Drifting is to motorsports as victory f**k dancing in the endzone is to championship football. Or slam-dunk contests, Janet Jackson's tits, etc..... :rolleyes:

As far as advancing tire technology, wouldn't the ideal drifting tire be something not too sticky while producing prodigious amounts of smoke? I think they might have just resurrected the Uniroyal Tiger Paw rubber compound.

Sherwood

[QUOTE]Originally posted by blogic
[B]Wired Magazine had a good article about drifting a few months back....

"In Japan, where the sport was born, drifting has evolved from a late-night teen scene to a multimillion-dollar, multimedia phenomenon that sells soft drinks and car parts and clothes. Its stars have fat sponsorships and squealing fan clubs and their own superleague called D1. But in the US, drifting is still in its infancy - something like skateboarding 30 years ago"

This from a land where you can meet a "golfer" who has never been on the linx, but rather "plays" at an urban multi-level driving range. The Japanese scene was born of urban frustration by blue-collar "bosozoku" doing burn-outs and wheelies on their motorbikes in front of police stations. Adapted by the masses, turned into a money-maker it is now shipped over here where is is the perfect motor sport by those raised on MTV, the NBA, NFL and Video Games.

As far as advancing tire technology, here are some quotes from one of the performance marketing sites:

"For drifting, I would recommend the new Fuzion tire. It gives a lot of smoke and you can control your drifts." - James Greer, Firestone

"I would recommend an ALL SEASON ultra high performance tire to start with. It is not as sticky as summer tread tires or road racing tires. So depending on the power output of your vehicle you can tune the vehicle to the type of tire that would work best for your application. Start with a less sticky tire (easier to get to slide and spin out) and go up from there to a stickier tire (Better control but harder to get to loose traction-requiring more power.)" - Tony Austin, Nitto Tire

Sherwood

Well, they advance low-traction tires, anyway. That's useful if you really don't like the car to go where you tell it to, right? I'm fond of this plan, you see, because I like it when the car just goes random places. My inputs on the steering wheel and pedals should be regarded merely as "suggestions."

Oh, well.

Dan

I'm sure inordinate amounts of psi help reduce friction too.

Sherwood

I read an article about drifting where they said the "racers" increase the tire pressure to about 70psi to reduce traction and thus drift better through the corners. Plus the tires are a lot skinnier, at least in the beginner classes.

I can see it now, bicycle tires

I watch a lot of drift videos because my 1 year old son loves them & they catch his attention long enough for him to fall asleep on my lap. My observation is that they are heavly modified cars. The front wheels will turn at least an extra 15 degrees & they have huge amounts of horsepower. I think it is just as entertaining to watch as freestyle motocross jumping. I woud think the learning curve to get involved would be very expensive. I'm jealous because I don't have enough power & have to wait untill it rains. ;) Here's a few.
http://www.gofastvideo.com/gallery/album/view/18

ah yes, Paul. that's the price you pay for owning a car whose only capability is to get you to where you are going in damned short order while leaving a smile on your face ;)

need for speed underground is a POS game...tryin to turn drifting into something its not.


I went to a lot of drift events and used to watch it on the Option videos back in like 99-00, before any of this ever came up (yeah and I also dropped an SR20DET into a 240sx years before it came the 'swap to have'). The trick is to have a really sticky tire, a good mid range turbo that isnt too crazy (450hp is usually more than adequate) and a LOT of work into the suspension. Also important is to keep the tire temperature even across the entire tire, because using only parts of it vulcanizes the tires and blisters them. They usually start out with 40 psi, and work with it from there, decreasing or increasing as needed. The Signal Auto guys were getting tires so hot they were turning them back into molten rubber (vulcanizing) because tire temps were reaching in excess of 400 degrees(temp at which tires are made) and blistering the hell out of them.

The way its judged is usually by cleanliness, how smooth your transitions are between drifts (left to right), your angle of drift, speed of drift, and the best part, how big your balls are to get your car sideways and bring it within a foot of a concrete barrier and not wreck. Too much smoke is a bad thing usually, because it could obstruct the judges view of your car, and its also bad for you because if it lingers, when you come around for your next lap, you now cant see anything and that wall that you thought wasnt there, now suddenly appears and its all over:D . A lot of really nice drifting usually has little or no tire smoke, because if you are smoking them you are losing traction, which is something you dont want.

Some people may mock the sport, but I give props out to people who can hang their car sideways at 40mph and keep it in full control.