The 2023 Gumball 3000, which took place on June 10-17, resulted in one of the biggest, strangest automotive YouTube scandals we’ve ever seen. Daily Driven Exotics accused Shmee150 of deliberately not having their DDE stickers on his cars, despite them being a sponsor of the event.
It seemed like an incredibly small, trivial thing to star a war over. So much so that WhistlinDiesel even made fun of them. On June 20th, DDE published a video called “Confronting Shmee150 for Disrespecting DDE & Gumball Livery.” Frankly, it made the situation worse. But in the top pinned comment, they seemed to Bury the hatchet:
“To be clear there is no future drama. This issue ends here. We will collab together and it’s just a miscommunication. As creators, we can all accomplish more for our audiences by working together.”
However, Shmee150 didn’t want to leave it there. In his latest YouTube video “Valkyrie Steals the Show!”, the UK YouTuber deliberately cuts the clip when DDE’s car comes into focus. Many people saw this and when asked about the situation, Tim says “I learned how to cut things out of videos from them.”
Even though this is Shmee’s video and thus his viewers, some people called him, saying he was in the wrong regarding the whole Gumball incident. But Tim remains steadfast and makes his opinions clear: “Of course I have beef with them; they’ve repeatedly lied to my face and their audience. I don’t have respect for that.”
Shmee150 also makes a point about DDE’s history of creating fake drama, saying they’re “someone who is very well known for encouraging false drama and fake stories.” And he’s not wrong, as almost many Daily Driven Exotics videos are about some kind of confrontation with law enforcement.
Shmee150, on the other hand, has a decent reputation and has stayed away from confrontation. He has never started beef in the comments sections of videos and generally promotes a positive outlook within the car community.
It looks like this confrontation is very real and is unlikely to go away since DDE never backs out of a fight. However, it doesn’t look like this can degenerate into a lawsuit like the Stradman vs twin-turbo Gallardo incident. On a side note, it seems like Damon Fryer, one of the main people in DDE, is leaving the channel after ten years.
