Posted: Nov 20 2013
by: Rudi Minelle

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Toyota Supra the choice for drifters in Europe?

After checking out Gatebil this year in Norway the one thing that made it so memorable was seeing cars drifting that you don't see in Australia. 
You still see the usual s chassis and skylines and by all means these are probably the most common to see drifting in Europe, but there is a much larger mix of cars to what you see in Australia.

I decided to put this list together of the cars that surprised me the most while visiting drift events in Europe. Basically cars you don't see drifting anywhere else.

TOYOTA SUPRA

Supras are not a popular car to drift in Australia and neither in Japan, but why?
I mean come on! It's rear wheel drive and it's got arguably the best engine to ever come out of Japan. Everything on paper sounds like it should be a drift car, so why don't we see them drifting?

Expensive, rare and heavy.. pretty much all things a drift car should not be. The Toyoya Supra is expensive and not really a common car either. Although prices are coming down, manual twin turbo ones are still expensive and parts are rare. The fact that they are a little on the bulky side makes it a hard car to drift. Weighing in at over 1.5 tonne for a Twin Turbo model, is a lot of weight to swing around. When I think of Supras, I think of an American muscle car, large heavy but heaps of straight line speed.

Yet somehow these cars were some of the most popular drift cars at Gatebil 2013.

There were over 15 different Supras out on the weekend of Gatebil, all of them MK4s. Now, this is either because Europeans are still obsessed with Fast and Furious, or they know something we don't. Most were still packing the 2J engine with huge single turbo setups and a whole list of other mods, and I must say these engines on the limiter really do sound amazing. While others had big V8s, one even had a BMW M5 V8 Supercharged engine!

Another problem I would find with the Supra is the lack of steering angle needed for drift, but from peeking around the garages all the Supras I saw had modified steering setups allowing for a lot more lock. To minimise the weight, all had stripped interiors with cages and most had carbon panels like bonnets, doors etc.

Either way it's a cool car to watch going lock to lock around a track and the sound of the 2J makes it all that much sweeter!


Team RFS Supra 2JZ 3.0L 700HP with a G-Force Dog Box. This thing was an animal and was going lock to lock up the huge straight at Rudskogen all day!



I really tried to find more info on this thing, but could not find much out there. Probably the craziest engine swap I saw at Gatebil

 






Team Yellow Supra - 2JZ 3.2 Jun Engine. Greddy T88-38GK Turbo kit with around 900HP


Not much information on this beast either. Crazy old school V8 with a tonne of steering lock!


Another popular Supra in Norway is the Drift Monkey car. 2JZ with over 850HP. This thing competes at all the drift comps in Northern Europe.


2J is just such a sexy engine... 

They have special technique on towing cars in Norway..





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