I should have tried that with my C4 before I replaced the 'hockey puck' tires!

 

I saw an interview with an F1 driver, and he said that the drivers he idolized were the Drifters ;-)

pretty cool

 

Such an unbelievable number of ignorant comments in here.

As with any form of racing, whether it be drag, or road racing. Operating a vehicle at a point just beyond loss of traction is the "edge". Launching a drag car occurs best when the wheels just begin to lose traction. The same as, going fast around a road course, is being just at the point of loss of adhesion. That's walking the edge.

While the "ricers" call it drifting, as some of you say, the entire sport starting with road racing in the earlier years of racing. Bondurant, Barber, Guldstrand...Corvette race car drivers will all tell you...today it's called drifting, back then...that was racing. None of you have clearly ever driven a vintage Corvette racecar...if you had, you'd know that if you weren't sideways, essentially throttle steering the car...you were losing. I owned a 1969 A Production Corvette and compared to my Z06...the driving experience was incomparable...

The same was the result in Japan where a man named Keiichi Tsuchiya (if I recall that spelling right...lol) road raced but turned at a rate that left the car sliding around the turn. This basically spawned "drifting" in Japan. People loved watching Tsuchiya drive, and tried to replicate it in canyon racing.

When the Japanese came to America with the surge in the import scene in the late 90's, American's wanted more "show", so the american form of drifting evolved that got the car much more sideways, with much more smoke in order to entertain a crowd. The D1 Grand Prix was born and here we are.

The fact is, if you legitimately road race, I can't possibly fathom how you don't respect what these people are doing. There's the limit on a road course, and that's where most run out of skill. Drifting takes your skill set to the whole next level, allowing you to go to an extended level of car control.

I do drift, though I'm not D1 worthy, I am definitely local event worthy. I used a 1995 BMW M3 and am now switching to a 240sx. Drifting isn't the hands flailing failure that I see most people doing trying to catch a car in an oversteer state. Drifting requires more hands off, essentially throwing the wheel, and using power modulation.

Those who disrespect it...simply couldn't do it...that's it. Those who are intrigued by what they see, understand that this is a skill that can be essential and can only add to ones driving ability when going beyond a tires adhesion.

 

http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/

 

I agree... that dude can drive ! Looks like a blast !

I need to go practice that in a Walmart parking lot...

Toque

 

Thank you, I could not have said it better. I am glad to see someone else chime in on a positive note. You can definitely see the generational gap in these conversations. Sad but true.

 

Toque

 

I still hate it! Most have said that they can appreciate the skill involved but, you can't force someone to like it.

To me it's like golf. It definitely takes a lot of skill to play it and I admit that but, I'd rather have teeth pulled than watch golf.

 

Now we agree on something

 

In all due respect, it's probably good that nobody is asking one another to like it. Huh

 

Well said! It is fun to watch, fun to do and takes an enormous amount of skill. However, as you, yourself state, it is a "show." You will not see the F1 cars drifting around COTA tomorrow, because it is not the fastest way around the track. Hence some of the comments about drifting not being "real" racing.

Let's stop being so sensitive. To each his own.

Now on to more important things, which oil is best for my engine ...

 

Geeez-zus...... all I said I'm not into the "ricer" stuff and everyone gets thier panties in a bunch...... If you like it and appreciate it, good for you.

Get over it already.

 

I agree here to a point. While it requires skill, it is NOT the fast way around a track. I think people are confusing this with actual road racing, which it is not.

It's an exhibition event to display driver skill, it's not a "race". I think that is where most confusion lies.

 

lol...no offense, but drifting is not "ricer stuff", its "driving stuff"....

Formula 1 drivers are acknowledged by everyone who knows anything about F1 cars as the best drivers in the world.

And when you talk to F1 drivers about who they look up to or admire, its usually the top Drift Drivers.

The reason for this is that Drifting elevates motoring to an art form, it utter managed chaos where you take the car way beyond it's limits at very high speeds and pull it back again...its like doing gymnastics in a high wire, falling off on purpose, catching yourself, and doing it again, always right at the edge of complete disaster.

It looks easy and to a degree safe, only because of the incredible skill of those drivers

check this clip out, this is what happens when you drift and don't get it right, and the guy in this clip is only going about at about 20% of the speed and velocity that the top Drifters are going:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BB-KBaevPqM

There is a reason why F1 drivers respect drift driver ;-)

 

Thats funny...my car still has the old hard Goodyears on there that are near the end of there life, they slide all over the place very easily, so I've been very carefully practicing some drifting again.

as an aside, the top drifters actually don't use cars with slippery tires, they often use the best suspension setups and the stickiest tires, so that when the car breaks loose, they are drifting at outrageous speeds.

Basically they greatly increase the cars threshold of grip, so they can push it over the threshold at much higher speeds.

if you ever get a chance to try it in a safe dnviornment I highly recomend it, your command of the car will increase greatly, and its AWESOME fun.

When I was a kid my Dad wasn't around and my Mother was a Cop, so a lot of the other Cops played a bit of a father role...I learned to drive on a police obstacle course from a guy who raced, and learning to control a drift was one of the first things they taught me....they should have it as a part of all driving classes, would save countless lives IMHO.

 

Thats true, its not a race, but it is still pushing the envelope of motoring outward, just like Formula 1, Indy Cars, and to some extent Nascar.




personally, I like the Golf analogy, I loved to Golf, but hated to watch it... but the more I Golf'ed the more interesting watching Golf became, at least when Tiger was in his prime, but even then, I could only watch a few minutes of the more dramatic parts of a tournament, while I could play all weekend and still want to play some more.

Drifting is kinda like that.


F1 on the other hand, I am actually starting to prefer watching Formula 1 on the weekends to football...its utterly amazing what those machines and drivers do...its astounding to me that F1 isn't more popular in the US given how much of a motoring culture we are.

 

Then why did you bother going into a thread about drifting? Also, you're showing your ignorance with the whole ricer comment.

 

It takes huge skills. You have to keep the rear tires loose. They do it almost every weekend up here at the race track.

Funny thing is to see these kids come up here in their ricers and they have seen the drift movies, so they have their cars lettered up "so and so drift crew", etc. Then they get out there and can not do it.

Then the pros get out there with three cars at a time, side by side, only a couple of feet apart, and run the whole course without hitting each other.

 

I've never been into it but seen my share of the clips and will say it is more interesting to watch than NASCAR.