Definition, History, Cars, Sport, & Techniques of DRIFTing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Drifting refers to the difference in slip angle between the front and rear tires of a car. When the rear wheels are slipping at a greater angle than the front wheels, the car is drifting, or oversteering. The rear end of the car appears to chase the front end around a turn, while the front tires control the actual direction of the car.

1 Drifting
2 Drifting techniques
3 How the car should be set up

Drifting

History

Many attribute the return of drifting as a competitive sport to mountain-road racers of rural Japan. Informal challenges on back mountain roads (called "touge") eventually evolved into a heavily funded and advertised competitive events, sanctioned by organizations and held on private tracks. Drifting began in America at a grassroots level around 2002, and has exploded into a massively popular form of motorsport. Japanese drifters are still considered to be at the cutting edge of technique and car development, but their American counterparts are quickly catching up.

As rumor has it, Tsuchiya Keiichi was in a car race, and was dead last. Being a sore loser, he decided to swing the car around the corners, shocking and amazing the crowd. When accessed later for comment, Tsuchiya called it "drifting." While this is not the origin, it is probably where it obtained its name and introduction.

Before major tire technology developments in the 1970s, drifting was a popular racing technique, as it allowed a car to carry more speed through a turn than more conventional techniques. In order to go through a corner as fast as possible, drivers approached turns at high speed, turned the car in quickly to initiate a slide, and allowed the friction of the tires to slow them down as they kept their turn-in angle throughout the corner.

Today

Nowadays, drifting has evolved into a competitive sport where drivers compete in rear-wheel drive cars to keep their cars sideways for as long as possible. At the top levels of competition, especially the Option-run D1 Grand Prix in Japan and the US, drivers are able to keep their cars sliding for extended periods of time, often through several turns. Drifting competitions are judged based not on the time it takes to complete a course, but how much slip angle a driver can get, how long they hold it, and how close they stay to the racing line, or to the wall. Final rounds of competition often include tandem drift runs nicknamed "tsuiso" in Japanese, where one car follows another through the course, attempting to keep up with or even pass the car in front. In the tsuiso rounds, it doesn't matter if the racing line is wrong, it matters who can have the most exciting drift. A car does not even have to keep up, and in fact in some cases a car that was left behind on the straight produced a beautiful drift, winning him that round. A spin, understeer, or collision results in a disqualification of the offending party.

Cars

Any rear-wheel drive car can be drifted, and some all-wheel-drive cars can also drift, often with less angle, but higher speed. Popular competition cars in the US include the Nissan 240SX, Toyota Corolla GT-S, Mazda RX-7, and Honda S2000. In Japan, the top drift machines are the Nissan S13, S14, S15 Silvia, 180SX, Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno and Corolla Levin, Nissan Skyline, Toyota Altezza, Toyota Aristo, Nissan Cefiro, Nissan Laurel, Toyota Soarer, and the aforementioned vehicles.

There is some debate over whether or not front-wheel-drive (FWD) vehicles can drift. By the technical definition (rear wheels slipping at a greater angle than front wheels), they are indeed able to drift. However, many consider FWD vehicles a poor choice for drifting, as the frequent use of the emergency brake (necessary to drift FWD cars) slows them down and makes them harder to control. Some use the term "power sliding" when referring to a FWD car that is or appears to be drifting. Few FWD vehicles are seen in competitions.

4WD vehicles drift at a much different angle and are usually induced by power-over.

Sport

Many parts are available from aftermarket manufacturers that are specifically designed to modify a car for drifting. Almost all competitors take advantage of these products to enhance the suspension, driveline, chassis, and body of their cars.

The most important drifting competition in the world is the Autobacs D1 Grand Prix, which originated in the Japan Ebisu South Circuit. Once confined only to Japan, the D1GP now holds one points match and one Japan vs USA exhibition match at Irwindale Speedway in California. People like Rhys Millen, Ken Gushi, Samuel Hubinette, Benson Hsu, and Calvin Wan compete against top Japanese drivers and are judged by experienced Japanese judges. The top Japanese drivers include Taniguchi "NOB" Nobuteru (HKS Power S15 Hyper Genki Silvia RS2 / HKS Super Oil Genki RP Altezza) , Nomura "Nomuken" Ken (Blitz Works ER34 Skyline), Imamura Youichi (A'PEXi FD3S RX-7), Kumakubo Nobushige (Team Orange,Yuke's, and Jun Automechanic's GDB Type-II Impreza), Masao Suenaga (RE Amemiya FD3S RX-7), Kazama "Waku-Waku Kun" Yasuyuki (Kei Office S15 Silvia), Akinori "Ucchi" Utsumi (C-West DRFT FD3S RX-7), Masato Kawabata (Trust Works S15 Silvia) Manabu "MAX Orido"/"Monkichi" (RS-R Supra), Miki "Doki-Doki Kun" Ryuji (Ogura Racing Clutch Z33 Fairlady Z), and Katsuhiro Ueo (Car Boutique AE86 Sprinter Trueno). The American drivers are usually in a different league, as they cannot follow the D1's predominantly Japanese schedule. These leagues include Formula D and others. D1GP is soon to break into other markets, like the UK and other parts of Asia. (Machines, Drivers, and Teams are as of 2005 D1 Schedule.)

