Top Run

Last saturday GT3000 held a photoshoot for their 2008 Calendar. Just like last year exclusive and fast cars and beautiful girls made the ingredients for the photoshoot done by car-photographer Dino Pannhorst. The location for the photoshoot this year was the workshop of Edo Competition, located in a great rural industrial complex in Germany. Edo provided a number of cars for the 2008 calendar photoshoot including a one-off Edo tuned Maserati MC12 Corsa and a Ferrari 599 GTB. For pictures of all the other cars check out the pictures taken by Markus and the pictures taken by Stephan! For details on how to get your hands on one of these calendars keep an eye on this forum topic the next two weeks!

After the photoshoot we continued to the Elephant Club in Bielefeld for a Grey Goose powered VIP party. With plenty of girls, GT3000 videos playing on a big screen and two 4.5 liter bottles of Grey Goose we had all the ingredients for a good party. Check out our gallery for more photoshoot and party pictures!

PCP finished the first bit of his Top Run 2007 story. This story is totally different then their previous Gumball stories, as an organiser your perception and especially preparation for an event like this is totally different then as a driver. Read all about PCP’s busy and stressful days before the start on their website! For all potential rally organisers remember organising a succesful event sounds easier then it is, big thumbs up for GT3000 and the crew they did an awesome job! Luckily after all teams got on the road the pressure released and the organisers got the chance to enjoy it as much as the drivers. Read his rally story!

Dino Pannhorst released some of his photos taken during the first Top Run tour last May. The pictures from the start until the trackday on the Hungaroring are added to the Top Run website. Stay tuned for the rest of his Top Run pictures! For all our Top Run photos visit the Tangospeed Gallery!

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Our Top Run story continues:

Top Run Day 1 - Berlin to Budapest!

After a short sleep, delicious breakfast and saying good bye to Hece who had to go back to Finland. I jumped in the back of the Mercedes S 55 AMG of Andre and Henning who kindly offered me a ride after Hece bailed out. Our Top Run kicked off at the Ritz Carlton about 10 am. We were one of the last to leave, only Edo’s Cayenne and the M6 were still in the garage when we left. Right outside the hotel we were stopped by the German police to check the papers of the car and Andre’s drivers license. Everything was in order and off we went towards our first waypoint: Prague. I tried to sort Eastern European maps for my navigation system the night before but the ones Hece gave me didn’t work so we only had navigation until the Czech Republic. We got a call from Team Red Bull, they were already stopped by police and got a full drug test setting them back some 20 minutes. We took it very easy and still within Berlin the orange Lamborghini appeared in our rear view mirror, we followed him onto the highway but after 5 minutes he took the exit, we kept following the Mio navigation and after 10 minutes he was behind us again. On the highway towards Dresden we had to stop for gas and found the orange Lamborghini again together with the silver Mercedes SL. I bought a paper map for Czech Republic and Slowakia to navigate our way from the Czech border through Slowakia towards Budapest. Cruising towards Prague we jumped most of the line at the German / Czech border which saved us a lot of time.

Team Red Bull (DMC, Sten & Jack) kept sending us updates on their position and their progress. About 60 kilometers before Prague we saw them on the hardshoulder with a police car, we thought they were pulled over and stopped at the nearest gasstation just 400 meters down the road. After a couple minutes the orange Lamborghini pulled in behind us, wonder how we managed to overtake them twice! When I called DMC he explained they burst the front right tyre and were waiting for a towtruck. We decided to go back and see if we could help them. Easier said then done… 15 kilometers later we finally reached the next exit and drove all the way back to where they were standing with the M3 CSL. The front right tyre had a hole as big as two tennisballs on the inside of the wheel, they said the towtruck was coming and the three of them wanted to stay together and probably stay in Prague for the night. With not much we could do we jumped back in the car and headed towards Budapest, but 10 minutes later we got a call if we could please come back and take one of them because the towtruck called and said it had only room for two passengers… So we drove all the way back and picked up Jack. We cruised through Czech Republic without any problems and saw GTspirit member Zbynek on the side of the road with his laptop reporting live at our forum! Sadly it was to late to stop and we lost to much time already to go back.

