Johnny Knoxville, and Xzibit, all riding alongside Fortune 500 CEOs, Sheikhs, and everyday rally and car enthusiasts.

The cars driven on the rally are just as interesting as their drivers. From a 1963 VW Campervan, to a Bugatti Veyron, to a 2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom, Gumball 3000 is more than a rally—it’s a moving museum.

Though most of the cars go from zero to 60 faster than you can get your keys out of your pocket, the Gumball 3000 is not a race. (Top prize—the Spirit award—isn’t handed out for the best time, but given to the driver who has the

most fun and shows the most character.) Participants attend blowout parties throughout the route that even the most die-hard drivers wouldn’t rush through.

These include major live concerts that are often open to the public. Top-tier accommodations are also planned into each leg of the rally—anyone who’s tried to pack a tent into a 1969 Lola T70 MKIII will understand why.

Started by Cooper as an exclusive event for him and 50 of his most eccentric friends, Gumball 3000 has become a global lifestyle brand, drawing rally-hungry fans at every checkpoint, no matter the continent. Though the rally has grown exponentially over the last decade, Cooper still serves as “host” and creative director of the Gumball empire, working alongside Julie Brangstrup, London’s toughest businesswoman.

For those of you who will never get to steer a Ferrari Enzo up to the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai while Burt Reynolds naps in the back seat, the following pages will provide you with at least a peek into life on the world-famous Gumball 3000.

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Photos Fiona Mcleod

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Photo Michael Tomlinson

Interview Adam Barker

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By his mid-20s, Maximillion Cooper’s resumé read like a collection of “When I Grow Up...” essays. At an age when most people are deciding on a career, Max’s titles already included race-car driver, fashion model, academic, fashion designer, socialite, skater, and BMX rider.

People are curious to know how something like the Gumball came to be. If you know Max, it’s apparent that the Gumball is a natural extension of his passions and talents.

Frank151: Rewinding the clock, where was the first spark of the idea for Gumball 3000?

Maximillion Cooper: My background from a child up was artistic. My father is an abstract painter, a sculptor, and a musician, so everything that I’ve grown up with has been creative.

When I got to 18 years old I learned to race cars, but I was coming to the car industry with the background of the traditional art world and the skate world mixed in. I raced right at the bottom of the ladder in what’s called Formula Ford, Formula Vauxhall Junior, and Formula Lotus, and then up the ranks into racing sports cars for Porsche and then in the McLaren GT car.

By my mid-20s I had experienced quite a few different passions of mine at quite a significant level, be it the action-sports world, music, and even the academic world. I found myself at 25 years old knowing this great, eclectic mix of people, many of them successful in their own walks of life. I really wanted to create something that could incorporate and enthuse all of them.

A long, long story short, I tried in my final year of doing a law degree to buy a racing team. And when I say “buy,” it was a bit grand, because I didn’t have any money. I basically got the wallets of a few friends of mine who were the team owners of race teams I was driving for, and these guys loved my concept: to create the most rock ‘n’

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roll racing team. For those of you who don’t know, Formula 1 entails racing two cars, 16…17 races a year, around the world, and it pretty much costs you in excess of $100 million to do that, one season. One of the guys that was backing me gave me an amount of money to bid up to, which was about £15 million—$30 million at the time—to take over an existing team. I found myself in a room trying to buy it, negotiating with the team owner, and we nearly did a deal. Then at the very last second, just days before we actually did the deal, British American Tobacco—Lucky Strike cigarettes—came in with a better offer. That ambition got stumped a little bit there and then. But at the same time it made me realize, if I get the right people in a room together, particularly some of these very well-connected friends, then I can create something that incorporates all of my passions.

Then I thought: There’s probably nothing better than showing them a great time, and if they enjoy an experience that I give them, of course they’ll support any ideas or plans or visions that I have. It extended into a rolling party for five days, and a 3,000-mile route around Europe evolved and transpired into the first rally. We haven’t gone too far off that track in ten years, really. But back then it was nothing more than that. There was no plan for the rally to become an annual thing.

I ran the first Gumball from my little one-bedroom flat in Notting Hill. One

Photo Playboy

telephone, not even a computer, I hand wrote letters or called friends and invited them. The first rally took place in April ’99. Fifty-five cars— mostly two-seaters—so 110 people approximately, and they didn’t really know what they were getting themselves into. I charged them a minimal entrance fee, ’cause it was friends and it was hard to charge anything, but I needed some money in the bank to put this on. I think we did an entrance fee of £3,000 per car. So it was like a pound a mile.

by me telling them it was going to be party after party. But I’d broken them with party, party, party, and drive, and get lost, and break down, and a whole ordeal in a very short period of time.

I’d taken these wealthy, successful individuals—most of them—and switched their world around a little bit.

To get them in the same room together was incredibly difficult, especially when you’re dealing with film stars and supermodels and rock stars who have their own busy schedules and agendas.

F151: Where did the name “Gumball” come from?

MC: “Gumball” sounded really fun, more than anything. Back then, the thinking was still to have a race team taking part in Formula 1. Cars in the lineup would be: McLaren, Mercedes, BMW, Ferrari…and Gumball 3000. It would stand out completely as, not only probably the underdog, but the outsiders in every way.

The first rally had an impact because it was challenging. It was hardcore endurance. People had been seduced

Andy Warhol used the word “Gumball” a little bit in the ’80s. The term was used for popular culture, for chewing

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Photo Jonathan Bushell

it up and spitting it out. Something that comes and goes.

The “3000” came about because this first route we plotted out around Europe came to 3,000 miles, almost to the mile. It kept it generic and ambiguous enough that you could put that name to anything. It could be a clothing brand, it could be an airline, it could be a mobile-phone company, it could be whatever you wanted.

F151: Talk about your emotions on the first day of each rally, when the drivers show up to register.

MC: Every year when the drivers start appearing and the cars show up at the front, you start to get those tingles.

The adrenaline starts flowing. You realize how excited everyone is and how into it the drivers are—how much effort they’ve spent preparing for this. Some have traveled halfway around the world just to get to it. So it’s great seeing the sheer enthusiasm. It evokes some kind of childhood emotion. People are genuinely excited, like kids.

F151: Gumballers are all such individuals, but on the rally everyone gets along so well. How does that work?

MC: People arrive from wherever they are around the world and are thrown into this circus-like event.

Looking around that room, it’s full of jokers and clowns and rock stars. To find your own and get to know a few people you’ve got to get out on the road. You find that after two or three days, if you’ve driven with a pack of several cars, you start to get to know people. And then the parties at night.

You might bump into them again, and hopefully by the end of the week you’ve met most people. Even if you haven’t, when we do these reunions later in the year or the post-rally gettogethers that drivers organize, you’ll

find that even if they didn’t bond during the rally, great friendships are made and quite often kept for many years. I think two or three weddings and even a couple Gumball children have come out of it. That shows what kind of bonding goes on.

F151: Talk about what it takes to get onto the Gumball. Is it true that you only accept one out of ten applications?

MC: It’s not even one out of ten applications. We have an empty entry grid at the start of every year—120 places.

Car-wise that’s what it’s limited to. I’ve found that’s the optimum number of cars to be a big-enough impact in a city and small enough, in many ways, that the group can bond and get to know each other.

We’ve got the ingredients down. On the entry grid, before we’ve even accepted any entries, we’ve split those 120 cars up into groups of ten. Like, we want ten American muscle cars, we want ten out-and-out supercars, we want ten wacky racers, we want ten luxury cars. Similarly, you don’t want 120 entries that are all from the financial world—people who have all made their money in banking or hedge funds or whatever. What makes it work is we say, “Let’s have 20 cars that are action sports, 20 of traditional money, 20 of eccentric characters….” There’s also the Gumball alumni. The Gumball veterans who have taken part in the rally over the years are part of an exclusive group now. So we want people coming back for more. To control that, 60 cars on the grid are people who have done the rally before, and 60 are new.

It keeps new blood and new characters coming in and it keeps us evolving. But at the same time, there is an annual reunion for friends. That helps add an exclusive element.

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Photo Michael Tomlinson

Interview Sesama Lokerman Expensive automobiles are nice to look at, but you don’t have to be a gearhead to know aesthetics aren’t everything.

If Maximillion Cooper’s contribution to the Gumball 3000 can be compared to the mirror chrome on a Lamborghini Gallardo, Julie Brangstrup is most definitely the 5.2L V10 under the hood. We spoke to her about just how much work goes into making each rally a reality.

Frank151: Who is responsible for planning each rally?

Julie Brangstrup: My team and I do the logistical side of the event and all of the planning and permissions that we need—i.e. car displays, street closures, entertainment licenses, hotels, landing permissions, plane schedules—for the cars and the participants.

Forming a partnership and working with the governments and city officials is the most crucial part of the planning. Maximillion comes up with the ideas and routes for each year’s rally, and his team does the creative side of the event, i.e the parties, music, making films, designing apparel, and all artwork that’s needed for the event, including the presentations that I need for government meetings.

F151: How far in advance is each rally planned?

JB: Approximately a year in advance.

F151: How many times do you drive the route before the official rally

begins? What do you do throughout the dry runs?

JB: I visit each city individually and will then drive the route from start to finish at least three times to time the distance and map out an exact route, as well as meet all relevant parties in each city, as Gumball 3000 works with over 100 different companies worldwide.

F151: On average, how many contestants participate in the rally?

JB: We aim to have 120 cars participating in each rally. However, when we do an intercontinental rally, like 2010’s route, we may have a few extra participants who do either the Euro leg or the US leg, so the number does vary a bit.

F151: Is each rally exactly 3,000 miles?

JB: Yes, give or take a few miles.

Sometimes it’s more when drivers decide to get lost, which happens a lot.

F151: Do you need special permissions

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Photo Rich Van Every

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Photo Rich Van Every

or permits from cities and countries to take the rally across their borders?

How do these negotiations work?

JB: Everywhere we go permission is needed, not only for closing streets for our displays, but also for simply driving through a country. We do this by making contact with the mayor’s office, governor’s...basically whatever we can do to get the best partnership and the best result for the event.

F151: How do you go about choosing and booking hotels at each stop?

JB: We research all five-star hotels and then shortlist the top five. I will then go and do a site inspection and choose which hotel is best for the event based on service, location, company, and where we can display our cars. They are always well-known hotels, as you can’t beat a hotel with a good reputation!

For me, this is the best part about planning the event—the political elements and learning about the many different ways each country deals with their politics and, sadly, their egos, etcetera. It’s an opportunity for me to explain what we are trying to achieve and to show them that we will work with them to ensure public safety and a successful event for all parties involved.

F151: Is it a concern that some of the cars entered in the rally will not be street legal?

JB: We do not enter any cars that are not street legal. All cars that enter the rally are processed and road worthy.

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F151: What happens if someone gets arrested or into legal trouble during the rally? Are they on their own?

JB: If someone is arrested, which obviously is very unattractive for me

Photo Fredericke Helwig

and our brand, then it’s up to them to sort themselves out. If they choose to speed, then that is their own decision, but they’re forewarned before they do the rally that if they speed or behave badly then they are on their own.

F151: When the rally goes intercontinental, what kind of planes are used to transport the cars?

JB: We use Antonov 225 or Boeing 747 cargo planes. We charter these planes privately to travel to any airport in the world. It gives us the possibility to take our participants on much more creative and amazing routes that they probably wouldn’t go to on their own.

It takes approximately 150 ground staff and ten hours to load these cars, and a lot of permission and paperwork, but it’s worth the hard work. This is a very important logistical element of the rally and takes a lot of planning. If some-

thing very small goes wrong it can result in the entire rally being delayed, and then the nightmare starts. But hey, everything in life is a challenge, and I quite like that!

F151: Is there anything else we should know about the work that goes into making each Gumball 3000 happen?

JB: Each rally employs roughly 100 staff at each stop to ensure that the event runs smoothly. We have 30 key crew and 15 full-time Gumball staff who travel with the drivers in “crew vehicles,” who are the driving force behind the execution of this event.

Without them, the rally wouldn’t happen!

Besides that, the rest of what happens behind the scenes should stay behind the scenes!

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Photo Rich Van Every

Interview Mohammad Dagman Sheikh Mohammad Al Thani, known to his friends and fans as Sheikh Moe, is a member of the royal family in al-Sharjah, one of the principalities that compose the United Arab Emirates, a country known for its car culture.

Not only is Sheikh Moe driving in the 2010 Gumball 3000, he will do it for the second time dressed as Sheik Abdul Bin Falafel, a character from the 1981 film The Cannonball Run. He will also “Sheikh” people again this year, a term he explained when we talked with him.

Frank151: Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself, about your love of cars, and how you ended up doing Gumball?

Sheikh Moe: Supercars have been a passion of mine since I was a kid. I met Max and Julie at one of the rallies back in Dubai and they told me about Gumball. I had heard a lot about Gumball but I never knew how to actually register. But when I met them, I asked about the routes and everything and then I signed up straightaway.

F151: What year was this?

SM: 2009.

F151: I saw that you race as a team, “Moe ‘n’ Matt.” Who is Matt?

SM: Our team was me, Matt, and also Mothman. We’ve been friends for the past 15 years, all three of us.

We love cars and we also love movies as well, so when we did Gumball the first thing we decided to do was to do it in a white Rolls-Royce, just like in the movie The Cannonball Run. I

don’t know if you’ve seen the movie, but we imitated Sheik Abdul Bin Falafel throughout the whole rally.

F151: I am a big fan of that movie, and I saw that your plans for this year, also, are to race as Sheik Abdul Bin Falafel.

Is that true?

SM: That is true. There is a big chance we will do it the same. However, we will do it with a twist.

F151: Do you want to tell us about the twist, or no?

SM: I think we will leave it for a surprise, for the starting grid. But there is a big chance we will not be doing it in the Rolls-Royce again.

F151: Do you wanna tell us about what car you want to do it in, or is that also a surprise?

SM: Yeah, that’s the twist. Last year we got a lot of fans during the rally, and we got a lot of emails from people wanting us to do it again as Sheik Abdul Bin Falafel, so we said, “We’ll do it again.” But we don’t like repeating ourselves every year, you know? If we

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Photos Fly

do it every year, the same thing, it gets boring. So we decided to change it a little bit and basically spice it up.

F151: I saw that you guys have a term, “You’ve been Sheikhed.”

SM: Well, it started out as a joke. We asked people questions about the Middle East, our region, and if they answered it right—or wrong—we’d give them a bracelet and tell them the right answer. Ninety percent of the time it was the wrong answer. Basically we tell them, “Name five countries in the Middle East.” Out of the five they would mention four that were not in the Middle East, and then one Middle Eastern country, which is Iraq. We ask people, “Where is the Middle East on a map?” Some people say somewhere in China, some people say Europe, which is very funny. Also, if we don’t ask them a question, we ask them to perform something, like a small dare, and if they do it, they get Sheikhed.

F151: Who are the most famous people you guys have Sheikhed?

SM: Basically, we Sheikhed all of Gumball—Dennis Rodman, Gretchen Rossi, Tony Hawk....

F151: I noticed you guys do this thing called the Arab Run. What is it?

SM: That’s where I met Max and Julie, on the Arab Run. Basically they do it across the UAE, a one-day event.

Sort of a mini Gumball.

F151: And who participates in it?

SM: Many Gumballers who live here, plus many new people. That’s why it’s a nice way for people to open up and learn more about Gumball.

F151: I heard you’re something of a thrill seeker.

SM: Last Gumball, on the last day, we went skydiving. After skydiving, I think we all lost a chip in our brain. We became adrenaline junkies. Since then

we’ve done five or six trips. We went to the Himalayas. We went to the Everest base camp. It was a very nice experience. Two weeks of very hard work, but it was worth it. Then we decided to go to Kilimanjaro, which is next month, and we’re trying to raise the Gumball flag at the top of Kilimanjaro.

F151: I see that you took a lot of photos on the rally.

SM: It’s a hobby of mine.

F151: I was looking at the pictures of the inside of your car, and I saw lots of gadgets. Are you into electronics?

SM: We were very well equipped, but we ended up getting caught by the police twice every day. So all these electronics didn’t help us.

F151: Do you have any funny stories involving the police?

SM: Yeah, we Sheikhed at least four or five cops.

F151: Did any of the cops wonder who you were?

SM: Yeah, they see us wearing this and they have two choices: either give us a ticket, or take a picture with us.

Most of them decided to take a picture. We also Sheikhed a judge.

F151: Where?

SM: In Texas, at the courthouse.

We were speeding a little bit. A cop tagged us at about 114 miles [per hour], if I’m not mistaken. The police stopped us and made us follow them one hour back to the courthouse. We said, “Give us the ticket. We’ll pay you here.” He said, “No way. You have to go back to the courthouse and pay.”

So we drove all the way to the courthouse, went in front of the judge, and pled guilty, of course. She gave us a ticket and we had to pay in front of her. Then we Sheikhed her, took a picture with her, and left [laughs]. www.moenmatt.com

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Interview Francisco Verde The following interview is nothing short of riveting, but to truly understand the Cuban Brothers, they must be experienced. Their live show is a whirlwind of percussion, spray tans, classic b-boy dance, barroom humor, velour, and—too often—male genitalia.

