How old is the sport of drifting???

FreewayDrifter

FreewayDrifter

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244
I was curious, I have never heard someone ask so...

I can just see them in Japan in like early 70's when the 240z's came out and them drifting them. That would have been cool!
 
People have been drifting for as long as there have been RWD cars. It might not have been on purpose..but it happened. They've been racing dirt track and the likes for a long f-ing time in the US, so it's not exactly a new thing.

Drifting as a 'sport' hasn't really been around for very long. I'd say probably since the mid 80's, but I don't really know.



-Mark
 
Drifting lives inside the mind and heart of every person on the earth, the basic need to break one's limits simply allows one to do what some might think impossible. And I'm certain such need has been with human-kind since the wheel was invented. Think of the horse drawn carriage: Can't you imagine a horse taking a sharp turn in and the carriage slipping on some leaves or such? Though more related to a front-wheel drive slide... the idea is the same... I'm sure there were some crazys back in the dark ages that did stuff like that on daily bases. Here's another example, take the sharping cart: How many of you are devoted enough to drift your shopping cart when you're grocery shopping? I know I am. Well if I do it, I don't find it hard to believe that someone before me did it as well.
 
that is a little more extreme than i was thinking...i meant more on the lines of Initial D style mountain racing or "tougue" i think, not horse carriages in the 1800's kicking out a back wheel and getting excited.

Thanks though that was funny.
 
Me too, with the shopping cart's...I love the look on someone face when you come squealing around a corner.
 
how long has drifting been going on? simple answer, since people have been rally racing. that is where it has originated from as a sport. about the Initial D thing, the majority of people who run the touge grip race through it. just a small population drift on the touge(in comparison to the grippers.







rock. :cool:
 
Drifting i would consider it to have started in the 70's.. Back in the era of drum breaks alot of racers probably ended up doing slight racing drifts without noticing. If you have ever driven a car with crap breaks really fast you probably see what I'm talking about heh.
 
my dad used to have a 240z back in the day when they came out in america, when he was around my age (17-18). my uncle used to own a datsun/nissan dealership back then, and they would take the cars out after-hours and drift in parking lots and open roads. my dad doesnt want to tell me anything about it, cuz he doesnt want me to do the same stuff, but my uncle tells me all sorts of stories, has alot of pictures, etc etc...

although they didnt call it drifting back then, i forget what they called it.
 
well, Drifting is oversteer, so it's been around since the first FR's (~1900's), but drifting, was mainly brought up in Japan, because on the Touge, it is much better to oversteer, than to understeer, so It became a way to race on the touge, oversteer when its worth it, grip when you can, etc. then, it got taken to, drift every turn, even if it isn't faster/safer/better.

Drifting was "created" between the 1970's and 1980's
 
i think that it came out in the early 70's when tshucya saw this racer doin radical slides in his first gen skyline, or so it says in my sports car mag that i got by accident
 
Originally posted by drifter7
i think that it came out in the early 70's when tshucya saw this racer doin radical slides in his first gen skyline, or so it says in my sports car mag that i got by accident
Click to expand...

nope.

In the late 70's, Keiichi Tsuchiya was drifting in his First Gen Skyline.

No one started, or made drifting. Tsuchiya is the drift king, because he was able to apply drifting in real races (when he raced an 86 in group A), and was able to get faster laps because of it. that is why he is the drift king, he didn't invent it or anything.
 
Originally posted by RJ
nope.

In the late 70's, Keiichi Tsuchiya was drifting in his First Gen Skyline.

No one started, or made drifting. Tsuchiya is the drift king, because he was able to apply drifting in real races (when he raced an 86 in group A), and was able to get faster laps because of it. that is why he is the drift king, he didn't invent it or anything.
Click to expand...

sorry but i quote from sports car international january 2004
"kunimitsu Takahashi, a hot-shoe driver competing in the all japan touring car championship series in the 1960's and '70s, tended to power through turns in seemingly wild slides, balancing his first-gen Skyline GTR on the edge of control. while not the fastest technique through a curve, this driving style led Kunimitsu to win more than his share of races. Yet his influence on a Tokyo street racer watching at Mt. fuji speedway was profound. Keiichi Tsuchya was mesmerized by Kunimitsu's car control, and set out to become a race car driver, entering the fuji freashman race in 1977. " and there is more aswell but i dont wanna type the whole thing so that proves unless the editors of sports car international are wrong that tsuchya did not start drifting but saw Kunimitsu and focused on it making himself the drift king.
 
That is correct, I misunderstood you before, because Tsuchiya first started touge racing in a skyline. Here is a nice summary from DriftClub.com

" Keiichi Tsuchiya began racing at a young age as most great drivers do. As he was learning to drive he began experimenting with the side brake or E-brake lever. Sliding the back end of the car out and counter steering was fun and taught him the basics of car control. Unlike many great racecar drivers he did not go to a racing school or have a rich family that was into the racing scene that could nurture his racing talents. He just had the basic passion to drive. Driving through local mountain roads he began to build a sense of where a car needs to be at each turn to achieve maximum speed through a corner. This not being a safe and smart way of learning to race he never the less learned much from running (Touge) mountain pass roads. From time to time he found himself off a cliff with his KPGC10 Skyline or against the side of a wall. Having snow in the wintertime further trained him to drive well on loose surface conditions enhancing again his car control skill. The more he drove on these roads and conditions of various road surfaces he began to get comfortable with sliding the car through a corner. He started to drift not because it was a quicker way around a corner but it was the most exciting way.

Enter the Drift King. Drifting a car through a corner is not the fastest way around most turns any racecar driver will tell you strait out. This is where Keiichi Tsuchiya was crowned the Dori Kin or Drift King. In Option drift contests; style and technique are evaluated for exhibition values. Lately contests have been judged on racing lines and setup for multiple corner drifting, this is more difficult. Back in 1977 Keiichi began his racing career driving many different cars in amateur racing series events. Racing these underpowered cars was difficult but again a great learning experience. Later Keiichi was picked up to drive the ADVAN sponsored AE86/1984 Corolla GT-S. During many races on a downhill corner he would drift the car and carry a better corner speed than his competitors. This technique is what made him the Drift King not as most believe that he was first in the drift scene. As he proved his style of driving his reputation grew. He is a racecar driver now and still takes to the mountains for illegal racing this also made his reputation grow. After videos featuring him and his persistent mountain running/Drifting his driver’s license was suspended! For a professional racecar driver this was embarrassing. Unknowingly this worked to his advantage, his fan base and fame began to expand. You could say that he is a rebel of some sort or because he was just a person who went from nowhere to success out of determination with no racing background. He still has a bond for an old car that he grew up racing, drifting, and winning with, the Toyota AE86. You can see this by his video series dedicated to this car that is called AE86 Club. Toyota itself also felt that he is the person to represent the car most and presented him a restored AE86 through TRD.

(Keiichi as a young fellow would go to Fuji speedway to watch skylines duke it out building him a foundation to get into the racing scene). "
 
Don't know, don't care.....it's here isn't it? We are having fun right?
I'm sure if you searched the internet, you could find something.....
 

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