Preparations

Well, after 11 days of driving, partying, driving and partying, its time to go back to reality.
How did everything start?
Everything began with organizing this only for a few friends, but then the invited friends have friends, who want to participate, and also we made a few contacts from previous events we attended and therefore the grid grew just by friends telling friends.
So we decided to have a maximum of 25 cars on the grid which was already full by April.
Well it was full before that, but we only wanted people to participate which we knew so that we could ensure that we would all have a great time, which I believe nearly everyone did.
And thats when the problems began.



You know when you have a plan for something, but nothing goes to plan?
Well, thats how it was.
Niki, part of the crew and I were sitting in Stuttgart on a day which was supposed to be a happy/good mood day.
First Edo called saying that the engine of the MC12 blew up so it can not participate. This already made my day and as you can imagine I was in a bad mood. The best things about days like this is that you think, it cant get worse, but worse was to come.
After having a few more drinks our mood picked up again but it dropped through the floor after receiving a call that the Police has banned the Top Run and that it will therefore not happen. Perfect. The weekend was a real joke, I was furious! Bearing in mind it was only two weeks till the start I thought that this was the beginning of the end. So we spent the whole weekend on the phone trying to find out if the police really wanted to cancel the Top Run because there was nothing to find out. Did someone give us the wrong information? Because someone wanted to play a joke on us? Probably.
It costs time and nerves to deal with this and 2 weeks before the start we were not sure what to do, so we decided to leave it and go ahead with the Top Run.



Well, we did until the national ministry of interior was looking for us. This was the point were we thought, we have nothing to hide towards the police or the government, so we decided to work together with the authorities in Berlin to get everything going as smooth as possible.
Niki spent hours dealing with them, registering the Top Run as an official event and to get the police to cooperate with us. Thank you so much for that, it was definitely worth all the efforts.
The only thing we had was that we were not allowed to start the Top Run together as a lined up grid, but we did not mind doing this was the police therefore wanted to cooperate with us, so all was good to go. After the event we were told that the police was pleased with our behavior and vice versa we thought that the police have been great to us! What more can you ask for?

Bad was that two teams had to drop out of the Top Run just before the start due to personal circumstances.
We also would like to say that due to the current discussions in the media about rallies and the bad press they have received recently, we will only release certain videos.

Partys in Berlin

While Niki was busy talking to the police all of Thursday we were stuck in 10000 traffic jams on our way to Berlin but arrived relaxed in the Ritz Carlton Berlin. There we discussed the final arrangements with the extremely helpful staff of the Ritz to ensure everything went smoothly in Berlin.
Followed by that we went to have some dinner and drinks at the Bangaluu to make ourselves familiar with the location as the start party would also be in there.




I have to say that the preparations done by the staff there was outstanding. While eating dinner HeCe called us that he can not participate in the Rally either. Gutted.
On the following day some more participants arrived in Berlin while we had breakfast.






With the Party-Pannhorsts and Team Goldstaender arriving we had a decent pool party in the Ritz.



Sten was on his way to Berlin all by himself as Tango could not participate either. Damn it!!! Meanwhile Konstantin called us, too, saying that he has a terrible cold and is therefore unable to participate. Damn it x2!
After more and more participants arriving we had the first bar massacre at the dinner and the disco afterwards, it was crazy. Neo and I only arrived at the hotel at 8am the next day.

[b]Registration[/b]

The private neo-PCP-Party proved to be a very bad idea, because as of 8.30 my phone kept on ringing and people were calling me all the time. I was hung over all day long. Being out until 8am was a terrible idea for the start parties which was to happen tonight, so I slept 20 min and then was up again to answer phone calls, greet participants etc. Sometimes I am struggling to understand myself.

Unfortunately it was raining the whole day so we had some fun at the Ritz Carlton Club.







After we had to solve a few thousand things on Saturday and briefed the crew we had time to focus on all the participants who were just arriving at the hotel.









Let me tell you something about Team Goldstaender.

Team Goldstaender had been on an Aids awareness mission, they have been provided by the German Aids foundation with 1600 condoms to make sure the girls in Eastern Europe take care of themselves. I am pretty sure that they did a great job as only 2 condoms were left in Monaco ;-).