When I spoke to Cuban Brothers frontman Mike Keat—better known as Miguel Mantovani—I was surprised by his thick Scottish accent. While Mike’s Cuban ancestry might be up for debate, there’s no questioning that he is a natural-born entertainer.

Frank151: For those who don’t know, who are the Cuban Brothers?

Mike Keat: It’s a loose thing that started about 12 or 13 years ago. It’s a band of cats, Miguel Mantovani being the head honcho. I thought of this character who had a bit of a dark past. He worked in the pornography industry for a long time. He got out of the porn industry, had his own daytime TV show in Cuba, and after living in the States for a wee while, back in Cuba he decided to put a band together using his nephew, his brother, and his son. So the Cubans cover a wee bit of everything. It’s a band that does comedy, that also b-boys.

F151: Where did you come up with the concept?

MK: I always had a bit of a fascination with substandard entertainers. I liked those cabaret sort of dudes. My dad was a publican, so I grew up in these venues as well, and I’ve seen the most substandard of performers. I actually

thought the shittier they were, the more entertaining it was for me. Then I also fell in love with Latin culture. I’m half-Scottish, half-Maori, believe it or not. I’ve got some Polynesian blood and shit, so I grew up in New Zealand and Scotland. I don’t know where this Latin thing came from, but I just love the latin music—salsa and rumba and stuff. I always loved the idea of this Cuban character who had fancied himself as an impresario and a little bit of a ladies’ man, when really he was just a bit of a wrong guy who had some skills but not as much as he thought he did.

I grew up in that sort of jump-up party vibe of the late ’80s. People talk about the Golden Era of hip-hop, acid-house culture, whatever you want to call that.

I just wanted to do that as well.

When I first started, I used to DJ. I would dress up as Miguel and play the

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character. I would accompany myself on percussion—congas, timbales—tell a few stories, do a bit of b-boyin’ and a bit of lockin’, jump on the mic and freestyle over instrumental bits, and sing. It was just a way for me to flex a wee bit.

F151: How did you link up with the other Cubans?

MK: Archie, who plays this character very imaginatively named Archerio, was a b-boy who has been dancing for like 28 years now. He was a firstgeneration b-boy, as far as being a Scottish b-boy goes. He was like UK Rock Steady. I battled him in a club one night in Edinburgh, about 12…13 years ago. At that time he was one of The Prodigy’s dancers, so he was on tour with them. It was just a really heavy battle and it was dope. I had enough flair, but didn’t have enough moves, so he wiped the floor with me effectively. You know that saying, “If you can’t beat ’em, then get them to join you.” I was on that one. So I was like, “Listen, guy. I do this little show.

You wanna come down and represent with me?” It was one of those things where a week later he was performing with me, and a week after that we had a full show together.

Kengo, who plays my son, he’s a young Japanese cat. He was one of my students—we used to teach back in the day. He came to learn street dance—b-boyin’ and stuff. He’s now an extraordinary dancer. He does all styles. It’s that thing where the student becomes the master, if you like.

Our DJ is a cat that I’ve just known.

We’ve always done music together and always been really into music.

That’s Russ, who plays this cat Clemente. He’s always been down with music and down with swapping edits and mixes and stuff like that, so he just

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(From top left) Kengo, Miguel, Clemente, and Archerio.

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Photo Michael Tomlinson

made perfect sense as our resident guy, as our man who takes care of the beats.

F151: So, I gotta ask, how’s your Spanish?

MK: My Spanish is OK. [As Miguel Mantovani] “It’s no problem, cabrón!”

But I mean, it’s OK. Hablar...it’s OK. Entender…no problem. It’s not great, I’ll be honest with you, considering I’ve been doing this for a long time. It should be a lot better. I lived in Ibiza for some time, for three years. I lived in Panama for a time.

[Laughs] So it should be a lot better, man. I get by. I’ve just been in Cuba last week, and so I get by on the street, but you know, really, it should be a lot better. It’s kind of a bit…I’ve let myself down on a few occasions [laughs].

I’ve got enough to get me some drinks, some comida, some drogas….

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I’ve got enough to keep me out of trouble!

F151: How did you come to meet Max and get involved with the Gumball?

MK: I think about nine or ten years ago Max had approached us to do a party for him in London. I wasn’t particularly into cars or anything. I still don’t drive, really. I can drive, I just don’t hold a license and shit. I loved the idea of the Gumball and the actual pirate factor of it. A lot of cats call me a contemporary pirate. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but I love that piracy idea. The adventure factor of just, “Bang. For the next six days, it’s on, and we don’t know what’s gonna happen, but let’s fucking make it happen.”

It appealed to me first of all to perform at that kind of event. It was a great lineup. Jamiroquai was playing, us, Jocelyn Brown—she’s one of my favorites. From that we got invited

Photo J Goodwin III

to go on the third Gumball, I think it was, and it’s been a bit of a love affair since then.

Jags. The sports-sports cars are not really my thing. That’s a bit too flashy. I like more the classic shit.

It’s one of those events in the annual calendar that you can’t miss, man.

I’ve still got a sty in my eye from the year before last. That was where we finished up in Beijing, and we were in North Korea.

F151: It’s a trophy.

MK: Yeah.

F151: Are you guys going to be driving again this year?

MK: I think so, yeah. I don’t know if we’re gonna do London to New York.

I think we might do the European leg, but I’ve got a new album coming out called The Finding. I’m putting it out not as the Cuban Brothers, but as The CBs, because this one is more of a serious soul, funk, hip-hop album, whereas the Cubans are still rocking, but this is a different project. That comes out in a couple months, so I’ve gotta tour that album. I think we might do the European leg, but listen… when it comes down to it, you’ll probably see me in New York. It’s one of those things. What I’ve found is, I can’t start it and not finish it.

F151: What cars do you guys drive?

Do you switch it up every year?

MK: We switch it up every year, yeah.

We had an old [Rolls-Royce] Corniche convertible years ago. I’ve been rocking different cars—a Ferrari last year.

But we always have a carthorse car, like a big Range Rover, and then something a bit tastier. So we had a little Porsche, and we were in a Jag the year before last. I like those shits.

I’m all about the Aston Martins and the

www.thecubanbrothers.com

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Photo James Franklin

Words Maximillion Cooper Most owners treat their supercars in an unbefitting manner, mothballing them in air-conditioned garages and bringing them out on sunny days to display like museum pieces. Gumballers, however, put their supercars to good use—Gumballers actually drive them!

These are my top ten favorite supercars that we’ve had on the grid over the years, but it is by no means a definitive list.

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Photo David Engel

2007 Bugatti Veyron Price: $1.7 million Top Speed: 252 MPH 2007 was undoubtedly the year of the Veyron. Six were initially entered, but following the factory’s inability to deliver in time, only three made it onto the starting grid. Watching this $1.7 million supercar tackle dirt-track roads like a “rally car” in pouring rain through Albania was something we never expect to see again.

Photo Rich Van Every

The Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 is the most recent version of a mid-engined full-sized Grand Tourer, developed by Volkswagen and produced by the VW brand Bugatti at their headquarters in France. It’s named after French racing driver Pierre Veyron, who won the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 1939. It was named “Car of the Decade” by the BBC television program Top Gear.

2003 Ferrari Enzo Price: $800,000 Top Speed: 221 MPH After being unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in 2003, the same Enzo used in the show was flown from Italy to California to be driven by Demi Moore in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. It’s been on the Gumball entry grid every year since!

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Photo Rich Van Every

1993 Jaguar XJ220S Price: $650,000 Top Speed: 217 MPH The Jaguar XJ220 is a mid-engined sports car produced in collaboration with Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) and Jaguar Sport between 1992 and 1994. It held the record for the highest top speed of a production car (350 KMH, 217 MPH) until the arrival of the McLaren F1 in 1994.

Photo Dustin Ross

This “tooled up” XJ220S is one of only six road-going TWR “Specials” and belongs to Gumball founder Maximillion Cooper. The first XJ220s were delivered to Elton John and the Sultan of Brunei at a cost of $650,000.

2007 SSC Aero TT Price: $654,400 Top Speed: 256 MPH The SSC Ultimate Aero TT is an American-built mid-engine supercar from Shelby Super Cars, and is officially the fastest production car in the world, with a recorded speed of 256 MPH (411.99 KMH). This speed was achieved during tests on September 13, 2007 in West Richland, Washington and verified by Guinness World Records.

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Photo Leon Chew Photo Dan Anslow

2003 Koenigsegg CC8 Price: $800,000 Top Speed: 242 MPH In 2003, nothing compared to this Swedish supercar. Entered into the Gumball by a young and incredibly successful entrepreneur, he had three of them shipped to the San Francisco starting line, as he couldn’t decide beforehand which color to use. Finally opting for fighter-plane flat gray, this rocket actually clocked 242 MPH on a Texas freeway, only to be pulled over by the local sheriff to record the highest Texas speeding fine ever! After paying the fine, he got straight back in the saddle and did it all over again.

2005 MB Roadcars MBR V8 “EOS” Price: $600,000 Top Speed: 198 MPH Unveiled in 2004 as the “Exigence of Speed” concept car, the MBR V8 is a threeseater lightweight supercar with advanced aerodynamics.

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Photo Simon Gray Photo Maximillion Cooper

2005 Maserati MC12 Price: $1,700,000 Top Speed: 205 MPH The MC12 was developed to signal Maserati’s return to racing after 37 years, and it sure looked the part on the Gumball!

2008 Gumpert Apollo GT Price: $420,000 Top Speed: 223.9 MPH On July 27, 2008 an Apollo Sport was featured on the UK show Top Gear. The Stig drove it around the test track with a lap time of 1:17.1, making it the fastest on the “Power Lap Board” as of February 2010. It did the Gumball for the first time in 2008.

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Photo Michael Tomlinson Photo Rich Van Every

2002 Farboud GT Price: $1,800,000 Top Speed: 200+ MPH With looks akin to the Batmobile, when it drove down Pall Mall in 2005 the crowd went crazy!

1985 Ferrari F40 Price: $400,000 Top Speed: 189 MPH Another Gumball regular, between 1987 to 1989 it held the title as the world’s fastest street-legal production car, and during its years of production, was Ferrari’s fastest, most powerful, and most expensive car.

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Photo Fly

Interview Adam Pasulka People like to describe Tony Hawk as the Michael Jordan of skating. But with the popularity that both Tony Hawk and the sport of skateboarding have achieved in the past few years, Michael Jordan might as well be the Tony Hawk of basketball.

Either way, one of the world’s greatest athletes is a Gumball fanatic, and we had the privilege of speaking with him about his time on the rally.

Frank151: First and foremost you’re known as a skateboarder, but would you consider yourself a car guy?

Tony Hawk: I love driving cars fast.

I’m not an exotic-car aficionado, you know what I mean? I appreciate fine cars and things, but I just want the horsepower. I’ve actually driven a couple of NASCAR events, and I’m used to that sort of adrenaline and going that fast, and I love it.

F151: How did you get involved with Gumball?

TH: I was in London nine years ago or something, and Bam [Margera] said, “Hey, I’m in town doing this car rally thing that we’re gonna make an episode of “Jackass” on, and they’re having their kickoff party tonight, and you should come.” I went and felt the vibe of what was going on there and it felt very much like The Cannonball Run. Everyone was excited at the adventure and not necessarily the

race, and it looked like a lot of fun.

He introduced me to Max, and Max clearly knew our world, as he used to ride BMX and skate. He and I made a connection and just kept in touch, and eventually I did it.

F151: How many years have you participated?

TH: In some form or another, I have gone four times. Sometimes I’ve only done part of it because of my schedule, and I’ve done the whole thing as well.

F151: So at least a leg?

TH: More than a leg, yeah. Usually I do about, say, a third of it. When they did the whole thing through Thailand, I was on the entire one.

F151: Do you remember the first year you participated?

TH: I’m not sure of the year. I want to say it was like 2003. They started in San Francisco.

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F151: Do you take the same car every rally, or do you switch it up?

TH: No. When I did that one in San Francisco I had a relationship with Dodge, and they let me use a Viper. In the other years I just went with whatever Max and Julie had. We drove a Morgan across Spain. In the Thailand one I drove my Jeep SRT8, and then last year I actually got my Jeep souped up with 600 horsepower. Same Jeep, different engine.

F151: Do you remember what the first car you owned was?

TH: 1977 Honda Civic.

F151: Nice! Rob Dyrdek had a Civic, too. That’s what he said.

TH: Oh yeah? I bought it used for $1,500.

F151: Who’s your co-pilot when you do Gumball?

TH: Usually we’re trying to do a half skate mission, as well as the drive, so I try to bring skaters along, and guys that I would get along with. Mike Escamilla—his nickname is “Rooftop”—he has been with me for the last couple, and he’s a pro BMX rider, so he and I are always looking for either skate spots or skateparks along the way.

Another pro skater came with me through the Thailand trip, that was Mike Vallely. Then last year I did it with one of my best friends, Greg, who has always been wanting to do it, and then my nephew John Dale, who is a good skater, but he’s a really funny comedian. There’s a lot of time in the car.

You want to be with guys who you’re gonna enjoy it with. I’ve actually been in cars where people are stressing on everything from directions, to their gear, to their photos, and everything is increased tenfold when you’re stuck in a car with someone for 20 hours.

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Photo Rich Van Every Photo FLY

Tony doing a 900 in Salt Lake City, 2006.

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Photo Fly

F151: What’s the coolest place you skated in the rally?

TH: We skated around this sort of raised walkway in Thailand over this rainforest that was just crazy. It’s not that it provided a good skate spot, but the scenery was unbelievable. It was like some sort of Disneyland ride that was bigger than life.

F151: Did you have any run-ins with the Law on the rally?

TH: Yeah, a few. The first time I ever did [Gumball] I got pulled over literally coming out of San Francisco.

Not because we were speeding, but because the cop said we were the only ones he could catch, and he wanted to know what the hell was going on. And that was it. He just wanted information, then he wanted me to be the sort of spokesperson for everyone and tell them to all slow down.

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F151: Did he recognize you?

TH: No. And then this last time, I got a warning in Arizona and a speeding ticket in New Mexico. We actually would leave earlier than everyone else so that we could stop and skate along the way, and then we would end up getting to the checkpoint around the same time as everyone else, and because we were the first ones out, this cop knew that the Gumball rally was coming through, and we were the first ones she saw, so she just popped me. And then in Europe we had a couple of either warnings or tickets, but I wasn’t driving in those. I mean, I drove, but I didn’t get a ticket when I drove.

F151: What kind of music do you like to listen to when you drive?

TH: We listen to everything. I mean, really. I can’t even pinpoint a genre.

…Well, I can say that we don’t listen to reggae. How’s that?

F151: [Laughs] That works!

TH: I have thousands and thousands of songs on my iPod. Sometimes we play a game where we go full shuffle, and each person has one veto, and if you use up your veto, you have to suffer through whatever song it is.

Sometimes it gets so desperate that people start selling their vetoes.

F151: Does that say something about what’s on your iPod? TH: You try going full random on your iPod, see how you feel about it!

F151: I see your point.

F151: Are you driving again this year?

TH: Yeah. We actually have been lining it up right now. Last year we did a bunch of video segments from the road that we put on ShredOrDie.com, and those went over so well that Julie was super excited to do something like that again. In the past we’ve kind of been beholden to their video crew, trying to show up to their shoots.

Because we did this whole renegade thing—we did it all on our own—she really liked it and she thought they were really funny, so she wants us to follow that pattern again. She’s providing us a car in Europe, and then I think I’m gonna get my Jeep shipped to Boston so I can drive it on the US leg, but I’m not shipping my Jeep to Europe.

F151: Is there anything else you want people to know about Gumball?

TH: It’s always an adventure. Everyone has their own experience because you’re all in different automobiles; it’s not like this giant pack is together all the time.

I think the one thing I really wanna say is people associate it with reckless endangerment of the public, and in my

experience no one really approaches it like that. Sometimes they get a couple idiots behind the wheel. But for the most part, people are very respectful, especially traveling through cities and congested highways. Like I said, I’ve done it four times. I’ve only gotten two speeding tickets, and they weren’t outrageous. I was going 90 in a 70. A couple times though, I’ve heard stories, like guys just go crazy.

We saw a Lamborghini totaled on the streets near the rainforest in Thailand, which was surreal. A Rolls Phantom got outta control in Serbia and we came upon it right after it happened and the whole car was smoking and they thought it was gonna blow up.

It’s not like you can get away with going crazy speeds in the US, but when we hit Serbia, in my Jeep, we got it up to 160, and then the engine shut off, which I didn’t know that was a safety thing. It literally shut off. The car shut off. Once we got down to 150...140, it clicked back in.

