Tag Archives: JDM Allstars

We all know that drifting began in Japan, and that the touge is widely recognized as being the birthplace of the phenomenon. We also know that, when not practicing on the actual race tracks, the Japanese drivers would go out and experience the joy of drifting on the actual public streets, especially heading towards industrial/ harbor areas , where they would drift until the police would throw them off.

“Streeto” has been copied in all sorts of places around the world, as drifters tried to replicate the Japanese style of doing things and also trying to get as many chances as possible for polishing their skills. But still, “Streeto Drifting” is by all means illegal. Or at least it was until now. Because somewhere in Europe, more specifically in Romania, some guys were going to change that. Some guys were actually planning on making a street drift competition, on real roads. You might think: Ah, they just closed down a small artera in a small city , in a remote area of it. Well, this wouldn’t have sounded so abnormal. But the thing is that the location chosen by the organisers was Romania’s capital city, Bucharest, the biggest in the country, and among the biggest in Europe. And the streets that were chosen were two main arteras of the city, situated right in front of the Parliament Building, which is actually the second largest building in the WORLD! Yes, 2nd largest in the WORLD! That’s like drifting in front of the Pentagon or the White House!

It seemed like pure fantasy at first, and almost no one thought this was actually happening. The best drivers in Europe were summoned, champions coming from almost each and every country: Ireland, England, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and of course Romania. Almost 50 drivers in total, with some of the cars going as high as 700 horsepower!

The competition was held along the period of two days, with regular qualifying and Top16 in the schedule. The speeds were going as high as 170kph, in the first corner entry, with actual drifting clocked speeds reaching over 120kph. Top 16 was made out of 7 drivers from Poland, 4 from Ireland, 1 from Serbia , 1 from Romania, 1 from Finland, 1 from Bulgaria and 1 from Hungary. The polish drivers were really in top shape, with Pawel Trela making the biggest impression in hi 560horsepower 2JZ S13, and everyone thought they would be the winners.

The Top16 battles were very though, and the judges had to be very accurate while doing their job. Coming down to the semifinals, Pawel Trela was competing against his fellow polish BMW E30 driver, when , in the Third One More Time, they had a crash at almost 120kph, rendering their cars useless. So, the other semifinal, between polish driver Bartosz Stolarski in the LS2 powered S14 versus Brendan Stone in the SR20DET powered S13.5 was going to decide the final outcome of the day. It was the Irish driver to take the win, but all in all , 3 polish drivers were inside Top4, proving to the world the level of skill they have attained over the years.

This event was truly one of the best European drift events this year, and it is probably unheard of anywhere in the world that a government would allow such a thing to go on, so maybe the Drift Grand Prix of Romania has broken a few records, and has set some new standards for future drift competitions. So we hope…

[Story courtesy of drift.RO]