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Team Red Bull entered a slightly modified BMW M3 CSL in the Top Run. Here’s the team captain’s story on the week:

Day 1: Chelmsford, Essex –> Berlin (1100km)

Up early and a long drive to Berlin, via the Channel Tunnel. Arriving in Berlin about 9.30pm, nearly 14 hours of traffic and shite roads and weather all the way. Staying in the Ritz Carlton Berlin, really, really beautiful hotel. Checked in & straight off to the restaurant where most people had finished their meal and I met the 3rd member of our team, Sten the mad Norwegian. Couple of beers and back to the hotel for some more drinks and finally some dinner.

Hit the sack shattered after a long day.

Day 2. Berlin (0km)

Up reasonable, for a breakfast in the lovely club lounge. Acquainting ourselves with the very nice and friendly staff. Then out for a bit of atm bashing and a very little bit of shopping. Then back to the club lounge and on to the free booze and some lunch. Then registration. Then back to the room for a power nap and a quick spruce up for the dinner club Bangalu. Quite an awesome place.. (You can see the pictorial evidence of this on www.tangospeed.com) We really had a good night, first chance to meet everyone and get used to the support girls incredible drinking ability !!

Day 3. Berlin - Budapest (881km)

First up was a good breakfast and lots of water. Then a quick trip to the car park, and chuck the bags in, set up the navigation systems and off we go.. Oops right outside the hotel a squad of german traffic police checking our papers. Remember Smythers Rank and Serial number only !! Very nice traffic cop was only interested in my road angel bracket, which i managed to convince him was just a accident black spot warning system. Pulled out of the hotel and off down the road feeling very nervous. Immediately followed by an unmarked police car. Who just before the limits of Berlin City pulled me over and took half an hour doing a full spectrum drug test. Obviously I was all clear. It was a pain in the arse though and wasted valuable time. We carried on and drove very sedately in Germany (unless it was an unrestricted section).

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Top Run Day -2 - Catching up with Tangospeed!

After a quick stop home after our trip to the Carbon Black afterparty in Venice I caught up with Hece and Tango of Tangospeed in Bochum, somewhere in western Germany. That night we went out for dinner and a couple beers but soon got bored and decided to have a go at Hece’s car with permanent markers :-D Hece wrapped his S4 in white just before the start of Carbon Black but 6000 kilometers later and after ripping off all the Carbon Black stickers it could use a bit of new paint here and there. Our artwork in progress caught some good attention in the hotels parking garage and the hotel employees had a good laugh watching the security cameras upstairs also.

Top Run Day -1 - Time to go to Berlin!

Sadly Tango had to go back to the UK due to a family emergency. I drove with Hece to Berlin in what must have been the worst friday traffic ever. Mainly due to the rain all the way to Berlin, but thanks to our hard work the night before we got a lot of people laughing at the car! After a small detour through Potsdam we arrived at the Ritz-Carlton in Berlin where the Top Run welcome committee couldn’t believe their eyes! After a couple beers at the lounge of the hotel and a quick dive in the pool we went out for dinner and welcomed DMC and Rat Boy after their long drive from London. After dinner in a very nice Italian restaurant some went out to party but I went back to the hotel because I suffered from the worst cold ever.

Top Run Day 0 - Registration and kick off party!

Woke up around 10 am, felt worse then the night before and promised myself not to party tonight and go to bed early… Around 3 pm we had to go to room 1103 to register, sign the trophies, meet the support girls and get our Top Run goodies. After meeting some more fellow Top Runners we had to go to Bangaluu for the dinner and start party. Upon arrival we were greated with a glass of champagne and shown to the restaurant on the top floor of this venue. Not long after we arrived there Tangospeed and Team Red Bull showed it’s best behavior and used the napkins to dress up like pirates, clowns and babies. And before I had a chance to look at the menu it flew halfway down the restaurant as one of the planes of the Top Run airfleet. Only when Hece build a 1.5 meter long jetfighter of the paper tablecloth and hit a huge salt and pepermill like the twin towers the control tower told us they were not to happy with all the early take offs! By then all the waiters and most of the restaurant directly surrounding us were already stickered up with tangospeed and GTspirit stickers…

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Trafic jams - the big subject today. Very bad, because with 1200 km the leg today was the longest during the Top Run. Destination was the beautiful Lago di Garda in Italy. Tomorrow the pack is leaving Italy very early, to reach the final and last checkpoint. It’s no secret anymore, that it will be Monaco. Hopefully the Top Runner have more luck with traffic…

Read the latest updates in our Top Run forum!