But exactly as Max and Julie say—it’s not a race, it’s a rally. I never know who wins. I honestly have never even followed up or cared. It’s just an amazing adventure. When do you get to drive— especially in the extreme case—three continents over the course of a week?

And you’re in the same car!

F151: Gumball aside, what have you been up to lately?

TH: I’ve been doing a lot of traveling and skating. I just got back from the Olympics. I went up there to support my boy Shaun White. I am gonna be going on tour this summer and this fall with the Birdhouse team, and doing a new videogame. www.tonyhawk.com

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Interview Max Perlich Photos Rich Van Every

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“I’m a skateboarder. There’s not a better word to describe who I am, what I do, and what I’m all about. Music, acting, writing, television, stunts—all these other things I do or have ever done, I do as a skateboarder.”

- Mike Vallely Frank151 family Max Perlich caught up with Mike Vallely at Venice Skatepark in Venice, CA, to talk Gumball, Burt Reynolds, and ’84.

Frank151: How many years have you done Gumball now, Mike?

Mike Vallely: I did one Gumball rally total. I did it in 2006.

F151: Can you tell us about your history with Gumball?

MV: Tony Hawk was asked to do the Gumball rally. Then Max had the idea of surrounding him with some other action-sports athletes—skaters, BMX guys. Tony reached out to me and said, “Hey man, would you wanna ride shotgun with me in the Gumball rally?”

I was like, “Hell yeah.” I’m always open to a new experience, and this sounded like an amazing opportunity.

It turned out being Tony Hawk, myself, and Rooftop.

F151: How was it riding with Tony?

MV: It was cool. The guy is so electronically inclined. I’m driving 150 miles per hour—which I’d never done prior to this moment—and it’s not a closed track, it’s the open road. I’m barreling down the highway and he’s on his Sidekick, just boop-boop-boop-boop.

I guess that just shows he trusted me, to some extent.

F151: He wasn’t navigating for you?

MV: At times, but…

F151: He was navigating the web.

MV: Yeah. He was navigating the web.

F151: I worked with Tony on a little film called Gleaming the Cube.

MV: Oh yeah. I remember that.

F151: I was a fake skate guru called Yabbo. They put these metal diamond plates on the top of the board. I kept

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telling ’em, “I think it will make it slower.”

They said, “But it looks good. Shut up and keep doing it. We’re paying you.”

MV: That was a badass board, I thought.

F151: So what kind of car did you and Tony drive?

MV: We had a Jeep Grand Cherokee or something. It was a street-racing SRT8.

F151: You started off in London?

MV: You blast out of London. Some of the cars never made it out of London.

Guys got pulled over, arrested, cars were impounded.

High speeds. Not cool to drive like that in the UK. Outside of the UK, most of Europe, it’s not cool to drive that fast, but you just have to pay a fine. I got stopped in Austria going 150, and they took my credit card, ran that sucker up, and said, “Go ahead.”

In Thailand no one got pulled over. No one got arrested. It depends on where you go in the world. Some people welcomed us with open arms and got outta the way and said, “Go! Go! Go! Go!” Other places, they looked at it as a moneymaking opportunity. And then some places like the US and the UK, they don’t give a shit, they don’t give a fuck, you’re going to jail.

F151: Did you take a board with you on the rally?

MV: Yes, of course. Unfortunately, I was just recovering from a broken leg.

I couldn’t do shit. But, we got out and skated in France, we skated in Thailand. We skated quite a bit in Thailand, actually. The main session we skated was in Salt Lake City. We went to a skatepark and had a really good session there.

F151: Was that a planned activity, or just on the fly?

MV: It was on the fly. Part of our mission was to get some skating done on the Gumball rally, if at all possible.

It was hard to pull off and accomplish the objectives of the rally, which was to make it to a certain city in a certain amount of time and go to this certain party.

F 1 5 1 : B a c king up , wh a t i nsp ired yo u to become a skateboarder? When did you start?

MV: I started in 1984.

My life prior to discovering skateboarding is pretty much nonexistent. There was some life lived, but it wasn’t until I started skating that I felt like I really became alive. I saw Thrasher magazine, I opened it up, and it was life changing.

F151: What issue?

MV: It was the September ’84 issue, Natas Kaupas on the cover.

F151: We used to take baths together.

We went to Washington Elementary School, Natas Kaupas and I. MV: That’s cool. Natas’ mom was cool, too.

F151: When did you start getting competitive in skateboarding, and what made you want to compete?

MV: I never really looked at it as competitive. I skated in competitions

and I did well, but I think I was more driven by a love and a passion for what I was doing, as opposed to a cutthroat desire to beat somebody.

I just wanted to express myself and express my skating at the highest level possible. Getting first place was sometimes a result of that.

But at a certain point, once skating became ultra competitive, I bowed out of the competition scene, ’cause it never really spoke to me. When it was about fun and expression and more of a creative pursuit, I really excelled in that environment. But when it became compulsory tricks, more like gymnastics than skateboarding, I just didn’t vibe on it anymore.

I never practiced, I never trained, I never looked at it as a sport.

When people started barking at me—my sponsors, my “handlers”—like, “You gotta do this! You gotta do this!” I was like, “Wait a second…who fucking makes the rules around here? I didn’t get into this for no fucking rules,” ya know?

F151: When you have handlers as a skateboarder, can you choose if they’re girls or guys?

MV: [Laughs] Well, in the ’80s they chose me. I didn’t have a choice in that. I got on Powell Peralta, I was on the Bones Brigade, and I had people startin’ to try to manage my career.

F151: Can you talk a little about your style of skating?

MV: A lot of it relates back to the kind of skating I did when I started, which

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Mike in Salt Lake City, 2006.

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was a lot of jump ramp and wall rides and hand plants and foot plants. That’s the stuff I vibed on when I started. I still vibe on it to this day. I like a lot of the more modern skating, too. I like the aesthetic of it. But for me, after skating for some 25 years, I just like to do what I like to do. I don’t wanna try and have to play keep-up with anybody.

A lot of people think the style of skating I do is the only style of skating I can do. No, it’s actually a choice I make to skate a certain way. But at the same time, yes, it does also flow naturally out of me. It’s something I participated in the birth of. I gave birth to some of these tricks and some of this style, so it comes very natural to me. It’s just my brand of skating.

F151: Is it true that you have a tattoo of Burt Reynolds?

MV: Yeah. You want to see it?...

F151: What’s that from?

MV: It’s from the movie Hooper.

F151: You like Hooper? I like Gator.

MV: Gator’s good, too.

F151: Hooper was my first favorite, until I discovered Gator.

MV: Hooper was cool for me, man.

I always wanted to be a stuntman when I was a kid, and then boom, this movie comes out, and it’s all about glorifying the life of a stuntman.

F151: Aside from skating, what have you branched off into?

MV: I’ve done some movie work lately. That’s been pretty cool and fun for me. It’s a whole different thing.

I didn’t really actively pursue it, but once I started doing it, I enjoyed the process. I worked on this movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop with Kevin James, and I was there for the entire production of the film.

F151: What did you do?

MV: I played a bad guy who takes

over the shopping mall. Myself and a couple other guys, our roles were fairly integral to the storyline. It was cool. It wasn’t just being a skateboarder in a movie. It was actually playing a role and it had me there for two months.

I got to do some killer stunts, which I was super excited about.

F151: I know you make music, too.

Tell us about your musical background and your bands.

MV: I really got into skateboarding through punk-rock music. For me, the two things have always gone hand in hand.

I started my first band in early 2002 and have been active in the music scene since then. I’ve put a lot of miles down between my two bands, Mike V and the Rats, and Revolution Mother, and it’s been a lot of fun.

My latest music project is a Black Flag and Minor Threat tribute band called Mike Vallely / By The Sword. The first record I ever bought was Black Flag’s My War and the first show I ever saw was Black Flag at City Gardens in Trenton, New Jersey in October of ’84. I just knew when I saw Black Flag that whatever I did from that day forward, whatever I was going to do with the rest of my life, I was going to do it with intensity.

Mike Vallely / By The Sword has been gigging quite a bit lately and the response has been tremendous.

People really vibe on hearing this music live and I feel I’m able to present it with some relevance. www.mikevallely.com

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Interview Sebastian Demian Photos Estevan Oriol

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DJ Muggs hit the highway with esteemed photographer Estevan Oriol for the 2009 Gumball 3000 from LA to Miami. They rallied alongside sports-car enthusiasts, Sheikhs, and British psychopaths for what Muggs would later describe as the most amazing trip of his life. And this is coming from a guy who’s circled the globe two-dozen times.

If you ever strike oil or become a legend by teaching the world to smoke weed, get a car, get on the Gumball, and hope for one percent of the action Muggs and Estevan saw on their trip.

Frank151: Muggs, what year did you do the Gumball rally?

DJ Muggs: I went on the Gumball rally last year, which was 2009. Didn’t know what to expect, but I got invited

by Estevan Oriol. They actually called him and goes, “Who could you sit in a car with for a fuckin’ week and not get sick of?” He’s like, “Shit, call Muggs.”

So they call me and they go, “What are you doing these days? You free? You wanna go on this Gumball rally?” I was free and I was like, “Yeah, I’ll roll. Fuck it.

Let’s roll.” I didn’t know what to expect.

I was so busy I was about not to roll at the last minute, but I gave my word. I went and…fuckin’ amazing time. One of the best experiences I’ve had in my whole fuckin’ life, and I’ve been around the world fuckin’ 20 times, been to 40 countries, been to every continent.

F151: Tell me a little about your copilot, Estevan Oriol.

DJM: We’re family. I hired Estevan back in ’92 to road manage one of my groups, House of Pain, so we go back that long ago, from before he was even a photographer. And you know, he’s built for this shit. I’ve been on tour with him for 20 years, and it’s usually me and him that don’t sit in the hotel ’cause we get up and go sightseeing or go on an adventure—no matter where we’re at.

Estevan’s mild-mannered. He’s always even-keeled; he don’t get too happy,

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he don’t get too sad. He’s great to roll with because he’s a fuckin’ trooper.

And he’s funny as fuck. So just clowning all fuckin’ day, nonstop. Stopping and taking mad, mad pictures, documenting every minute of every day. He’s a great, great co-pilot. Great driver, don’t get tired, don’t be irritated, don’t act like a little bitch, don’t get all complainy and, “I can’t eat this and I can’t do this and oh my god!”

F151: What car did you guys drive?

DJM: It’s funny, ’cause we had a Range Rover, and when we first started, in Santa Monica, we were seeing all these Lamborghinis and these fuckin’ Bugattis, and we’re like, “Jesus Christ, look at these fuckin’ cars!” We look at our Range Rover and we’re like, “Damn.” But, cut to three days later, and just seeing these motherfuckers getting out of these Lambos with their backs hurting and their kidneys hurting and their ass hurting from sitting in these cars for eight…nine hours— ’cause they ain’t built for that shit. And here we are driving on a fuckin’ couch, in the Rover just chillin’. My back didn’t hurt; I felt great. Laid in the back seat, stretched my legs out and shit. I was very, very, very happy we had the Range Rover. It was fuckin’ incredible.

And we smashed out. We stayed about 120 the whole trip. We didn’t need to go any faster, ’cause going 170, all these motherfuckers was doing

DJ Muggs.

Travis Barker.

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was getting their cars taken, breaking down on the side of the road. We were just passing the Lambos, passing the fuckin’ Ferraris—“Hey, how you guys doing? See ya later.”

F151: Did you get any tickets?

DJM: We got pulled over going like 85…90 in Arizona, and we got a ticket, and that was it, man. We were good from that point on.

When it got to the end, the police knew we were coming, so once you pulled over the state line there was a trooper every mile, following us, going to the next thing just trying to catch people. Twitter became a very, very valuable tool, because we was like, “Ay, Exit 16, watch out, they’re hiding behind the bridge.” So we started using that, and on the Gumball Twit everybody started knowing where all the cops were, so it saved a lot of fuckin’ people a lot of tickets, that’s for

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sure. But I think we started with 120 cars in the rally and ended with 80, something like that.

F151: What happened to those other 40 cars?

DJM: Don’t quote my numbers, but I know cars broke down, cars got impounded, some just didn’t make the trip—just left their cars.

One guy wrecked his fucking car on the racetrack. He rented a car—I think it was a Maserati or something. We was in Florida. You get to go take a couple laps around the racetrack, where our lunch was that day, and I guess when you rent a car there’s a waiver saying you can’t take it on a racetrack, or the insurance doesn’t cover that. So those two laps he took ended up costing him $120,000.

F151: Did you see any other madness on the rally?

DJM: Oh man, it was straight mad-

ness. It was a cast of characters, man.

It was The Cannonball Run times 100.

I seen brothers with just slippers on, hanging outside of the car, while the car is going 70, just fucking slipper boarding. I don’t know what you call it.

Mad cars got pulled over, brothers went to jail, you know what I mean.

Every time you pulled in at night there was just stories. Mad, mad, mad shit happened.

F151: After you guys would go driving, the race would finish at a hotel in the evening, right? And you guys would have a party every night?

DJM: We had a big party in Dallas, we had a big opening party before we left, and we had a big party in Miami.

F151: What were those parties like?

DJM: The one in Dallas was great. It was at a penthouse in a hotel we were actually staying in, and I DJed, so it was a good time. You know, “Everybody fuckin’ have a drink and relax, man.” And Miami was the wind-down party, obviously. But just, let loose some steam, sitting in a car for nine… ten hours, you know, have a good dinner, have some drinks, dance, and get ready to do it all again the next day.

F151: How long did the rally take?

DJM: Took us a week. It was a trip a day. On the way to Vegas we stopped off at a racing place, but from Vegas to New Mexico we stopped actually in Sedona, Arizona. We stopped in the Grand Canyon, and another day we stopped at the Hoover Dam. Another day was Cape Canaveral for lunch to pick up your car, to tell you where the hotel was that night. I never go sightseeing in America, so I’d never seen none of this shit.

F151: What would you say was the highlight of the trip?

DJM: Just the friends I made. I met a

lot of great people, you know, got to bond with a lot of good people, from Russian billionaires, to Sheikhs, to pro BMXers, to hip-hop DJs, to photographers, to people who own clothing lines. Everybody got along great. It was no problems out there, you know what I mean. Good fucking times.

F151: About these Sheikhs…these are guys from Dubai?

DJM: Yeah, there was a set of Sheikhs. They was super, super baller—like baller baller, rollin’ in their fuckin’ Bentley, you know what I mean. Just letting ’em have it, playing their songs, just not giving a fuck.

F151: How about the most absurd thing you saw? You were saying that you saw someone hanging out the side of a car and sliding on their shoes?

DJM: They actually borrowed the Sheikhs’ sandals. You stand outside of the car holding onto the doors while the car was going about 70, like it was a skateboard, on the sandals.

F151: And it was the Dubai guys?

DJM: No, actually the cats from the UK. They was like the Steve-O and the Wild Boys from the UK. They was on one. They didn’t give a fuck. They did not give a fuck. Good peoples, though.

F151: How would you characterize the typical Gumballer? Is it mostly car enthusiasts?

DJM: It was an eclectic mix of characters, that’s definitely for sure. It was car enthusiasts, it was adventure enthusiasts, and you got some people who are just thrill seekers. You know, people that done everything in the fuckin’ world, like, “What’s next to do?”

F151: What was it like having this rally on your home turf? Were you able to help out any of the foreigners?

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DJM: Well for me, touring this country like that, I felt like a foreigner. It was amazing to see this country like that, and I know the foreigners were bugging out as much as I was, to see some of these sites and shit. Especially the Grand Canyon, man. Makes you realize how little you are, dog.

You’re really nothing [laughs].

F151: What does it take to get on the Gumball rally?

DJM: You gotta go through the screening, I believe, and then you gotta pay the entry fee, then you gotta have a car. So it ain’t no joke.

And it ain’t for the weak, because I’ve seen a couple motherfuckers get out there, and after three days you’re like, “Where are they?” Oh, they went back home. “What happened?” You know, fools complain, “Oh, this is so long. This is so tiring!” We were poppin’ it like, “Hey, what’s crackin’? We tour. We’re built for this shit.” It’s definitely a little bit of work put in. I seen it wear down a few people that wanted to go on vacation. I think I did more shit in that week than you do in like two months.

F151: Would you do the rally again?

DJM: I think I’m a lifetime Gumballer from here on out, till I can’t fuckin’ do it no more. If I had the opportunity, I will be an official Gumball spokesman for the rest of my life.

F151: Is there a prize for winning the Gumball?

DJM: You get a big Gumball machine.

F151: What else are you up to?

DJM: Right now, man, doing a lot of DJing. Did about 125 DJ shows last year. Last year was really a building year for this year. I got four albums coming out this year. We got Cypress Hill coming out in April, Muggs and

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Ill Bill is coming out on Fat Beats in August. I’m doing an album with Mix Master Mike—the DJ from the Beastie Boys—called Elements. That’s pretty much done. It’s more electronic / experimental music. Me and Rocky Rock are doing an album together. It’s more of a DJ record, and Rome from Sublime is writing music with us as well. Me and B was gonna get back in and do a Muggs / B-Real album, but with a twist to it. It ain’t gonna be like anything you’ve heard from Cypress.

