Next Level Drift 2019 - Heaven in Poland

After seeing some aftermovies and Hoonigans videos from NLD 2018 me, Jonatan and Dennis was dead set on going 2019. We live in the southern parts of Sweden which meant that it would be cheaper and easier (and most importantly more fun) for us to drive and take the ferry over to Poland instead of taking a plane and travel by taxi while there.
The car we decided to drive all the way to another country with was Dennis’s Nissan Micra summer beater, fully equipped with no suspension, a new stereo system and an insane amount of smiles per gallon. A lot of doubt about how well the car was going to hold up was heard from our friends. I can’t say that their worry came completely out of the blue, but what’s a trip with the boys without some questionable decisions?.

Car: Nissan Micra K11 1.3L Super-S
Engine: Always broken
Gearbox: 5-speed minus 5th
Suspension: Gone
Exhaust: Straight as
Wheels: Dope 13” Centra 7
Best car ever?: Hell yes!

On Friday, 2nd of August 2019, we crammed ourselves into the Micra (two of us being 1.9m+), drove to Karlskrona and took the 10h ferry over to Gdansk. Saturday morning, after a night of partying, we drove from Gdansk to Gdynia to leave our stuff at our Air BNB, took a quick shower then drove straight to Autodrom Pomorze.

What we arrived to was like something out of our dreams. Coming from Sweden where the “hotboi” scene is extremely limited our amazed-bar was set very low. Our jaws dropped lower and lower the further into the track area we went. Starting with a Renault Twingo built with a similar mindset as our Micra in the parking lot, followed by a BN Sports-styled Laurel as we walked through the gate to then seeing a pit filled with beautiful BMW’s, S-chassis, old Toyotas and more. It became clear pretty fast that we were in for an incredible weekend.

(Want to see the weekend from our POV in video form? Check out Burhoff’s vlog here)

That “Next Level is here to show the best style of drifting!” was shown very clearly. It didn’t matter if you had an SR20 S14 or a cheaper 318 E36, style was key.

If you want something “cheap” to thrash around in todays (or in 2019’s…) market in Europe BMW’s are the way to go, which was really shown at NLD. Straight piped E21 to E46 3-series, slammed to the ground on widened Opel Insigna steelies together with $uicideboys blasting from the speakers sang the song of Next Level all weekend long.

But of course being a grass root styled drift event the presence of japanese cars was still very strong.

Walking through the pits you could really feel the united vibe, feeling like everybody was there to have a great time together instead of proving themselves to be better than the other person.

Being the first time I ever brought a camera to a show intending to capture the event as a whole I must say that I’m very pleased with myself. Having guidance from Burhoff himself of course helped a lot.

One of my favorite cars at the event was Alex’s (@a13x89) 200sx S13. He has done a full 180sx “conversion” including an SR20DET swap, full Type-X bodykit including the tail lights and a 180sx brake light on the boot lid.

The aftermaket parts follow the classic oneeighty style too. Staggered 17”/18” Volk TE37’s, red Recaro seats, Grex shift knob and a Nardi steering wheel amongst other things. An absolute beauty built to perfection.

Another favorite was Kamil’s (@kamil_ftcln) 200sx S13. Also styled in a 90’s-00’s manner with staggered 17”/18” SSR Agle Strusse, a Type-X front with a thrashed DIY EZO ISM lip and G-Grow rear valence paired with rare Formula Ikeya two-piece side skirts, Ganador tail lights. A great look that is rarely seen in Europe.

The car is powered by a beefed up CA18DET making well enough power to slide around the go cart track.
Hope I will be able to shoot this car again in the future.

This truly was one of the best weekends of my life to this date, and with all the people I’ve gotten in contact with after the event such as Stanny, Makosa Streeto Boys and Oaktree Outlaws I can’t even imagine how great the next NLD International is going to be. Unfortunately the wait has been long because of Covid, but I will definitely go 2023!
I hope that Dennis’s E30 project is done and my S13 looks presentable, and that we maybe can put up a Lardel booth and bring the whole store with us. Fingers crossed.

Thank you for reading this blog post. It’s been a long time in the making…
Don’t forget to check out the store and maybe a blogpost featuring the local drift scene.