This bunch of pratts give motorsport a very bad name

[geoffd]

Here's a question that'll upset a few people....

So, whats the difference between a scumballer doing well in excess of 100mph, and someone going to LM doing well in excess of 100mph down the peage?

I know the scumballers are likely to be doing some dodgy driving too but....

I'm not one of those green people, (etc) who are against speeding, how could i be with a TVR and an Aston, but bragging about excessive speeds on a foreign motorway just doesn't do it for me I'm afraid.

Or have I missed the point.....

[monkey]

Here's a question that'll upset a few people....

So, whats the difference between a scumballer doing well in excess of 100mph, and someone going to LM doing well in excess of 100mph down the peage?

I know the scumballers are likely to be doing some dodgy driving too but....

I'm not one of those green people, (etc) who are against speeding, how could i be with a TVR and an Aston, but bragging about excessive speeds on a foreign motorway just doesn't do it for me I'm afraid.

Or have I missed the point.....

I have quite a bit of sympathy for that argument actually Geoff..............

However as I do not drive down to the worlds greatest motor race at speeds in excess of the speed limit I feel perfectly entitled to throw the odd proverbial rock at these tw+ts....

[Lancs Se7en]

Err um I think that you are missing the point and let me say that I have also been known to ignore certain statutary limits.

These guys are racing, there is no other way to describe what they get up to. Most of them seem from the footage to be hooray henry's who are after an egotistical buzz. If they want to race then get a licence, fit a cage and get on the track or do a track day.
If you have seen any of the footage from recent events then a lot of the event takes place on mickey mouse roads so we are not talking about 2 and three lane motorways. The other thing is that a lot of the roads used are rural and rural in that part of the world means rural

This event has been a major fatal accident waiting to happen particularly as most of the drivers seem to indulge in evening piss ups, again footage has been shown on tv with some of them looking as rough as bears bottoms the following morning.

[Robbo SPS]

Driving to le mans quickly where suitable and driving all the way like your on fire is very different.

I have seen 100 mph under takes on the hard shoulder from this lot. They were always going to kill someone, and now its happened.
I go to Europe to enjoy the roads with my biker mate as if and when we may sped, in the Uk i face a ban ?, lose my job ? And then treated worse than a criminal. If i get caught or do anything wrong in Europe, i get kicked out the country a big fine etc. Its a reason why we dont tour the UK.

I feel very sorry for the death and the families, ive seen too often crashes.

I will wait until an official report is realeased to make my quote, there is every chance we dont know anymore than is being reported.

If the Artist driving (painting is a good job ) has comitted these offences, he will be serving time very soon, and he will deserve it.

If a porker sriving toff undertook white van man in this country, there would be a punch up. The Europeans seem a little more reserved than some our our Bretheren.

[Nordic]

I wonder what the headlines will read when a local gets hit head on by a pillock going round the Houx annexe Roud-a-bout, pissed out his skull.

Regardless of this most recent incident, they have been enough near misses in the past for us to draw a pretty good idea on the state of mind of the average Gumball 'driver'.

[Perdu]

I saw some of the coverage of the IDIOTRACE on telly, it was obvious that some of these people shouldnt be in charge of a Dinky car.

The Rally is an insult to motorsport and those of us who love it. That two lives were shattered by irresponsible cretins is awful and I hope the guy's poor wife gets better.

The driver and his buddy should rot in a jail for as long as the law (locally) allows and the Briitish Government should resist calls to get them out early, too.
 
Shame the Rally gets any publicity and a shame that somehow all of a sudden it is getting tacked on to my trip to Le Mans every year.

I've been going for some years now, been in a happy convoy of Brits, Dutch guys and members of every northern European nation's car owners, on the way down and back. We all seem to drive with a wide grin on our faces and although at times the streams of cars have the occasional "fasterthanme" user they often seem to be French car drivers. But I haven't yet seen any British cars that were blatantly faster than the stream by huge margins. Heading for Calais I left Rouen last year in company with a guy in a Bentley "poshfast Spur type thingy" an Aston DB7 a TR6 and many other superb motors. After we passed the poor geezer with the burnt out Combi which held us all up terribly and blatted off again to the next peage, when I looked around the lines of cars at the peage there was the Bentley, over there the Aston behind him the TR and all the rest.

Worramisaying? Well fast road use or not the general rules of decent proper driving were being held to.

