Road to GATEBIL (report, pics, prices etc.)
Postat: tor jul 19, 2012 1:25 am
Well guys, what can I say? Gatebil is without a doubt the best show in Europe. Nothing in the U.K. comes close, whether it's track or just general car shows. The Norwegian's have developed this show since 1993 to perfect every aspect and the main event at Rudskogen track more than delivers. The cars were epic, the level of driving on track was unreal and the aftertrack parties were just pure comedy no matter where you went. Smuttyness is also very obvious
These boys know how to party non-stop! I’m still pulling bits of tyre fragments out of my nose because the track surface doesn’t exist after a while, it's simply thousands of tyre layers that float up in the air...weird to explain 
Plus, I was there for 5 mins and managed to steal a Gatebil mopehead to find me dad who got lost They’re very trusting people 
I was pretty shocked to find out that apart from me, the Japspeed crew and Irish native Darren McNamara, there wasn't anyone else from the U.K. that attended with their cars
So I thought I'd post this thread up to try and entice people who worry about the costs...because there isn't any other reason why someone would not want to go. But for a more specific reason, there’s some great Ford’s there, but they’re a dying breed unfortunately!!! Christ, there's only 10 Focus RS Mk1's in the country and only one standard examble turned up and 1 MK2 FRS. But that would be the only Ford's there without a real engine 
I decided to drive my car the whole way, as apposed to using a trailer. It would be a more entertaining drive, prove that Cosworth powered cars are very much as reliable as younger cars and that it would help with overall travelling costs. So I looked at all the options and discovered which was the cheapest, took it and tried to record every step so others could do the same in future.
The original ferry from Newcastle to Norway was shut down a while back now, so the only options of civi ferries are from Harwich to Esbjerg in Denmark, then a Ferry from there to perhaps Larvik in Norway. But from the U.K. we're pretty much stuffed with direct ferries. But I looked into DFDS' Freight lines and found that a ferry left 111 miles away in Immingham on the Tuesday at 5am and arrives in Gothenburg, Sweden at 8am on Thursday. 26 hour ferry that's really for truck drivers, but they take on limited civi passengers and their cars if they book well in advance. I expected a right heap, but have a look at these pics. The food was fantastic, limited, but really good all the same. Steak, chips etc.
My dad came along in his L200 Barbarian truck with loads of extra beer, car parts and tools....just in case. There were only 5 people in total as passengers on the outward journey, and those people just slept. So we had all this to ourselves
Just to point out, my dad's truck had a cooler box in it to keep the beer cold. So by Saturday, the big new Jap crap needed a jump start from the unreliable Cossie....PRICELESS!!!! The price for the ferry is cheaper than the ship from Harwich! In total, I paid £698 for both ways which included all meals and drinks (Harwich-Denmark civi ship ONE WAY is £480).
We then arrived on time in Gothenburg...
Gothenburg is 145 miles away from Rudskogen in Rakkestad, allowing plenty of time to arrive at the track for when the gates open at 12pm (we arrived at 12:30 having taken the main E6 motorway through Sweden and into Norway, but with a slight scenic detour along the 22 which runs alongside the E6 but doesn't have toll roads, but does have epic bendy roads - check the pics, a bit of rain but soon cleared).
Now, not according to plan, but I was almost killed by a moose 5 miles away from Rudskogen
This story didn't really impress my Norwegian mates because it's a regular occurance, but it still shit's you up when something the size of a mini bus with antlers runs at you full force!!! It simply tried to run across the road and I had to brake and skid to the other side of the road, where luckily the moose tried to stop and instead slipped onto it's ass....I passed it literally seeing the whites of it's eyes from being so close! But managed to get this shot as it ran off...
So we arrived at the site to find that there's 2 sections to the race depot, where big race teams and general folk like me want to camp and race my car. You have countless spectator camp sites all around as well. But we managed to get probably one of the best spots around the Ford lovers on the tarmac section and not the gravel, but these pics are still from Thursday so most people had not set up just yet. When they did, there was literally no room to swing a cat around. But I'll let the pics do the talking in that respect.
So the following few days consisted of a lot of drinking, watching track action and naked girls doing all the things a humble Welsh lad like me could only imagine
and also getting lost on some random vodka induced walk around the area at 5am on Saturday...don’t ask! But I did some drag racing on the Friday evening, almost had Romain Oppligger’s very nice and powerful road spec Escort Cossie too. But I imagine he wasn’t pushing that monster as much as he could have. Lovely chap to talk to as well, proper Ford man! Also ventured out for a few laps on the track on Saturday, but nothing as mad as the locals do and I'm afraid the hangover took over and I let the side down by falling asleep early But at the end of the day, I’m out to prove my car was a great cross country tourer that stayed together with ease and could take a lot of stick. It proved to be better than I even thought and was perfect at all times. F**k the Cosworth bashing parade!
Here’s some more pics, but I’ll upload the track action pics of mine after me old man emails them to me
Romain Oppliger's Escort with all the running gear from his works car...
Rolf Klypen with the RS500 Touring Car also owns this little mad 4x4 machine...
Speaking of which...
Member on here, was a bit pissed up when we spoke to him but what a sound lad with such a cool car
Look at the lock on this! Neat bottom arm conversion...