I’m heading out to the Olympics tomorrow, DJing on the slopes for the men’s gold-medal finals for the Snowboarding Half Pipe, and then a couple clubs at night.

F151: Aside from your extended family—the people who you’re working with artistically—who else are you siked about?

DJM: Jovi Rockwell, I’m liking her music right now. I’m liking the new Sade. I’m liking Major Lazer—I like what Diplo’s doing; he’s definitely coming really creative. The stuff that inspired me to want to do hip-hop is just being creative, man, and coloring outside the fuckin’ lines, and doing what the fuck you wanna do with a middle finger in the air. I’ve seen them bring that same energy across to electronic music. So anybody that’s being experimental and trying to do something new, and not just fucking getting the cookie-cutter shit up, and putting the same fucking clothes on as everybody, and then pumping their chest out and acting like they’re the shit and they’re doing something new.

I don’t fuck with that.

F151: Is there anything that your particularly inspired by, outside the realm of music, even if it’s films or anything?

DJM: Yeah, from artists like [Fed-

erico] Fellini and Banksy and Salvador Dali, and people like Dr. Wayne Dyer, Tony Robbins, you know, anybody positive trying to make this world a better place. …Grandma, you know what I’m saying? People who got wisdom, and got positivity, and that want to learn and want to shine light on people. That’s what I’m all about these days.

F151: Are you a member of a ganja club? Do you have a prescription?

DJM: I don’t. I got a prescription but I’m not a member, if you know what I mean. We’ve been having prescriptions for years, though. It’s the underground.

F151: Who, if anybody, is carrying on the tradition that Cypress Hill has established with marijuana advocacy?

DJM: We wasn’t just talking on records like smokers. We were really advocating stuff, hardcore, from

being involved with NORML, to actually doing fundraisers, to giving money to NORML so they could have a lobbyist in congress to help create bills and legislation and change the laws.

It’s great to see what’s going on with medical marijuana and the talk of legalization after all these years. I think it’s not just one single thing that made it happen. And the icing on the cake is the bad economy—to be like, “Damn, we can tax this and use it, and it really ain’t that bad.” I think that medical marijuana was the way to get it into the door, and now I think it’s about to be regulated in a good way. It’s gonna be very interesting in the next couple years. But you know, we’re optimistic. www.sastudiosglobal.com

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Photos Jonathan Bushell

Interview Gerry Grey Tina Basich started snowboarding professionally in 1986. A pioneer of the sport, in 2006 she penned an autobiography entitled Pretty Good for a Girl. Now a mom living in Nevada City, CA, you’re more likely to find Tina squeezing a glue gun in her craft store, My Favorite Things, than shredding the slopes.

So how did a girl from Sacramento with a passion for crafts and snowboarding get mixed up with the Gumball rally?

Frank151: Can you start by telling us a little about yourself?

Tina Basich: I have a whole life of snowboarding adventures, which started after high school—which was in the ’80s—so kind of at the beginning of the sport. I’m that kind of person that is outside the box, so we—my brother and I—took on that journey of snowboarding. I’m a crafty person, and design-oriented as well, and I’ve always tried to incorporate that into my life. I help design women’s snowboarding clothing and did a pro model for my sponsors. Continuing with that, I now have a little gift store and make things and have a wholesale line and a family, so I’m not on the road as much as I was before.

F151: Where’d you grow up?

TB: I grew up in Sacramento, California. I was in the skateboard crowd in high school, so we hung out with a bunch of skateboarders. The first time we saw a snowboard, in 1984, we knew we had to try it, even though we

were not skiers or anything; we were just skateboarders and we thought it was the coolest thing ever. They wouldn’t let us on the ski lift but we’d hike along the side of the ski lift. We got hooked right away and bought our boards the next season and went every day we could—for 20 years.

Eighty-five was the winter that I actually started snowboarding consistently and I started competing. Back then, we’d have little competitions at Donner Ski Ranch and Shasta Mountain— local contests that we’d roll around to.

There were four to six girls, maybe, in the division. We divided it into pro and amateur, and then I just turned pro, ’cause I was the one who was winning the contests.

It evolved from there and it was such an awesome experience to be in that time of snowboarding, ’cause it will never be like that again. I’m so thankful that I got to be in that part of the experience.

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F151: Do you still ride much?

TB: Yeah, just not as often. My daughter is two and a half, so I see more snowboarding in my future when I can bring her up or have her involved as well. We won’t be on the ski resort. I’d be so worried people would run her over. It’ll be a long time before we hit the resorts, but I will always have a connection to the snow and snowboarding.

F151: Switching gears a little bit, how did you get involved with Gumball?

TB: I was first asked to be on the Gumball that was in the States, from San Francisco to Florida, with Jesse James. He had souped up a minivan, of all things, and done his car thing to it. We drove the leg from San Francisco out to Vegas and had quite an experience with that. Through that rally I met Max and then he invited us to come out for the London-toMonaco route, and I invited my friend Daryl Hannah to come. That was the second experience.

F151: How many years have you participated in the rally?

TB: Two years, the US one and then the full rally of London to Monaco.

F151: You said you drove with Jesse James the first time?

TB: Jesse and I and Tara Dakides and some action-sports guys. We shifted off. We did the first leg and then Jesse and I and Tara got out of the van and a bunch of BMX motocross guys got in and continued.

F151: How do you and Jesse know each other?

TB: We met on the Gumball. I’m into cars as well, so we had that to talk about. He couldn’t believe that I actually had an Impala like his. I think he was kinda pissed. I said, “Oh, I got a ’62!” He’s like, “No, you don’t.” I’m like, “Yeah. It’s a convertible,” and he’s like, “No. It isn’t.”…“No, really!” He’s like,

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“Yeah…no. You’re not allowed to have that car.”

F151: My next question was actually, “Are you a car person?”

TB: Yeah, I am a car person. I grew up with my family always having project cars and restoring cars. We had a ’52 MG that we restored. I had a ’35 Ford, I had a ’54 Chevy, I had a bunch of Volkswagens—like Karmann Ghias and a Squareback. We had an old Triumph car that we restored, and I got my ’62 now.

My dad would call me out like, “What year is that car?” ’Cause he’d teach us what chrome meant what year, so it goes way back, enjoying old cars, especially for me.

F151: What kind of music did you guys listen to on the rally?

TB: We listened to Ozzy Osbourne on our GPS yelling at us ’cause we were going the wrong way quite often. He was on our GPS system, or whatever they had logged into the car. It was so funny, ’cause he was swearing at us. We got stuck on this roundabout in Rome and I bet we went around the roundabout ten times before we figured out which of the fifteen exits to take, and he just started swearing and yelling at us.

F151: Is it really Ozzy Osbourne’s voice on the GPS? TB: They said it was. We had the option of either Ozzy Osbourne or Burt Reynolds. We chose Ozzy, and then we said, “We’re pissed at you, Ozzy!” So we switched over to Burt and then we did go back to Ozzy.

F151: Was this something that all Gumballers had?

TB: Yeah, I think all Gumballers got the same little system for the map, and you could pick who you wanted to tell you the directions. But we had four people in our car, and it took all

four of us, all the time, to figure out how to get to the next spot.

We were running biodiesel the whole time with Daryl. So immediately leaving London we had these directions to this farmer-guy’s house in the middle of the countryside outside of London to go pick up our biodiesel. We pull up and he has all the biodiesel in plastic milk jugs lined up on the curb—like 15 of ’em. They’re just sitting out there on their front porch, in their rocking chairs, waiting for us to show up in our pink-camouflage Range Rover. We showed up and got all this fuel and we hauled that the whole way. We were so excited to actually find biodiesel along the way.

At one point we were getting so crowded in our car that we had somebody else carry some of our biodiesel, and we ended up losing it. So we

were struggling to find that the whole time. We were emailing the States having them look up stuff and trying to set up getting 100% biodiesel. We would pull over in the middle of like a mustard field and fuel up. We weren’t at the gas stations filling up. So that was kinda interesting. We’d be out in the fields taking a break and get our little funnel to pour the fuel.

F151: Was it important for you to do Gumball in a green way?

TB: It was important to Daryl, and it was a good feeling for me. I didn’t have that in mind when I called her, ’cause we had a pink Ferrari lined up. I was like, “Ooo, that would be fun.” She was like, “No no no no.”

F151: I’m guessing that didn’t run on biodiesel.

TB: The pink Ferrari did not run on biodiesel, so we went to the Range Rover. But I totally support that and I understand how important it is to her,

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so it became important to me. She is so great about that—she offset her flight over to Europe and she did all of it and encouraged other people to do the same. It was maybe not her exact event that she would do, but bringing her own support and her way of doing it was really cool. I’m so conscious of that, but this just took it to another level. It’s not just turning off your car or not letting it run, it’s like, running it on the right stuff.

F151: By the time you completed the rally did you feel like using biodiesel was something that was feasible, or was it just a total headache?

TB: No, the only part that was a headache was, it was just so fast being on the rally, it was too hard to set up. In a normal setting you would have no problem planning ahead and doing that. Just the fact that it was 3,000 miles in seven days—or six days—is what made it such a challenge. But it

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was an adventure for us. We weren’t frustrated by it. We were like, “We got biodiesel! We’re gonna get to here!”

The Range Rover had the steering wheel on the right side instead of the left side, so the second we left London all the roads switched to the other way.

I would be sitting in the passenger’s seat, which is kind of like the driver’s seat, except Daryl would be driving, and I’d be in charge of telling her when to pass or not, because she couldn’t see. We had to trust each other. I was like, “OK...go!” She’s like, “Are you sure?”…“Well, don’t go now, ’cause you just hesitated. So when I say ‘go,’ we’re going, ’cause we got three diesels to pass and it’s a two-lane road and there’s a curve up ahead.” We’d be trying to follow the DC guys, or five Ferraris would pass us and we’d just be like, “OK, well now we have to do it.

We have to catch up with everybody.”

Photos Jonathan Bushell

Tina and Daryl Hannah in Vienna, 2005.

If you see the ice-cream truck passing you, then you gotta step it up a notch.

F151: Did you guys adhere to the rules of the road for the most part, or did you have any run-ins with the Law? TB: I don’t think we got pulled over ever. The only law we were breaking was speeding. I didn’t even notice if there was a speed limit. We went fast, but not as fast as some of those people were going. Our car wouldn’t go fast.

We were coming up the coast from Sicily and it was raining and we were going pretty fast passing cars, and then all of a sudden, traffic stopped, and we stopped, and we’re like, “Oh no. Somebody crashed.” Traffic is moving along really slow and we see a fender of a car and it has a Gumball sticker on it. We get like ten feet and by that time [my then boyfriend, now husband] Zach and the other guy with us jumped out of the car and started running. We come around the corner and there’s just like a completely mangled Ferrari sitting there. We actually picked up the grill of the car that was sitting there and brought it to Max at the end of the trip. Everyone was OK, but stuff like that was like, “Maybe we’ll slow it down a little bit.” We were very cautious, but on the open road we would go fast. Everybody has their own judgment of what that means [laughs]. Some people were like, “Yeah, I was cautious,” like, “Yeah, I saw you almost…you know. I think you’re nuts, but that’s cool.”

F151: It’s relative, I guess.

TB: Yeah, yeah.

F151: I’m glad we’re getting the chance to speak with you, because you’re one of very few women who are going to be in this chapter, and I

wanted to ask you, is the Gumball a boys’ club?

TB: I think it’s the type of person that’s in it. I didn’t see it as a boys’ club kinda thing. The chicks that were on it were badass, ya know? It’s almost like snowboarding, where you gotta be a badass if you’re gonna step up. But at no point did I feel like I was in a boys’ club. I didn’t feel awkward that I was a girl on that trip, at all. There’s a common thread with all those people: they all…love…cars, and they just want to talk shop about cars. At the dinners everyone’s like, “Oh my gosh! And I passed this guy and dah-dah-dahdah!” Some people have mechanics following them and some people are flying-in tires and FedExing stuff. It’s car lovers.

F151: So you were in your element?

TB: Yeah, totally. It was a blast and never to be experienced again. It’s almost like you only have that experience once, ’cause it would be different if you did the whole thing again.

F151: Are you planning on doing the whole thing again?

TB: Probably not. I don’t know how I would have time in life again to go do that [laughs]. But now with a child it’s a little bit different. I look back on my snowboarding like, “Oh my gosh! I used to outrun avalanches in Alaska!

Like, are you serious?” But when you’re in that zone and you have those opportunities you take ’em and you’re just lovin’ every second of it. But now that I have a child and a family, it’s a little bit different.

F151: It’s probably difficult to get a car seat into a pink Ferrari, too.

TB: [Laughs] Yup. The Gumball was an experience of a lifetime for me, but after having a child I’m in the overprotective mindset and would have a hard time running in true Gumball fashion. www.myfavoritethingsNC.com

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WISH I WAS A BALLER SUMMER COLLECTION

WWW.GUMBALL3000APPAREL.COM

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Photo Fly

Interview Erica Luciano Rick Thorne has been around long enough to qualify as a BMX OG, but he’s still got the enthusiasm and energy of a teenager. A selfdescribed go-getter, Rick pursues all of his passions—as varied as they may be—with unapologetic intensity.

If you don’t follow BMX you might not know Rick, but chances are you’ll be hearing from him soon—be it as an actor, musician, or whatever else he decides to take on.

Frank151: Start by telling us a little bit about yourself.

Rick Thorne: I started riding in ’82, or something. I just loved riding. I was from a dysfunctional family in the Midwest, and I was ready to feel free and to get out and get away from problems at home. We just stuck with it. We started setting goals with it, and then things grew. Now it’s evolved into the X-Games and Dew Tour and a lot of big sponsorships, which is awesome. ’Cause back in the day, dude, there were no sponsors. I wanna believe that we helped shape that whole sponsorship deal in BMX. We would learn in school how to put together a resumé, and then would go home and put it together and send it in, not even knowing who was there, to try to get sponsored, and it started to work. There was a sanctioning series back then, but it was way small. It was almost getting past a sideshow at a state fair or something. The industry was still there, but it was at a different level.

From riding I started doing television about 15 years ago, then that evolved into radio, into voiceovers, into movies...but everything stemmed from riding. For me, I kind of became more of a personality. I think in life you have to just keep exploring ideas to keep your own self excited. You can be a bike rider your whole life and beat a dead horse. If you don’t take any risks, then you can become stagnant no matter what it is.

I like to look at myself like I can do anything I want. I started a band. My band’s called Good Guys in Black.

We’ve been doing real good the last two years. In the first year we did over 100 shows. I manage and run the band and I manage myself. I’m a go-getter. I guess if you would ask me about myself, I’d say that if I wanna do something, I’m gonna do it. If that person can do it, I can do it. Or if that person can’t do it, I still can do it. But I haven’t always been that way, and bike riding’s really what made me that

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way. As corny as that sounds, it did. It brings up your confidence a lot.

F151: How did you get involved with Max and Gumball?

RT: I was one of the last invites last year from Monster, ’cause Monster was sponsoring the tour. Maximillion’s an old BMXer, which I didn’t know about, which is crazy. He has a sick bike collection. They added me last minute. I always wanted to do the Gumball, because I saw a premiere at the Chinese Theatre like four or five years ago, and I was envious, man. I was like, “Ahh, I’d love to do that thing!

It reminds me of like The Cannonball Run.” I was on the 2009 Gumball.

Time flies, man.

F151: Who was your co-pilot?

RT: The people that I drove with on Gumball were Paul Thacker, he’s a pro snowmobile rider, and then my team manager, Terri Sacks, she went, too.

F151: What kind of car did you guys drive on the rally?

RT: You know, when you think of Gumball, you think, I wanna be in a Lamborghini! I wanna be in a Ferrari!

But you don’t wanna be a target for the pigs. I scored. I was in a Cadillac Escalade, Extended version. What was cool about it was we were watching movies and I was working on my computer. But we need to talk about the driving situation, because they didn’t let me drive, and when I did drive, I kicked ass. I was haulin’ ass, and then I think I freaked ’em out, ’cause I was racing a Lamborghini and I wouldn’t let it pass me—just total flat Louisiana or whatever. I had it fully pinned, and they were like, “Yo, uhh... we wanna drive.” [Laughs] So I said, “Aright, if you wanna drive, I’ma work on my computer.”

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But the drives weren’t bad. To me what was really cool about Gumball is...I’ve toured a lot, and it’s always been work—for a contest, or for a demo, or for some sort of appearance—and this was really casual. So I actually enjoyed it because I got to see a lot of things that I normally just blaze past, like Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, some weird wild spot where they had Cadillacs buried nose-dive in the ground—old-school Caddies, though.

Like, spraypaint all over them. What else did we see? Sedona Canyon?

F151: Arizona?

RT: Yeah. I had never been there. I didn’t even know that place existed.