The magazine Option and its video department V-Option decided to create the D1 Grand Prix to catch and expand the drifting craze. Led by the CEO Daijiro Inada (Option Stream Z), they strive for performance.

Keiichi Tsuchiya, a legend in the drifting world, is considered the father of drifting. Known popularly as the "Drift King" (Dorikin), he is the official chief judge in the D1 Grand Prix Series. Manabu Suzuki assists in announcing.

D1 Champions

Inaugural 2001 D1 - Nobuteru Taniguchi w/ HKS Power

2002 D1- Katsuhiro Ueo w/ Yuke's & Cusco

2003 D1- Imamura Youichi w/ A'PEXi

2004 D1- Miki Ryuji w/ Top Secret DRIFT

2005 D1- ??? (Most likely and deservingly Kazama Yasuyuki w/ Kei Office)

Drifting techniques

There are many different ways to drift a car, including: (NOTE: ABS and TCS should be turned off before attempting to drift.)

Braking drift - This drift is performed by trail braking into a corner so that the rear wheels lose traction, then controlling the drift with proper steering and gas inputs. It is probably the most typical drifting technique for RWD cars.

Power Over Drift - This drift performed when entering a corner at full throttle to produce heavy oversteer through the turn. It is the most typical drifting technique for AWD cars.

Inertia (Feint) Drift - This is done by rocking the car towards the outside of a turn and then using the inertia of the car to swing it back to the desired drifting line. Using this technique, you can chain up many drifts into one long continuous drift where traction is never fully regained at any point. This is ideally done at the mountain passes where the continuous corners facilitates this type of drifting.

Handbrake Drift - This technique is pretty straight forward; pull the handbrake to induce rear traction loss and balance drift through steering and throttle play. Some people debate the fact that if using the handbrake creates an actual drift, or just a power slide. This is generally the main technique to perform a controlled drift in a FWD vehicle.

Dirt Drop Drift - This is done by dropping the rear tires off the road into the dirt to maintain or gain drift angle without losing power or speed and to set up for the next turn. Only permissible on roads without barriers and lined with dirt or other materials which to lose traction. This is commonly done in WRC rallying.

Jump Drift - A dangerous maneuver to accomplish and only permissible on certain race tracks. This technique requires the rear tire on the inside of a turn or apex to be bounced over a curb to lose traction, thus resulting in the desired oversteer.

Clutch Kick - This is done by "kicking" the clutch (pushing in, then out) to send a shock through the powertrain, upsetting the car's balance. It causes the car to go into oversteer.

How the car should be set up

The suspension in a drift car is very tight and unforgiving -- even the chassis is tightened with roll cages and strut braces. Die-hard drifting enthusiasts also alter the suspension geometry to enable the car to slide better. The differentials are usually semi-locking, not the standard limited-slip type. This helps to keep the wheels spinning and so drift is easier to control. The cars quite often have different tires on the front and back, and the owner may have quite a few sets. This is because a single afternoon of drifting can destroy a new set of tires. As a rule, good tires go on the front for good steering. On the back, hard-compound tires are used -- quite often second hand ones -- as they tend to end up in a cloud of smoke. In addition, the tires are stretched over a wide rim. For example, 205 50/16 tyres may be fitted to an 8" rim, or 235 45/17 to a 9" rim; this reduces the chance of the tire rolling off the rim, and enables the car to slide better. The clutches on these cars tend to be very tough ceramic brass button or multiple-plate varieties. This is because a lot of drifters use the clutch to commence the wheel spins (and hence the drift) by applying either compression lock or popping the clutch at high engine RPMs.

Drifting (motorsport)

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