Gymkhana Is an Insane Sport That Involves Dirt Jumps, Excavators

Watch this video and you’ll get the, er, drift

May 4, 2017 9:00 am

Uh, what am I watching?
Tyler Witte driving around his gymkhana course, which he and his friends built in New Jersey and Ohio.

Who is Tyler Witte?
A professional driver who was on the Fate of the Furious stunt team. He does a lot of dangerous things with cars on his Instagram.

What kind of car is that?
A Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS that Witte rebuilt from scratch after it was totaled.

What the heck is a gymkhana course?
It’s a car race around an obstacle course. It took Witte and his friends five 16-hour days to build the one in the video. The final product includes a series of jumps as well as barrels that drivers have to circle, a common component in gymkhana. These 360-degree donuts and the 180-degree hairpin turns lead to a lot of drifting, which is exactly what these guys are looking to do.

Sounds like fun. Where can I do this?
Mostly in Japan, but there are events all over the world. You can find them on the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile website.

Is this limited to cars?
Here? Yes. Originally? Nope. It’s actually derived from a style of equestrian race; modern iterations include motorcycle-specific courses as well.

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