Please, Someone Tell Me, What Is The Purpose Of Drifting?

A very good question. The answer is "yes". When I was actively playing with and following sports and formula cars in the '50s and early '60s it was referred to as a "4-wheel drift". It wasn't all that easy to do. I made the attempt lots of times in an Alfa Romeo spider I had back then and was never able to really pull it off. The balance of speed, angle of the car and such was hard to pull off with no more power than I had available (the car had a 1300cc engine and, while a lot of fun to drive, wouldn't put an abundance of power on the road). If you really wanted an exercise in frustration, you needed to try it in a Formula Vee. An accomplished driver (NOT me) could do some pretty amazing things with a car. Then, as now, it was death on a set of tires. You still see the term used occasionally in some of the magazines which focus on historic cars and racing.

Now, of course, the technique has developed a life of it's own. We watched what were essentially drifting demonstrations (though that term wasn't used by the announcers) at the racing car show in Birmingham in the UK over the past couple of years during exhibitions in their indoor arena. I must admit it's entertaining to see the technique being exhibited by a couple of FIA-GT Ferrari 430s and an Aston Martin DBR-9 (one of the Le Mans team cars from 2006). The drivers sounded like they were on the rev-limiters most of the time.

Can't really say it's one of my favorite forms of motor sport but it does seem to have achieved a fair degree of popularity.

This is an interesting thread. Lots of good discussion.

Regards,

John

 

To me its a waste of time and tires. Just another juve thing to to. Sort of like wearing your pants around your knees, its been going on for a decade and continues to make no sence whatsoever.

 

maybe it is just evolution in the lateral way...

 

Really? My 2000cc Alfa Spider Veloce dances quite well --- although with that flexy suspension, it's more of a series of little wheel-at-a-time "hops" than a "slide".

But with the nose heavy weight distribution, the back end will hop easier than the front. Usually it's easier to balance opposite steer on the front while the back tap dances to the side.

Add the flat torque for power oversteer, and it can pirouette like a ballerina. I can turn it almost in its own length. (But my mill has been tweaked a smidge. US stock was 112, mine was about 140 after the last valve job. But I can't take this car to California. )

And yes, I went through the stock XASs in about 7500 miles.

 

A fast race car or Moto GP bike is always drifting in the corners .

Check the pictures of your beloved Gilles, hey guess what he was drifting.

WRC cars last time I checked are drifting.

To hear the Grandpa's shake their heads and point their fingers at the kids who are drifting is pretty funny and maybe a sportscar forum is not for you. Perhaps spend your web time checking out WEB MD or sites better suited to your advanced ages.

I bet those who can't understand drifting get 10K miles or more out of their"sportscars" tires. How sad why own a sportscar just to drive like a geezer.

Don't like it , don't watch. What a concept.

Now go soak your teeth in the glass by the night stand,and it's past your bedtimes

 

The Japs come up with weird stuff to amuse themselves. I never understood the need for naked chicks in their cartoons...or huge eyes.

 

who are the "japs"??? nice post by the way.. quite ethnocentric...and not in a good way.

 

drifting is not really a sport. it does not get a world wide audience. one thing is for sure that comes out of drifting is colorful smoke...
john

 

I've spent my share of time going sideways in rallyes.

But the concept of drifting as a "sport" strikes me like paying for seats at a basketball court to watch players practice rebounds.

Practicing individual skills seems pointless if you focus on only one skill. It's like having a tool box with only a single flat blade screwdriver. Controlled slides have a purpose other than to produce pretty smoke.

There comes a time to stop practicing and start doing.

Take it from "grandpa": You don't want to reach my age and have to say, "I could have raced, but instead ...". ("I could'a been a contender!" )

 

Don't compare to rally to drifting except in that drifters are rally driver wanna-bes. Rally takes HUGE balls in the forest whereas drifters thrive on showing off w/o much risk of wacking the scenery or driving off cliff. I crew for a drift team. Was at drift event last weekend, ho-hum. I codrive ProRally for a factory team. Its the rally drivers who are the talanted drivers. Not to say there isn't any relation as Rhys Millen and Tanner Faust (stunt drivers for Tokyo Drift and Dukes of Hazzard) both do each well and have won championships in each discipline. Drifting is not the fastest way around a curve and is hard on tires, clutch and gearbox and conserving these are important in rally. Rallydrivers don't purposly drift but do slide when traction gives.