I hardly consider this to be like the Gumballtwatts at all!

For all the drinking we do on site, (yes me too!) I'm sure most of us have a clear enough head and bloodstream before we leave La Sarthe to be OK on the road

I blarry hope so anyway!

I take Nordic's point about the Annexe roundabout and have seen it a couple of times now, and each time it gets worse.

But thankfully there don't seem to be that many Sarthaise drivers daft enough to go round it on MAD FRIDAY evening, you wont get me near the place in a car on Friday evening...

 

[nopanic - neil]

Words fail me. My heart felt sympathies to the victims and their families. I have seen bits of coverage for this event before and thought what an outstandingly stupid idea it was.

I am struggling from going to google to find out if these w+nkers have a 'club gumball' so I can sign up and tell them just what I think of them and their moronic event.......

Found the Gumball web site forum, worth a look at; make up your own mind up on the postings, but now I know why I like CA, DFH, Sebring fans and United Race fans forums.

http://forums.gumball3000.com/index.php?sid=52e4f3cbcb2b2ce6b91219669d964d77

Was going to join, so I could express a few views, but life is to short.

[Andy Zarse]

Here's a question that'll upset a few people....

So, whats the difference between a scumballer doing well in excess of 100mph, and someone going to LM doing well in excess of 100mph down the peage?

I know the scumballers are likely to be doing some dodgy driving too but....

I'm not one of those green people, (etc) who are against speeding, how could i be with a TVR and an Aston, but bragging about excessive speeds on a foreign motorway just doesn't do it for me I'm afraid.

Or have I missed the point.....

Interesting point Geoff.

I can't see so much difference in various car-related "antics" on the trek to the Sarthe and the Gumball (which I recall incidentally was promoted heavily at LM last year); people die and are hurt in accidents on the way to and from Le Mans from time to time. I'm not saying it's right but it is a fact. And it's always bothered me that when I go on the pit straight for the LM prize giving, everyone's either drinking or recovering from a terrible hangover. Then think about all those cars streaming out of the circuit immediately post-race, who's drivers have spent the thick end of a week hammered beyond all logic. You'll never convince me that they are all within legal limits to drive and when did we ever have so much forum tub-thumping regarding that?

I'm not interested in how much money folk have got and how they chose to spend it, whether or not they are "celebs", or what cars they drive.  I'm not going to fill myself with righteous "Daily Mail" indignation, certainly not on the basis of a very brief and uncorroborated Sky News report. I'm equally unsure that the organisers have ever called it a "race" or is this simply more media sensationalism? Believe it or not, being Tara P-T isn't actually a crime, but dangerous driving is. As is leaving the scene of an accident, although the proper facts have yet to emerge. If there's a prima facie case, the people involved should be tried in a Court of Law, just the same as if you or I had been involved. If found guilty they should be punished. End of story.

Surely it's sensible to wait and see what really happened, not rely on initial media reports which may be both inaccurate and "sensationalist". It's all a matter of opinion, but I strongly believe we need to examine the actual facts here before we all get on our high horses.

[Chrisgr31]

So, whats the difference between a scumballer doing well in excess of 100mph, and someone going to LM doing well in excess of 100mph down the peage?

It is a fair point although at least on the Peage everyone is going in the same direction, and will not be crossing the road at right angles etc.

However some of the driving I have seen on route to le Mans does defy belief, but at the same time the driving seen on the Gumball is even worse!

[termietermite]

Channel 4 broadcast a series of programmes about this bunch of t*ss*rs.  5 minutes and I could not watch any more.  Breaking speed limits on open roads which are free of pedestrians is one thing.  But what these guys do is just criminal.  Some of them haven't just had one too many but are totally p*ss*d out of their heads when they get in their cars - and god knows what else they have sniffed/smoked/injected on top of that.  The expression "more money than sense" is no more apposite than when it's applied to some of them.  Pity somebody has to die to bring this to people's attention.  And calling it a "Rally" just gives it a serious sounding name which brings motorsport (which the Gumball most certainly is not) into disrepute.

[Piglet]

I'm fairly consistent about this high horse from which I type.

I dislike some of the driving (and the bragging) to LM, I have said for a long time that there will be a fatality (not the first I think?) at the roundabout and in the town centre or on a campsite.  A couple of years ago some tosser in a TVR chose to wheelspin on MB around the roads that we were camped alongside - he thought this was great fun for half an hour at 2am.  Nice one dickhead, I felt less secure in my tent adjacent to the roadway.  How sober do I think he was? 

