Gumball 3000 gets a Le Mans car

Gumball may be going carbon neutral, but this extreme racer probably doesn't help that...

We recently brought you news about the road legal 'Tumbler' Batmobile that will take part in this year's Gumball 3000 event, which kicks off on May 18 in Copenhagen. It seems the Team Galag car will not be the only extreme one-off to be racing across Europe with the announcement that Swedish skier Jon Olsson will compete in a car that would not look out of place in Le Mans.

Olsson is a self-confessed petrolhead whose fleet of cars include a carbon fibre bodied Audi R8, a camouflage wrapped Lamborghini Gallardo and an extreme Lamborghini Murcielago SV. These were obviously too mainstream for the freestyle skier as he has enlisted the help of former Koenigsegg chief engineer Leif Tufvesson to build the Rebellion R2K.

Details about the car itself are scarce but it would appear to be an extensively modified Ultima GTR (itself a pretty hardcore car) with bodywork an LMP1 Audi would be proud of. Power is believed to come from a Gallardo V10 engine, which, in its normal state of tune, can deliver 570hp. Considering a standard Ultima GTR tips the scales at 990kg the Rebellion R2K should be unbelievably quick, even allowing for the added weight of the conversion.

However, Olsson says that "This time the focus has been to really make the car work and be drivable instead of the earlier maxed out performance that never seemed to work" and that a lot of time has gone into the interior, in which he and girlfriend Janni will be spending a lot of time as they drive from Copenhagen to Monaco.