The Great Debate - Is Drifting motorsport?

[Dutton]

Well, yes, I would assume it would.

It involves cars, therefore automatically must be closer by your defintion (I had presumed).

[BigDaddy]

You people need to broaden your horizons a little. I am a racer not a drifter, but I am fast becoming a fan of drift events because of the skill required to be successful at it.

[Mark Twain]

My thoughts on this thread is that it may be for the people interested in this particular form of motor sport to discuss it, not for us to discuss whether it is a sport or not, as the thread appears to have taken that direction.

[R59]

I assume you refer to the motorsport answer to "come dancing", ie drifting.

Perhaps it could be said that it's taking the sport closer to the arts.... Perhaps we'll see Melvyn Bragg joining Brian Jones commentating at Brands yet!

I'm starting to warm further to the idea, and wonder about giving it a closer look - maybe even having a go, looks like fun. Perhaps I can convert some of the 1.2Clio kids into circuit racers instead of "Stereo-types".

Rob.

[BigDaddy]

Seriously if you don't like drifitng and want to keep bagging it, I suggest you don't even read this thread and especially don't make comment. I don't know who the people are you are talking about but I can only assume you are being sarcastic. You realise sarcasim is the poorest form of witt.

[R59]

I'm not being sarcastic! I'm on side here... I see drifting as a motorsport, and one which you could almost describe as "power sliding gone mad" to the point of almost being a bit of an "artform".
(for our non-Blighty residents - Melvyn Bragg is a TV "arts" presenter, Brian Jones is a god amongst motor racing circuit commentators)

And since it's powersliding - I must be interested, as my own chosen mount has far more power than grip, drives at the "right" end, and probably fits the bill of a drifting type car quite well.

Wit? Some say I'm full of it. Oh, what? ahh yess, well it sounds like wit.

And the 1.2Clio kids - have a look here - www.barryboys.co.uk - and you'll see the kind of kids that style their car like drifters, but something is missing somewhere.... (RWD and enough horsepower for a start!)

If only they'd let us do donuts when we win without fining us for "driving in a manner incompatible with general safety"...... The spectators - they love it.
The officials see it as yobbish behaviour.

That's all by the by. I'm going to have a look at this drifting game, and may just have a go myself. Highspeed spectacular autotesting (another analogy).

Rob.

[greenamex2]

Originally Posted by BigDaddy

Seriously if you don't like drifitng and want to keep bagging it, I suggest you don't even read this thread and especially don't make comment. I don't know who the people are you are talking about but I can only assume you are being sarcastic. You realise sarcasim is the poorest form of witt.

Funny, thought this thread was entitled "Drifting Discussion" and it was on a Discussion Forum!

[silver bullet]

I saw a demo film at the Autosport show a couple of years ago. It was a Japanese guy driving a NSX around a full circuit. It looked spectacular to watch and probably great fun to do. There was not a do-nuts in sight, no burn out's or anything boy racerish. The guy had fantastic car control.

[Quannie]

thats what drifiting is about car control, nothing to do with donuts, if they do any donuts or are being stupid they get thrown out.

[silver bullet]

I think we need to stress the difference between the 'sport' of drifting, and the guys like steer from the rear and the likes of Terry Grant, who do nothing more than the boy racers in Tesco car park. That IMHO is not drifting.

[The STIG]

Originally Posted by silver bullet

I think we need to stress the difference between the 'sport' of drifting, and...the boy racers in Tesco car park.

Unfortunatly, The boy racers are already trying to do drifting in supermarket car parks - possibly brought on by the recent fast and furious film..?
Video evidence here : http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d1..._BotherAVI.flv

I say trying, because as that video shows, it rarely works!!

The result is, is that we'll see more of this sort of behaviour as drifiting gains popularity. and possibly a huge rise in the profits of clutch and tyre centres around the country!

To me, Drifting comes under the same catagory as "Crusing" - or in other words mucking around trying to cause as much noise and smoke as possible with very little worthwhile competition. It can't be good on the cars - they'll spend a fortune in tyres and heaven knows what it does to the condition of the track!

[V8_TURBO]

In scotland Drifting is taken as a serious sport.

[REALIST]

Originally Posted by V8_TURBO

In scotland Drifting is taken as a serious sport.

In Scotland the Haggis is taken as a serious food................

[touringlegend]

As silver bullet said drifting is a professional sport - I can't imagine the talent it takes to finely throttle the car while steering ever so gently, not enough that the car snaps away and enough to keep the drift working.

Don't see how idiots abusing their clutches and tyres in a supermarket carpark can even be compared.

And as the original title of the thread posed the question if drifting is a motor sport ? Well surely by definition of motorsport is sport using motorised vehicles - so it's got to be a sport in my opinion.

[Slippy Diff]

Originally Posted by gttouring

Drifting is a sport like figure skating is.

Both of those have an outcome decided by judges, right? So where's the sport in that?

[silver bullet]

Originally Posted by Slippy Diff

Both of those have an outcome decided by judges, right? So where's the sport in that?

So now your going to say that boxing is'nt a sport.