It was really odd for me because I’ve been touring 25 years—I’m 40 right now—so everything’s been like just, go go go, and this was the first time I got to just go and be on a mission for no real reason, which was pretty cool. It was cool to see a lot of stuff that I think most people don’t get to see, or save money all year to go to. I was like the Griswalds, though, at the Grand Canyon. I shot a photo and I was like, “Is there a skatepark around here, dude?

I’m over it.” You can only look at rocks so long. The exciting part to anything is getting there, the anticipation.

F151: Did you bring your bike?

RT: Nope. I didn’t bring my bike at all.

I know Tony Hawk and Mike Escamilla brought their bikes or their boards.

But for me, I just looked at it like, I’m working so much, I’ll just look at it as a break. It would have been such a detour with the crew I was with. I’d always be pulling teeth like, “I want to go ride!” I was more into seeing stuff that I’d never seen. It was a vacation more for me, which I never get to take, unfortunately. I think I’ve traveled once ever—flying—without my bike, and I’ve been doing this for 25 years.

F151: No family vacations?

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RT: We’re planning one.

F151: First one in 25 years?

RT: Well I mean, I’ve been married before. Big deal, right? And I was young. So let me put it into perspective…. My honeymoon was at the first X-Games, ’cause I wasn’t missing that contest. We got divorced afterwards, which I’m glad! ’Cause if I wouldn’t have went because we were getting married, and we got divorced anyway, I would have missed the first X-Games!

F151: Your first X-Games was your honeymoon?

RT: ESPN did a feature on it. Holla! I thought it was bitchin’. She didn’t like it. But hey, man…BMX!

They also had this map, and they’d go, “Can you pick where Dubai is?” They were asking a lot of people, trying to clown how stupid Americans were.

So I picked Israel on purpose, ’cause I caught wind of it. So right there, “Are you sure?” “Yeah, I been there. Right there.” And they’re like, “Oh, cool. He got it right.” So I said, “Oh, cool.” And I let it play for a little bit, and then I rolled up on ’em and I said, “Yo, you can’t front on me! I know exactly where it’s at. I picked Israel on purpose, son!”

F151: So they tried to trick you?

RT: They would go around to people and get a kick out of it and film it, so they could go back and say, “Look how dumb Americans are!”

F151: Did anything happen to you on the rally with the police?

RT: No. We cruised it, except when I was driving. We really went the speed limit. It was a total rabbit race. I was messing with the Sheikh of Dubai hardcore. I called him out. I walked up on him in Anaheim, and I go, “Yo. You the Sheikh?”—Obviously. He goes, “Yeah.” And I go, “You’re going down!”

I talked all this crap on him. They came back at me, “Well you’re going down!”

It was awesome. They would text message me, “Yo, we just passed you!” Then we’d pass them and text message them back, “Yo, your diplomatic immunity don’t work right now, does it?!”—Which it did! He got pulled over blazing 150 or something, and he has a diplomatic immunity pass.

He turned out to be real cool, ’cause he was like, “I respect your country, even though I have this pass to do whatever.” But they have the funniest money, man. Their status is based off of their license plate. This is the rumor I heard: He has a gold-plated freakin’ license plate that has the number “1” that he paid a million bucks for!

F151: Everyone on Gumball is so different, but you guys all got along.

RT: I get along with everybody. You just reach a point in your life when you really do care, but at the same time, you can’t deny how you feel. And once you reach that point in life, it’s rewarding. You’re not out to hurt anybody’s feelings, but you’re not out to go through your whole life not saying how you feel. That’s what my band is all about.

F151: Tell us about the band.

RT: Yeah, my band Good Guys in Black. Good Guys in Black basically stands for people that have been judged or misinterpreted or represented by other people, but your intentions are good, and you’re not out to start any trouble, but you ain’t gonna take any. It’s a rock ‘n’ roll, punk rock, vigilante-style stance. You stand up for yourself, but you’re not a bully or redneck or nothin’. So everything’s very positive—a negative situation into a positive. Trying to get through life in a way that means something.

F151: Are you the singer?

RT: I sing, Travis plays guitar, Tommy plays drums, and we’re hiring a bass

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player to go on tour.

F151: That’s exciting RT: I also put together a skatepark tour. It’s called Grindz and Rhymez. It’s BMX, skate, and music, at skateparks.

I got Monster Energy and Famous to sponsor it. Thirty-one parks, six-week tour, tour bus, the whole deal. It’s pretty badass. It’s a good way for me to keep riding out there, promote action sports, and get kids into the music.

Now, skateparks are based off the foundations of demos, not so much music. So the music is like a side note to the contest and the demo. But it’s a good way to get the skate kids and other locals and BMXers into the music and grow outwardly. I think a lot of people in music want that actionsports fan base—especially skateboarding, ’cause it’s the biggest one.

Hip-hop artists, rock ‘n’ roll artists, country artists, they all want a slice of that, ’cause you’re talking about, what...15 to 20 million skaters? That’s a lot of people. They’re not dumb.

Their record labels were like, “Yo, we gotta captivate this crowd.”

So what I’m trying to do is not be that athlete like, “Hey, look at me! I’m in a band! I’m getting older and I can’t ride any more, right? Let me start a band so you guys will still love me, even though I suck!” It’s actually harder ’cause people are like, “Ugh, another athlete trying to do some shit.” I don’t want you to give it to me, ’cause then I know it’s not genuine. I want to feel it genuinely, ’cause then I know I’ve got lasting power.

F151: You act, too.

RT: Yeah. I interviewed Vin Diesel a long time ago when I worked for ESPN. I used to do a show for them for almost four years. He came out to check out the X culture in Philadelphia,

and he’s like, “Hey, I like you. I want to put you in my movie.” And I was like, “Oh, yeah. That’d be badass.” It was called xXx. Tony was in it, and Carey Hart was in it, Matt Hoffman…. I had a pretty good part. After that I’m like, “I’m getting into acting school,” ’cause I realized it was completely different than riding, than hosting, a completely different world. I’ve done like seven films. Me and Mike V[allely] did a couple of indies together. I did one that got bought by Showtime. And then the last one that I did was Mall Cop. It was me and Mike V again in the same place. It was like, wow, me and Mike have a lot in common and we seem to be put into the same kinda category, ’cause we’re both go-getters, and not many people in the industry are.

It was cool doing Mall Cop, ’cause we played the dudes who took over the mall, which was rad. But movies, same with singing...I got into vocal training and I learned how to sing. I didn’t know how to at first. I was very flat, very from-the-throat. And you want to save your voice. It’s a muscle, so you have to learn to work it out. If I don’t know how to act—I’m gonna learn to. If I don’t know how to sing— I’m gonna learn to. If you want to do anything, you can do it. You just gotta go for it. But acting is awesome.

F151: Is there anything else you’d want our readers to know?

RT: Well, I don’t mean to be cheesy, but stay positive. Never give up.

That’s my whole theory. But if there’s anything you ever want to do in life, don’t let anything hold you back. Life’s short, and before you know it, it’s over, so you got nothing to lose. www.rickthorne.tv

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Words Nicole Velasco The car: an international symbol of freedom, individuality, power, and sass. For decades, cars have been the leading ladies of popular films and cult classics alike. Here we pop a U-ey to yesteryear when beauty on the big screen was all about the curves, the outfits, and oh, the places you could go.

DEATH RACE 2000 (1975) Directed by Paul Bartel Cheesy doesn’t begin to describe this one. Set in the year 2000, David Carradine (“Mr. Frankenstein”) stars alongside Sylvester Stallone (“Machine Gun Joe Viterbo”) as a governmentmodified race-car driver. Contestants

participate in a state-sponsored, country-wide car rally that awards bonus points for vehicular manslaughter. Cars used include a Chevrolet Corvette, a VW Karmann Ghia, and a Fiat 850 Spider, all decorated to record levels of ridiculousness.

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THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) Directed by William Friedkin Taking place between Marseilles, France and Brooklyn, NY, The French Connection follows New York’s Finest narco detectives Popeye Doyle and Buddy Russo as they plot out a $32 million drug bust. On the strength of an epic train hijacking and a teethgrinding auto showdown, this film won an Academy Award and is preserved in the US National Film Registry. Nothing says “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant” quite like overseas heroin smuggling, undercover agents, and the French.

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BULLITT (1968) Directed by Peter Yates Bullitt features one of the best car chases on film. The nearly ten-minute sequence features two 1968 390 CID V8 Ford Mustangs and is set to nothing but roaring engines and screeching tires. Bullitt won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Film Editing, thanks in no small part to this scene.

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VANISHING POINT (1971) Directed by Richard C. Sarafian For car-delivery guy Kowalski, the mission was simple: Drive a steamy 1970 Dodge Challenger (cue Moparorgasm) from Colorado to San Francisco in 15 hours. Take police chases, nudie hitchhikers, strangely ethereal radio DJs, and Benzedrine pills in stride. The reward: Drive fast enough to fuel the adrenaline rush and reach the vanishing point, that point in perspective where realism and existentialism appear to converge.

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THE CANNONBALL RUN (1981) Directed by Hal Needham Based on an actual cross-country outlaw road race, this 1980s flick pokes fun at the 55 MPH speed limit. From modern day Darien, CT to Redondo Beach, CA, a cast of all-star racers (Burt Reynolds, Farrah Fawcett, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Roger Moore, Jackie Chan) risk life, limb, and all decency to win the race. About to get a traffic ticket? Show a little cleav.

Cars in your way? Shoulder lane! Cops on your tail? Run baby, run!

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THE GUMBALL RALLY (1976) Directed by Charles Bail Let’s now pay homage to the race that paved the way for adventurous car enthusiasts everywhere. With the LAPD on their tail, a savvy set of socialites whisper the code word “gumball” to cue an epic coast-to-coast sprint.

The racers pave their own way to the California finish line whether by severe moving violations or detours to pick up hot women. This 1970s cult classic takes us back to a time when bragging rights were everything and the scent of burning rubber marked defeat.

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SPEEDWAY (1968) Directed by Norman Taurog No matter how fast you drive, there are some things you just can’t escape...like death and taxes. In this musical action flick Elvis Presley plays a dapper speedway driver who sings his way through the circuit. All is well until the IRS slaps the old hound dog with a $145,000 tax bill. Now what is a world-famous pop icon to do?

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LE MANS (1971) Directed by Lee H. Katzin Fourteen-point-five kilometers. Fifty competitors. Twenty- f our h o u rs.

Le Mans explores in documentaryesque detail the trials and tribulations of the famous race of the same name. Also known as the Grand Prix of Endurance, Le Mans tests the wit and willpower of its participants as they stare down difficult obstacles on a course designed with cordonedoff country roads. With each hour of Le Mans, the pressure mounts, thus testing the inner strength of a very serious-looking Steve McQueen.

Zut alors!

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TWO-LANE BLACKTOP (1971) Directed by Monte Hellman Ah, the car race as a metaphor for life.

A true cult classic, this film features two drag racers as they tumbleweed their way along Route 66, raking in income by way of races won in various towns.

In New Mexico they challenge a driver who raises the stakes: an all-out race to Washington, DC for “pinks,” ownership papers to the loser’s vehicle.

Move it, or lose it.

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3000 MILES (2007) Directed by Maximillion Cooper Witness the full, uncut, adrenalinefuelled madness as action-sports and “Jackass” legends Tony Hawk, Mike Vallely, Rooftop Escamilla, Bam Margera, and Ryan Dunn drive 3,000 miles around the world from London to Los Angeles in just eight days alongside 120 supercars in the infamous Gumball 3000. 3000 Miles gives you a passenger’s seat to the action and drama, including incredible footage of a $1 million customized RollsRoyce Phantom crashing before your very eyes.

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Photo Dustin Ross

Interview Adam Pasulka Duane Peters is widely credited with having officiated at the wedding between skating and punk-rock music, back before the two helped define each other. For anyone keeping score, he’s about as punk as they come. Duane still goes hard, perfecting one of the many skateboard tricks he invented and fronting several bands, including U.S. Bombs. We spoke about a lot of things, but it mostly came back to Duane living up to his nickname— “Master of Disaster.”

Frank151: So you did the 2009 rally?

Duane Peters: Yeah.

F151: Who’d you ride with?

DP: Trigger Gumm.

F151: How do you know him?

DP: He’s one of my best friends.

F151: You guys go back?

DP: No. Shit, we go back probably... six months before that he showed up at one of my shows. I’d seen his jump in Australia, and I’m an Evel Knievel fan, and Christian Fletcher’s a good friend of mine, and Trigger’s a fan of mine from when he was a kid. He skates and surfs. He does everything—listens to punk rock. So he came out to one of my shows and he introduced himself, and I was kinda floored. I looked up to him already, and

was like, “Wow, Trigger Gumm’s at my show.” And then we just started hanging out. Then they asked him to do the rally. He needed a partner, so he called me up and goes, “Hey, you wanna do this thing with me?” I go, “Fuck yeah.

Sounds like a blast.”

F151: What’d you guys drive?

DP: Ford F150. It’s a Draven truck with a fifty-caliber machine gun in the back, and all loaded up and shit. It was the only American truck on the fuckin’ rally.

F151: The rally lasted a week?

DP: Something like that. Five days.

Five really long days. It would be like a month in anybody else’s normal life.

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F151: What was it like rubbing elbows with all the Fortune 500 CEOs and the Sheikhs?

DP: We didn’t think much of it other than they were funner than shit and we loved how the debauchery was open game. Because everybody’s in their own world, there was only daredevil types or extreme-sport types. Then you got celebrities, and you got completely off-the-map rich people that own islands, and Sheikhs and princes and all that shit. They liked hanging out with us ’cause we’re dirty and we don’t give a shit about nothing, and we like hanging out with them because they’re not all full of “We can’t do that because of the Law.” It was a good fucking mix. We just dug it. It’s kind of like where you drop the fucking name-dropping shit, and all the “who’s who” crap. Everyone’s just the core of their own being, and the little kid is out in everyone.

F151: I heard you and [Frank151 CoFounder] Mike Malbon and Trigger had a little run in with the Law. DP: Yeah, we got arrested. Mike, fuckin’.... His car got fuckin’ stolen, or something like that. He was without a car. He ended up being the guy that was like, “Fuck, I’ll jump in with these guys.” So we were like, “Alright.

Fuckin’ cool, man.” That morning, shit, I think I started out with two really huge Bloody Marys. And then the guys from the drifters were our enemies—you gotta have competition—so we were constantly poking at each other. We were having truckers block them all the time, and they would go off in the fields and end up in a ditch or get around the truckers and blow their minds, ’cause those drifters are gnarly drivers. But we would get the American truckers to blockade ’em. We had a CB radio so we could get on with truckers. They’d open up for us and

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we’d come up beside ’em. “Alright, block these fuckin’ drifters!” And that’d get them all riled up. They’d be blocking ’em. Because our truck wasn’t fast enough, we had to come up with dirty tricks. I’d be jumping out of the moon roof with my Evel Knievel cape on, no shirt, my helmet, hammered, and just fuckin’ walkin’ the rails and shit.

We got caught in some gnarly traffic in New Orleans on one of those fuckin’ bridges and got bored. We had nothin’ but fireworks, and just started lightin’ ’em off. Fuck, I found these fireworks that kind of made me feel like a sniper, and I started aiming at these bridge workers across the bridge. I started comin’ really close to nailin’ ’em, and all these people just started freaking out. And then I ended up aiming at the other cars.

I didn’t aim at the Sheikhs—thank God, ’cause those guys could’ve shot me—but I did aim at Julie’s car. I didn’t know she was in that car. It was just the most expensive car. I was aiming for the million-dollar McLaren, and nailed it. Right on target. It went right in through the top, ’cause there was no roof. It went right onto [Julie’s] foot, burned the seat and all that shit. The Sheikhs all got out of the cars, ’cause she’s Maximillion’s wife—not the right fuckin’ person to hit, man. And I’m all hammered. I’m like, “Fuck this!” and, “Fuck that!” Everyone’s looking at me that’s in the rally like, “You’re gonna die.” I walked over to the bridge going, “Trigger, should I jump?” Thank God I didn’t. He was all, “I wouldn’t jump if I were you.” I don’t know how much of that was my own drama, ’cause I was pretty fucked up. I didn’t jump, thank God. We found out later it was only three feet deep, way the fuck down there. I would’ve had a broken neck... or been dead. It wouldn’t have been cool. Cops come, and we’re being

Photo Rich Van Every

taken away. Luckily the cops were really fucking cool. They just wrapped our car up and went, “We don’t even want to look in there.” They didn’t run the dogs through or nothin’. But they put us all in three different cars, sent us in to county and did the whole deal.

We had fun inside. We got a paralyzed guy out of his wheelchair, I started doing 360s on it, and then we all lost our blankets because of that. Luckily, the warden guy was a tattoo freak and he called me in where there’s no cameras, and all these deputies surrounded me. I thought they were gonna beat the shit out of me, and the guy just sits up on the thing and goes, “Alright, what the fuck happened?” ’Cause he was reading the report just going, “What’s this all about?” So I started tap dancing, man. He started asking me about my ink, I started name dropping. “Trigger Gumm’s in

there—Evel Knievel’s fuckin’ torch taker.” But he was just cool. He goes, “I’m gonna get you guys out of here.”

