Many of Europe's best drifters converged on Bucharest, the capital of Romania, for the Drift Grand Prix.

With the Palace of Parliament as the stunning backdrop, this street drift event was certainly breathtaking.

Drivers came from many different countries, including Poland, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia, Ireland, the UK and of course Romania.

The paddock area was crowded with almost 50 cars, ranging from BMWs to Nissans.

Nikkolet Szanto was the only female driver in the competition. She brought her M5 V8 powered BMW Z4 from Hungary, which is actually for sale at the moment. 

So let's do a "briefing" of our own, so you get a better idea of the track layout. The cars start on the left side of this picture. They would go downhill, full throttle, in some cases reaching speeds of 160 kph. They would then initiate the drift, going through the outer clip zone, and heading towards the next one, while drifting across 6 lanes.  Afterwards they go in for the right hand transition, keeping their speed up, and with somewhat limited visibility through the corner. From this high speed tarmac zone they would go onto a more technical section on a paved surface.

That said, you really had to see the track for yourself to comprehend the magnitude of this event. Quite a few people are still shocked that drifting was allowed to take place right outside the People's Palace.

The Dragon Performance RX-7 was one of the most popular drift machines at the event.

This Polish-built S14 is part of the RB Drift Team. There's an LS2 under the hood and it was driven by Bartosz Stolarski. Its V8 roar could be heard bouncing through the streets of Constitution Square.

One of the more interesting drift cars was this two-door Subaru Impreza which is powered by a RB27 motor. It came over from the UK and was driven by Walton Smith.

A total of eight cars made the trip from Poland for this event. Mateusz Wlodarczyk was driving this 4 door M3 E46, and, as you would expect, this car couldn't have been competitive enough with the stock engine. It's now sporting a much needed supercharger!

The field had drivers from many different competitions, with champions mixing it against up and comers.

The large crowds were able to watch the action from the lawn of the People's Palace.

However only these Top 16 would be in the main show, battling against one another. 

Walton Smith went up against Pawel Trela and the two drivers put down an impressive fight for the Top 8 spot.

We snapped this photo of Brad Hacker who was rushing to to the starting line. 

Brad was going up against Romanian driver Marius Mitrache, who was in a near stock R33 Skyline. With only 300hp at his disposal, many thought it was a miracle that he was able to make it into the Top 16. 

The drifting continued into the night under lights. 

It was an all-Irish battle when Nigel Colfer went up against Brendan Stone, who was driving Wesley Keatings' car, after his own S15 had broken down.

Colfer was the favourite, however Stone was seemingly unbothered by the fact he hadn't driven the borrowed car before. Stone knocked out Colfer.

In a battle between two quite different BMWs, the older E30 was the one to take the win, with Grzegorz Hypki moving on to the semi-final.

One of the other Top 8 Battles was the one between Polish driver Bartosz Stolarski (V8 S14) and Australian Brad Hacker (above). Stolarski literally left Hacker sitting in a cloud of smoke. 

The most intense battle of the day was between Grzegorz Hypki and Pawel Trela. A second One More Time had to be called, as the judges were not able to decide who should take the win.

Unfortunately, that's when Hypki hit the outside, with both cars colliding at over 100km/h. Both cars sustained heavy damage and everyone held their breath for a few moments.

Thankfully both drivers emerged unscathed.

After some very hard battling, Brendan Stone was the one to take the win. Making his victory even more impressive, is the fact he was driving a borrowed car!

- Dragos

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