TOP GEAR idiots
 

they had a Ferrari 512 on a race track. what do you think they do? they get race car out there and go DRIFTING!!! can you believe it. drifting a 512. I was really wanting to see what the track times would have been against a race car.

I don't know about you but for me drifting is when you go thru a turn so fast the car feels like it is floating and steering gets very light and all 4 wheels are sliding the same amount, the car is pointed down the road but "drifting" sideways.

what they call drifting is what us rednecks call dirttrackin

I'm beginning to think popularity has pretty much ruined "car guy" shows. The "drifting"? Just footage for the yokels who watch...

I agree. Several shows only care about going sideways around a corner. Not the fastest way around a corner. And burnouts are always big. Total 100% waste of rubber and TV time.

Show me how fast the car is, not how well is destroys tires.

Agreed. I don't get the drifting thing and trying to burn the tyres off of them. Don't see the point, just like not seeing the point of NASCAR and Indy car on oval tracks.

I'm assuming you are talking about the Matt LeBlanc / Chris Harris TG cast. They have gotten the show to a better place.

On another note, I watched the new BBC American Top Gear yesterday, DVR from Sunday. It was pitiful. Equally as bad as the Tanner Faust edition. Totally contrived and scripted. The only redeeming thing was a Baja crossing in Beetles but even that had some lame points like when they tried to claim Boarder Patrol was there to greet them.

The basic problem is that none of the "presenters" can go fast, let alone actually drift well. Sideways drifting does teach the driver car control so the driver can keep the drift down to from 7 to 15 degrees slip angle, which IS faster. Well, as long as you are negotiating a turn. In a straight line not so much or any at all.

If drifting a corner were faster in any situation other than low traction driving like ice or dirt track the racers would drift every corner. When I see real race cars drift corners during the race, I will be a believer.

If you see a race car drifting they are losing.

RKD... Don't confuse tire slip angles with car yaw angles...

I always thought Top Gear was a worthless show, even the original incarnation. Jeremy Clarkson was a twat, and he has been for his entire career, even in print. There's a precious little worth watching on television...

Clarkson is funny. That is why I am a fan of his.

And how do you get a slip angle on a rear wheel/tire that is fixed angle relative to the car? Is it uhhh...car yaw angle.

I run the kid kart program at our local kart track. I keep telling the kids I want them to drive like the stig, not Jeremy Clarkson.

I've often wondered if drifting came about from somebody watching the incredible skills of offroad rally drivers and wanting to mimic that on asphalt.

But... apparently it didn't.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drifting_(motorsport)

Japan was one of the birthplaces of drifting as a sport. It was most popular in the All Japan Touring Car Championship races. The famous motorcyclist turned driver, Kunimitsu Takahashi, was the foremost creator of drifting techniques in the 1970s. This earned him several championships and a legion of fans who enjoyed the spectacle of smoking tires. The bias ply racing tires of the 1960s–1980s lent themselves to driving styles with a high slip angle. As professional racers in Japan drove this way, so did the street racers.

Keiichi Tsuchiya, known as the "Drift King" (ドリフトキング Dorifutokingu), became particularly interested by Takahashi's drift techniques. Tsuchiya began practicing his drifting skills on the mountain roads of Japan, and quickly gained a reputation amongst the racing crowd. In 1987, several popular car magazines and tuning garages agreed to produce a video of Tsuchiya's drifting skills. The video, known as Pluspy,[2] became a hit and inspired many of the professional drifting drivers on the circuits today. In 1988, alongside Option magazine founder and chief editor Daijiro Inada, he helped to organize one of the first events specifically for drifting called the D1 Grand Prix. He also drifted every turn in Tsukuba Circuit in Japan.

I stopped watching it a long time ago. It seemed same old story, same old story.

I have never understood the draw that drift racing (?) has on the youth...I rate it just above burnout competitions for the level of stupidity. When watching a video, nothing turns me off quicker than seeing a long sustained stationery burnout by a hot car...let it roll and see how far you can go, but not isn one spot.

Drifting has always seemed conterproductive to getting around the track quickly on a small race tire budget.

Yeah, I know that. The slip angles you quoted are far greater than any modern tire would be like. Cut those values and a half, or less, and you'll be in the ballpark. At the values you posted, you're drifting not cornering...

Were is the video of them drifting it, I can't find it?

When you say a 512 do I assume you mean a late 60's 512 S or M sports prototype (replacement for the P4) or a late 70's 512BB or a 512TR?

Drifting is popular on TV as a way to make any car look spectacular to the general public who can't see the difference between a car being driven at 80%, 90% or 99.9%. To most people they all look the same. Drive it at 110% and it suddenly looks spectacular.

Clarkson is everything that is wrong with brit humor and attitudes.

BUT I still enjoyed the show. The other guys were great.

did I quote the wrong car? it was a fairly new one,
you can tell I am old school Ferrari, 512

a friend at work is a big car guy. he is into the drifting thing. he has been looking at corvettes and finally drove and ZO5. he said the top thing about it is it would do a donut.

don't get me wrong, I LOVE to go sideways too, lots of fun. don't care to get into the drifting thing. would much rather do the race thing.

this was kind of funny

Can Tanner drift anything? Top Gear USA Series 2 - Video Dailymotion

Maybe they drifted an F12?