Sten is just a party himself, he was partying all night long, also Des, DMC and his mates had a lot of fun and they were looking forward to a spectacular week.
The mood could not have been better amongst everyone.

Briefing:







At 7pm on Saturday most participants were gathered in the Hotel for our protagonist Niki to have a first briefing. Followed by that we finally had the first official dinner and party at the Bangaluu.



Some people got rather irritated as a ca. 1 meter long paper plane built and thrown by a Finnish person looking like Osama bin Laden (we can not provide you with any names) cleared an entire table in the restaurants as he threw it all the way across the room.



I think this was the first time I fell in love that night.





HeCe still got to have his fun because he got the opportunity to spray a couple of bottles of champagne around the place.









A large bottle of Grey Goose had also been killed. However, we did not party too much as we knew the police would check us all the next morning when we were to depart for the start of the Top Run.
It was a really great night, Food was good, drinks were good, and the girls were mind-blowing hot.
I managed to leave the party with Gang Ben and David at around 3am, but as I had 1000 other things on my mind I struggled to get some sleep.



Berlin - Budapest

The next morning started with a familiar feeling, hangover, a bad one, too. Will the police let us start the Top Run? Would all cars be in a condition that the police would allow them to participate? I was really all over the place with my thoughts as I just wanted everything to go perfect.

View outside the Ritz Carlton Club.



We were told that no one may leave the Hotel before 9am, and as Neo and I wanted to set an example we left the Hotel promptly at 9am to be checked by the police first. After checking our documents and doing an alcohol test we were good to go which was brilliant, I was so relieved. The adventure was to start.





We met the first undercover police car on the city autobahn of Berlin and they decided to pull over Neo to tell him what a great driver he really is! With that the plan of driving together had been cancelled and Gang Ben and I made our way to the Czech border.



From there on we accelerated to cruising speed and just flew through the Czech republic past all those hookers. Just behind Prague we had been caught by a laser gun, but the boys did not manage to chase us so they had to cancel that. Without any further problems we proceeded to the Slovakian boarder. There were no problems, too and we got with no problems at all into Hungary where we know police does not exist, so we could continue at cruising speed. After 5 hours and 30 minutes we arrived in Budapest where we met the Top Run crew as they left Berlin early in the morning.
I met Jan from the Cannonball Run outside the Hotel in Budapest which was nice and she was happy to see that we made it through Germany without any troubles. Meanwhile I got a call telling me that Team RedBull blew their tire on the CSL which was terrible news but they were optimistic to make it to the party.
They were already on a tow truck on their way to Budapest which was good news.

More and more participants arrived at the Hotel.





Mark and Seamous from 3ezer.com got the time to come and visit us which was great and we had a lot of fun recapping on the events in Berlin thanks to Dino his pictures.



Apart from Team RedBull everyone made it to the dinner at the Signocafe where a few very good looking models gave us some company and Heimlifeiss Neo was even kind enough to take some of the models for a ride in his Lambo which I am sure they liked!







As Party-Pannhorst Dino treated him self to too many Vodka and Cranberry I already knew that tonight is going to be a big laugh, and that is exactly what happened.
The live show started, and Dino as a victim was right in the middle of them. I did not laugh that much in a long time.







Our friend Ferenc from Budapest organized a truly mad night there, every second of it was just perfect, for me one of the best nights from the entire event.





A small part of the participants decided to terrorize the Hotel bar in the early hours of the morning, I still ask my self today why they refused to open the bar, they would have made a great profit that night.
So I got into the lift to go to bed which I think was the wisest choice. It was quite funny that suddenly the lift stopped at some random floor, the door opened and Sten got into the lift to write history with the famous Roadside-Assistance-Story, I can’t say anything else about that though. Except:





One floor further up Dino got into the lift, neither he nor Sten knew where they came from and where they wanted to go as they were just too drunk. Dino seemed slightly unconscious. As we were unable to order more beer by pressing the alarm button in the lift we just called it a day and went to bed.

