Round 10 years in the past at our outdated enterprise (CarAdvice, now Drive) we determined to shoot a video of a Tesla Mannequin S P85 drag racing a Walkinshaw-tuned HSV GTS and a manufacturing V8 Supercar at Winton Raceway in Victoria.
The video went viral and scored over 1,000,000 views throughout the first 24 hours (Elon Musk even tweeted it). Again then, this was big. It was earlier than non-standard drag racing movies had been actually a factor and earlier than YouTube was as common as it’s in the present day.
So, quick ahead 10 years and we thought, let’s do it once more. And this time, let’s maintain the identical theme – inexpensive manufacturing automotive up in opposition to some loopy unique unobtainium.
Straightforward – we’ll ebook a observe, organise some vehicles and we’ll be candy. Our first video is dwell now, by the way in which!
Err…not fairly. We got here throughout various hurdles – all the way in which as much as actually simply earlier than we began taking pictures. It got here very near not occurring, so we thought we’d share with you the journey we went by way of to get to a degree the place we might hit report with vehicles on a runway.
The venue was one of many hardest issues to safe. We checked out an expert drag racing venue, however there have been limitations on helmets, filming, timing, observe preparation after which extra highway blocks for a few of the quicker vehicles by way of roll cages and parachutes.
We scrapped that concept after which began taking a look at airports. It seems like a straightforward sufficient activity, however for this manufacturing to be cost-effective, we’d have to shoot various these back-to-back throughout the interval of every week to make it worthwhile. That’d imply discovering an airport prepared to close for a complete week.
That dominated out most airports close to any main cities and even some additional afield.
An additional complication was that we wanted to centre the sequence round Perth. One among our (very beneficiant) buyers, tech billionaire, Laurence Escalante, had supplied us his fleet of tremendous and hypercars to make use of for this sequence and many of the vehicles had been positioned in Perth.
Trucking tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} value of vehicles across the nation was too costly and the insurance coverage would have been a nightmare, so we went on the hunt for a regional airport round Perth.
We lastly discovered one in a city referred to as Wyalkatchem – positioned round 2.5 hours inland of Perth. With a inhabitants of below 1000 folks, the as soon as bustling city is now a bit of quieter, but in addition incorporates a just lately resurfaced runway (primarily used for personal plane and the Royal Flying Physician’s Service).
Preliminary discussions with the council went nicely. Alborz made quite a few journeys on the market final yr to try to persuade the council and the get permission. Issues had been going nicely abut by the point we obtained nearer to locking in a date, the council’s CEO modified and the committee was rather less enthused concerning the mission.
We made extra journeys out to Wyalkatchem (after 4-5 hour flights from Brisbane and Melbourne respectively) to fulfill with the council in particular person to re-pitch the concept.
After the committee’s vote, we had been again on with a protracted listing of necessities for the mission to proceed.
Magnificence, we thought. Now all we have to do is name our public legal responsibility insurer, lengthen our insurance coverage to cowl the occasion and we shall be able to rumble. Yeah, not fairly.
Quite a few brokers we approached didn’t need to go anyplace close to this. We couldn’t discover a single insurer that will provide public legal responsibility insurance coverage (not even insurance coverage for the vehicles, simply legal responsibility insurance coverage for property injury). After months of to-and-fro with insurers, we had been sure it wasn’t going to occur (Alborz was way more enthusiastic).
However, we lastly hit the jackpot after we discovered an insurer prepared to insure the occasion with various strict circumstances and a hefty premium. This approval got here actually with two weeks to spare. We had been on.
Whereas within the movies it appears prefer it’s simply a few folks – there have been a stack of individuals within the background that we have to thank.
Metropolis of Wyalkatchem:
Individuals who dwell in regional cities are usually laid again and straightforward to take care of. The folks of Wyalkatchem go nicely and actually above and past. The council committee, councillors, and council staff went above and past to accommodate each request we had. There was nothing they couldn’t or wouldn’t do for us. Genuinely superior folks – so thanks once more for having us on the town for the week!
We had the prospect to fulfill a few of the locals on our ultimate day as nicely after we had a few of the drag race vehicles on show on the town for everyone to see. In case you’re ever close to Wyalkatchem – be sure to swing by and check out the pub or a few of the native cafes.
St John’s Ambulance:
We had three paramedics on standby every day of the occasion in two automobiles simply in case something went flawed. Massively respect their help – fortunately they didn’t have to do something and obtained to take pleasure in Alborz and I ripping into one another the complete time.
Division of Fireplace and Emergency Service:
We had the Shire of Wyalkatchem’s hearth service on standby the complete time, too, in a hearth truck, 70 Collection and a mean-sounding F truck.
These guys additionally had nothing to do the complete time – once more, nice information!
Western Australia Police drive:
Regional police are absolute legends as nicely. We had native police and police from one other area down in the course of the occasion to ensure all the things was so as. Thanks once more to your time and repair and for pretending to arrest Alborz a bit of too realistically on quite a few events.
Hyundai:
I’m certain you may think about the expense of this mission. Really – even for those who can think about the associated fee, simply double it…or triple it. Hyundai did one thing that the majority producers don’t do – take a punt on a mission this dimension with out having any management on the result or the manufacturing.
Hyundai helped cowl the majority of the prices concerned in making this occur and with out their help, none of this is able to be doable. So all through this sequence you’ll see the brand new all-electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 N.
Past Customized:
The blokes at Past Customized helped handle and prep the vehicles to make sure they had been able to roll as quickly as we arrived. One of many vehicles we raced was a McLaren P1 GTR, which additionally wanted its personal fuelling station and to be crammed/drained earlier than and after it was used.
Large shout out as nicely to Steve who transported his private 1800hp HQ down for one of many races (this factor was unreal!).
Diamond Towing Service:
As you may think about – driving a few of these vehicles on 2.5 hours of nation roads wasn’t going to work, so we needed to truck all the automobiles all the way down to Wyalkatchem for the occasion. Enormous logistics and lengthy days. The blokes at Diamon Towing made that course of a breeze.
LEE Assortment:
In fact, none of this is able to be doable with out entry to Laurence’s vehicles. These vehicles had been only a small choice of what he has in his many sheds round Australian and the world, so be sure to subscribe to the channel to get notified when our subsequent batch of movies goes dwell, as a result of we’re solely getting staerted!
