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Drifting… what is that all about then? At the Flame &
Thunder event at Santa Pod, we went to find out.
Originating from the street-drifting scene in Japan,
drifting is the art of keeping your car sideways round an entire course.
It has progressed into a professional championship motorsport that has
become very big in Japan and the USA and is now growing in Europe. At the
top level the drivers aim to control their cars whilst they slide from
side to side through a fixed tarmac course, they are judged on speed,
typically around 90 mph, angle of attack, execution and style rather than
who is the fastest. The aim is to deliver enough power to the rear wheels
to break traction and start a slide or drift, once this has happened the
aim is to then keep the drift going using the drivers skills with the
brakes, throttle and steering. During championship events, they are doing
this against another competitor, with a knockout elimination to decide the
winner.
DragsterWorld were very kindly invited to see what it
was all about by Nissan Skyline driver Lex who offered us a passenger ride
around the course set out at Santa Pod. Whilst not as big an area as they
usually use the area at the top of the pits still gave the drivers a
chance to show off their skills to people who had probably never seen
drifting before.
After a brief explanation of what to expect I was
given a crash helmet, jumped into the car and we were off.
WOW! Even
though the speeds were down on what they do on a bigger track as at the
Pod they could only get into second gear it seemed fast enough to me! The
car slid its way round the track with Lex’s hands a blur as he flicked the
car left, right and back again the other car often coming into view out
the front, side and behind. The ride ended after five amazing minutes and
I watched Gary take his ride with John Moffatt in a BMW ZM Coupe. Watching
wondering ‘had I just done that!’ Gary too was very impressed with the
ride, although he was not quite as thrilled as me.
Lex’s car is a Nissan Skyline R32 GTS with a full
roll cage, striped out interior, welded diff, coil over shocks, 6 cylinder
2 litre turbocharged engine which delivers around 300 hp at 1 bar of
boost. The car also features modified steering and uprated cams. The car
is street legal and is driven to the track where they change to a cheap
tyre, as they don’t last very long once the car starts drifting. Lex
himself finds drifting a great sport as he can be out on the track many
times during a day for 4/5 minutes at a time which is one of his reasons
for not being that interested in drag racing as it’s a short time actually
on track and although he is amazed at the engineering that goes into drag
cars and bikes and is in awe of their power he prefers drifting.
UK drifting is without doubt growing with people such
as Terry Collins who runs a Drift Skool
www.driftskool.co.uk working
hard to make the sport much bigger in the UK. Events have been held at
Silverstone and other venues and the school offers tuition, corporate days
and demonstrations etc.
The drifters have really enjoyed attending Santa Pod
and would like to have more permanent facilities at the track such as
permanent barriers and then maybe offer the chance for people to turn up
and drift in their own cars, a sort of ‘drift what you brung’, sounds like
a good idea to me but that’s something for the future maybe.
I found the people involved in drifting are all very
serious about it and not just ‘kids from McDonald’s car-park’. Like drag
racers, drifters will do what it takes to get a car out there racing and
they seemed to be the same friendly atmosphere with racers keen to help
out their competitors. I can see the sport growing rapidly not only in the
UK but also all over Europe, along with the whole Jap/Import scene.
From a personal point of view, I am not sure I would
go to watch an event other than at events like the Flame and Thunder
although I would be tempted to have a go myself. But that’s the great
thing about motorsport its so diverse and each to their own, just because
a section of the sport is not what we prefer to watch does not make it any
less a sport. I can see a big future for drifting and if it maintains
links with drag racing it can only be beneficial to both disciplines of
motorsport.
Many thanks to Rick Cuthbert for arranging the rides
and to Lex and John for taking us out on the track, also thanks to the
other drifters who showed the spectators at the Pod just what their sport
is about.
For more information visit
www.driftskool.co.uk or
www.driftuk.co.uk
Words: Phil Cottingham
Photos: Gary Cottingham & Phil Cottingham
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