We just found this article, about the Top Run in the Croatian internet news portal Javno:

Top Run Rally Secretly Goes Through Zagreb
20 cars that participate in the Top Run arrived to Zagreb last night. Only our camera managed to catch them.

Last night, the 20 cars that participate the Top Run arrived to Zagreb. Their arrival to Croatia, as well as most of the event itself, were kept secret so that the participants would have as few problems with the police as possible. Nonetheless, they gladly posed for the camera for Javno.com, they allowed us to take pictures of their cars, and briefly told us what their impressions were. …

The Top Run official website opened on the very day Top Run started. It stated that the start line was in Hamburg, where a significant number of enthusiasts gathered and were left disappointed. As we already said, in order to avoid trouble with the police, the start line was in Berlin and all the details of the event had not been revealed.

After the start in Berlin, the drivers headed toward Prague and Budapest and then to Zagreb. Even though they only arrived last night and stayed at The Regent hotel, early this morning they sat behind the wheels of their pets and continued the Top Run in the direction of Dubrovnik, where a ferry awaited to take them to Italy. The finish line is in Monaco, where the participants, organizers and friends will have a big party.

more pics at the end…

The purpose is primarily to have fun, a good time, and enjoy driving through several European states. There is no winner or prize. What the participants of the rally will take home with them are nice memories, experience, and great tales that will keep on being told for a long time to come.

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Today the participants of the Top Run are having the longest and hardest day during the complete trip: 1200 km in just one day! Good that guys had yesterday enough time to relax in the Hotel Palace in Dubrovnik. We got officialy confirmed, that the Top Run lads had the highest beer consumption at the pool bar ever seen.
Today’s leg will lead the pack to a secret location in Italy. And we are pretty sure that the guys will enjoy ‘La dolce vita’ this night. On the way there, the guys allready had a lot of fun, even a little poor bird had to let his live at the Mercedes cooler and star of the S 55 AMG…

Read the latest updates in our Top Run forum!

Today Top Run visited the Hungaroring. With 30 degrees and a clear blue sky it was a perfect day to race around this F1 track. Appart from some overheated brakes everything went fine and everybody really enjoyed it. Just before we had to leave for Zagreb we had a couple laps in DMC’s M3 CSL, and oh boy is this thing great for a track or what! We were glad to see the car back on the road this morning with two brand new cup tyres on the front wheels after the right front tyre blew to pieces yesterday.

Read the latest updates in our Top Run forum!

Pictures:

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Top Run took off! Berlin was the place, where Top Run finally hit the road. But first the participants had to complete a party program, which was the cream of the crop. Place for the saturday party was the famous Bangaluu Club Berlin. Top Run photographer Dino Pannhorst was on the spot, to take some great pictures (see below).
On sunday the pack hit the road to the first destination: Budapest in Hungary. But on the way or crew member Rat Boy had some bad luck. The BMW M3 CSL had a flat tyre some kilometers outside of Prague. The CSL had to be towed off. So Rat Boy had to finish the rest of the leg with site admin Des at the backseat of the S 55 AMG. But we are pretty sure that the CSL is going to be fixed for the next stage.
Budapest is now the place for next big party. And again in one of the finest clubs in town, the Signo Cafe. There the Top Runner can look forward for drink specialities and beautiful ladies…

For the latest news about the Top Run, please visit our Top Run forum!

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Check out the brand new MMS-Blog for the Top Run. Forget about those boring live tracking systems. In the past most of the drivers were not able to handle it and it didn´t work very well at all.

View the MMS-Blog here!