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Monster Road To Gatebil 2012

Japspeed Hit The Road In Style!

When Team Japspeed do something, we do it in style! We were recently invited to join the Monster Energy crew on the “Road To Gatebil 2012” tour and we just couldn’t turn that opportunity down! A very literal Monster European trip that takes in 8 different cities and locations in a mammoth tour, featuring demonstrations and parties with other people from the Monster family. We duly grabbed our passports and loaded up the Subaru for some European drift madness, here’s just a brief taste of the international insanity! A “raw” video capturing some highlights will be online for you soon!
It all started when we loaded up in Manchester in preparation for the trip South to the first check point and towards the tunnel over to France.

We left the Japspeed HQ in the early hours for a dash South to our first check point and meet up with others from the Monster family.

After cutting through the morning traffic with ease, the Team arrived at the first check-point of the trip.

We didn’t have long to hang around and socialise, the tunnel to France was calling our name!

Once over in France we were bound for the first stop in Amsterdam. On arrival at “The Dam”, we headed over to the Monster compound were we dropped off the cars and we heading into central Amsterdam; we just had to party!

With weary heads we had no time to rest up, we were soon onward bound to head towards Gothenburg City Track for a drifting demo, our time to shine! There was a long road to drive before that though.

After a seriously long road trip from the Japspeed HQ to Gothenburg the crew had arrived, with just enough time to prepare and recharge their batteries ready to put on a display in the morning.

The noise of the Subaru and screamer pipe just ripped through the arena and echoed off the walls! No time for resting though as we had to quickly pack up and head to the roadtrips major goal, Gatebil!

The reception we received in Gatebil was worth the roadtrip alone! We were warmly recieved by the local car enthusiasts, due to the often insane power levels found out here, anything that pushes less than 750bhp isn’t seen as too crazy, but opinions soon changed and respect was given when people realised that the Subaru was converted to RWD and runs a 1JZ engine, the locals love a spot of clever engineering when they see it!

We did have one or two wounds to patch up from a hard tour though. The manifold had developed a crack (not bad considering it had coped impeccably with three years of abuse) and we’d lost the power steering so things needed to be quickly overhauled in preparation for smoking up the Rudskogen circuit.

Baggsy did manage to find some time to catch up with an old friend, local legend Fredric Aasbo!


With a pile of tyres waiting to go, the Team Japspeed mechanics worked hard and proved their worth as they soon had the Subaru out on track burning up the Maxxis MA-Z1 drift rubber! It was soon noticed and acknowledged by the Gatebil regulars, the English smoke machine was here!

After a huge effort and distance travelled, the boys let their hair down and enjoyed some of Gatebils “Aftertrack” entertainment. Beers, live bands and ladies are a great way to blow off some steam from a stressful tour!

Some of the stage shows really did manage to catch the eye! The aftertrack entertainment is amazingly popular as the many thousands of fans proved!

One of these three people is NOT a Team Japspeed mechanic, can you guess which one?

The following day it was back to business out on the track! The Afternoon brought the drifting competition, so we had to go in for qualifying, it would have been rude not to! Wouldn’t it?

Alas it wasn’t to be for Baggsy in the Subaru as he missed out on qualification, but due to the size and skill level of the field and the issues being suffered with the car, it was no huge shame. It gave us a taste of Gatebil and showed a few people what Team Japspeed were all about! But we had no time to look at it all with rose tinted glasses, we had a long road home to cover, not to mention some more stop-offs! But this is only a brief taster, keep your eyes open for our “RAW” Video, coming soon!