Budapest - Hungaroring - Zagreb

The morning began with a massive headache.
What exactly happened there last night? Soddom and Gomorrah?
It’s actually irrelevant, because everyone you met at breakfast this morning was looking cheerful and there was a good vibe in the room, and that is the most important thing.
Next checkpoint would be the Hungaroring to spend a few entertaining hours there.
As I left the Hotel fairly late I was sure to be one of the last people to arrive at the race track, however, the amount of phone calls I got from the Hungaroring organisers asking if anyone is going to turn up at all made me realise that we are not going to be the last people entering the track.



Even though it only takes 30 minutes to get to the track it took us about 3 times as long to get there as the stupid navigation system decided to joke with us and point us in the wrong direction, and on top of that it was rush hour in Budapest.
At some point we finally got there to see that we were still one of the first teams to arrive. No one and I mean no one was there except Niki, which means the party last night must have been ridiculously good. So Gang Bang and I had a bit of fun on the track on our own until finally the others decided to arrive.







It actually was reckless to drive on the race track as we had about 40 degrees and the tires were after one lap already at their limits.
We still had a great laugh though.













We quickly threw some finger food down ourselves and started the drive towards Zagreb.
I am not lying in saying that driving to Zagreb was awfully fast but incredible.
When stopping for petrol Martin overtook me in his 1 million horsepower E55 AMG and from that moment on the aim was: We must get him.
After a few km of country lanes we joined the motorway again and he was suddenly behind us again, well, I should add, only for a split second as he blew past us accelerating, so he had no problems keeping ahead of us.
Due to terrible lane grooves on a country road near Croatia we realised that we did not stand a chance following him.
I am happy to say that Martin got terribly lost after blowing past us that we were first at the Croatian boarder!
Unfortunately we had been pulled over 30km later by an undercover police car, due to bad preparations we did not have any Croatian money on us which meant the police escorted us to the next cash point so that they can get their money. Great, what a waste of time, and then we got the money at a petrol station and guess who blew past the petrol station while we stood there with the police? Exactly, Martin! Damn it! So we had to go for it again, we overtook the Party Pannhorts and Neo and while driving through a city we managed to pass Martin again. Brilliant!! So it was worth all the hassle I think.
We eventually arrived at the Regent Hotel and due to an incredible drive everyone was in a fantastic mood.
Same procedure as every day: Unload the car, check into the hotel and then get smashed at the Hotel bar.



Our idea for Zagreb was to give everyone a relaxed afternoon so that everyone is able to recharge their batteries for the next two days, because 2 days of driving and partying is hard work you know. I do believe that everyone was happy that we did it that way, because you could see in the drivers faces that they were tired, but still in a great mood.
Even party animal Sten went straight to bed after dinner, and if he goes to bed that early it must mean something! :-)

Zagreb - Dubrovnik

Due to three hard working days for the Top Run crew we decided to swap places for the trip to Dubrovnik which the ladies were very happy about. I and Lilly wanted to leave for Dubrovnik at 6am to have final discussions about Dubrovnik and to make sure everything went to schedule. As always women need a little longer, so we only managed to leave the Hotel at 6.45am on top of that we had to adjust the tire pressure because the tires needed some more air after driving on the Hungaroring. So it took us even longer to leave the Hotel.
The drive towards Split was very relaxed; we always went as fast as possible. Navigation system Lilly as a local citizen guided us on exactly the wrong road towards Dubrovnik so that we hit the worst possible traffic you can imagine.



Slowly I felt that 5 days of parties, shit traffic and the fact that we did not get anywhere due to the enormous amount of cars on this road were going to my nerve system, so I decided to keep it cool and slow down as it was just not worth the hassle.
Despite my good thoughts in mind we got pulled over as we overtook about 30 cars at some traffic lights in a construction zone, nooo!!!! As I again forgot to take the right currency with me in Zagreb we were unable to pay the Police on the spot. A stupid mistake from me as it cost us another 45 min. Why? Because the police decided to keep my driving license and sent us to the next supermarket to get some cash.
The problem with that was that it took us 15 min to get through the construction zone to the supermarket, 15 min to return to the cops, and another 15 min just talking to the police men. I was really pissed of with that, and then to make matters worse, David overtook us at the next construction zone, so I just decided to call it a day as everything I have tried did not work.
On arrival at the Dubrovnik Palace Hotel we had been told that everything was fine with the Hotel rooms. So we could sum up the day as shit happens and finally start to drink again.
And damn we drank a lot.



