I've kinda been wondering what you all think of the whole drifting thing.

I assume you are talking about the short tracks where guys compete to slide their cars like nuts:

I think drifting is sweet ass man, assuming you have the cash, the car, and the skill. I wish it would catch on more up here but I've gotta get down to the south coast, texas, or the west coast to see any drift action.

I DON'T like how some "import racers" have acted like they've invented drifting. I'm sorry but a lot of so called "drift kings" that I know have FWD cars.... nice try, biotches. But I'm pretty sure that drifting has been around since cars have been losing traction. What about racing oval dirt track, sliding you ass through tight turns, or even experancing over-steer cruising on the back roads, isn't that drifting too?

I think people need to define the different types better... but as a whole drifting is cool.

From what i've seen of drifting it looks pretty darn kewl, i mean come on your going forwards while looking through the side window!

I love drifting. If I get a 240sx like I want, I plan to learn to drift. Drifting is defined as the point before losing control and sliding out of control. As Phatmatt was talking about, you cannot drift in a FWD car. All you do in a FWD car is lock up the wheels and slide. Pulling the E-brake while turning to slide out the rear tires is not drifting. That's simply a power slide. You need to control the brakes, gas, and clutch at the same time to properly drift.

i'm sure mr. crx racing will concur, matt. given the fact that drifting is basically SPRINT CAR RACING, i find it funny that the rice has gravitated toward an event in the redneck olympics. at least CRXracer has gone to the right track to run sprints. no doubt the 'drifters' would say that it's not drifting unless it's sponsored by falken....man oh man how dumb they look competing in a sport that eats tires, sponsored by a tire manfacturer. talk about blindness...looks more to me like a sport that should be sponsored by the local used tire store. "yup cletus, i gots me two little 10" sprint car tires out front, a camaro 255r15 on the inside rear and a 355/70r15 snow tire on the outside!!!"

jason
old hangtown, ca

Drifting was started in the 80's in Japan. It was and still is performed on the mountain passes of japan. Drifting in the US is way different. Drifting is displayed as a bunch of people in a parking lot sliding around. Which real drifting is not. But, because the US is far more flat than Japan. People have no choice but to sit in a parking lot or on a track and slide around. If you want to see real drifting, go to Japan.

I think the whole controlled slide is totally awesome, your right on that edge between, losing it, and not losing it, me and my friend have also really been getting into it, like on my JDM insider DVD the DRFT guy had their RX7 out and drifting uphill, that was really cool, and it also showed some drifting out in Osaka Japan, there were like 100 cars, all drifting around the same corner it was really cool.]

try this site (its mostly in Japanese)

www.drft.co.jp

what the fuck ever. the japanese did NOT invent the concept of drifting. the united states did. it's called sprint car racing. you can't run a 10 second quarter mile around an oval track in the dirt or on asphalt without kicking the ass end out. short tracks = need to drift.

japan might have warped this whole concept into some kind of hill climb or touring type event, but it's the same concept albiet a little less necessary as the more you drift on a long track the more time you waste.

jason

its been the same way in rally racing for many many years... hell any classic race cars that didnt get good traction in the rear drifted lol

You've been misinformed if you think drifting was started in the united states. Drifting and sprint car racing are totally different. Ask any drift expert. They'll tell you where drifting came from. The japanese did not warp sprint car racing into an uphill climb. For one, drfting isn't actually a race, it's a driving technique to take the corner as fast as possible and not lose control. It started out as road racing. Where the guys raced downhill as fast as possible. They learned that you can take a corner faster if you control your rear end to come around while not losing speed. Sometimes they do race uphill, but it's mostly downhill. They also have differnt races or battles, if you ever watch Initial D, you'll see some of them. Such as a rain battle, or a gumtape death match, which is basically binding your hand to the steering wheel. Pick up a drifting magazine sometime and read up on it.

And to metal396, having poor traction is called sliding, not drifting.

so drifting is the fastest way around a corner? i guess thats why all the Indy and Champ and CART and LeMans racers do it, right? drifting works on short circle tracks, i.e. sprint cars (which are fun as hell), but when you get on long road course tracks or anything other than a short circle dirt track controlling the car without breaking traction is the fastest way around a turn. drifting is fun and is pretty kewl looking, but drifters generally modify their cars to lose traction around the turn easier, and you can take a turn a lot faster if you control the speed and braking of the car, not lose it.

i dont come around here often anymore, so i dont know what your reputation is, but it doesnt matter what your little rice-boy magazine or jap shit television might tell you, drifting is an art, not a form of racing

-Daniel

enough of the beef. i'm just illustrating like similarities between racing forms to indicate that they are if nothing else parallel evolution.

yo gorgoth, what's up? how's that fiero going? email me at jason@orionoutdoor.com i have some stuff you might want that i'm trying to get rid of.

jason
stirring the project pot this week. coupe is going to be naturally aspirated, most of the turbo stuff is going into a sedan (e28 woot!). coupe and jag will both be sidedraft efi.

WTF? What kind of drifters are you talking about? tune their suspension to lose traction? That's why they stiffen their suspension to reduce roll, and put on the stickiest tires they can find. Also, I never said drifting is the fastest way around a corner. I said they try to find the fastest way around a corner, so they use drift. Try taking a hairpin curve at 90mph without slowing down sometime. Using proper drift techniques, you could make it reletively easily.

superkid... i was just fuckin around i know perfectly well the difference between drifting and sliding the tail.. wow i didnt know this thread was being taken so seriously lol

Initial D is awesome :-D , i ran out of episodes tho :-( seen em all

alright obviously people are getting their wires crossed there is Drifting in the technical sense and drifting AND we have "drifting" used to describe a particular type of road racing developed in japan.

People don't need to get hostile.... or do, it doens't matter to me. The point is.... actually I didn't have a point either.

I did want to bring up the "death match battle" or whatever it's called where the guy has his hand taped to the wheel. Who really does this? Also please send me a video of this dumbass crashing.