Rental Car Rally Planned from NYC to Montreal

Tired of wasting their talents on such frivolities as Wii tennis tournaments and water gun wars, equities lawyer Franz Aliquo and Thrillist editor Steve Bryant have gotten serious with an ambitious “Rental Car Rally,” which will pit 60 teams of drivers in a road race from New York City to Montreal this August. Because with gas costing over $4.50 a gallon and global warming leaving civilization almost certainly doomed, what could be more amusing than a gratuitous waste of energy? In the organizers’ words, “It's the tits, son.”

The rally will kick off Friday, Aug 15th, at midnight, at Water Taxi Beach, with rental car drivers starting their engines when the Empire State Building “dims its tower lights at the stroke of midnight” (in abject shame). Contestants will then cut across Manhattan into Jersey and head north towards Montreal on local roads. Once there, everyone will part-ay! “There will be drinks. It will be rad. Montreal, despite being in Canada, is a real city...”

Inexorably, all these the rad participants plan to return to New York City the following morning for a triumphant awards ceremony at Water taxi Beach, where “Euros” and other prizes will be given for achievements like “Most/Least Gas Used.” You know you’re so going to want in on this, bro, so act now because there are only 47 tickets left, at $150 per car. Let’s show Canada why America will always be #1 at stuff like conspicuous consumption.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on July 8, 2008 4:00 PM

Comments [rss]

Pants Commander

sure, everyone knows that the truly enlightened sub in at signs for vowels these days.

Archie Leach

Dude, loose the retarded slang no one speaks like this anymore. What do I get for $150 bucks? And it better not be a f@cking T shirt.

Supreme

JCB-

#1 What's a "Jack Klugman"?

Hm. Apparently before my time...

It's nice to see you "read" the rules that were "...introduced with the sentence "These are the rules"..."

It would have rocked slightly harder had you also noted that those rules closed with the sentence "...we reserve the right to add or change the rules at any time."

Which just might lead one of average intelligence to believe that there are other rules not listed on that page...

Just sayin'...

Supreme

Dave Hogarty

Wow, that rental car race is going to be "totally rad" and "the tits," but "cats are hating" despite the "hella low entry cost."

Not only will be participants be crossing geographical borders, but also hurtling across generational boundaries of incredibly lame slang buzz terms in no particular order.

Montreal is a lovely city though.

JenChungsBaby

Jack Klugman said that on The Odd Couple before you were in grade school, snotnose. And I was going by the information you posted under the page titled "Rules," introduced with the sentence "These are the rules." If they're only the partial rules then you should have said that.

Supreme

JCB -

You'll notice that on the page you are referencing we don't mention the precise route, the checkpoints, nor do we go into any real specifics in reference to the actual logistics of the race...

Your assumptions based on what *is* up there are incorrect.

I had a teacher in grade school that once warned that one should not assume as it would make an ass out of you and me...he was only half right.

JenChungsBaby

Gothamist is describing this poorly. It's technically a race, but one in which you're not supposed to break the speed limit:

http://www.wiimbledon.net/rentalcarrally/rules.html

There are checkpoints but the rules don't say anything about what happens if you arrive at a checkpoint early, which seems to mean you can go 120 MPH if you want without penalty. So if you get to Montreal in four hours while hitting the checkpoints you're fine. Most rallies I've seen that aren't the Gumball Rally award points for cars that hit the checkpoints at precise times while following precise routes. Not this one.

GOP

How about making it so the winner is the car that gets there closest to the time it takes to driver from NYC to Montreal without going over the speed limit? Otherwise, this race rewards those that speed and put other drivers in danger. I wouldn't want that on my conscience, cat.

mattcarman

Rocking / hella / cats?

Yeesh.

donner

"A hella low entry cost"? Are you footing the gas bills as well? Even if you are, how on EARTH can you justify this hella high waste of fuel?

Please.

Supreme

Sigh.

All the hate is truly surprising...

I really don't understand where the perceived douchebaggery of the event stems from.

We're rocking a simple and fun event, with a hella low entry cost (particularly if you compare to other rally events) and planned over a weekend so it can be accessible to everyone...and suddenly cats are hating as if we were trying to create a super-being, bent on world domination, out of the DNA of Hitler, Ghengis Khan, Attila the Hun, Napoleon and Rasputin.

Man, I just can't do anything right.

I'm currently naked, curled up in the fetal postition and crying uncontrollably.

Thanks a lot, Gothamist.

mrguy

a bunch of douchebags with money to burn racing to montreal in rented cars to get drunk and drive back the next day. I cannot foresee any problems.

TKaisen

Can I just take Rte 9 all the way up so I can avoid going to Jersey?

JenChungsBaby

Of course it's the tits. It always come down to the tits.

kurteye

WTF? Canada can't have a "real city"?

As a former New Yorker, I gotta say Montreal has it over NYC in so many ways. I live exactly half-way between the two, and I'd choose to go to Montreal any day.