Drifting... sport or no sport?

the north american "drifting" is boring, the stuff they did on the streets of japan years ago is something to be seen.

[ChevyThunder]

Alex Phiffer who is one of the "sports" big names and was a driving consultant on Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift . He was one of my techs on my race car from 2000-2002.... I am happy to see these events take off because Alex is doing really well and I am hoping he is making lots of green and having fun . I do appreciate the car control and technique it takes to drive like that. Alex was also a pretty good road racer too . However.. all those guys are amatures compared to Walter Rohr in the Ruf GTR Yellow bird doing it at the Nurburgring at triple digit speeds about 15 years ago ... if you ever see the DVD Ruf Facination ... check it out . I too am reluctant to call it a sport.. it is more like an X-Game

[asaenz]

You know what they say everyone has an opinion.

I don't think it is a sport like auto racing. I do think it is fun to watch. I think it is more like style, technique, and flash. You can definitely notice the better drifters from the not so good ones. The v-6, v-8, and esp V-10 viper are very impressive to watch. Plus it is fun to watch them thrash their rides up.

If anyone has never seen a live event Road Atlanta hosts Formula D and it is awesome you can get very close to the track plus no fence barrier to block the view. It is also great for amateur photographers. These are my pixel manipulated photos from the spectator side of the barrier.

[DaxMan]

Drifting arguably started with Touge runs. Keiichi Tsuchia-san explained it as a way to keep the revs up [on their torque deprived] cars to stay in their power bands. Fine. Drifting, as I see it, is the result of trying to package "some form of" Touge for commercial mass consumption. Unfortunately, someone decided to package the events for small tracks and parking lots rather than build sanctioned Touge runs. Ok, so you can't just mount cameras all over the mountain side and it's hard to sell seats in ditches, so I guess it couldn't be helped. Touge is defenitly a sport and an art, but drifting just forgot what it was supposed to be about. It started as a means to find the fastest way around the course with what they had. The point is moot now that the rides are making big power, they'd be faster with grip driving. Now it's just about showboating and sponsorships. Sure it's fun and sure it's fun to watch, but is it really RACING?

[skatinjay27]

lol i wonder why someone searched this thread... and then decided to vote on it? lol

[conekiller13]

Back from the dead................the smoke is rising.

[Josh69]

Wow, back from the dead, but since I voted before realizing it's age....

Drifting is like Ballet. Neither is really very sporting IMHO....but entertainment, sure. Then again, my ex was in ballet, and she could do things that would make a snake blush....so maybe there is something to it!

[Vegas69]

It's one of those deals where it's a ton of fun to participate but not much fun to watch. I say sport. Kinda like golf without the beer.

[andrewmp6]

To me its not a sport none of auto racing is judged your racing the clock or other cars.Drifting is from the usa think of the old moon shiners flying down dirt roads you slide in the turns same thing with rally.And anyone dumb one to try it on the streets should be shot they are risking there lifes and others as well.

[COYBILT]

Drifting: the sport of crashing your car if you dont know WTF your doing. Other wise it is fun to do a little of it here and there. I wouldn't call it a sport by any means. I would only use drifting as a means to hang a turn at last resort.