We had a few thousand bucks on us, and they didn’t take any money. There was media out front—cameras waiting for about five hours—and they’re like, “We’re not gonna let these guys out till you people are gone.” They didn’t want us back in the rally, so they waited a whole day.

Then we were in processing to get released and we started talking to all the deputies. ’Cause everyone’s so broke out there, we were like, “We’ll get you some shoes, any of you guys need some new clothes....” Trigger’s like, “I got gnarly clothes connections.

All we want is the prison uniforms.”

And they’re all like, “Well we can’t do that…We can’t do that.” We talked them into it. One of the guys ended up putting all three of our prison outfits

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in a bag and leaving it out front—“Just don’t say nothin’.” So we grabbed the bag and got to the truck, and all our shit was still in there. There was still my Captain and Coke that one of the drifters bought me. I was even blamin’ them. “Those fuckers tried to sabotage me!” So I slugged that. We knew we weren’t gonna be able to get back in the race, so we just drove to the airport and put our prison suits on.

F151: So you guys showed up in your jail jumpsuits?

DP: Everyone’s so rich, they thought we went to a designer place—“Hey we wanna get these prison-looking outfits.” They’re real fuckin’ 1800s prison stripes, from the day! They thought we bought them—“Who’s your designer?” And we’re like, “Dude, these are the real deal. We were really in prison over there.” And they were like, “Really?!” “Yeah, dude. Really!”

And then I apologized. That was my whole mission—“I need to redeem myself. That was fucked up.” ’Cause Julie’s foot was on fire, man, and the Sheikhs put it out with ice water and shit. It wasn’t a good-looking scene, at all. We got there and I was like, “I’m not gonna drink anymore!” And she’s totally being cool. We got our Gumball tags. We were like little kids. They put us up for another day, to party with ’em. We just had a fuckin’ blast the whole fuckin’ way. Everyone’s attitude was rad. We were just stoked that we had to finish, one way or another, to make it to the last party.

When we got back we had to get a lawyer. We were about to get a warrant. I took all the fuckin’ hits for that fuckin’ incident. It wasn’t cheap. Those guys got off. You have to just clean up all your shit. I travel abroad a lot to tour, so I couldn’t let nothin’ slide. That was just it. Pay back crimes of your past, all done, onto the next one.

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F151: Do you have plans to do the rally again?

DP: Yeah, they’re gonna try and work on it, man. You gotta get sponsors to sponsor you. We got people to cover us on the last one, but now with the economy and all that shit, we don’t know. We want to, our hearts are there, so we’ll see if someone steps up to sponsor us and get us in, or if they can help us with the entry fee.

F151: Anything else you want to say about Gumball?

DP: Just thanks to the Gumball crew for keeping us informed on all the stuff. We love all the shirts and merch, and all the newsletters, and we love our watches and our Gumball tags.

They’re the best. They go up with everything that you value. You just hold on to that fuckin’ tag. A lot of it comes back. It’s never gonna all come back! It was a blackout five days!

F151: So besides the rally, what have you been up to lately?

DP: Doing this kinda Tom Waits-y thing with two other guys, called The Great Unwashed, skating a lot, paying back another court deal I got goin’ on—a DUI thing from when I broke my pelvic bone about three or four months ago.

I was on the pills and drivin’ down the freeway about five miles per hour on the side, up against the fence, to a stop. Then a cop fuckin’ pulled over and opened up the door and I fell out.

No booze, I was just on those pills. I gotta figure out how to stay outta jail with that. Got lawyers goin’ on. Got totally sober about three months ago.

Just skating a lot, you know? A rollercoaster ride, but it’s all good. I had a lot of tragedies and a lot of depression and now I’m fuckin’ over it. I’m just getting stronger every day.

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Interview Tim Brodhagen On name alone, there probably isn’t anyone more suited to the Gumball 3000 than Trigger Gumm. Then you throw in the fact that he’s a world-record holding, dirtbike-jumping maniac and heir to Evel Knievel and you’d figure this guy would be a good pick for the win. But pair him with veteran skater / lunatic Duane Peters and a Ford F150 with a machine gun on the back, and you’ve got a whole different story.

Frank151: Was this your first Gumball rally?

Trigger Gumm: Yeah, this was my first one. I actually watched The Cannonball Run, the Burt Reynolds movie, when I was a kid. As soon as Adam Barker called me and said that he was doing something with it and, “Would you be interested?” I’m just like, “Dude, yes. Of course.” It’s right up my alley—drivin’ fast, partyin’, and havin’ as much fun as possible with the upper echelon of people. It was a little dream come true. You always think about, “Man, wouldn’t it be fun to do that?” Then you get an opportunity and the next thing you know, you’re on the road with all these people. It was an incredible time.

F151: How did you end up riding with Duane Peters?

TG: Adam Barker worked out a deal with Julie to film. What they wanted to do was get some athletes and celebrities to do this reality show. I only met Duane a month before we went on this thing. I was at one of their shows—a U.S. Bombs show—and to my buddy Christian Fletcher I’m all, “Hey, can you introduce me to Duane Peters?

I’ve always heard about this guy.”

He’s kind of a legendary, crazy punk.

So Christian introduced me. Then Duane’s like, “Dude, you’re not Trigger Gumm.” I’m like, “Yeah, I’m Trigger Gumm!” He’s like, “Trigger Gumm’s an Australian!” I’m like, “I’m Trigger, bro!”

He’s a really avid Evel Knievel fan, so he knew my whole background and

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was a super big fan of mine. It was a super weird thing. We hit it off.

When Adam asked me, “We’re doing this Gumball rally. Who do you think would be good for the camera and is gonna do some crazy stuff and really add to it?”…“What do you think about Duane Peters?” He’s like, “He’s fucking perfect!” He was really ecstatic—“If we can get him to go, that’d be perfect television!” I never really spent any real time with him, and I’m super mellow. I called him up and he’s like, “I’m in.” We had to come up with some money, ’cause of the entry fee, so me and him started working on sponsors.

We have a lot of sponsors that are the same. We pulled it together at the last second. Draven gave us that crazy truck with the cannon. Next thing you know, you got a daredevil and a pro skater who are completely out of their minds, with all these billionaires, on the raddest tour ever—red-carpet parties and things that we’re usually not invited to!

F151: The truck was a Ford F150?

TG: Yeah. Ford F150 with a 50-caliber machine gun in the back. Draven had it for this “Holy shit, what the hell is that?” / Mad Max thing. When they gave it to us they were like, “That thing’s gone. We’ll never see it again.”

But it ended up working out perfect.

Got it back safe.

If we made it to Miami, we were gonna run it off the pier. Our whole goal was put the rest of the money we had on the console and then have the doors open, drive it down the pier, then—like chicken—whoever jumps first, the other guy can grab the money and roll out. That was our plan, but unfortunately in New Orleans we ended up getting busted and catching some charges, so we had to leave the truck and then fly into Miami.

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F151: What exactly happened in New Orleans?

TG: In New Orleans? Well, here it is, man. You know New Orleans.... I knew that we were in trouble because everybody had been partying so hard.

That night was a really rough one. A lot of guys from Dubai were buying a hundred bottles a time of Cristal. They were having $100,000 bar tabs. We were just taking advantage of it.

We rolled out of New Orleans a little late, came out of the city going about 100, and got onto the causeway.

Duane, a couple of the Dubai guys and couple of the “Dirty Sanchez” guys bought Duane a big 32-ounce Rum and Coke. He slugged that then two huge Bloody Marys right off the get. Then we jumped on the road. We hit the causeway—it’s like a 27-mile bridge from New Orleans to mainland Louisiana. When we dropped onto the bridge they had some road construction and we ran into a dead-stopped traffic jam. We had the Prince of Dubai, all the Ferraris, Bentleys, and all that right in front of us. Then we had Mike [Malbon] in the truck filming. So Duane puts on my Evel Knievel helmet and my Evel Knievel cape that I jump with, and he jumped in the back of the truck. Adam Barker got us a bunch of fireworks to have a fireworks fight with the drifters. So Duane started loading the cannon with these skyrockets and lightin’ ’em and shootin’ ’em. Katrina took out a bridge so they’re building a bridge, and he starts shootin’ ’em at the construction workers. Well, everybody’s got a cell phone, so all these people are snappin’ shots of this huge truck and this guy with this American-flag cape and this helmet.

They thought we were terrorists! You know how Duane is—he’s just like, “Yeah, that was cool for a second.”

He instantly turns the gun right onto

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the participants in the rally and starts shootin’ the rockets into the Bentleys and the Ferarris. A couple of rockets went right into this Bentley, and a couple of the Sheikhs got “blown up,” so they’re dancin’ around tryin’ to put out their feet. The whole time I’m like, “Duane! Dude! This is bad! We’re goin’ to jail!” I was dead on point. I know better than to do anything like this.

And when I looked up, I looked up to a pistol right in my face. The cops just swarmed us. Over 50 people had sent in pictures of Duane shootin’ the gun. So they handcuffed us. I didn’t know it, but in Louisiana they have their own laws set up by the French from the Louisiana Purchase. So we got arrested, car towed, but a lot of officers knew what we were doing.

I had like 10 G’s in my pocket, so I’m like, “I’ll bail out. No big deal.” Then Julie came from Gumball to bail us out. I just sent her a message saying, “I got it handled. I’ll bail us out.” I told them, “You guys go on with the race and we’ll catch up,” Well, they did an officer swap, and next thing you know, we got caught up in the system.

They wouldn’t give us blankets ’cause Duane grabbed a wheelchair and started doing wheelies, so everybody in the cell got reprimanded. Dude, I was so cold. All I had was a t-shirt on.

I wasn’t plannin’ on goin’ to jail. When they first brought food in it was such gnarly food that I just gave it away. I thought I’d be in and out of there. Well, 20 hours later, I’m starving. There was a point when I was ready to crack. A tear started in my eye, like, “Fuck! Am I ever gonna get out of this fucking place?! Just tell me if I get 30 years or 30 minutes!” They wouldn’t let us have a phone call. I’m not too spiritual, but I remember praying to God, like, “God, please just give me a biscuit or

a crumb! I’m so hungry and cold!” And right then you see this plate of shit you wouldn’t even give your dog come through. It was like grits and fake gravy, with a biscuit. I couldn’t believe it was a biscuit, ’cause I just prayed for a biscuit. It was such a weird coincidence, like, “Thank you God for giving me my crumb. This is a blessing!” The nonfat milk was such a blessing, just to drink something that was nutritional. The rest was the worst. The applesauce was black. I was so hungry, but I still couldn’t even tear into that. I was like, “Dude, that shouldn’t be that color.” Duane’s eatin’ it, so I start in on him. I’m like, “Duane, you fuckin’ look like all these people, dude!

You fuckin’ belong here, dude!” I was ready to snap. Mike was going along with the flow. Finally one of the guards pulled Duane out of the cell and takes him out into the back room. I’m like, “Ah, they’re gonna kill him.” Duane, he’s good under pressure. He starts tap dancing, tellin’ ’em everything they want to hear, like, “Trig’s a worldrecord holder! Evel Knievel gave him the torch! I won the World Championship in 1977!” He just started dancing as hard as he could—anything that could come out of his mouth. He threw out every name in the book at this poor guy.

The cop’s name was Tony. He went back and googled it and he saw some of my Australian jumps, and Evel Knievel handing me the torch, and some of my jumps with Evel… the whole thing, and he realized we weren’t full of shit. He goes, “I’m gonna work with you. I’m gonna fully try to get ya outta here.” He had our cash, watches, cameras…we were loaded to the gills when we went down.

After 24 hours they gotta put you in front of the judge. We’re chain-

ganged with all these complete lunatics that were living under bushes and stuff. We get right up and it’s not even a judge—it’s a television. The judge is at home. I’m ready to talk to this television and give him my best acting—“I’m the most innocent guy ever!” Right when it’s our turn a deputy comes in and unlocks us and tells us to get back in the cell. I’m just like, “Oh my God, this can’t get any worse!” A couple hours go by. I’m tripping out of my mind. This couldn’t be any more stressful for a man. Then Tony, out of all that craziness and weird things that I was thinking—that I’d never see the fucking sun again—all the sudden he unlocked the thing, gave us our papers for the charges, gave back the camera, gave me the check for the 10 G’s, and then he goes, “Hey, there’s some bags out underneath the oak tree.” We went over there and there were the jail suits.

We went and got the car out of impound, but the fleet was already in Orlando. They were already way in front of us. We parked the car at the airport, I bought Mike a ticket and Duane a ticket, and we flew into Miami to finish the last stop. We rolled in with our jail suits and finished it off like troopers. Next thing you know, we’re back on the red carpet, on top of the sickest hotel, swimming with Sheikhs and billionaires [laughs].

F151: Are you gonna do the race again this year?

TG: I’m definitely down if there’s any way I can get my sponsors and I can get a way in. If there’s any way that we can actually work it, I definitely would love to do it again. I can’t say enough about it, man. If anybody ever got a chance to do it, it’s the thing to do. www.triggergumm.com

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Words Maximillion Cooper Over the past ten years we’ve stayed at some of the best five-star hotels in the world. If Gumball was to rate hotels, they wouldn’t all come out as five stars! Some can handle us with flying colors, while others fall apart at having to deal with 300 headstrong wealthy people! Listed below are our top five throughout the rally’s history.

The Four Seasons George V; Paris, France We used this hotel for the start of the rally in 2004. It has regularly been voted the number-one hotel in the world by Condé Nast and CNN Traveller, and we would agree with them on a number of levels. Firstly, they dealt seamlessly with whatever drama we could throw at them.

The night before the rally started we hosted a Gumball party with David Guetta at his nightclub called Fuck Me I’m Famous. The party was great, Guetta’s DJ set was amazing, and afterward in the early hours nearly 500 Gumballers spilled back into the hotel lobby completely drunk. Instead of panicking, the hotel decided to reopen the bar. A top move!

break into the jacuzzi with their newly found lady friends. The hotel staff simply followed them in and asked if they would like anything to drink.

Lastly, one drunken Gumballer decided to illustrate moustaches on the faces of several old oil paintings along one of the corridors. In the morning, when I was alerted to these antics, the manager said, “Don’t worry, Mr. Cooper.

We have it all under control.” After walking me to his office, he played the video footage of one particular person drawing on the paintings, and said, “We have clearly identified who damaged our hotel, and we will deal with them directly.” They did, the Gumballer paid, and everything was seamless.

On top of the way they dealt with us, the service and style of the hotel is second to none.

During these middle-of-the-night antics, several Gumballers managed to

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The Four Seasons Gresham Palace; Budapest, Hungary This hotel was an old palace in the heart of Budapest, overlooking the Danube. We were the first group to use this hotel, as it opened days before our stay in 2006. Its decor was stunning.

Another reason why this hotel stands out as being special is because when I arrived, the hotel general manager informed me that Hollywood legend Paul Newman was staying in the hotel and wanted to meet me. Now, I have to say that Cool Hand Luke and The Hustler are up there in my top-five films of all time, and Newman has been a hero of mine for years, right there with Steve McQueen.

Meeting Mr. Newman and showing him the cars in the rally was a highlight, to say the least!

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The Amanpuri; Phuket, Thailand We used this hotel in 2006, and the only way to describe it is as a paradise hotel. Each Gumballer got a stunning villa with a pool, and I think each room came with about 20 Thai girls!

All villas had beautiful decor and layout with private pools, some pools as long as 20 meters. The pool and courtyard formed something of a centerpiece around which the bedroom pavilions, the dining and living salas, and the kitchen areas were situated.

Bam Margera managed to snap his deck in half at Amanpuri trying to ollie down a huge flight of stairs.

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Photo Ray Cunningham

Koryo Towers; Pyongyang, North Korea Also known as the Twin Towers, this was the most surreal five-star hotel experience I’ve ever had.

Its lobby is a stunning display of communism meets James Bond. It’s commonly known that many of the hotels and nightclubs that opened in Moscow and other communist strongholds during the Cold War era based their designs, gaming offerings, and glamorous girls on what they saw in the early Bond films. That’s a fact!

This hotel boasted a stunning lobby with sharks swimming in a tank and a NATO-style world map behind reception that only featured cities such as Sofia, Warsaw, Moscow, and Havana.

It completely left off the likes of London, Paris, and New York.

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I had the pleasure of staying in this hotel on several occasions during the planning stages of the 2008 rally. On one trip we had lunch and exchanged gifts with Kim Jong-il. That was followed by a tour of the 250,000-seater May Day Stadium (the world’s largest stadium), and then being hosted by the entire North Korean Cabinet for a hearty portion of dead dog for dinner.

After that, all eight cabinet members and I ended up back at “my hotel,” in the karaoke bar in the basement nightclub, singing Elvis songs to each other while getting very drunk. I will never forget the North Korean Minister of War looking into my eyes and singing “Love Me Tender.”

