drifting: a debate

hey all,

i'd like to find out what everybody's views on drifting are and how that compares to the drifting scene here, away from playstations..

personally i have been drifting (real not computer games) since 2002 and i'm ok at it.. i've got a 3rd place in competition once before but since moving to the mountains there are no comp's here.

so my views..
understeer: massive no no!
i
'm more of a fan of race/ high speed drifting than display drifting.

4x4 is banned in competition in europe and i agree with this. 4x4 has no place in drifting as it makes it way to easy to regain your line from some angles that are even negative. i know it's possible to also do this with rwd cars but it takes a lot more skill rather than just flooring it and steering in the countersteer direction.

twin drifting / battle drifting is the nuts! i like to race my ghost in gt4 but try very hard not to touch it as it was a real car.

my definition of drifting?
controlling a rear wheel drive car in a constants state of oversteer and linking both left and right hand corners while staying in a constant state of oversteer.
i think just one corner at a time is more powersliding but with some corners (like tightening ones) takes a lot more skill and thus it's more drifting than just getting it sideways.

do you drift other things?
i try to drift my mountain bike on gravel.. it's hard work on the pedals but it's just about possible for a couple of corners at a time.
i quite often drift my quad bike on the mountain passes
i snowboard in the winter and you can hang the tail out on that but it's more like arse dragging than drifting as there is no power to the back of the board keeping it in the angle.. however snoboarding and drifting share many weight shift techniques and are closer related than it would apear on the surface.

what is the drifting scene like in your area?

here it's quite minimal with me being the driving force behind it and trying to get the locals to join in.. but living in a area tha is under snow and ice for 6 months of the year, few people have rear wheel drive cars as they are a nightmare in the winter.
some might think it's cool to drift in the snow (any they would be right) but it's almost impossible to climb the mountain passes when there is 1m or more fresh snow on the road. coming back down again is great fun though.

drift scars..
lets face it, if your sideways at high speed sooner or later your going to make a mistake and pick up the odd dent or scrape on the car (we call them drift scars) had any bad ones?
i stuffed the right rear corner of an MR2 into a solid rock face last year and have pulled the bumpers (fenders) off my cars many times. they are only held on by zip ties to reduce damage to the car and the bumpers.

have you got a favorite place to drift?
in gt4 i love many of the tracks for drifting.. apricot hill is great and fast, autumn ring and mini are great. others like grand valley tskuba is good but a bit dull. and of corse 'the ring'. in real life it's really hard to drift. too much traffic and a massive risk of crashing. if you hit the gard rails at the edge of the track it can cost up to €30,000 to repair and recover your car. also there is a lot of traffic on the road. in the game it's even harder i think. no traffic but the twitchy handling of gt4 make for some intersting moments round the lap.

in real life i love drifting 'the ring' but tbh i have only tried a few times as you can get in a lot of trouble for messing around on there.
the mountain passes round here are a lot more fun and are not a 5 hour drive from the house. i'll dig some google maps of the roads later.

wow i typed a lot there, sorry.
so what are your views on all/any of this?

 

Hello, md, and welcome to GTPlanet.

Nothing wrong with long posts - we actually prefer discussions with real content! The only thing I ask is that you use proper capitals in your posts. It really does help keep them more readable, especially the longer efforts.

Thanks, and welcome.

 

The Norwegian drifting scene is pretty good, we don't have many tracks but there's loads of interest in it, many Japanese imports and even some Volvos running in the two national drift series'. We are also covered in snow 6 months of the year, but we buy old RWD cars and slide around in it. Combining 4-5 corners of really narrow, Scandinavian forest roads with snow banks, drops and mountains on either sides is good fun

Scars: My car has them.. See that rocker?


The rear 3/4 behind the rear wheel on the other side of it is completely smashed. First snowfall/black ice of the year, sliding around with literally no threads left in the tires going wiiiiide towards a rock makes for scars.. But I didn't care, I hit behind the rear wheel so no alignment issues..

As for drifting in GT4 I find it really tricky both with a wheel and controller. Live For Speed though, that's fun

 

should be done in a controlled environment

Art of going sideways and having fun with it

Nope

small but nearest tracks are like 4-5 hours away.

Any where safe from cops and people though usually in the rain. In GT series it is in Trial Mountain, The Ring, Grand Valley, and Special Stage Route.
These kind of topics are usually heated when actually discussed.

 

Shopping trolley drifting!

 

Do go-karts count?

Just a bunch of skangers high on ecstasy doing donuts in AE86 Levins or banged up 3-series BMWs bought for a couple of grand.

Ice rinks.

You're crazy.

Quite right, I'm not sure an owner of a €100,000+ Porsche would appreciate getting rammed by a Keiichi Tsuchiya wannabe.

 

I used to drift my 85' aw11 mr2(before engine blow) every couple of days. I was pretty good for a newbie. Mid engine drifting is harder than FR because of the weight over the rear axles. but if you can master proper weight transfer, its so fun do drift. My friend is crazy when it comes to drifting in his SW20 mr2.

 

Hell im not even old enough to drift (only 15) but ya best believe when i get myt 1st car imma be doin it 24-7