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EIGH-Monte Carlo rally firm go bust

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing-and-markets/article.html?in_article_id=451311&in_page_id=3&position=moretopstories

Jenny Little in Rome, Financial Mail
31 August 2008, 10:50am
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More than a hundred would-be participants have lost almost £500,000 after the collapse of the firm planning to run the trans-Europe Monte Carlo rally in three weeks' time.

Gareth Wood
Disappointed: Garreth Wood paid to take part in the rally in his £140,000 Lamborghini
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Wealthy drivers of supercars know all about risk. And those who shelled out up to £8,000 each to take part in the London to Rome Cannonball 8000 rally will know a little bit more now. The drivers, who were set to participate in the real-life version of the film Monte Carlo Or Bust and steer their Ferraris, Porsches and Lamborghinis across Europe, are this weekend wishing they had put the brakes on before digging so deep into their pockets.

Cannonball 8000 has become a highlight

of the driving calendar since its launch in 2003 by Conrad Wall, the 35-year-old chief executive inspired by his 'love of cars and his philosophy of living life to the full', in the words of the website.

At the inaugural event, 46 cars drove from London to Monaco. In recent years numbers have reached almost 150, with drivers including British actors Nick Moran and Charlie Cox and society girl Anouska De Georgiou.

About 60 cars had registered to participate in this year's 1,200-mile tour, with five-star accommodation and lavish parties offered as part of the package. The 2008 itinerary would have seen the cars set off from Battersea Power Station in central London on September 19 to reach Brussels that night, motoring to Cannes the next day, then heading to the finish in the Italian capital by September 21.

The news that Cannonball 8000 had ceased to trade 'for financial reasons' and had gone into voluntary liquidation came as a shock. In January, Cannonball 8000 issued a statement stating that 80% of the 2008 European rally places had been sold, bringing in almost £800,000.

The last accounts filed by Cannonball8000 Ltd at Companies House report a turnover of £500,000 for 2006-2007, but a loss of £122,000, with an operating loss of £138,254.

Cannonball 8000 is not the first firm that Wall has seen collapse. Innovations Network folded in 2003 while he was a director. Two others IMT Media Production and Red I Design, were both dissolved within a year of Wall's resignation.

Garreth Wood, 29, head of Scottish leisure chain Signature Pub Group and son of Scotland's second-richest man, Sir Ian Wood, has driven in the Cannonball 8000 twice. He was due to take part in next month's event in a £140,000 Lamborghini Gallardo.

Wood says: 'I am particularly upset about the lack of information from the company and the liquidators. More than 120 people have paid more than £7,000. The money has been collected.

'I run a business, I've done the rough numbers and I can't understand where all that money has gone. It can't have vanished into thin air.'

Wood emphasises that the rally is not just for celebrities and wealthy supercar owners, with many participants being father-and-son teams who have saved for years to fulfil their dreams.

The event is unconnected with the celebrity-studded Gumball 3000 rally.

'I would say as many as 40% of the people have saved for years to do this as a one-off,' says Wood. 'It's the ambition of a lifetime and now they have nothing.'

Conrad Wall was unavailable for comment last week and the phones for the firm's office in Kingston-upon-Thames, south-west London, have been disconnected.

FA Simms and Partners, the insolvency practitioner handling the liquidation declined to comment. However creditors said Simms had said Cannonball 8000 had no cash and they would receive nothing.