Everyone was busy.





The only bad thing about the day was that Team Goldstaender’s cooler of the brand new 997 GT3 broke, so they were on their way in a rental car.
More and more participants arrived at the Hotel and we started to have a pool party in Top Run style, it was crazy but hilarious.









When the pool party was over we went to one of the Hotel rooms and continued partying there. This whole thing reminded me of parties in a youth hostel, just worse. But who cares, I have laughed so much on that day.



Please always remember, during TopRun you´ll never walk alone!!!



Then we went for dinner on the top floor where we had a plate throwing competition, who could throw it the furthest into the ocean. It was hilarious. The winner had been celebrated in the dining room.

Official winner of the plate competition was



Finally even Markus and Ominoes made it to Dubrovnik and everyone celebrated them.



We decided to cancel the lunch in Sibenik as many people wanted to leave in the middle of the night/early morning so that they would not arrive too late at the Largo Di Garda.
At the Hotel bar I and Mr. Muschi himself aka Ominoes did a special act for the participants which other Hotel guests were not very happy about.

Dubrovnik - Lago di Garda

Lily and I left the Hotel at 6.10 am heading towards Bosnia to visit some people. I did appreciate that as I was able to check out the country and the roads there for 2008 to see what is possible. After I had met a lot of nice, and extremely guest friendly people we decided to do a little bit of sight seeing which was great.









We knew that we would arrive late at Largo Di Garda. Very late to be specific, but I will tell you more on that topic a little later. Herzegovina is a really beautiful place; the roads are great and very similar to those in Morocco. The roads were mind blowing. We drove a completely different route than all the others; it was so much nicer and had such a great variety of roads, scenery and things to see, but also extremely dangerous. The roads were extremely slippery, even though it was dry and hot outside. The drive towards Split was extremely great and extremely fast. I can’t recall how many boarders we crossed but I think it was something of 14 to 16. That does take a while crossing all those boarders, stopping, showing passport etc.



In the early afternoon we finally hit the motorways with only (!!!!) 870km to go, and my mobile phone told me that the first participants already reached Largo Di Garda which was very depressing.
Unfortunately we were pulled over by the police again, I don’t want to tell you how fast we went but the only thing I heard when Lily spoke to the Police men was “tribunal, tribunal”, and even I understand that, and that means nothing good is coming.
They did not want us to continue driving, I don’t know what she did but eventually they let us pay the fine in Euros and then we were good to go.

Thank god, I thought that was my end of the Top Run.



The first cars made it to Sirmione at Lago di Garda.









We somehow finally managed to hit Slovenia. As if we had not already coped with enough trouble on that day the police decided to search our entire car at the boarder, and when I mean entire I do mean that. It seems like the police men at the boarder control were not in a good mood and they showed that to us. Finally after waiting for about 3 years we were allowed to continue driving.



On the road heading down the mountains we saw three police cars standing there, so I decided not to drive fast on that road as I was sure more police cars would be around, I was fed up with being pulled over and being cautioned. Suddenly the navigation system decided to die on us, so we were not even sure if we were driving on the right bit of road. Why us???? After asking countless number of people we finally hit Italy and with that I thought that the worst part of the day is over. Haha – as if. It was all about to get worse.
Traffic jam just outside of Venice, super traffic jam to be specific, it was massive, the worst traffic jam I had ever been in.
We did not move by 1 cm in 2 hours, everything came to a standstill. It was terrible.
To kill the time we decided to take stupid pictures and send them to the Live Blog so that at least the fans on the WWW had some sort of entertainment.



Then finally we were moving again, and just when I was about to take the next exit to avoid the traffic jam, a police men told us that the traffic jam was over. So I thought that police men are always right, I will not leave the motorway. Then we came to the next road toll, and after that the traffic came to a standstill AGAIN. A further 2 hours of not moving greeted us.
By now it was 8pm and everyone else was having a great blast at the Largo Di Garda and we were stuck in here.