[V8_TURBO]

Originally Posted by REALIST

In Scotland the Haggis is taken as a serious food................

Duh, Its beautiful.
Anyway I went to a drift connection in Morrisons car park. It was great, until the police showed up and chased us all away. But the point was, wel, there was no point. Most other sports don't have a point either. But why do people do it? They do it because they like it.

[The STIG]

Originally Posted by V8_TURBO

I went to a drift connection in Morrisons car park...

I rest my case, M'lud...

Oh and on the subject of what is or what isn't a sport - I ring church bells. Occasionally we have ringing competitions - where the ringing is judged by an independant judge who doesn't know which band is playing, but I digress- no one would ever call ringing a sport, yet it takes a lot of skill to win a competition.

Most sports are either scored by points (i.e. a goal in football/hockey/etc.) or by time (most (if not all) motorsports/Skiing/etc.) Where points are awarded by a judging panel, it remains a competition - but more of an artistic one - and not a sport per se.

well, that's my theory on it

[nickyf1]

Originally Posted by racing59

Al, if you want to see some extreme "wet" motorsport - take a look at Jet Boat racing. Big V8's, tiny boats, around a little course. A bit like a rally stage for boats. It's awesome to watch.

I love that, I remember the first time I seen it on Motors TV!

[nihil]

Drifting is the utterly necessary, Dionysian counterpart to Motorsport's obsession with time.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by nihil

Drifting is the utterly necessary, Dionysian counterpart to Motorsport's obsession with time.

Now that's a quote I like

I have to admit I originally thought drifting was an utter waste of time and effort - but then I thought about it a bit. On the rally stage we always get the car sideways and frankly it's great fun tearing round with the back of the car hanging out at every opporunity - and people watching love it when the cars come flying round the corners with the opposite lock wound on (can also apply to circuit racers - Mr Thurston in his Escort springs to mind )

So drifting is a distillation of this - with the speed factor removed you can get bigger, more lurid slides and not worry about scrubbing off speed too much. So all good fun. The only remaining problem I have is how you work out who won - like anything based on a judging panel it's all subjective. With a race or rally there is a clear winner - first across the line / quickest time, awarding points on style etc is a less exact science but that doesn't make it a less valid form of competition.

[nihil]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

Now that's a quote I like

I should leave it at this point and exit stage left really....

but...

I'm honestly shocked by some of the garbage being spread here. I really thought that afficianados of motorsport might realise that 'boy racers' have been about ever since... ooooh, since that infernal combustion engine was invented. Illegal races (Yes! They race! Against the clock and against each other! Let's close down all the race tracks!) and car park exhibitionism really isn't an issue. This isn't the place to be going all 'Daily Mail'.

I've only seen a few drift events, but I'm pretty taken by it. I don't think many people here actually understand how a drift competition works. The individual runs are judged on style, but in the two car runs there is a lead and a following car. If the lead car can pull out a gap without screwing up then it wins. Conversely, if the following car can keep up or overtake, then it takes the run. There are all kinds of strategies, feints, and generally competitive activity that can be compressed into these short runs.

And the D1 cars especially are great pieces of engineering. 'Motorsport' is the conjunction of two words - the sport doesn't exist without the engineering, and unlike drag racing, where the driver is often a token piece of meat, signifying the human endeavour that has gone into the production of the machine, a drift run is more than just the culmination of time spent in the workshop. Its a much more finely balanced moment where the input of the driver must equal the abilities of the machine. A proper team sport in other words.

(actually I'm being a bit unfair to drag racers, but only to make a point... there are ways in which drifting and drag racing are similar. They both take a quite narrow range of skills from the generality of driving and place them under microscopic and intense examination. They are the 'close-ups' of motorsport)

[nickyf1]

Drifting is definetaly a motorsport, series like D1 and Formula D get lots of spectators and sponsors, the competitors use cars with motors and compete against each other in the two car battle (Forget its proper name) while trying to Drift and overtake at the same time.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by nihil

I really thought that afficianados of motorsport might realise that 'boy racers' have been about ever since... ooooh, since that infernal combustion engine was invented. This isn't the place to be going all 'Daily Mail'.

Yep. But at the moment 'official' drifting isn't high profile and most people will only be aware of it from hollywoods viewpoint or the local scallies ripping up Tescos car park. It's not a fair representation but it's something that the sport will need to address somehow.

Originally Posted by nihil

I don't think many people here actually understand how a drift competition works.

I'm totally clueless on that front the only drifting I've seen 'live' is the demo stuff in the live action arena at the Autosport show.

Originally Posted by nihil

And the D1 cars especially are great pieces of engineering.

Definitely some of those cars have outrageous amounts of power, the drivetrains must be fairly hefty to cope with all that grunt. They're certainly not held together with string and gaffer tape!


I don't think people are generally 'anti' drifting as a rule - I just don't think people know much about it and make judgements based on limited (and flawed ) knowledge.

[BigDaddy]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

I don't think people are generally 'anti' drifting as a rule - I just don't think people know much about it and make judgements based on limited (and flawed ) knowledge.

The most intelligent thing written in this thread!!