The Insane Racing Team is made up of five Norwegian guys who drive a bus around to all of the Formula Offroad events in Scandinavia. The car gets half of the bus and then the 5 guys live in the other half. In order to be competitive, Insane Racing is running an LS7 from a Corvette with a 200 shot of NOS to bump their power output to 700 hp. That engine is attached to an upgraded Powerglide transmission that is identical to the one used in the Gravedigger monster truck and can handle 2000 hp. Be sure to turn on the captions with the “CC” button on the bottom right to the left of the resolution gear. The video has footage of the car in action and introduces you to all of the team members.

Usually when we see Formula Offroad footage here in the US, it’s a crazy highlight reel of gratuitous power. We often times forget that it’s a legitimate championship series. Just like any other racing championship, you have to set the car up for each location and perform consistently excellent to win. That’s why I thought this video of Christian Austad was pretty interesting. It follows him as he competes in all of the events of the 2011 Formula Offroad season. He’s definitely immensely talent and brave.

Formula Offroad is basically the dirt equivalent of Gatebil. Scandinavian gear heads lock themselves up in their workshops all winter in order to build some of the craziest hill climb machines in the world. Once the weather warms up, they come out to play. The videos of Formula Offroad are usually just insanity and chaos because that’s what people who are watching it for the first time usually pick up on. This video is a little different. I found it on one of my YouTube related video odysseys. It’s by somebody who regularly watches Formula Offroad, so it’s a little less sensationalism and more about the drivers and how the events are run. Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of gratuitous displays of power and getting air.