World's wackiest car events

Rudskogen, Norway
The Rudskogen Motorsenter is Norway's oldest racing circuit, and each year more than 50,000 people — in a country of just 5 million — make a pilgrimage to celebrate all things fast and furious. Gatebil is a "run what you brung" festival of speed, where pros and amateurs can mix it up on the track during the day and party long into the night. But the real story here is the cars, which usually have obscene amounts of power stuffed into an unassuming shell. Drifting a 1,000-horsepower Volvo station wagon? Yes, please.

View Slideshow:  Top auto events of 2013

Chichester, England
An invasion of tweed coats and RAF bomber flyovers may sound like a German nightmare from the 1940s, but for three days each September, the Goodwood Revival is a fantasy come true for nostalgic car and airplane nuts. During the event, the classic Goodwood racing circuit near Chichester is transformed with period-correct props and a corresponding dress code. No modern cars are let on the grounds during the event, allowing attendees to take a step back in time — only without that pesky Blitz.

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Monte Carlo, Monaco
The Monaco Grand Prix is held each May in the world's most glamorous principality. The event is the crown jewel of the Formula One calendar, dripping with history and prestige. All F1 drivers want to win in Monaco — many of them reside there — and it's one of the last races of the F1 calendar held on actual public roads. The Monaco GP is the epitome of excess: Mooring costs for your yacht in the harbor that borders the circuit can reach $19,500 per night during the event.

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Baja Peninsula, Mexico
Competitors in this legendary 1,000-mile race through the heart of the Baja Peninsula are crazy enough; punishing heat, perilous terrain and fierce competition push these bush pilots to their limits. But it's the spectators along the route that sometimes force drivers over the edge. The crowds have been known to convert unassuming mud puddles into 3-foot-deep pits, and some teams have even been held up by drug traffickers. For a couple of days in November each year, the Wild West is just south of the border.

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Various locations, United States
Racing is typically a rich man's game, but LeMons and ChumpCar events make speed available to the masses. At racetracks across the U.S., road warriors with $500 budgets compete at high speeds in cars designed to look like sharks or covered in sticky notes. There's nothing quite like the atmosphere at a LeMons or Chump event, and nothing as thrilling as nearly being immolated inside a Ford Probe.

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Various locations worldwide
The Gumball 3000 is a simple concept, really: Wealthy miscreants in flashy supercars parade across continents at triple-digit speeds in an annual around-the-world odyssey. Oh yeah, and there's one hell of a party waiting for the participants at each stop along the way. MTV's famously rowdy "Jackass" crew took part in the rally in 2001 and was promptly worn down by the event's frenetic pace. That's some party.

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Bahadurpura, Hyderabad, India
The Sudha Car Museum is the brainchild of K. Sudhakar, who built the world's largest tricycle. Each year during India's police traffic-safety week, the "world's only handmade wacky car museum" empties for live demonstrations to the public. Popular vehicles include a rolling toilet, a cigarette bicycle and a giant car in the shape of a condom. You know, to raise awareness — for safety in traffic.

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Whaleyville, Md.
The H20 International is the annual celebration of Volkswagen's water-cooled models. Now in its 16th year, the event has finally managed to outdo the air-brushed absurdity that was VW van culture. The cars and their owners have concocted a new hipster-cum-lowrider subculture, in which your car isn't low enough until your oil pan spews sparks. Though purists may cringe, $500 rust buckets on $5,000 wheels have a charm all their own.

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Great Britain
Forget what you know about rally racing. There are no jumps, drifts or rollover crashes to be found here, because the "regularity rallying" of the British Historic Rally Championship is all about one thing: going exactly the speed limit at all costs. During a regularity rally, pilots and their partners must navigate a designated route while maintaining precise speeds and times between checkpoints. Because the rallies are run on public roads, there are none of the high-speed antics you'll find on a World Rally Championship stage. Sorry, Ken Block.

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Mount Panorama, Australia
The rivalry between automakers Ford and Holden in Australia's V8 Supercar championship is one of the most heated in the world — both on and off track. To curtail the drunken fistfighting at the series' most important event, officials limited each attendee to a mere 24 cans of beer per day. Panic ensued. To skirt the limit, enthusiast buried "slabs" — Aussie for a 24-pack — of beer underground in the weeks leading up to the event, digging them up as needed later.

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Various European locations
To the untrained eye, riding a motorcycle on ice is insanity. Even seasoned riders will tell you that two wheels and a snowy surface don't mix. But don't tell that to the riders on specially studded tires that show up for the Team Ice Racing World Championships each year. Though ice racing is believed to have originated in Sweden, the Russians have been defeated only three times since 1979. This story is just begging for a pro-American movie deal. "Rocky IV" on ice, anyone?

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Black Rock Desert, Nevada
The vehicles brought to Burning Man each year can best be described as one part art car, two parts acid trip. The cars are fantastical and imaginative and every bit as unique as the Burning Man festival itself. Each car must be registered with the DMV — in the case of Burning Man, that means the Department of Mutant Vehicles — before it can cruise around the festival, but that's where the similarities with your car end. That is, unless your car is a giant snake made up of thousands of LEDs or a rolling Cheshire Cat.

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Sydney Motorsport Park, Australia
This little-known but highly competitive racing series brings teams from across the world to compete for the ultimate lap time. In pursuit of better aerodynamics, the cars have sprouted wings, canards and spoilers with more surface area than a Boeing 747. The designs evolve wildly each year, and the current trend — all carbon-fiber bodies — gives the cars the presence of Darth Vader and the speed of a "Star Wars" TIE fighter.

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Various locations, United States
Traditional race-car crashes usually end with a shattered fender and a bruised ego. But what about a series in which threat of dismemberment ups the ante? OK, so the racing lawn mowers in the STA-BIL Lawn & Garden Mower Racing Series don't actually have functioning blades on the bottom, but the dirt-track action has built up a loyal following across the U.S. during its 20 years as a series, and the on-track tech is quite impressive. Dare we say it? It's cutting edge.

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Johnson Valley, Calif.
If the punishing terrain of the Baja 1000 isn't rugged enough for you masochistic racers, try the King of Hammers off-road rally. The race starts in a dry lake bed, adding impossibly steep rock-crawling challenges and side-by-side racing along the way. It's worth the trip alone to see these unique machines — which fall somewhere between a monster truck and dune buggy — conquering terrain that would make a Sherpa cower in fear.

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