CharadeSpots: October 2024

Good morning, sadly, no gumball cars here.

21 September 2024.

One of the most anticipated events of the year, supers and hypers from select countries driving from Saigon to Singapore, through each country creating a spectacle of incredibly rare and exotic machines parading through, even parking in some places.

Sorry, we couldn't make it happen. But, neither could they...

Well, here are minimally two routes, the right listed by Gumball and the left by one of the partaking groups:

If you were present for Gumball waiting for the cars to come, you'd come to find out and realize that really, almost none of the cars necessarily went through the devised route. The whole matter was and still is in my eyes a complete mess, but you could imagine the literal thousands of spectators awaiting the overseas visitors to come past through the designated route. Sadly, not the case here.

For us, it needn't have mattered. You see, we were setted up on the wrong place.

Where the first image and revised route showed Suntec City, we were stationed on the other side of the roundabout, at Millenia Walk, where the cars wouldn't pass through. Doomed from the start.

BUT!

Where Gumball itself didn't really fulfill, since it was F1 Weekend, and with car owners themselves also being interested in the whole event, the spectacle that the local car scene delivered through MW? Not so bad actually, and its what this post is going to be covering more in detail. I will again say, that this post features ZERO gumball cars. We were just incredibly unlucky. Haiz.

Just to follow the timeline of the day, here's some cars while otw to the designated locations:

Have never seen a 996 Porsche 911 using its active wing.

Same time as Gumball, QT Hotel had a small selection of hyper performance cars on display. We visited this location before setting up for Gumball, but it'll be reserved in a different post. If the link for it is ready, you'll see the host hyperlinked here.

Anyways, now for photos and videos. Past QT Hotel and through Millenia, I guess this was the only Gumball car we saw anywhere.

So this, a Ferrari FF, and a few other supers on display as a slight norm to the Millenia experience.

Alternatively, least where I am concerned, the last era of cars that I can reasonably recognize. That or my selection of knowledge is extremely subjective. I don't recognize Mclarens apart from the F1 and MP4-12C, Senna, and german cars past the E92 M3 and W204 C63 are basically completely out of my knowledge pool. This green M3 is a treat for the eyes.

And where we set up. As you can see if you know the route, we're not overlooking the route. Sadly, none of us knew, but the traffic should have been an indication.

Suppose this was a highlight more than anything, with the "1948" Lamborghini Aventador with Gintani exhaust system paving hell around the city area on this day. Cool and all especially for a first time, but look at this Subaru Legacy RS.

Really though, waiting around anticipating the Gumball cars to eventually come through but also fearing that we were both in the wrong area and the cars wouldn't turn up...

Not all that bad I guess. The local community is providing in spades as seen by the sheer volume of uncommon classics and enthusiast dreams. SGRetroCar's Strosek Porsche 928S made an appearance to Millenia too.

Say, star of the show is one of the clubs coming through the stretch, featuring, as seen, multiple Lamborghinis and other cars. At the bottom of the blogpost, you'll see a video that I have attached that does provide video recording of these cars accelerating down the other side of the road, plus other cars that overall drove through the stretch.

The Strosek 928S was a personal highlight, but this Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9 estate comes as a close second.

Suppose these too. A coupe Mercedes S500 and decently well-known Nissan Skyline 2.5.

By now, we were effectively giving up, yes there was still a chance to see the cars, but going all the way to Bayfront just to try to catch a glimpse of the cars in a huge crowd? No thank you.

Well, sadly, 1948 seemed to have demonstrated too much for the day, having broken down on the other side of the roundabout earlier.

Although Gumball as a whole by the looks of things was disappointing to alot of people, us included which partially I cannot fault the organization of the event for because we were at the wrong location. On the next day features a collaboration with Gumball and Cars 'N' Kopi, so perhaps there would have been a chance. But since I'm writing this in advance, no. The cars were shelved away in one of the convention halls out of sight from all, so not really any parked displays for the public to see. That'd be one of the reasons people would feel that the way Singapore was handled was pretty bad in comparison to other countries. So be it.

The next article will be covering the CnK session, but for now, have the video I mentioned above, and I'll see you off next time. Bye!