http://www.undergroundexperience.nl/ - latest news

[Widar]

The Doctor Wrote:Don't worry, i've got an 128mb memory card on my cam, and many others will have cam's too

Goodie, goodie!

Damn i wish i could be there...

Now you drift like HELL, kristian!

[Mux213]

Camera is fully charged

I always forget to take pictures, someone please keep reminding me

[banpei]

The Doctor Wrote:Don't worry, i've got an 128mb memory card on my cam, and many others will have cam's too

Same here...

I'm still doubting if I will take the analogue cam as well...

[Widar]

banpei Wrote:

The Doctor Wrote:Don't worry, i've got an 128mb memory card on my cam, and many others will have cam's too

Same here...

I'm still doubting if I will take the analogue cam as well...

Off course you will! We need video of the event too!

[Mux213]

Widar, Kristian had a whole zwedish fotography and film crew with him so that should pose some interesting footage. Unfortunately they weren't allowed into the center ring until the second half of the show and Kristian nolonger drove then

Outside the ring it was way to dark to make good photos

[Mux213]

Okay,

It seems everyone is still asleep from a tiring day today so its up to me to write a little something about yesterday. Pictures will follow soon, many of us made pictures, just need to find time to put everything online.

I went to Banpei early in the day and met up with Robokill and ThePrez at his house. Two Hachi's in tandom ignoring the speed limit a bit, drove towards Arnhem. Surprisingly enough we drove there without any wrong turns and were stopped by some nice officials who had no idea where we needed to go and pick up tickets. Its pay or not get in.. Huh??!? So we double backed to the macdonnalds and gave Kristian a call. He did his best to tell me I had to go past the officials, and I did my best to explain him that we weren't allowed to go past the officials, in the end he had to come all the way to the mcdonnalds to pick us up. Turns out the damn officials send us to the wrong parkinglot in the first place. All ends well there though.. but it was the first of escalating encounters with the fact the officials on the floor weren't very brieved when it came to participents and such.....

So we met up with Ivan and his friend, Kristian and his swedish team and I can't remember who else Hanging around the 'pits' most of the time, it was alot of fun. The driftworks guys were already there aswell, I didn't get to know them that well but they seemed like fun guys with a good attitude.

A little while longer Jasper came with his japanese blue Levin hatch and P-nut with his gray Hachi and wrote themselves in for the competition.

Everyone was doing practice rounds the whole evening, but terrible for photographing, it was all way to dark in the stage.

Then suddenly the bad news hit us. The practice rounds were being judged and suddenly Kristian got the word he wasnt in the competition. They guy drives 1000km on request of the organisation to join in only to hear that he's not allowed to compete, WTF?!?!! And his driving was alot better then some of the guys that did make it?? Man that sucks. Sure the hachi's were having a difficult time on the very sticky underground but common!! After alot of pursuading and alot of help from the guys at Toyo Tires Kristian was allowed to compete.

Then came the next problem. We had already noticed that the darkness was terrible for photographing. The swedish guys had gotten permission to go into the middle platform in the middle of the arena to do their photographing there with the rest of the press only to find themselves being send away being misunderstood because obviously nobody spoke a desent bit of english

We didn't get much more luck. We had agreed with the organisation we were allowed to watch the show from a stand somewhot closer to the grounds, only to find ourselves being confronted with some fat bitch from hell who thought she was the person who organised this whole thing (just another clueless ground woman) and send us back where we came from. She got in our faces a lot of times in the event and probably grew to hate us more then we hated her. Maybe a good thing, I dont care...

SO most of the times we hung around in the pits.. The start of the competition went a bit weird, nobody really knew what was going on. The first round was a 350Z that had to compete with Jaspers levin. A really nice run but unfortunately the 350Z with 100x more power and no problems with the grippy surface of the arena ment Jasper was out of the game. The 350Z in the end became second, so maybe Jasper could have been 3rd, we'll never know (3rd was a white BMW that sucked ass).

Kristian went up to Phil (I think it was, sorry if I got your name wrong) from driftworks with his S14. A very nice and close race. With Phil in front Kristian was right up his bumper only to have the S14 spun out when they left the main track. In the reverse run the S14 lagged a bit further behind then Kristian did on the first run but Kristian spul out at the same spot the S14 did in the first run. We pretty much all agreed it was a close call but Kristian did win it. Even phil said so the minute he got out of the S14. The organisation however, called the S14 the winner.....

Then it was time for the recess... Being tired of not being able to photograph anything after driving 1000km from sweden we were on a mission to get these guys to the center stage. A very very nice lady who was directing things in the pits was finally able to help us. She directed us to the real guys in charge, we were finally able to say our thing and directed personally by one of the top brass to the center stage. Non of the officials were there yet so he went around the other reporters there to strengthen our cause. Offcourse the first thing that happened when the officials returned was that they kindly asked us to leave. So we nicely informed us that we were invited to be here and if he didn't believe us that he should radio in with the top brass. Obviously he had this going on the whole day because his reaction suddenly got alot more friendly and told me we could stay and explained some safeties and stuff. Turned out to be a pretty nice guy, his only fault being that the people upstairs didn't inform him very well.

