A COLLECTION of the world's most exotic supercars will arrive in Scotland today for a real-life version of Wacky Races for super-rich adrenaline junkies.

Inspired by a 40-year-old movie, the 18th Gumball 3000 rally will shoot through 11 countries from Dublin to Bucharest and will arrive in Edinburgh for the second time in its 17-year history.

Some 120 super-cars from vintage classics to modern-day hypercars, including Paganis, Bugattis, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches, Aston Martins, Koenigseggs, Jaguars, Bentleys and Rolls-Royces will roar into Scotland's capital.

The Herald:

Gumball in Edinburgh in 2014

Thirty nationalities are represented in the six-day high rollers' adventure including a couple of Scots.

Pub tycoon Garreth Wood, son of the Aberdeen-based oil billionaire Sir Ian Wood, will be taking part despite receiving a driving ban last June for speeding.

The 37-year-old was clocked speeding through roadworks with a 30mph limit at more than 72mph in his Rolls-Royce on the A90 near Kinfauns on August 20, 2014.

The court heard that is was his seventh road traffic offence and fourth speeding conviction and he ended up with a three-month driving ban.

He will be in a Rolls-Royce Wraith for the trip from Dublin to London via Edinburgh.

For Wood and his wife Nicola, a former Miss Scotland and Miss UK, the rally will finish before the Bucharest conclusion, as he has to open a restaurant in Aberdeen on Wednesday.

"It will be our fourth rally," he said. "I love my cars and I am a big motorsport enthusiast so I really enjoy the week and being around other people who are like-minded and have a similar nature to myself.

"It's a great event, it's well organised. It's a whistlestop tour of some very exciting cities. But it's something that is fun to be a part of.

"I wasn't' going to do it this year, but when I heard it was coming to Edinburgh, my hometown, I didn't want to miss that."

The Herald:

Edinburgh will be deafened by the noise of revving engines on Sunday as it is the the first stop of the rally.

Playboy founder of the event, British designer Maximillion Cooper, wanted to add a Scottish leg to the world's most extravagant rally two years ago as the entrepreneur proposed to his long-time girlfriend, Grammy award-winning hip-hop star and actress Eve in Edinburgh on Christmas Day.

From 6pm there is a free static supercar show event at Regent Road to celebrate the evening arrival of the Gumball 3000 cars while earlier there will be a parade of glamorous rides including a Batmobile driving along Princes Street.

The cars are due in Belfast from 12pm to 4pm before getting a ferry to Cairnryan and then driving up to Edinburgh.

A Gumball 3000 spokesman said: "After crossing the Irish Sea, Gumball cars will arrive in Edinburgh where they will be displayed in a static car show for the public to view. Throughout the day crowds will be entertained with lots of Gumball activities suitable for all the family to enjoy and to create an unforgettable experience in the Scottish capital.”

Gumball, which has been described by Vanity Fair magazine as "the most rock n roll rally ever staged", was inspired by the 1976 movie The Gumball Rally starring Michael Sarrazin.

When Gumball came to Edinburgh in 2014

The film, about a coast-to-coast road race, was itself inspired by the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, an unofficial, unsanctioned race run five times in the 1970s. The Gumball Rally movie in turn inspired other films, including Cannonball Run, starring Burt Reynolds.

It was created in 1999 by Cooper; and was born from his vision to combine cars, music, fashion and entertainment to create a pop culture lifestyle brand of the future.

Cooper derived the word Gumball from New York artist Andy Warhol after he used it to describe how the public chew up and spit out popular culture like chewing gum; and 3000 as a nod to Cooper’s fascination with the future, particularly at a time when the world was about to enter the 21st century.

The Herald:

Cooper decided to launch his lifestyle brand concept by inviting 50 of his influential and celebrity friends to join him on a road-trip around Europe to experience an adrenaline fuelled-adventure, driving flash cars and hosting glamorous parties each evening.

This road trip and its now legendary parties attended by the likes of Kate Moss, Kylie Minogue and Johnny Knoxville, was the first Gumball 3000 Rally and rapidly caught the public's attention. By 2001, the rally was televised internationally and in 2016 is expected to reach 60 million viewers.