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If you’re a fan of anything rally, "Launch Control: Road to Gymkhana" is a must-watch. 

"Launch Control: Road to Gymkhana" details the building process of Travis Pastrana’s insane 2020 Gymkhana STI in a two-part series.

By The Editors

Fri, Feb 12, 2021 12:00 PM PST

The two-part miniseries concludes Season 8 of Launch Control, which you can watch on YouTube or Amazon Prime Video. The miniseries covers the design, build, testing and shooting of Travis Pastrana’s wild 2020 Gymkhana Subaru STI.

gymkhana car barely staying on dock
The intricacy and attention to detail needed for a purpose-built Gymkhana car is on full display in Road to Gymkhana.

“Gymkhana 2020 was my chance to take the series in a direction no one had seen before, and Road to Gymkhana is beyond anything fans have seen from Launch Control,” said Pastrana. “The level of engineering that went into building this crazy STI, and the effort from the Subaru team to make it happen, especially with everything 2020 threw at us, it was just massive.”

the gymkhana team in the garage with the gymkhana car
Launch Control: Road to Gymkhana documents the efforts of a small but dedicated group of engineers, technicians and team support staff to produce a one-off Gymkhana build, followed by the week-long effort needed to film the video itself.

The miniseries’ first episode picks up on a challenging Day 1 of the Annapolis shoot and tells the story of the early build in a series of flashbacks—from initial planning and design in the shadow of early COVID-19 lockdowns, to the challenge of transforming a production Subaru shell into a high-flying Gymkhana machine, including the development of a custom 862-horsepower SUBARU BOXER engine for the project.

working on the gymkhana car
The development of the Gymkhana STI was a nearly year-long process completed in spite of COVID-19 restrictions, with the goal of turning a production Subaru shell into a high-flying 862-horsepower machine with a full carbon body and active aerodynamics.

Episode 2 covers the remaining three days of the shoot as Pastrana and the Subaru Motorsports USA team deliver more of the video’s signature stunts—including the high-speed country road jump, the dock-edge slide, and tandem donuts with a cameo from teammate Scott Speed—while delving deeper into advanced aerodynamics and the high level of detail needed to complete the build.

The previous five episodes of Season 8 follow the Subaru Motorsports USA rally program and drivers Pastrana and Brandon Semenuk through a pandemic-shortened but high-action season, with the team racking up seven podium finishes and a pair of rally wins in just four events.

Launch Control is a production of Formula Photographic and Bowes Media with the support of Subaru of America.
This article was compiled by the editors of LACar.

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