So we watched the rest of the show from the center ring. Got a really nice close look at the almost naked girls chilling it out in the freezing cold (actually, looking at some from a distance was a better idea) and really started to wonder if this was really a drift event or not because most of the pass time shows had nothing to do with drifting...

In the end though, we really got the idea that these guys organising the show were a bit clueless when it came to drifting and twin drifting rules. The judging was questionable, and the people on the floor had little idea what the agreements were made by the people upstairs.

I must admit, I had alot of fun. Meeting alot of new people within the drifting world, seeing Jasper and Kristian do their stuff. Seeing the guys from driftworks. Man that was great. But the event itself.... My next agenda is crossing the channel and seeing how things are done there next Heck I'm even thinking about writing myself in. I've noticed the setup changes I've done my car are making it much easier to controll and put into a slide (all I need to do now is dare to keep it in a slide, I correct the slide instinctively before it even starts). So all that stands between me and competing is practice

[AndrE86]

i was there at 19.00,

i hat no change to find Kristian

the presentator sucks and talks nothing but shit.

nice drift works from the guys from england!! and the 350Z
i've seen that kristian has a liitle grippy problems

i hate the burn losers from outlaw i didn't get enough air and i was getting very dizzy..

the only thing that was cool where the 2 ae86's ( kristian and that other guy) the driftworks team and that guy with the 350z.
and that old shit like opels en bmw's sucks realy.

[Ivan141]

Andre, if you would have called one of us we could have given you backstage access wristbands.
Anyway, I had a lot of fun tagging along with Kristian for 2 days, and following the preparations for the event. I did get my hopes up to high for an automaxx event, friday we talked to the guy that was hosting the show, I had no idea that he would be such a sad case. The crowd didnt like him either, he got very little response from the side I was watching from.

As far as the drifting itself is concerned, it was not really tandem (twin) drifting like it should be, the guys just dont have the skill and experience to drift side by side. That was not such a big problem, but the judging was really really REALLY bad! First they try to say that Kristian didnt qualify for the main event, which was nonsense since he did better than some of the qualified guys, we all thought it where only training rounds, and the surface was very tricky to drift properly. Then they give the win to Phil in his S14 while it was clear that Kristian had done better.
After that my mood was ruined, damn liars cheated Kristian of his second round of drifting.

Some other examples of the weird tricks automaxx pulled:
-The R32 Skyline that lost it's first round proceded to the next round..how weird. Then it lost the second round as well, and he got to drive again...
He won the third time (he could drift pretty well), but the crowd wasnt very pleased with the way this had happened. After almost everyone boo'ed the judges they suddenly lied that the skyline was broken and couldnt compete any more.

I can only rest assured with the thought that automaxx is going to have to pay for the damage done to the parking around the stadium by many cars (including some familiar ones ;-)).

[peter møller]

I can only agree on most parts here, since I saw it all from the stands.
What a piece of shit show....when we first arrived, everything was BLACK inside the arena, and we couldn´t see what happened on the track. This only got worse as the evening progressed because of the HUGE amounts of tire smoke that the different cars made before the drift finals. I cannot believe anyone would enjoy seeing 3 of banged up opel corsa´s (or whatever that were) being parked nose to nose, just wearing out the tires for no other reason that creating smoke, in a room allready filled with so fumes, that I was sick to my stomach!
Seems that some of the people behind this event was a bunch of teenage brats, who enjoyed tiresmoke more than actual competition. Which is also reflected on the judging. What a bunch of losers. Even the "host" was an idiot....just walking around with those 2 totally braindead blondes on his tail. He was more focused on having them show some skin, rather that actually commenting on what happened on the track. And I dont believe he did this for the crowds, because everyone was so far away that all they could see was a pink bathing suit and blonde hair... what a joke. How about a big screen next time, so that the crowd can actually see what´s going on down in the arena.

All in all, all I can say is that I enjoyed talking, and meeting up with you guys more that I did the actual show.....even though Kristian was pretty banged up after a long couple of days
So see you next time.....but at some other event, because this is a first for me, but also a last with Automaxx!!

[banpei]

Hmmm, I wouldn't say the opels sucked. The were even better than most of the bmw drivers. Both opels made it through the qualifying and one made it even to half-finals.

The R32 Skyline did win in it's last battle, but the other two were certainly lost. It was a shame because the guy difted better than all his competitors, but according to the rules he would have lost every time, except for that last round. Ofcourse: everyone can win by gaining ground if you don't drift all the way around. The skyline tried to to so and lost ground all the time..

The whole show itself was crap, but atleast I had a lot of fun yesterday! Nice to meet a lot of people and be in the pitlane for half the event and being in the center for the other half.

I'll see if I can post the images somewhere today.