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The Global Phenomenon that is Kim 'Dotcom'...Gumballs own Dr Evil!

  • Posted by Maximillion Cooper
  • 02.02.12 @ 11:27 PM

Over the past week I've been contacted by numerous news networks all over the world, from CNN, ABC, Fox News to the London 'Times' all asking me for 'gossip' and inside information about the 'personal' life of my friend and notorious Gumballer, the one and only Kim Dotcom!      

I'm not interested to give the media anything they can't already find on the internet, but to stop the constant requests, here's some background to mine and Mr Dotcoms friendship. We've been friends since 2000, and the truth is, he's not a bad guy. Despite the larger than life persona and apparent quest for global domination, Kim has kept himself to himself over the past decade, leaving the media to speculate and imagine what our 'Bondesque' Dr Evil gets up to in his private life. I first met Kim about 12 years ago after he made contact expressing his desire to participate in the Gumball. He has a HUGE passion for cars and adventure, and a thirst to live life to the full, so the Gumball came upon his radar, and the following year he participated in the 2001 rally from London to St. Petersburg (and back), in his customised Brabus Mercedes 3000 'Megacar'!  

Fresh from some early dotcom success, at the time he was worth a few hundred million, and wasn't shy to show it...turning up on the entry grid with 3 customised Brabus Mercedes 3000's, known as 'Megacars', one for him and his photographer, and the other 2 cars for his private security guards. These guys (whom I've also got to know over the years) resembled Cold war 'Dolph Lungren-esque' muscle bound James Bond bad-guy body guards... complimenting Kim's reputation for being a mega wealthy Dr. Evil character! Infact if he hadn't turned up with such impressive body guards I think I'd have been a little disappointed!  

That year both MTV and the BBC made 'Gumball TV Specials' and Kim made a brief appearance on both, interviewed by a very young looking Steve O about the cost of his car, and quizzed by Ruby Wax about being "the richest man in Europe"!  The thing that I quickly learnt about Kim was his inability to do anything in half measures. If he charters a boat he charters the BIGGEST one available, and if he does the Gumball he does it to WIN it! Despite my attempts to explain that Gumball wasn't a race, that it's just a road trip adventure, and that it doesnt matter if you arrive first or last at a venue, my rules of the Gumball fell on deaf ears with Kim, as he blasted through Europe at top speed. Not only did he arrive often several hours before any other Gumballers to each city, but he also had a team of Mercedes mechanics and engineers follow him in a small jet, all set to replace his frequently 'buckled' wheels and re-tune the car overnight! Photos of his Gumball adventures on his website gained him a massive Gumball following, and you have to remember that back in 2001 not many people had websites..digital cameras didn't exist back then!   

Following the rally I joined him as his guest in Monaco at the F1 race, staying on the incredible Golden Odyssey yacht that he had chartered from the Saudi Arabian Royal family. The parties were legendary, often still referenced, and in Monaco F1 terms thats pretty impressive.... We played with helicopters, jet ski's , supercars, etc...went to St. Tropez for lunch, complete with an ever present helicopter hovering above us while we had lunch, housing a combination of Kim's bodyguards and his own personal camera crew! These were great days, but soon after that summer things came crashing down around Kim's Empire (The Kimpire!) as he got a little too clever with his own ability to manipulate a situation.  After purchasing shares in the nearly bankrupt company LetsBuyIt.com and subsequently announcing his intention to invest €50 million into the company, many 'friends' of his and Gumballers bought shares, however unknown to others, Kim did not have the funds available to invest, although the announcement caused the share value of to jump by nearly 300% (a record on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange) and he quickly sold his shares and profited $1.5 million as a result. Weeks later the company crashed and all the investors lost their money. A clever way to play the market you might think, but he lost alot of friends at this point and the German authorities weren't too happy either, putting him behind bars for 20 months!   

My next encounter came when I was unexpectedly greeted by Kim after landing at Hong Kong Airport. He had heard of my trip to Asia to promote Gumball 3000 'The Movie', and came to welcome me to his new city, dressed of course in his almost uniform 'Blofeld' black and white suit, with shorts and his trade mark two tone brogues - the only thing missing was a white cat. Kim's first words to me were "Greetings Mr Cooper. I've been expecting you!".  He was BACK, living in the Presidential Suite of Hong Kong's prestigious Peninsular Hotel. We caught up, partied...and that was that.

The following year he had the taste to do the rally again, promising me that this time he'd drive regularly and that he was a changed man. But when the start flag dropped in Paris the Kim I'd become accustomed to leapt into action and for the following 3000 miles he put pedal to the metal. Winning is the ONLY way Kim can live, even if there is nothing to be won!  That year a new director called Ruben Fleischer directed the Gumball film, heavily featuring Kim in its content as one of the main characters....afterall he IS a character, that's for sure!     

Ruben has since gone on to direct several acclaimed and highly successful feature films including 'Zombieland'. If you havent seen Gumball 3000 '6 Days in May' then there's probably a few DVDs available on Amazon, or you can download it on iTunes here! 

The next I heard from Kim he was living back in Asia, he was happily married and having children...and for a second I wondered if the Dr Evil that I had got to know and love had hung up his black and white suits for good...

 

Thankfully not!  As just last summer during the Monaco F1 checkpoint during the Gumball I got a call saying "Hello Mr Gumball. Its Mr Dotcom here. I'm in Monaco and I want you to come and party on my yacht"! It was the same old Kim, only this time the yacht was EVEN bigger and better than anything I'd seen before. IMPRESSED...just a little!   

We partied, reminisced, and then the next day I departed along with the rally towards Italy, and that was the last time Kim and I hung out. There's a scene with Kim, or rather the newly named Mr. Dotcom in Gumballs latest film 'Number 13' that's releasing next month...so you too can see what a $1m per week rented yacht looks like! I can honestly say that his ability to make money, LOTS OF MONEY, and manipulate the world through the internet is second to non. If he'd grown up in Silicon Valley I have no doubt that he'd be sat on the right side of the internet riches right now, as he was a good 10 years more advanced than Mark Zuckerberg and co back at the end of the 90s. Afterall, as just a teenager he'd managed to hack into the Pentagon systems to read top-secret information on Saddam Hussein, and also hacked into the then German Chancellors bank account and zeroed his balance...just for FUN! I find the media frenzy surrounding his arrest and copyright crimes to be slightly over the top to say the least. He's not the only internet company to illegally use copyrighted material, its just that the film and music industries don't really know how to manage the internet era. They made their money in the days of video cassettes, DVDs, LPs and CDs....downloading, file sharing and the ability to access pretty much anything you want over the internet is a new persons game, and at the moment they haven't caught up. Hats off to Kim, Mark Zuckerberg, and the rest of the new generation of global internet dictators...   

I have no doubt that Kim will be back, and I'm hoping to have drinks with him next summer on this yacht...now thats what I call a yacht! As news breaks that he's just been knocked off the top-spot score in the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 I have no doubt that he'll be back...stayed tuned folks! 

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