What is Drift Racing?

Drift racing is a freestyle motor sport event where men and women, called drifters or drift racers, deliberately force their cars into controlled slides, "drifting" at an angle around corners at a high rate of speed - sometimes up to 85 mph.  Although it's not the same, you could compare it to a car loosing traction on a wet road, i.e., hydroplaning.  If this has ever happened to you, then you know all too well that your car doesn't respond to steering or braking and that it just keeps fishtailing and sliding straight into a small, shallow ditch. . . if you're lucky.

Its hard to imagine someone intentionally fishtailing their car sideways, but that's the whole point to drift racing - to see how long a driver can hold that sideways movement "drifting" into several turns without hitting the racetrack wall or racing lines. How do they do it?

In order to go through a corner as fast as possible, drivers approach these corner turns at a high rate of speed. The drifter will push in the clutch, shift into second gear, rev-up the engine, steer the car quick and hard to initiate the "slide" they've practiced so hard to learn. The smoke you see behind the car is due to a build-up of friction from the tires as they slide on the pavement.  They want their cars to drift through the turns without their wheels ever gripping the road.

The skilled drifter uses clutching and braking techniques to swing into turns.  The cars they choose have good weight distribution. plenty of horsepower and good looks,  Drift racing cars can get banged-up on the tracks, so drift racers generally choose inexpensive cars and modify them extensively.  Some modifications may include upgrading the cooling system, tightening-up the suspension, disabling the anti-lock brake system, and installing a limited-slip differential to name a few.  As you might have guessed, tires are the biggest expense.  The Toyota Corolla, Nissan Silvia, Nissan 180SX, Nissan Skyline GTS-T, Mazda RX-7 are a few of the type cars that drifters prefer, but look for Chevys, Ford Mustangs and BMW's at drifting events.

Drifting enthusiasts usually start out learning in parking lots where they skid out, turn donuts and burn rubber.  If there are no race tracks to learn on, they go underground, learning on the streets and highways. That's why sanctioned racing events, motorsport facillities and driver training are so important to this sport. 

Professional drifting was first officially created in United States in 2003 (some say in 2004) and the Formula Drift Championship was created by a professional organization called Formula Drift, Inc. Although professional drifting is still considered a new sport in the United States, it is not new in Japan. 

Drifting started in the late 70's, when a Japanese race car driver created an unexpected and unusual technique while racing his car.  He hit the apex of a turn at a high rate of speed and his car drifted through the corner at the same high speed as he came out of the turn.  This technique of manuevering and drifting through turns at top speeds, earned him several race car championship titles.  Thereafter, he became known as the "Drift King" and began practicing this technique on the mountain roads of Japan.  A video of the Drift King's driving skills was produced and overnight he became a star and his "drifting techniques" inspired thousands of racing enthusiasts all over the world. His name: Keiichi Tsuchiya.  Drift racing was born and hit the American circuits with a big bang in 1987. 

Drift racing has also inspired the hobby industry to create radio-controlled drifting cars or R/C Drift Cars for the serious hobbyist who prefers a scaled-down, real-world counterpart to the real thing.  However, the R/C Drifters are just as competitive and serious about their nitro-fuled powered versions as the street king drifters are about theirs.