Tag Archive: Gatebil

JAPAN NORWAY SWEDEN: Tsuyoshi Tezuka and Driftmonkey, Part I

By in 10-10-2015 7:12 pm

noriyaro-driftmonkey-mantorp-sweden-2013-_01
This isn’t the most recent of content, but before it disappears into the vaults of backed-up files, I thought it should finally make an appearance on the site.

Early last year, the Norwegian drift team Driftmonkey’s boss Ove Harlem asked me to find him a Japanese guest driver for the Gatebil event in Mantorp, Sweden. I suggested D1GP driver and Kids Heart manager Tsuyoshi Tezuka, since I knew he was keen to do some more drifting overseas. Driftmonkey usually has three cars, two driven by regular drivers Reidar Andresen and Anders Klerud, and a third for guest drivers.

After not too much messing around, Ove had both of us on a plane from Tokyo to Oslo, where picked us up and took us for a nice dinner at the port area of Aker Brygge, before heading to the Driftmonkey garages the next day in Rakkestad.

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HVA SKJER? JEG KAN IKKE SNAKKE NORSK: Gatebil Rudskogen 2014

By in 13-09-2014 8:41 pm

I can’t remember who it was, but I remember talking to a D1GP driver who has been overseas a few times, and he said that one of the reasons he loves drifting so much is that it allows him to travel and have lots of fun while making friends all over the world.

I understand what he means now, after I recently travelled all the way to Norway from Japan to drift in one of the world-famous Gatebil events. I remember reading about Gatebil many years ago in Max Power magazine, but I never thought I’d end up actually driving in one.

After taking care of the Norwegian drift team “Driftmonkey” when they came to Japan earlier this year, and had a lot of fun drifting with them at Ebisu Circuit, team owner Ove Harlem sent me a message asking if I’d like to (telling me, more like it) come over and drive of their matching team Supras in Norway. The team’s regular driver Reidar Andresen had to miss the July Gatebil event, so the three cars on the team would be piloted by regular member Anders Klerud, with two guests, Formula D driver Ken Gushi and myself.

What made this even more awesome was that the July Gatebil event is the biggest one of the year, and it’s held at the Rusdskogen Motorsenter, a beautiful track in southern Norway that was planned by F1 track designer Hermann Tilke. It looks like something out of Gran Turismo, with lots of elevation changes through forest and rock walls, with a big final corner where you can bake it up in front of the crowd. The Supra I was driving had a full Brian Crower 3.4L 2JZ engine with an enormous Garrett turbo, which made short work of the tyres, and made getting from one corner to the next a very fast experience.

Please enjoy this video of the event made by the team media guy Luke from Zero Media (thanks for the Jaffa Cakes mate). I took a whole lot of in-car video too, so I’ll be making my own video as well. It was an amazing event, and I hope I can make it over to Norway again sometime soon.

Tusen takk, alle mine nye venner. Jeg savner deg! Jeg elsker Norge!

ドリフトは本当に好きです。ドリフトは今全世界に人気なモータースポーツだからどこでも行ったら仲間がいるんです。今年の七月にはノルウェーの改造車祭りのイベントに出ました。ガテビル(乗用車)と言うイベントにチームドリフトモンキーの700馬力スープラに乗りました。遊びのイベントだから、ただのお客さんのためにティスプレードリフトをしました。白煙がポイント!楽しかったよ、また行きたいな!

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SWEDEN SLIDES: Gatebil Mantorp with Tezuka

By in 25-07-2014 10:06 pm

Check out this edit of the Gatebil event at Mantorp Park in Sweden last month! This was the one I took Tsuyoshi Tezuka to, so he could drift the new Team Driftmonkey guest driver car.

私がD1GP手塚強選手をスウェーデンの改造車イベントに連れて行ってきました!手塚さんはチームドリフトモンキーのゲストドライバーでした。

I love the epic slide starting at 1:13 with all three Driftmonkey cars. That’s me on the interior GoPro with Tezuka.

I didn’t actually drive at the Mantorp event and only rode passenger with Tezuka to get used to the car so I could drive at the next Gatebil in Rudskogen. Since I couldn’t drift myself at Mantorp though, I ended up getting pretty good at the Crazy Cart we had at the booth, which you can see at the 3:24 mark.

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BREISLADD: Powersliding, Norwegian-style

By in 19-07-2014 8:47 pm

It was my birthday last week, and on that day, I was given the chance to guest-drive 750hp Driftmonkey Supra at Gatebil Rudskogen, the world’s most insane modified car event. Not bad eh?

先週、私がノルウェーに行って、「ガテビル」と言うイベントにゲストドライバーをしました!これはパワースライド大会の予選。一本だけ、ウオームアップなし、クリッピングポイントのパイロンも知らなくて、6番気筒をミスファイヤーでも、ガンガンでがんばった!ルーヅコーゲンモーターセンターと言うサーキットです。お客さんもすごかった!D1GPより多いけど、ビビッてない!ご覧ください。

There’s lots more video to come, but for now, here’s my solo run in the “breisladd” (powerslide) competition.

Even with one cylinder not firing, and some pretty wonky angle, I managed to place 20th overall. There were 84 cars invited to the qualifying, including the two other Driftmonkey drivers, team regular Anders Klerud who ended up ranking 5th, and the other guest driver Ken Gushi, who came 24th after mistaking the final outer clipping point as an inner clipping point.

The placement of the clipping points also surprised me a bit, as I wasn’t expecting them to be a good two metres out from the ripple strip! I was just happy to make it fairly cleanly around the course (apparently my clips were all spot-on), but I probably didn’t make as much smoke as the car should have been able to. More pics and vids from Gatebil Rudskogen coming soon!

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