The Gumball Yacht; Monte Carlo, Monaco My last pick isn’t actually a hotel, but a yacht that we chartered for the finish weekend of the 2005 rally in Monte Carlo. Finding a hotel large enough for us in Monaco during the Grand Prix weekend was not an option, so instead of breaking the Gumballers up into different hotels, I decided to get a boat—a very big boat—with over 200 cabins, which was large enough for us to host “the biggest party” among Monaco’s insanely wealthy jet set!

It cost us over $2 million to rent for a five-day period, and unfortunately that five-day period began three days before we arrived. This was undoubtedly the most expensive two nights in a hotel I’ve ever had to pay for!

However, we did party on that boat like rock stars, night and day, for those two nights, and had the pleasure of hosting all of Monaco’s Grand Prix glitterati, as they all came to join us once the word got around that the Gumball party was kicking off. P. Diddy, Prince Albert, Naomi Campbell, and all the Formula 1 drivers came aboard while the Cuban Brothers and Bez from the Happy Mondays spun the tunes.

At one point the captain of Paul Allen’s ship sailed over to us at about 6:00 AM and asked if we could turn down the music, as Mr. Allen was trying to get some sleep on his boat that was next to ours. Unfortunately, that announcement didn’t seem to go over too well, and we turned it up a notch! However, the next night Mr. Allen decided to come aboard and see what he was missing.

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India Waters and Karta, 2004.

Interview Sir Frank It takes a lot of dynamic adjectives to describe the Gumball 3000, but “green” really isn’t at the top of the list. As high-performance as many of the automobiles are, dozens of vehicles driving 3,000 miles every year amounts to a sizable carbon footprint.

One longtime Gumballer has gone out of his way to take a more eco-friendly approach to the rally. For the past few years, Karta Healy has arrived at the starting grid prepared to deliver his message of cleaner, smarter commuting. For the most part he lets his vehicles do the talking, but he’s got a few things to say on the matter himself.

Frank151: Hi Karta. Where are you right now?

Karta Healy: I’m in Shenzhen, China. I have a studio here. I live between London in summer and here in winter. I’m making a range of gear for cycling in the city. I have my own little factory out here. When it comes to May or June I go back to London where I have a shop, selling all my bike designs and the clothing for it.

F151: Can you talk a little more about your bike designs?

KH: The brand’s called TWO n FRO. We’re taking a fresh look at what cycling was 100 years ago and modernizing it with modern materials, and taking into account that there are a lot more cars on the roads. We have to be more visible, but more subtle about our safety. The tagline is, “To and fro, left and right, day and night, on and off the bike.” So whether you’re on the bike or off the bike, the same outfit

can serve you twice. And we make the bicycles as well to go with it. I’ve done three bikes so far.

F151: It’s interesting to me that you’re talking about cycling, but the main reason we’re speaking today is the Gumball 3000.

KH: Yeah. I’ve had a sort of split personality. At the inception of the Gumball [Max and I] had this idea of going for a road trip to Italy or anywhere sunny. We both had vintage race cars that we never used ’cause we rode our BMXs around. So we thought, let’s get our friends out who have nicer cars than us and get a big road trip going. I went away for two months to India, which is where I grew up. I came back and Max had created an absolute hysteria around what the original idea was. He got about 50 of our closest friends in a mad mix of machines and we set off from London and managed to get to Italy—Rimini—and back

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within five days…or seven days. I can’t even remember anymore. But I do remember that only half the cars actually made it back. Max basically said that whoever made it back to London first would have all of their speeding tickets and all their fuel bills paid, which was laughable considering that there was no way there was any money left to do that.

That first year really set the tone because the mix of cars was very much like The Cannonball Run. We had the Japanese team, we had the Arab team, we had the ambulance, just by coincidence and as much by the hunting and pecking Max did to get the right people in the lineup. We had this incredibly magical mix of our closest friends. It was this fancy dress party on wheels.

F151: And when did the eco-consciousness come in?

HK: I was at Saint Martins doing my Product Design degree. It got me thinking: All of the vehicles in the world that have four wheels don’t fit in the city. And a footprint—what we think of as a small footprint—isn’t just this sort of eco-footprint, it’s more the footprint as you’re moving through traffic, and when you have to park it, how much space does it take? That became my thesis. I had this one extreme of going flat out on four wheels out of town, but in town I wanted the same sense of freedom and speed as I had experienced in the Gumball. So I started designing and building my own motorbikes and electric bikes and folding bicycles.

F151: What did you drive the first year of Gumball? Do you remember?

KH: [Laughs] I had a race-replica [Porsche] 911 1968, which had FIA [Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile] papers. The plan was to

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drive that. But I worked for a motorbike magazine called Fast Bike at the time. The owner of Fast Bike had a 355 Ferrari Spider that we took in to get looked at, to just get it tuned up before the 3,000 miles. On the starting grid the morning of the start [laughs], it wouldn’t start. It had some catalytic converter—which is some European emissions-control thing—that if you try to override it, or if you bypass it or if it’s not working, it won’t let the car start. The 5,000 pounds we spent on having the car tuned up, the mechanics had failed to see that might be the Achilles, so I had to start hitchhiking. I just grabbed my bag and jumped in a friend’s car and ended up doing the entire Gumball between a dozen different cars, which was kind of heaven.

Everything from old Jaguar E-Types, to 5.0 Mustangs, to semi trucks, to the new Beatle which had just come out then—it wasn’t even available to the public. I got to be the spare driver, because everyone started getting delirious. I had the best time. I had hitchhiking at its best.

[Laughs] Max had plans to take his Le Mans Racer Lotus 72 that wasn’t ready.

He also had a brand-new Lotus Esprit or something at the time. I don’t think he tells anyone half these secrets, but he promised Jason Priestley a car and it didn’t show up, so [Max] ended up giving him his Lotus for the first Gumball, and we both ended up hitchhiking.

At one point we ended up driving in the same old E-Type, breaking down in Monaco, and having the best adventure. Our opinion of the Gumball isn’t who goes fastest or who spends the most at the bar or all that bullshit. The Gumball really begins when you’re broken down on the side of the road and it’s the interesting situations you get yourself into that you’d never get into unless you were on the Gumball. That

Photo Jonathan Glynn-Smith

is, to us, the spirit of the Gumball—who suffers the most, who endures, who perseveres and gets there regardless of mishaps along the way—that’s who we normally acknowledge with the Spirit of Gumball trophy.

Max and I suffered just having to leave our cars at the starting line, but had such a great time, and gave the Spirit of Gumball trophy to these two kids.

They were 19. One kid, whose dad designed the McLaren F1, had a little car called the Rocket. They’re sitting one behind the other, so it’s literally like he took a rocket off the bottom of a fighter jet. It was that with four wheels and a motorcycle engine, with no roof and no room for maps. They had no sunblock. They didn’t have any money at a certain point and started ducking underneath tolls. Their car was so low that they could just duck their head and drive underneath the tollbooth gate [laughs]. They made it all the way

around and broke down at the last hurdle, and they deserved the trophy because they were just fearless and fast. They really represented the spirit.

F151: Is it true you’ve participated in every Gumball rally?

KH: Yeah, 11 years now. I did a bit of a fluff job on the 11th year because I had to be in Shanghai for the launch of a bicycle that I worked on. So I literally did the start in a BMW 3.0 that had been converted to electric. I showed my face, drove to Vegas, and then got on a plane back to China. I just couldn’t be bothered. I don’t know why, but I have a thing about Highway 10; it’s so boring. I told Max, “I won’t do it if it’s a straight road, ever again.” To me, it just doesn’t do the Gumball any justice having a straight road, in America especially, ’cause it just feels like autopilot. I’m sure if it was a different route I would’ve found someone else to be there in Shanghai, but to be honest, I

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London, 2007.

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had my priorities right last year for the first time in ten years [laughs].

F151: I take it you’re participating again this year?

KH: Yes. It’s a more interesting route, and I’ve got a thing every year. Basically my first year was this fling, and every year since then I’ve thought, OK, how can I do this more sensibly? How can I add a bit of my consciousness to the Gumball? And every year it’s kind of a joke, to be honest. It’s a drop in a bucket, but it’s what I have to do to make myself feel justified going in the Gumball. Whether I’m using biodiesel, or electric, or hybrid, or ethanol, or motorcycle—which I’ve done twice— it’s matching the right vehicle for the route and making a statement, making as much of a noise as I can. It’s a bit like shouting in the wind at times in the Gumball.

I started in a Tesla in San Francisco two years ago. There’s now options to possibly do Gumball in a green way, and ten years ago there was nothing imaginable, so I made it my focus to every year bang that drum. It seems like a bit of a cliché now that we have so much green brigade everywhere, but to have stayed my course in the Gumball and tried to give myself a cleaner option each year, it’s been a fun challenge and it makes the Gumball more colorful.

HK: Every year I bring along a bunch of bumper stickers to take the piss out of the Gumball, and I put ’em on all the cars. The year before last there was some Saudi Sheikh who had a brand new Rolls-Royce Phantom convertible, and he had no license plate, front or back, and didn’t seem to mind.

Leaving San Francisco, I put a bumper sticker on the back of the license plate that said, “Global what?” It’s always fun on the Gumballs to interject that bit of humor.

Some people get very offended.

They’re usually the uptight Americans.

The people who agree with my mentality the most are people who race, people who know how indulgent it is to be burning fossil fuels left, right, and center. My opinion at the end of the day is we should save fuel. We should kick cars out of the city, we should save all that fuel and refine it down to high-grade racing fuel, and really get our joy on the track and get our joy in the cleanest possible way. Race cars burn fuel cleaner. That’s why the fuel’s more expensive.

F151: What’s the plan for this year?

KH: This year I’ve got three Cinquecento 500s. Fiat’s develop some topsecret beyond-hybrid technology, and it’s a bit of a winner. I can’t say more than that. At the starting line they’re willing to let it be more known. So we’re getting three of ’em and doing sort of an Italian Job, but with Italian cars.

What people do every day commuting is cultural suicide. It’s a progress trap that we’ve got ourselves into. So all my work is based around showing that this imbalance in the world is going unchecked, and the Gumball is possibly the worst way to make that point, but it’s my dichotomy—the contradiction of living in the modern world, that we as a generation grew up with all things motorcar, unquestioned, and now we have to question it. So how do we clean up our past and hopefully do better in the future? The Gumball is that opportunity. If anything, it’s a test drive for having cleaner fun.

F151: How do your fellow Gumballers feel about your eco-friendly mindset?

www.agotob.com www.twonfro.com

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Interview Claye Ranewater So you’re born, and by some miracle you’re David Hasselhoff’s godson. You grow up a little and start your own extreme-sports megashow. Around that time you get involved with Gumball and you convince your godfather—possibly still the most famous man in Europe—to drive with you in the original Knight Rider KITT car.

At 22, what else was left for Georgie Fechter to do in life except grow a mullet and still manage to get laid?

Frank151: Why don’t you start by telling us a little bit about yourself.

Georgie Fechter: My name is Georgie Fechter, I’m 22 years old, born in Vienna, Austria—the heart of Europe. I’ve been heavily involved with extreme sports, building my own brand—Masters of Dirt—with a world tour that goes with it. It’s basically a theatrical show with freestyle motocross, minibike, BMX, the Fuel Girls, basically everything that can entertain someone from zero to 80 years old.

F151: Do you ride and participate, or are you more behind the scenes?

GF: I’m more behind the scenes, but I also am participating and I’m a professional mountain bike dirt-jump rider.

It’s kind of a split thing, as I am the manager who doesn’t earn his money by riding, but I also ride.

F151: How did you get introduced to Gumball?

GF: Richie Warren, who is a former Gumballer. He’s done nine rallies by now—he’s a good friend of Max’s—

and he is managing the Fuel Girls, who are dancers at my freestyle motocross event. I found out that he had done the Gumball, and I told him, “Richie, I know the Hoff—he’s more or less my godfather—and I have the Knight Rider car in my garage, so get me in the rally.” And from then on, he got me in the rally. That was 2008.

F151: You drove with the Hoff, and you drove KITT? GF: Yes, exactly. I owned the KITT car, and it was a big, big, big thing to get the Hoff on the rally, because he’s really surrounded and protected by managers and PR agents—one in New York, one in LA—and, “Yeah, you cannot shoot him beside the bar,” and, “No other car brands...” like, untouchable for brands like Gumball. And, you know, you cannot explain something like this to PR agents. I just had to go the private way, and it worked out, and I’m super pumped.

F151: It sounds like you and the Hoff are close.

GF: In ’86 there was the Hasselhoff

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and the Night Rockers tour in Europe that my dad promoted. When I was born in ’87, two days after my birthday, the Hoff and my dad came home, and the Hoff was the first one to hold me in his hands. Then he came over every few years for his gigs and stuff in Austria. But from probably 12 to 21—in 2008 in San Francisco—I haven’t seen him. I was super nervous at first, but everything was still the same. He was the good-old Hoff, it was only me who got a bit bigger! But it was crazy to see the Hoff again. He’s so famous.

He was just the number-one celebrity on the rally and I was more or less his co-pilot, so that was amazing.

F151: Did he have fun doing it?

GF: He had great fun. Basically his PR agent said, “Only one photoshoot,” for me, with the KITT car, for Masters of Dirt and for Gumball, in front of the Roosevelt Hotel. And then really more or less 20 hours before the start line he called me up and he said, “Hey, I wanna drive the first leg.” He only drove out of San Francisco on the highway, then that was it with KITT. He doesn’t seem to love KITT so much anymore. He preferred his Audi. I think it was an S8.

It went from a shoot, to him driving a whole leg, and we’re actually now talking to him again about doing the rally in KITT with me again this year.

F151: Can you tell me a little bit more about the car? Is it the actual KITT? GF: Yeah. The KITT was built by a Hollywood studio. It’s the studio that has been producing all the Knight Rider cars. It was produced for the TV series, but it got shipped over before being used, and it was used for the Hoff’s European tour, for all promotional gigs, for some filming, and for all that kind of stuff. They had, in the studio, a big cockpit, and that cockpit is now in David’s living room.

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Real, full-made KITTs, there are only a few on the market. I think there’s only one in one museum, or something like this. The Hoff has toured in it for over five years, in ’86 in Europe, so we see it as the real KITT. He has no KITT, and I still have it! He only has the dashboard. I still have the whole thing, so that’s pretty cool.

F151: Did you guys have a lot of gadgets on the inside?

GF: We had three KITTs over here.

One fell off the crane—it broke. That was the best one. It had like automatic opening doors and that little gadget in the seat that [any] human can drive the car and it looks like someone else is driving it. Then you had the outside speakers so the car would speak outside, and you have that futuristic dashboard that now, over 20 years later, still looks really, really futuristic.

It’s really great, but you don’t have gadgets, like the eject seat. All that is made in the studio, unfortunately.

Having KITT and being only 22, having such a car in the garage and the Hoff as a godfather is just something you don’t get that easy, and I’m so proud to talk about it. Just the fact that we won Best Car award on the Gumball— where you have the most expensive supercars in the world—in a 1981 Pontiac just shows the status of KITT. F151: You did something a little different for the 2009 rally. You hitchhiked?

GF: [Laughs] That’s true. I’ve always had a reserved place with the Fuel Girls, but then they had some issues with the car.

I flew there, I had no hotel room, no ride, nothing, and within the first night got 11 confirmed rides for the whole rally.

But by the morning I couldn’t remember any of them [laughs]. So that was a little bit of a problem, but then

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Photo Fly

Photo Maximillion Cooper

I found out the Sheikhs—you know the Sheikhs in their robes—that got caught in my mind, and I remembered, Oh, the Sheikhs offered me a place, and I started hitchhiking with them.

get laid and stuff, but the first night I got an Australian chick with the mullet, and then more chicks throughout the rally. So the mullet was only good.

I can’t complain!

We went to a really fancy hairstyle place in Beverly Hills, and I said, “Yeah, I’m going south, to the rednecks, and I want to fit in. What could I get?” Then I got this massive mullet for the rally.

Because Europe is very different than America, and at some point we were all looking up to Americans. We were big “Beavis and Butthead” fans. You know, American rednecks from the South with big cars and funny mullets and stuff. And my cousin said, “You want to be a real man? You once in your life need a mullet and a mustache.” So I took that opportunity and ran the mullet through the whole rally. The hairdresser was like, “Oh my God! That’s so not cute!” I was a bit traumatized and thought I wouldn’t

F151: Was it cool being around people like Trigger Gumm and Rick Thorne?

GF: Trigger Gumm, Duane Peters— those were kind of my guys that I was hanging out with on the rally. I was just so lucky...because I was gonna jump on a leg with them in New Orleans.

They were like, “Yeah! Come on! Jump in!” and I’m like, “Mmm. I’ll wait.” And I went with the “Jackass” guys. We’re passing the highway and there’s like four police cars and the guys are all handcuffed. They got caught for fireworks on the highway and had to spend the night in jail. They had my luggage in their truck. I was so lucky I wasn’t in with them!

