Hi Alex,
thank you for the list, but there are a few things to be discussed.
You wrote it: You made the list by your best efforts.
But there are a few things you can never know during a Gumball.
And I think you forgot about a few cars that were really pushing it and were always in front of some cars you listed.
What about the red Maranello from Switzerland with the two spanish guys in it? What about the red 430 with the registration "40 ks" or something like that? I also can remember a Vanquish or DB9 always going very very fast.
For your information because you asked: The silver GT2 with #68, as known as our second car, came in first in KRKA. The red Maranello came in second. And both came in third and fourth in Prague.
About your 5th place in Taormina:
I was told by a guy at the ferry to Sicily that three cars had already passed. The black/orange SLR, Kalbas and Remy and a F430. If that was right, we (GT2 and GT3) came in 4th and 5th. Then came another F430 and then came Team Polizei.
You arrived in KRKA when we left. Maybe you remember, we changed a few words. But there were more than 10 cars who already had arrived there. I don´t know when they left Budapest and I don´t care. But we overtook a few cars that must had left Budapest before 7am. And that is the big question for me: Where from can one know when the single cars leave the checkpoints?
Regarding Dubrovnik: #68 came in second, we came in 4th or 5th, depends on the following: When the GT2 arrived they noticed (if i remember right) a 355. But they never saw this car on this day. Not during the leg and not in KRKA. So maybe the GT2 was first. But maybe the 355 was so goddamn fast that nobody noticed them. I don´t know that. Do you?
There are so many things that are unknown that it is impossible to put it in a list like you did.
And only because that there seems to be a problem with the black/orange SLR doesn´t mean that he doesn´t deserve a ranking in the top5. Don´t get me wrong, I don´t know him. I don´t know whether he is a nice guy or an *******. And I don´t care. He knows how to drive his car. And he knows to drive it very fast. That is the only thing I care about him. After all I don´t want to marry him.
If it is right that he didn´t stop to help some other Gumballers, he is very unfair and I totally agree with you and your opinion.
Cheers
Nils
Thanks so much for posting such a detailed response! I'll make any corrections as I can today and tomorrow. This is exactly the kind of information I wanted to see. Of course such a list can never be definitive (which is why it's labeled unofficial), so I'm relying on information like yours. Sightings and comments from people like yourself carry the most weight, because drivers like you are known for sportsmanlike behavior. We've run together and I've never known you to depart early and claim a high ranking spot. I think we can all agree that it was always an amusing mystery to see cars arrive early at checkpoints that would have had to exceed the laws of physics to get there so far ahead.
I'll be posting my full diary within 2 weeks, along with our GPS track files, for those who can read them using Garmin Mapsource software.
Creating such a list is, of course, controversial, and I expect to receive more comments like yours, but this is a good thing, and I hope to hear more like this. We've contacted multiple Gumball staff to corroborate early departures vs. arrivals, and getting this information is tough. They cannot publish it due to liability concerns.
I did my best to adjust for drivers who were delayed due to stopping to help others. I will immediately make the correction regarding Taormina, but the fact is there are excellent drivers in top cars that consistently left early to gain bragging rights, if not plotted outright, to delay other participants. Whether one considers this a rally or a race...I think we can all agree that's nothing to brag about. I will confess that I did post the police caution tape at the Messina port tol block traffic, but I hope we can all agree that this delayed everyone equally, and that I did not gain rankings as a result. I did gain 35 minutes, however...
Of course it's not a race, but there are groups of drivers who take it quite seriously - I myself witnessed some unbelievable driving (which I have on video) from multiple cars, which is why I'd love to hear your nominations for unofficial award categories and assemble that into a video archive in order to reward their efforts in our small community.
I love watching these videos as much as anyone, and one of these awards has to pertain to the video I'm watching of you and I running with Spencer and the civilian Silver Porsche Turbo in Italy, then getting pulled over en masse in Italy.
best,
Alex
