HomeFeatured VehiclesBehind the scenes: Miniseries explores Pastrana’s Subaru driving stunts

Behind the scenes: Miniseries explores Pastrana’s Subaru driving stunts

What went into 4 days of racing around Annapolis, Maryland

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If you enjoyed watching Travis Pastrana terrorize Annapolis, Maryland, in a 2021 Subaru WRX STI, you’ll no doubt want to watch Launch Control: Road to Gymkhana, Subaru’s two-part miniseries documenting the design, build, testing and photographing of the car.

The two-part miniseries is available for viewing on YouTube and Amazon Prime Video.

To prepare for the new videos (see below), here’s the Gymkhana 2020 run through Annapolis:

Here’s the YouTube link to the first part of the new miniseries.

Here’s the link to the second segment.

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,” Pastrana is quoted in the Subaru announcement. 

“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.”

According to Subaru, “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.

“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.”

Among other things, the car needed repairs during the shooting

Five earlier episodes also are included in the Season 8 series. They follow the Subaru Motorsports USA rally programs and drivers Pastrana and Brandon Semenuk.

Launch Control is a production of Formula Photographic and Bowes Media with support from Subaru of America.

Larry Edsall
Larry Edsall
A former daily newspaper sports editor, Larry Edsall spent a dozen years as an editor at AutoWeek magazine before making the transition to writing for the web and becoming the author of more than 15 automotive books. In addition to being founding editor at ClassicCars.com, Larry has written for The New York Times and The Detroit News and was an adjunct honors professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

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