Remember pen and paper?
You know, the stuff us oldies used to write with and create communications with before computers, iPads, tablets and phones took over every basic task known to mankind.
Well, that pen and paper played a huge part in kickstarting Gumball 3000, one of the most popular lifestyle brands in the world, one that Forbes now values at over $300 million.
Formed in 1999, according to its founder Maximillion Cooper, the very first Gumball 3000 rally was just a gathering of friends who wanted to drive fast cars, travel and have fun, and the very first invites were handwritten and posted out to each participant.
“I invited 50 odd friends to drive in it,” Max says of the very first Gumball 3000. “I didn’t even have a computer. It was a handwritten invite, I put it in the post and somehow six months later we were driving around Europe.”
Going on to become one of the biggest lifestyle brands on the planet after Max blended business with pleasure, Gumball 3000 is this year celebrating its 20th anniversary. Talking to us in London at the launch of this year’s rally, he continued to reminisce about that very first run:
“It was a Wacky Races, a real life version of it. Kylie and Dannii Minogue were in a little Porsche Boxster and Chris Eubank drove his truck, his big Peterbilt truck. Tony Hawk and Johnny Knoxville and all these skaters that I knew through the skateboard world, slightly pre-Jackass days and all of that, were there and I had that London party fashion crowd – the scene of Kate Moss and co. – and I got them all together and we drove around Europe and did a party every other night.
“We then came back to London – and again we had no internet back then to note, and no social media, of course – and over the course of the next four months we got the covers of GQ, Esquire, FHM, Loaded, Maxim, you name it we got features in it, covers of it, and Gumball was born.”
With so many musicians who take part in Gumball 3000, many of whom are friends of Max’s, and his wife is Grammy Award winning rapper Eve, what is on Max’s playlist for the drive from London to Tokyo this year?
“That’s a good question,” he begins. “Every year there’s a song of the trip. There becomes an anthem for the rally. I don’t know who it’s going to be this year. There are some of the obvious artists, like the J. Cole’s, who are hot at the moment.
“But my playlist usually involves The Clash. The Clash are still my all-time, you know, they’re up there as the best. Then my wife flips from Clash to Hip Hop, and everything else actually, we like everything, but even she’s a Clash fan so that’s on my list.”
Even though it’s probably like trying to name his favourite kid, we had to know what Max’s favourite Gumball 3000 has been so far?
“It’s hard to pick just one,” he says, as expected. “But the one I look back at and think ‘How the hell did I do that?’ was 2008 when we went from San Francisco to Beijing and en route had a 24 hour stop off in Pyongyang in North Korea hosted by Kim Jong-un. I don’t think we could top that one.
“But then my other favourite one was 2014 which was Miami to Ibiza and three days after the rally me and Eve got married in Ibiza. So that week for me was my sort of stag week and I invited all my old mates and we all drove together and it was great fun.”
Gumball 3000’s 20th anniversary race takes place August 4th – August 12th 2018 and will see drivers such as Eve, Usher, Jillionaire, Jeremy Piven, Adrien Brody, David Hasselhoff, Bun B, Dallas Austin and more travel from London to Tokyo.
For more info visit: https://www.gumball3000.com
