Taken from the www.thestar.com news article

The Gumball 3000 rolled into ritzy Yorkville Thursday night, a car rally where celebrities, Middle Eastern princes and Russian billionaires pay $47,000 to drive their Lamborghinis and Bugatti Veyrons from city to city, stopping to show off their rides and party.

“It’s a lot of fun. You go to the auto show and you never hear them,” said Jeff Kennedy of Ajax, his 3-year-old son Liam wrapped around his legs, peering down the street at the oncoming Ferrari.

While the cars were the stars, several celebrity drivers earned cheers from hundreds of spectators lining Cumberland St. and Yorkville Ave., including actor Idris Elba — Stringer Bell from the show The Wire — rapper Xzibit and skateboarding legend Tony Hawk.

Some onlookers described the multi-country trek as a flashier, commercialized version of the Cannonball, an unofficial race across the U.S. in the ’70s to protest speed limits.

Gumball’s organizer, wealthy Briton Maximillion Cooper, says the event is about exploring “cultural and creative boundaries” of modern pop culture through motorsport. But critics call the rally nothing more than an excuse for the excessively rich to party with flashy cars.

“The Gumball and other events like that are a playground for very wealthy, bored, typically arrogant people,” said Brock Yates, whose father started the original Cannonball. “If they hurt somebody it reflects badly on the entire sport.”

The original Cannonball was cancelled after five rounds because “the likelihood of somebody doing something stupid got pretty high,” Yates said.

But Elba dismissed the criticism.

“Oh, no! Rich people driving fast cars and having fun. Sounds awful,” he joked after he exited his Aston Martin, a thin cigar clenched between his teeth. “At the end of the day, everyone’s just having fun.”

Since the Gumball rally began in 1999, it’s had its fair share of controversy.

In 2007, the route was cancelled after a British team in a Porsche 911 collided with a car in Macedonia, killing the elderly couple inside. Prosecutors claimed the driver, brother of a wealthy property developer, was going 161 km/h in a 60 km/h zone. He received a two-year suspended sentence.

Since this year’s seven-day event began in England, it’s had its own police encounters. Reservoir Dogs star Michael Madsen quit the European leg after his driver was caught speeding in Belgium. Massachusetts State Police ticketed 11 drivers as the cars left Boston, and in Quebec City on Wednesday, a motorcade was cancelled because officials were concerned about reckless driving.

Toronto police touched base with organizers to ensure they “mind their P’s and Q’s and comply with our laws,” said Sgt. Tim Burrows of traffic services.

When the Gumball drivers leave town at 9 a.m. Friday a RIDE spot check is “not out of the realm of possibility,” he added.