Batman Tumbler team blames shoddy quality for missing out on Gumball 3000

Citizens of Europe, your roads are at the same time a little bit safer and a little bit more dangerous. That's because the Tumbler, a replica of Batman's crime-fighting ride in the Christopher Nolan trilogy, won't be taking part in the nonsense that is the Gumball 3000.

As bad as the reputation of the Gumball is, there was something deeply amusing about the idea of the wrapped replica thundering past herds of Citroëns and Peugeots on the highways and byways of Europe. Designed with a 6.2-liter, 400-horsepower V8, the behemoth certainly wasn't lacking power or looks. What it was lacking, though, was quality.

We last reported on the Tumbler and the Gumball team behind it in January of 2013. Now, Team Galag is blaming their inability to run on the folks that built the 5,000-pound brute, Parker Brother Concepts, although it has so far declined to give specific details about what's ailing the movie-inspired car. Galag issued the following statement on its Facebook page.

Due to the substandard work put into it, the Tumbler can't take part in the Gumball. Parker Brothers Concepts have been given a year to fix the issues that were faced last year but chose not to do any work until it was too late to make any difference. We have been misled many times and were told that progress was being made and chose to put our trust in their word. Unfortunately, even after many conversations regarding the preparation of the Tumbler, they had chosen not to work on it and instead used that crucial time in order to promote themselves using our property. They are also refusing to hand over the license plates in order to be able to drive the Tumbler legally on the road. We have never dealt with such lack of professionalism and integrity as we have with these people. We apologize if this disappoints any of you but trust us, we really tried to get it done for the rally but they had worked hard and succeeded in preventing us from doing so...

Parker Brothers has, so far, not issued a counter statement. Should that come out, we'll be sure to update you. |