Thought this write up I did might be of interest to you guys
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).