I suppose everyone who has a car enjoys drifting. Especially in winter when it is so easy and looks impressing. The Hollywood enjoys drifting to the full - I for example don’t remember a single car pursuit without drifting. But it isn’t popular in the races: looks impressive, but the only thing that matters in autosport is speed. Exceptions make only snow and ground where using drift you can gain side breaking which helps pass turns quicker. But one could not imagine that drifts could change in a sport - drifting.

Drifting is quite an extraordinary sport. For example you don’t always have to leave someone behind to win. It’s impotrant to drive beautifully here. This kind of sport was born in Japan some 10 years ago, but the first drifters came much earlier. About 30 years ago Kunimitsu Takahashi participated in the All Japan Touring Car Championship. He was not a bad driver, but he got famous not for that. He had a special style of driving, a special techniques of passing turns. He came close to a turn at full speed and then sent his car into drift with clouds of white smoke under his wheels. Today’s tires don’t allow such things - it is both dangerous and unefficient.

Later this technique was adopted by japanese streetracers. Keiichi Tsuchiya was the most famous of them. He released his first video in 1977, where two Toyotas drifted on the mountainous roads of Japan. This film affected others, and lots of people began gathering around Keiichi. The fisrt competition was held in 1988, and was organized by him.

Nowadays lots of amateur champs are being held all over the world, but pro tours are very rare. The most popular of these pro races is D1 series, which was founded in 2000 by Keiichi Tsuchiya and Option Magazine. The races draw more than 20,000 viewers. Similar races are help in the USE under the name “Formula D“.

So what is drifting as sport?

A race takes place on a winding asphalt road. The winner is not the one to cross the finish line the first, but the one with the more technically perfect drifting. It seems to be quite simple - the wider is the angle the faster is the speed the better. Special equipment is used to see these parametres (Racelogic Driftbox to see the angle and the speed). But the driver’s mark include addtitional aspects like the spectacleness. The more white smoke under the wheels the more points the driver gets.

A race is divider into two parts: a chase run and a chase attack. During the first cars race alone on the track and 16 best racers are defined. And then the most interesting things begin. These 16 pilots are divided into pairs and race like that. They race side by side. The losing pilot doen’s often has to outrace the leader: he has to drive beautifully. But there are some rules: it the overtaken racer outruns his opponent in a drift he automatically becomes a winner, but if he does this without drifting he loses.

Only serial cars can compete. You can for example install lighter body parts, but cannot take out front passenger seats. The engine cannot be changed, but it can be tuned.

The most popular cars in this area are Nissan Silvia, Mazda RX-7, Nissan Skyline, Toyota Corolla Levin/Trueno AE-86. In the US they are Ford Mustang, Dodge Viper, and Pontiac GTO.

It should also be mentioned that cars are prepared in a special way. When the car is tuned, power does not play the main role. It is line characteristic that really matters.

Drifting, Nissan Silvia, Mazda RX-7, Nissan Skyline, Toyota Corolla Levin/Trueno AE-86, Ford Mustang, Dodge Viper, and Pontiac GTO, cars

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