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www.mastersofdirt.com

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Words Maximillion Cooper As well as tricked-out, pimped-up custom rides and supercars, the Gumball attracts its fair share of wacky racers. These vehicles usually reflect their drivers’ personalities and quickly become crowd favorites. Here are my top ten.

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Photo Johan Rousselot

Photo Fly Photo Tango

1981 BMW 8-Series Complete with anti-terrorist side and rear flame throwers!

2006 Rolls-Royce Phantom This Phantom had a custom camouflaged Swedish military paint job by the Bow Wow London design team.

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Photo Simon Gray Photo Fly

1988 Bedford Rascal Minivan Styled as the “A-Team” van, driven by Welsh rap group Goldie Lookin’ Chain, complete with a whopping 18 BHP (brake horsepower).

1990 Citroen 2CV Bought on eBay for $200, this 55 MPH French pram came complete with a General Lee paint job.

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Photo Fly Photo Fly

1982 Pontiac Trans Am Firebird (KITT) Better known as KITT, this Trans Am came complete with front scan bar (Anamorphic Equalizer), a molecular-bonded shell, and a thermal-resistant coating. It even had turbo boost, thanks to a series of rear-mounted undercarriage rocket motors, taking the car to speeds in excess of 300 MPH!

1960 VW Samba T1 Twenty-three window split-screen campervan with snakeskin interior, X-Box, and a Porsche Turbo engine with a nitrous-boost switch!

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Photo Dan Anslow Photo Fly

1970 Dodge Challenger 440 R/T Housed in the trunk of this muscle car is the world’s largest car stereo. The speakers rise up on hydraulics, six feet above the car!

1972 Chevrolet Impala “Donk” This Chevy featured 28-inch chrome rims, a candy-metallic paint job, plush interior, and a flat screen.

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Photo Maximillion Cooper Photo Michael Tomlinson

1965 Ford F250 Lowrider This stunning flatbed belonged to Blink-182’s Travis Barker and cruised at one inch off the ground!

1926 Blower Bentley 4 1/2 Litre This vintage racer won the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 1928, but was driven by the Cheeky Girls on the Gumball rally in 2007!

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Photo Ruben Fleischer

Interview Caitlin Collins

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Rob Dyrdek is a busy guy. From MTV’s “Fantasy Factory” to his alternate persona Bobby Light, Rob dreams bigger than the average skater-turned-entrepreneur. We spoke to him about his experiences on the Gumball as well as what we can look forward to from the Fantasy Factory and beyond.

Frank151: How did you get involved with Gumball?

Rob Dyrdek: I think initially another pro-skater friend of mine, Josh Kalis, found it on the internet many years ago. He really, really wanted me to do it with him. We got DC to pay for it and we drove his M5 in the first year and did it across the US. F151: After that you were into it and decided to do it again on your own?

RD: Yeah, and then each year I would do it under another premise. Actually, after the DC video, I did it with Big Black, and Ruben Fleischer filmed a documentary called Six Days in May, which ultimately led to us getting a television show on MTV. It was just me and [Big Black] being wild. It was the ground floor for how we interacted, which led to the show.

F151: Who drove, you or Big? RD: Well, that year we got fucked. We were supposed to get an E55, and we got a shitty X5. And so we were both able to drive that one. The whole thing, I probably drove 90%. And then the following year after that we did a big deal with DC and Subaru. We had all these custom Subarus and raced them across Europe.

F151: Are you a car guy?

RD: I am. Very much.

F151: What kind of car do you drive?

RD: God, I mean, I have a Porsche 996 Turbo, Ferrari Scaglietti 612, S550, I have a T-Rex, I have a truck, a ’69 Camaro with 600 horsepower.... I have a bunch of cars.

F151: And do you remember what your first car was?

RD: Honda Civic, man. Come on.

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Civic Nation. I was so proud to be a Civic owner—are you kidding me?!

F151: Do you have any idea where that Civic is today?

RD: I believe that Civic is probably in someone’s back yard in Ohio somewhere. The reality of it is, when I shot my movie a couple years back about skateboarding, the kid—the main character—drove the exact same blue Civic that was my very first car. The original is long gone now, that thing was passed down to Gene—I actually sold it to my dad and then they put like 120,000 miles on it and sold it for like 400 bucks.

F151: Who would you say is the strangest person you’ve encountered on Gumball?

RD: I can’t think of their names off hand, but those breakdancing rappers that break down into like fully man-tanned thongs and do shows every single stop. I cannot think of their name. They’re brothers...

F151: The Cuban Brothers.

RD: The Cuban Brothers! I mean, holy good God! I can’t even begin to even explain like what happens inside some weird Prague nightclub when those guys all of a sudden strip down to a thong and they’re in the middle of break dancing and rapping and fully waxed spray-tanned bodies in pink and green thongs. It’s…magical.

F151: Do you plan to do the rally again this year?

RD: I’m gonna try to be out in New York for a little bit of it, but it’s just not possible with my schedule. At this point in my life I just don’t have the

time to take off so much time.

F151: What are you working on now?

RD: Wow. I would say, my more major projects—I’m in the middle of the third season of my show, I have a cartoon that I created with my toy line that’s launching next year, and this summer I’m launching a professional skateboarding league which is probably my biggest thing, on top of my movie finally coming out to DVD this spring, and all my other DC collection stuff and all my other brands that I own.

F151: So we can expect another season of Fantasy Factory?

RD: Yeah. I’m just a couple weeks into that. I’ll be doing that this spring, as I’m developing all my animation that’ll be out the following spring, and then my league launches August 28th in Phoenix, Arizona.

F151: What’s the name of the league?

RD: Street League Skateboarding.

F151: Any plans to do more movies?

RD: It’s just to the point now where I have so many different projects and I can’t even.... I sold another show to MTV and I don’t have time to do it, so I’m not gonna do it. My big focus is my league. This is my legacy, this is truly doing something on a massive, massive scale that no one else could do. That’s really outside of doing the television and getting Street Dreams out and seeing through the animation. All my focus is on the league. It’s a revolution.

F151: I saw a picture on your Twitter the other day of you smashing up a car with a sledgehammer outside the Fantasy Factory.

RD: I know. I just lost it. Let me just tell you this—it’s like, never in a million years did [Big Cat] think I was gonna start smashing his car with a sledge-

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Photo Michael Tomlinson

hammer. He was so baffled. I wanted to show my younger cousin [Drama], who has his brand Young & Reckless, “You ain’t even reckless. I’ll show you reckless.” My whole thing was trying to show him how to be reckless, but unfortunately his brother got caught in the line of fire. But I said, “Look. I can afford to be reckless, with responsibility. Now I gotta buy your brother a car.” And I have just bought him the most insane car ever.

F151: What is it?

RD: Since I haven’t shot it yet, I’m afraid to talk about it. But it is, fucking, some of my greatest work.

F151: Is this the same cousin [Big Cat] that hurt his neck last season on Fantasy Factory?

RD: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

F151: What are you doing to him?!

RD: Hey man, we all know, when your wheels start wobbling, let go. Nobody holds on till you hit your head. Every other human being on Earth would have known to let go if you start getting

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sketchy. He just rode it out, straight to his neck. And I feel bad, trust me.

F151: I guess I would let you smash my car to work on Fantasy Factory.

RD: I promise you, it is...ten times more fun than it looks on TV. F151: Well it looks incredible.

RD: [Laughs] Yeah, it’s amazing.

But it’s like, everybody’s at risk when we start shooting, because I think of the most absurd shit because I want to make the most ridiculous TV as possible.

F151: Any last thoughts on Gumball?

RD: Let me say this: The Gumball is more of a spiritual journey than a party. It’s taxing. It tests what you’re capable of. It’s not like you get in a car with your friends, like, “Hey, time of our lives. Let’s drive to the next party.” It’s grueling, and very hard core. www.dyrdek.com

CHOP SHOP CAP COURTESY OF THE FRANK DISTRO LEAGUE AVAILABLE AT WWW.FRANK151.COM AND AT LOCAL FRANK RETAIL NETWORK LOCATIONS WORLDWIDE

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Words Matt Comer Photos Will Robson-Scott The second-hand ticks closer to the zero hour, hardly heard over the whining of pneumatic wrenches and cursing amateur mechanics. The cars are almost complete—steadied and balanced, prepped and ready to roar across 3,000 miles of glory.

This is the night before Gumball.

Keys jingle in hands eagerly moving towards ignitions—hold the breath, twist the tumbler, blast off. One hundred and eighty-degree throttle and skid launch of choreographed speed hurtle around the Windward circle and down Venice’s Main Street with one course in mind: the Viceroy Hotel for the preliminary party to jump off the Gumball rally.

“Doesn’t the fight for survival also justify swindle and theft? In self defense, anything goes.” And with that, bottles of alcohol leave the ownership of others and are welcomed into our fold.

Celebutantes gather around martinis and grimied millionaires flaunt powerplayer money amid nubile beauties.

This is hedonism. This is Gumball and Rogue Status is in the building. The debauchery streams from the evening to the night—drinks raised and emptied, beds filled and razed, and hotel rooms sacrificed to the gods of speed and reckless abandon. The dawn clears and wipes the faces of wearied partiers and almost immedi-

ately transforms them into post-riot racers, biting at the bit to slam their feet down on accelerators.

Yo appears, megaphone in hand with eyes blazed off of 100-octane race fuel and a lack of sleep, barking hilarity at would-be racers and faux Sheikhs. Cars are prepped: one, a post-apocalyptic Nissan Silvia with a newly grafted endoskeleton, and the other, a replica Scion TC drift car with 20 miles on a new race engine. Things will be interesting.

City of Angels to the City of Sin—light and dark collide on a power play of lanes with no regard for speedometers, as if they’re an afterthought in auto construction with the forethoughts being rubber and horsepower. A short blast down the 405 south to Anaheim meets the D1 track, far removed from any Disney experience. No Herbie the Love Bug here.

This is the gauntlet—a full-on drift experience replete with crowds. We are the halftime show, a break from the competition, the rodeo clowns

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on parade. Burnouts occur by the thousands, some drivers piloting their crafts with precision while others lose control before they even recognize it.

The beauty of chaos is upon us. The departure is on and the route resumes towards Vegas at a devil’s pace. The Silvia is moving—Yo with white-knuckle persuasion guiding her through lanes and across desert floors. Grassroots mechanic skills come into play with Yo and his co-pilot, Lou of L-Con racing: Turbocharger dump valve repair fixed three times on the way to hell, three times too many. Miles ahead, Jasper leads the chase in an escorted cinematic photoshoot for Import Tuner magazine—herding expensive cars and over-octaned drivers through the desert for key shots. Looming ahead was Henderson and a shuffle away was the night’s repose: Las Vegas.

The blur begins and ends with sunrise and a guided exit from Nevada’s shelter of iniquity. Now off to Sedona.

Separate from the pack, the TC and the Silvia jump across from blacktop to desert rose as if they were Kowalski in that white Dodge—AZ as their very own Vanishing Point. The joker looms ahead as switchbacks in the canyon roads become downhill playgrounds; the touge drift begins—TC following the Silvia as they spit gravel and dirt in an acrobatic slide around turns.

A ravine inches closer. Clutch kicks and e-brake drifts outside of Jasper and Yo’s skill sets suddenly become a nightmare. One wheel off of the edge in mid-drift turns the carnival into the freak show. One second later the cars are stopped; safe but narrowly escaping the eternal bad day at work.

One beer in the woods later, and then casually slide into Sedona.

The dangers of the road are everywhere. Midway through the Sedona-

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to-Santa Fe run a Bentley alters course in reverse, a hair’s-breadth from excising our photographer. Safe.

And now taxation—party supplies freed from the clutches of a previous keeper and into our hands. Santa Fe to Dallas finds an offroading Lamborghini shortcutting its way into two speeding tickets. The TC fills with water from a departing roof and a rainstorm, hydroplaning mid-drift into oblivion with salvation rearing its welcomed head only seconds before the disaster occurs.

Fleeing from the negative finds the RS boys alight with the intrigue of the road. Dominating in every regard; best burnout show with them on the podium. Ben e-braking the XB, Jasper halfcabbing the TC, and Yo bringing the finale. Flipping donuts to reverse burnouts into a single parking space.

This is Gumball. This is Rogue Status.

On the way to the Big Easy, just outside of Houston, the race deviates and parties skipped. The crew opts to continue spinning tires amid raindrops and oil-slicked tarmac, battling with a Mercedes SLR for first place onto Bourbon Street. Ninth Ward hoodlums crowd around beefed-up horsepower.

Glue-sniffed daydreams quelled with jaw-dropped looks at cars from magazines. Charitable pockets and respectable heads prevailed—with the youth’s pockets lined with something to aid in their futures. Power jumps forth as gas pedals are plunged onward, into the abyss and out of the floodgates towards the home of the Magic. Minutes outside Orleans finds the worst traffic jam since a weekday in LA. Opting for the HOV lane and powering through the far left begins a streamlined assault of more and more vehicles surging away from legal driving into a Mad Max-style sprawl of trailblazing. In this post-apocalyptic cruise the only leather is in the interior

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and trims; steel is replaced with carbon fiber and blow-off valves. Celebration of victorious routing results in firework burns and animated egos.

Miles away from Miami, disaster strikes the TC. One race-prepped transmission rendered rubble from high arcs of acceleration and abuse.

Three thousand miles to glory cut short just 60 miles away from the prize. Into the finish at Miami, drivers find a flurry of activity, the anticipation of the end with the immediate longing for 3,000 more miles to journey at

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dawn. The final laps into town has Yo greeting the city of Miami with policeescorted burnouts amid shout outs to Anheuser-Busch and a welcome finish-line present: a frosted 12 pack of Budweiser. “All glory comes from daring to begin,� and beginnings need finality to strike them home. The end of the line. The repose from the race.

The only way left was to evaporate into the heat, mojitos in each hand, daydreaming of the next adventure.

Stella is her name. www.roguestatus.com

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DRW and Jade Jagger.

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Interview Frank Green Each year the Gumball roster includes a large group of seasoned alumni—rallygoers who have the added advantage of experience.

Though no two routes are ever the same, you can’t comprehend what it is to drive 3,000 miles in one week until you’ve actually done it.

So we thought it would be interesting to interview a newcomer.

Jade Jezebel Jagger is an accomplished fashion and jewelry designer, international party planner, talent spotter, and more— but in the world of Gumball, she’s a rookie. We were impressed to learn that not only is she driving in the 2010 rally, Jade has also been tasked with getting the party started at just about every checkpoint.

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Frank151: This is going to be your first Gumball, right?

Jade Jagger: This is my first Gumball, though I’ve heard about it every year [laughs].

F151: So how did you end up getting involved?

JJ: I have quite a few friends who are good friends with Max. Otherwise we were all at a trade fair in Barcelona last year and we ended up talking about the rally this time and we were all really siked to go on it and have an adventure. I’ve always been a bit of a traveler, so I think this is obviously one of the epitomes of traveling.

F151: Who are you planning on driving with?

JJ: I am driving with my boyfriend Dan and my friends Helen and Simon.

F151: What are you guys driving?

JJ: Hopefully we’re gonna drive a big VW camper van. We’re just working it out. We want to take a good sound system with us because my boyfriend’s a DJ, so we’re going to be doing a lot of the music along the way and we just wanted to exhibit some of the stuff that we’re doing and have a good time while we’re at it.

F151: What name does your boyfriend go by?

JJ: DRW. F151: Are you involved with throwing any of the parties throughout this year’s rally?

JJ: Yeah, we’re involved in doing a lot with the parties. I think we’re gonna do the opening night in London, and Amsterdam there’s a big outdoor party. Copenhagen...nearly all the stops, I think. We’re gonna be an integral part of the entertainment value.

Hopefully we’ll also be a traveling sound system.

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F151: Are you nervous about anything on the rally?

JJ: Well, I have been nervous about driving ’cause we had a big accident quite a long time ago. But in a way it’s sort of soul searching for me to try and get more and more involved in things like this. I went ’round in a two seater at the F1, so I’m trying to beat the fear out of me.

F151: What would you say you’re looking forward to most?

JJ: I think it will be really exciting to go through different countries by land. Being able to see the transition and the changes in the environment and stuff and the cities. When you fly everywhere, it takes the journey out of it.

F151: Has anyone given you any advice about Gumball?

JJ: Well only Max, who I think is obviously a diehard devotee of his very own concept, and he’s very excited about it. I don’t know if that’s advice, but it’s certainly riling us up.

F151: Besides planning for Gumball, what have you been up to lately?

JJ: I’m just about to go to Paris to sell my new Jade Jezebel collection of t-shirts. We just opened a shop in London. My first kinda stand-alone boutique on All Saints Road where I sell more high-end jewelry and the one-off pieces I make for my main line.

So that’s definitely been keeping me busy and quite excited to have that come about. www.iwantjezebel.com

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