So finally after 90 min the traffic jam was over and we knew that we would not get any food at Largo Di Garda as we still had so many km to go.
A look from the right came: “Have you ever been to Venice?”
A look from the left said: “No, have you?”
Decision made: change in plan! Let’s hit Venice for some dinner! We desired a dinner at Mc Donalds, but as we could not find it we decided to be driven around in a gondola and told the driver to take us to the next Mc Donalds. As this was not possible we had a gondola ride without Mc Donalds in the sunset.
I can really recommend now doing this in the evening instead of the day time when there are about 10.000.000 tourists around.
So after that we quickly grabbed something to eat and went to the parking garage where we left the car. It was EUR 20 for about 1 minute if you know what I mean. We got into the car and intended to drive to Sirmione, but unfortunately something else was supposed to happen to me. At the gates I could not find the ticket anymore, I think some alien picked it up and is reading it on Mars as I type this, but it was gone, I searched the whole car with no success. When I pressed the help button the gates behind us shut, too. So we were locked in a parking garage with no way to go forward or backwards.
I had been told to go to the ticket desk and purchase a new ticket for EUR 20 which I was more than happy to do, I was speechless when the guy asked for my driving license, car registration documents and passport so that he could write them down as I am sure he thought I would sell the ticket on the next day to someone else which would mean the parking garage would go bankrupt.
He then took a pencil (yes, a stupid pencil) and wrote all my details onto a sheet of paper.
I advised him that it would go faster if he would just go and photocopy my documents, because otherwise we will be stuck here until 2010. So off he went to photocopy them. Returning after 15 min he had a new parking ticket for me and I was free to go.
Little note: I found the lost ticket when I got home, so if anyone needs a parking ticket for Venice, drop me an email.



It had now been 22:15 and we had to be at the Largo Di Garda by 23:00 as Dino wanted to drive us to the club around there. We had 45 min for 180km. So we had no time to loose and we reached Largo Di Garda just after 23:00. Just when we left Venice I just heard “your phone is on fire”.
Yes, my mobile phone started to catch fire while it was charging in the car. This was probably the end of another bad day.
We hit the club at 23:30, after being on the road for 18 hours it was good to finally go and party, I can say that even though we had been pulled over a million times and the trouble in Venice, it was an incredible day, great roads, great scenery and great people. What more can you ask for??

The party at Teatro Alberti was really nice.



When we wanted to head back from the Club we had to wait for about 2 hours for a Hotel which was really annoying. I went to bed at 5am, after being up for nearly 24 hours.

Sirmione - Monaco

I was so knackered from yesterday that I decided to give my car to Gang Ben and take the passenger seat in Neo’s Gallardo. I was just too tired to drive and wanted to sleep, that’s why I jumped in with Neo. So I thought I would be better of enjoying the final leg to Monaco in his car then driving it myself. I finally got some sleep in the car and when I woke up we already were in Monaco. Quickly threw our stuff into the rooms and then went for lunch.





In the late afternoon we decided to award Team Goldständer for the price of the biggest stamina to as they drove all the way from Zagreb to Dubrovnik in a rental car but were still in a great mood.







Sten was awarded the “party every night” award. We still think that the Roadside Assistance story is one of the best things that happened during the Rally.





And that’s why we gave those two trophies to Team Goldständer and Sten after dinner in Monaco.



After that we went into the Blue Gin Bar where we went drinking for a few hours. The party freaks went to Jimmyz, too, but most of us were too tired so they hit the bed.



Three of the four Muschifreunde terrorised the TipTopBar in style. Niki, Ominoes and I went to bed at 5am, knackered but happy.



As there was no reason for me to stay in Monaco for another night we drove back to Largo Di Garda with the Party Pannhorsts and Gang Ben to relax and party for another 2 days.
A brilliant decision. Finally some time to relax.



Finally I would like to thank every single fan, participant and anyone else who made this event to what it was. It was a pleasure.

One question remains unanswered: Will we do it again?

Yes we will!

Cheers,

PCP