Great drivers with great cars; the Formula Drift Malaysia 2013 is giving us assurance that this year’s showdown will be like nothing we have ever seen before. And set to give out a tough fight to all the competitors is a Norwegian that has become a household name in drifting. Making his debut on Malaysian tarmac is none other than the Norwegian Hammer, Fredric Aasbo.
Although he was pretty busy in prepping up for the weekend’s race, Aasbo was kind enough to spare a couple of minutes from his hectic schedule to share with us his progress in the Round 2 of Formula Drift Asia 2013.
Zerotohundred: First of all, we would like to welcome you to Malaysia. How was your first trip here so far?
F.Aasbo: Thanks! Well, to be precise, this is actually my second trip here, but it is my first time competing in Malaysia. So far my trip here has been really exciting, and there is no doubt that I enjoyed it. The weather change here are pretty extreme too, first it was very hot and seconds after is followed by a heavy rain. It even flooded here!
Zerotohundred: We go through that in a daily basis and frankly speaking, we have not got used to it either. Anyways, it seems that you have had your practice runs in SpeedCity. What is your impression of the track?
F. Aasbo: I have actually heard of SpeedCity KL for quite a while, and straight away I know it is going to be interesting as it is done by Tengku Djan himself. The track certainly offers some varieties and challenges for the drivers like the elevation changes, instead of just a normal flat surface. And from what I understand, this is a great place to be too as there is a lot of practice going on and also the weekend happenings.
Zerotohundred: How did the car perform during the practice session earlier on?
F. Aasbo: The car is just crazy; there is just so much power and torque. What we are doing right now is we are trying to dial in all the small details. The car debuted in Australia back in April, and we had a pretty steep learning curve so far with a lot of bugs to iron out, a lot of things to dial in; and it has come a long way. We revised quite some things like the suspension, and also sorted out some engine bugs.
Zerotohundred: We are very interested to know more about your Toyota 86 drift machine as we certainly do not see much around, especially in Malaysia. Could you tell us a bit more about your car?
F. Aasbo: Basically this car started its life as a bone-stock JDM-version of the Toyota GT86. RS-R ripped everything off and bought two TRD NASCAR V8s, which are similar to what my team in the States ran before. So this is the 5.8-liter engine, giving out an output of 700-ish horsepower. They had also put a whole new transmission, changed the rear differential and fitted it with Yokohama tires. It has resulted into a pretty wild contraption.
Zerotohundred: For this round, we are seeing a lot of capable drifters ready to put their name on the line. From the whole line-up, who would you point out as the main rival in the competition?
F. Aasbo: All of them. There is Daigo Saito who has been undefeated so far, and then there is Tengku Djan, and a lot of other talents like Robbie Nishida and Ken Gushi. And to top it off, you have Formula D going from a Top 32 format to a Top 16, so it is going to be even tighter. So they are all really my biggest rival and perhaps the biggest one is myself as because in the end, you are taking the fight to yourself.
Zerotohundred: Those are some inspiring words. We hope to see you again on the course and hopefully afterwards, the podium!
F. Aasbo: Thanks!
If you are keen to find out how his thunderous mad V8-powered 86 will echo throughout SpeedCity, and if he could actually topple Daigo Saito off the throne, then make sure you make your way down to SpeedCity KL this Sunday, 1st September for the Formula Drift Malaysia 2013!