Drift cars are with few exceptions all RWD. Few people rally RWD these days.

The real answer to the original post is that drifting was the result of a tire manufacturer's brainstorm session on how to sell more tires to the gullible public.

 

Are "pro rally co-drivers" actually professional?

 

I may have to call you out on this one. I am not interested in drifting whatsoever but I do have to say this. When you come to Japan, let me know and I will show you the mountains of Kobe, Ujigawa line in Kyoto, Nanko in Osaka. All the Tokyo Drift you see never happens. Whats funny is there is ABSOLUTELY no drifting in Tokyo. Drifting is all in the Kansai Areas. There are so many deaths each year due to the fact that some of these guys don't know what they are doing, go drift in Kobe and fall over the cliffs. Guys die here in Japan. Now, do I care, not really cause I am not in that loop. The street drifting you see is baby cakes. Nanko is like this. I have to admit, it is fun to watch and run when the cops come. But when you get to the mountains it is a totally different beast.

Remember, What you see in America and drifting is NO WHERE NEAR what they do in Japan. D1, all show with prizes. They all came from the mountains. I was in a Discovery Channel documentary on this. If you guys can find their streetracing clip and girl racers clip you will see what I mean.

 

And to add to my last post. Tokyo is all about Highway battles.

 

I guess you've never watched a three point or dunk contest? An entire league or circuit of these contests would never be as popular as the NBA, but could probably survive on a semi amateur level.

Sure drifting will never be as popular as racing, but it has its niche.

And the wasting of tires argument is absolute crap. Any professional racing event will see as many tires used dumped as a D1GP event. Each F1 driver can use 14 sets of drys each weekend. And like F1, at a pro level drifting event, drivers have tires sponsors (often they are title sponsors) who are will to burn the tires for the advertisement.

an aside-
A few months ago I read in Autosport I believe, that one of the major drift tire companies was producing a red tire that produced red smoke. They had to be produced for public sale in order to be homolagated. I believe they were running around $10,000 a set. I seem to remember it being Yokohama, but I'm not sure.

-edit
found them, from Kumho
Kumho Ecsta MX-C
I've now read both $2k per set and $2k per tire not sure what is true. Also come in blue. 2500 sets had to be sold to be used in D1.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Until you've done PikePeak a 120MPH, you haven't raced on a mountain. Been there, done that, going back this year. So why are drifters stupid and drive off at low speed?

As for tires, how many laps do drifters get per pair (rears take the abuse) vs a road racer on same track? Its the tire compound that is different. Drifters don't want/need traction so run a very hard compound which will last and offer less grip. Still, the wanna-be in mom's grocery getter ricer is going to have those. A racer with a budget will use the softest compound to last the needed duration for maximum traction but will wear quicker than a harder compound.

DGS, you live in NoVa and have rallied and i don't know you? You on DCEvoClub too?

 

the tires are Kumho Ecsta MX-C

taken from http://www.ddavid.com/formula1/ferrari_bio.htm but it was a quote from, i believe...."Piloti Che Gente"


"At the first bend," Ferrari writes, "I had the clear sensation that Tazio had taken it badly and that we would end up in the ditch; I felt myself stiffen as I waited for the crunch. Instead, we found ourselves on the next straight with the car in a perfect position. I looked at him," Ferrari goes on. "His rugged face was calm, just as it always was, and certainly not the face of someone who had just escaped a hair-raising spin. I had the same sensation at the second bend. By the fourth or fifth bend I began to understand; in the meantime, I had noticed that through the entire bend Tazio did not lift his foot from the accelerator, and that, in fact, it was flat on the floor. As bend followed bend, I discovered his secret. Nuvolari entered the bend somewhat earlier than my driver's instinct would have told me to. But he went into the bend in an unusual way: with one movement he aimed the nose of the car at the inside edge, just where the curve itself started. His foot was flat down, and he had obviously changed down to the right gear before going through this fearsome rigmarole. In this way he put the car into a four-wheel drift, making the most of the thrust of the centrifugal force and keeping it on the road with the traction of the driving wheels. Throughout the bend the car shaved the inside edge, and when the bend turned into the straight the car was in the normal position for accelerating down it, with no need for any corrections." Ferrari honestly admits that he soon became used to this exercise, because he saw Nuvolari do it countless times. "But each time I seemed to be climbing into a roller coaster and finding myself coming through the downhill run with that sort of dazed feeling that we all know."

