Someone said that drifting is so last year... You dumb phuk, we are not talking about Britney Spears or Limp Bizkit here. It is a way of driving, that has been around for a long time. It takes huge skill and rwd car that is correctly set up.
A little history lesson for you kids:
Keiichi "Drift King" Tsuchiya:
Keiichi bagan racing at a young age. he first discovered drifting while experimenting with his E.brake to cause his cars rear end to lose traction. Counter-steering his car's movement was fun and he found great enjoymen in it, but this also helped him to gain a better knowledge on how to control his car, and through this he taught himself the basics of controling a car. Keiichi was different than most great racers, he did not go to a racing school, did he come from a rich family. The enviroment around Keiichi had no no racing influence what so ever, but he persisted to drive and drive he did. He began to inspire his skills by driving on mountain passes, to better understand how to take each corner, to determine the best possible position of the car during a corner to obtain maximum speed exiting the corner. he developed an unwilling ability to take each corner at his desiresd speed, but this had its consequences. After all, this was neither a safe, nor smart way of driving. he many times found his car against the side of a wall or in the embankment, and found himself walking home.drifting to him was not just an exiting way to drive, or a quick way around the corner. To him it was ART.
Many racers will tell you that drifting is not the fastest way around the corner.This is where Keiichi Tsuchiya was crowned the Dori Kin or Drift King. Drifting tournaments were once evaluated on: style, technique, and speed. But latley tournaments have started to also judge on line and setup for multiple drift, this is very difficult. Keiichi's career didn't start until 1977 when he raced in amatuer leagues in underpowered cars. But his fame didn't begin until later when he was picked up to drive the ADVAN sponsored AE-86 Corolla GT-S. During races he would drift his 86 during corners to accuire a greater speed than his competitors. As his style developed his reputation grew. even though being an official race car driver he still set out to the mountains for illegal mountain racing, this greater immensed his reputation. After videos of his persistant mountatain racing were let out for retail his liscense as a driver was suspended! but even this helped his reputation to grow, and his fan base began to expand. He was seen as a sort of rebel who accuired such success out of sheer determination and will. And even today he shares an amazing bond with the car he grew up with. His Toyota AE-86.
Here is the man in action:
http://superhonda.com/video/ae86_drift.avi
AE86 has 1600cc 4A-GE engine, which in 1983 was state of the art technology, in 1600cc class it was uncomparable in the world. Not Honda, BMW or any other top engine manufacturer couldn't offer anything like it - only after a long time, 6 years later came Honda's 1600cc B16 VTEC...
If You look at it in 2004, it is still a great engine, used widley in 1600cc class racing, Formula Atlantic uses it in naturally aspirated form... 240-255hp!!!
AE86 is also unique, because in the 80's all the competition was fwd - which, as we all know, sucks.
DOH!! I don't know what in God's name I was thinking.. ::Whispers.:: yesterday was a bad day.. ::Coughs.::