I break speed limits - mainly on big open motorways and some A roads.  I avoid speeding through motorway workings where I feel that the workers deserve to be as safe as they can be (it's the marshal in me!).  I don't break speed limits in towns and villages where I believe they exist for a reason. 

I don't though go out with the intention of driving like a dickhead - as I believe a lot of folks do on their way to LM and around LM - my standard description is that clearly a lot of people clearly leave their brains home for safekeeping!! 

Sadly the Gumball strikes me as a bunch of people who do go out with the intention of driving like dickheads (as do some LM'ser), I've also seen a short amount of the coverage and that has clearly coloured my perception of them. 

[monkey]

Interesting point Geoff.

I can't see so much difference in various car-related "antics" on the trek to the Sarthe and the Gumball (which I recall incidentally was promoted heavily at LM last year); people die and are hurt in accidents on the way to and from Le Mans from time to time. I'm not saying it's right but it is a fact. And it's always bothered me that when I go on the pit straight for the LM prize giving, everyone's either drinking or recovering from a terrible hangover. Then think about all those cars streaming out of the circuit immediately post-race, who's drivers have spent the thick end of a week hammered beyond all logic. You'll never convince me that they are all within legal limits to drive and when did we ever have so much forum tub-thumping regarding that?

I'm not interested in how much money folk have got and how they chose to spend it, whether or not they are "celebs", or what cars they drive.  I'm not going to fill myself with righteous "Daily Mail" indignation, certainly not on the basis of a very brief and uncorroborated Sky News report. I'm equally unsure that the organisers have ever called it a "race" or is this simply more media sensationalism? Believe it or not, being Tara P-T isn't actually a crime, but dangerous driving is. As is leaving the scene of an accident, although the proper facts have yet to emerge. If there's a prima facie case, the people involved should be tried in a Court of Law, just the same as if you or I had been involved. If found guilty they should be punished. End of story.

Surely it's sensible to wait and see what really happened, not rely on initial media reports which may be both inaccurate and "sensationalist". It's all a matter of opinion, but I strongly believe we need to examine the actual facts here before we all get on our high horses.
[/quote]

Mr Zarse, all good points, well made.

[Andy Zarse]

Channel 4 broadcast a series of programmes about this bunch of t*ss*rs.  5 minutes and I could not watch any more.  Breaking speed limits on open roads which are free of pedestrians is one thing.  But what these guys do is just criminal.  Some of them haven't just had one too many but are totally p*ss*d out of their heads when they get in their cars - and got knows what else they have sniffed/smoked/injected on top of that.  The expression "more money than sense" is no more apposite than when it's applied to some of them.  Pity somebody has to die to bring this to people's attention.  And calling it a "Rally" just gives it a serious sounding name which brings motorsport (which the Gumball most certainly is not) into disrepute.

Ah yes, Channel 4, the motorist's friend.  

How do we know the drivers were "totally pissed"? Were they breathalysed? Did we actually see them snorting bingo up their hooters or freebasing on The Horse? I freely admit the participants are, to put it mildly, "not really my type of people". But do we really know all these brickbats are cast iron fact? (Apart from some of them driving like cocks on occasion, that's taken as read.)

I'm sorry, but I'm very suspicious of the media and their underhand political intentions. The BBC are a case in point, they have such an anti-car attitude it's ridiculous. And now it's all "carbon" this, "footprint" that, "receding ice caps are killing the polar bear" the other. As I hope we all know, the Great Global Warming Swindle is possibly the biggest scientific con trick played on mankind ever, but you'd never guess that from the mainstream media.

[termietermite]

Yes you are right, Andy.  The booze was there for all to see - bottles and bottles of 'poo the night before and the same people driving the next morning.  The rest, you're right, I have no evidence except the odd behavioral clue!  Pure conjecture on my part.

[Paddy_NL]

Surely it's sensible to wait and see what really happened, not rely on initial media reports which may be both inaccurate and "sensationalist". It's all a matter of opinion, but I strongly believe we need to examine the actual facts here before we all get on our high horses.

Of course we shouldn't completely rely on "sensationalist" media reports. But they went through our little country, which is only about 100 miles wide. Verdict: 8 drivers licences seized and two cars impounded. There might be some truth in what they write