Germanys Supercars rally

Field of participants of the GSR (2015)

The Germanys Supercars Rallye ( GSR ) is a one-day event organized by Stefan and Heike Ladage as a birthday surprise for their son Marvin Ladage. The starting point is traditionally the exhibition center in Bad Salzuflen , the destination is different locations every year. The field of participants starting with 500 sports and super sports cars as well as hypercars forms the largest rally of its kind worldwide. The GSR is an officially registered and police-approved major event that is carried out in accordance with the StVO .

As a tribute to the film Hell is going on on the highway, various challenges from the areas of action, fun and adventure await the 500 teams that take part outside of public traffic.

History of origin

The organizers of the Germanys Supercars Rally

The rally planned as a birthday surprise was set up in 2014. Organizer Stefan Ladage gave his 14-year-old son Marvin a GoPro camera for his birthday so that he could pursue his hobby of photographing and filming sports cars. So that Marvin could film several sports cars on the day of his birthday, his father invited sports car owners who were friends with them with their vehicles, who in turn brought their friends with them in corresponding sports cars. This chain reaction resulted in a supercars rally with 182 vehicles in 2014, which started on the grounds of the Bad Salzuflen exhibition center and led through the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony . After the unexpectedly great response, two more rallies took place in 2015 and 2016. The rally, which was held in 2016 with 500 sports and super sports cars and numerous hypercars, became the largest event of its kind in the world.

Previous events

GSR 2014

Field of participants of the GSR (2014)

The Supercars Rally 2014 took place on July 19, 2014 with sports and super sports cars. It started at the Bad Salzuflen exhibition center; The destination was the Damme airfield. Also included was WDR television, which reported on the same evening. In addition to the supercars, five California Highway Patrol police vehicles and several other American vehicles were at the start.

GSR 2015

Two McLaren 12c at the start of the GSR (2015)

The Supercars Rally 2015 took place on July 11, 2015 and was officially approved for 500 vehicles, which were divided into 450 supercars, 36 US police vehicles and crews. The start took place again on the grounds of the Bad Salzuflen exhibition center. Also there for the first time this year: Several hyper sports cars, such as a 1,080 hp Koenigsegg CCXR or a Ferrari Enzo . The start was every 30 seconds, which led to a start phase of more than 4 hours with the large field of participants. The final took place at Damme airfield, where the 40 teams that had scored the most points in the challenges competed against each other in drag racing to determine the 2015 European Supercars Champion. The rally was reported by NDR (Hallo Niedersachsen), WDR (Local Time), RTL (Spiegel TV, RTL Aktuell) and RTL II ( Grip - Das Motormagazin ) , among others . The trailer for this rally was shown in Cinemaxx cinemas before the film Fast & Furious 7.

GSR 2016

Lamborghini Countach at the start in Bad Salzuflen (2016)

The Supercars Rally 2016 took place on July 9, 2016. The race traditionally started on the grounds of the Bad Salzuflen exhibition center, where the vehicles were presented to several thousand spectators, moderated by Cyndie Allemann . The second goal was the ADAC traffic safety center in Recklinghausen, where a classic individual time trial was carried out on a performance course. An acceleration race with a light barrier and traffic lights was carried out on the runway at Meinerzhagen airfield .

Porsche 917 at the GSR (2016)

This was followed by a stunt show on the FTL film highway in Aldenhoven. From there it went “to the Adenau arena”. The finish at the Nürburgring was broadcast live by Radio RPR 1 Nürburgring and various teams were presented from the show stage. In the evening the after show party took place in the Eifeldorf at the foot of the Nürburgring, where the award ceremony was held. The 500 teams covered a distance of over 300,000 km.

Legal situation / behavior in traffic

"Race? No thanks!"

In Germany, § 29 Paragraph 1 of the Road Traffic Act (StVO) regulates that car races in road traffic are illegal and according to Section 49 (2) nos. 5 and 6 StVO in conjunction with Section 24 Road Traffic Act can be punished as an administrative offense with a fine or imprisonment. In practice, these excesses also result in driving license revocation and vehicle shutdowns.

The GSR events organized as part of the StVO were carried out under the motto “lawn - no thanks!” And had the aim of making it clear to young novice drivers that one should definitely move responsibly in road traffic with powerful vehicles. For this purpose, the vehicles of the participants labeled with start numbers were marked with the words "RASEN - NO THANKS". At the 2014 event, only one vehicle was noticeable negatively due to the inappropriate speed, which resulted in a corresponding ban from participating in further GSR events. At the 2015 and 2016 rallies, the organizers were not informed of any incidents of inappropriate speed during the rallies by the police.

Participating vehicles

Brabus G63 AMG 6x6 and Bugatti Veyron at the GSR (2016)

As a tribute to the classic movie On the Highway , all hell breaks loose , in which the participants started in sports cars, vintage cars, off-road vehicles or unusual cars, the participants of the previous GSRs also competed with vehicles of this type such as Lamborghinis and Ferraris , Bugattis or Koenigsegg vehicles . Exotic vehicles such as Radical , SIN R1, K1 Attack or the Le Mans Porsche 917 (street legal) were also launched, as were fun mobiles such as the Beetle Cabrio, a Brabus off-road vehicle with three axles or a buggy.

Prominent participants

Cyndie Allemann at GSR 2016

At the rally 2015 near u. a. Buddy , Florian Simbeck and Rocky took part. Cyndie Allemann , Micaela Schäfer , Tom Barcal , Gedeon Burkhard , Johannes Stuck and Rocco Stark competed at the GSR 2016 .

Costs and registration process

A starting fee is charged for the GSR rally, which serves to cover the costs incurred. This is calculated by dividing the total costs by the number of participating vehicles. Since the event is not a classic service, but a birthday party, in which only invited guests are allowed to participate, there is no registration link in the network under which any interested person can register.

Winner / Model Contest / The Prize

Racing Queen Contest winners

The GSR events are not a classic rally like the Dakar Rally or the Monte Carlo Rally , but the road traffic takes place within the framework of the StVO. Therefore no time evaluation is carried out. Nevertheless, points can be collected that take place in the context of challenges on closed terrain. The route and tasks are announced to all teams in the road book, according to which the officially approved route is driven.

The winning team of the GSR 2016

The 2014 and 2015 events took place as part of an individual evaluation. In 2016, 50 teams of 10 competed against each other, so that a complete team of 10 was assessed and the award was also made to the complete team of 10. The 2016 winner was the Reifenprofi.de / Levella / VOS-Cars.de team, the silver medal went to the “Hannover Hardcore” team, led by Kai and Philipp Kaess - third place went to the PACE Germany team led by Markus Esser . Beverly Scheller was the winner of the Racing Queen Contest 2016, silver went to Jessica Kuzniar and bronze to Jessica Zimmermann.

The theme song for the Supercars rally

The song entitled Supercars was produced for the Supercars Rallye 2014 and performed live by rally participant Vanessa Thamm on the day of the event. In 2016, The Voice of Germany finalist Shari Felicia Maria Fanio sang the song Cannonball Feelings . The 2015 song was from a studio singer. A music video was produced for all three songs.

TV coverage / processing in films

Video recordings at the GSR (2016)

Numerous television reports or reports were broadcast about the three supercar events. Among other things from WDR (current hour), NDR (Hallo Niedersachsen), RTL (Spiegel TV), SKY ( Motorvision ), German regional television ( DRF1 ), ProSieben ( TAFF ), Kabel 1 (Adventure Living on Sunday), SAT 1 and GRIP . On November 17, 2016, a group of 50 GSR vehicles played in the action television film " Alarm für Cobra 11 " as part of the big season finale.