 

Your D1 is slow, these mountain guys are drifting in 3rd/4th. I am not here to see who has the longer dick, I actually am not interested in Rally or Drift. I am just saying that these guys are a little different here. I will never say that Pike Peak is not dangerous nor will i dispute your feelings. You are entitled to them. Before you say that these guys are stupid for falling off cliffs at such slow speeds.... well, I cant do what they do... can you?

 

Inducing a slide by braking traction of rear wheels and carrying momentum and steering thru a turn by using throttle. How hard can it be? Not worth building a high torque motor to stick in the worst drivetrain configuration to find out.

 

actually drifting goes back as far as cars do. very early cars had very narrow tires run at very high pressures [search "clincher tires"]... in the teens most races were on dirt -horse tracks were actually better than roads of the day- cars got sideways and the fastest drivers were big brave men that could wrestle 7-8 liter chain drive monsters around a track.things got a bit more civilized with slightly wider [but not much] low pressure tires in the 20's and 30's...remember , we're talking solid axles and leaf springs here...i'll skip the next 50 years or so because time really doesn't permit but trust me , race cars have been drifting longer than they have been glued to the track.

as this is ferrarichat i'll just drop names shamelessly. more than a few years ago, i was vintage racing my 1927 t37 [1.5 liter 4 cyl] bugatti at laguna seca and as i was entering turn 5 i saw a big blue splotch in my mirror...i moved to the outside of the line and as i barely held the car in control, mr phil hill went by me on the inside driving a t54 [5 liter ,8 cyl supercharged] in a perfectly controlled 4 wheel drift...as he passed my car and continued to drift towards the outside of my line he calmly waved with his left hand while tugging on the steering wheel with his right ...in a blink he as gone..only to be followed by an 8c alfa monza and an era...all in beautiful arcing controlled drifts.

if you want to watch cute asian women [and who doesn't] watch a drift video...if you want to see amazing car control go to a vintage race and watch the cars thu the 1950's.

btw. my daily driver is a honda s2000

 

My point proven.

 

So, yes: wannabe rally drivers.

No. Why would I want to? If I want to watch a basketball game, I'll watch the game, not the practice.

I hardly bother watching F1 practice, and that's only when there's nothing else on.

Could it be that the younger generation lacks the confidence to go for real racing, so make do with subsets of it?

I live in NoVa now, but my rallye days were back in the '70s in a Fiat 124, before the AWDs came in. (And when a Stratos showed up, you knew who was going to win. )
I don't do too many EVO events, because people get so disappointed that my EVO is stock. (I bought it for commuting in Massachusetts winters, replacing the ST165 I'd used for 15 years.)

Can I control a slide? Yep. Can I slide for no reason other than for show? I dunno. Why would I try?

Can I control a car other ways than sliding? Certainly. Can drifters?


If rallying is an orchestra, drifting is the triangle player. (ding)

 

Ok so lets just all come to the common conclusion I guess... **** Drifters...

 

I'm with you Xavior. There are very skilled drivers in the Touge, more than has been acknowledged. Why do you think people are so afraid to take it out of "sport" mode? Cause they'll spin out and crash!

 

I'm Jap and living in the USA, Ron.
I'm not interested in drift cause much slower than gripping turn.
Drifting is just "show", not racing. If you (anybody) don't like it, don't do it, don't watch it. If like it, DO IT!

 

+1 (except I'm not Japanese)

Agreed, If no one pays attention it will go away.

p.s. Yoshi makes awesome shields.