Well, I just watched a trailer of the Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift, and from all I can tell, for one, it'll have more action in it than the previous F&F movies. But what really bothers me is that the drifting they're gonna portray in that movie is Honda Civic-ricer-wannabe drifting. Real drifting is done on a closed circuit or on a mountain pass. Not to be mistaken with touge racing. I believe that after everyone's watched that movie when it comes out, everyone's going to believe they know EVERYTHING about drifting, including the Civic ricers. Drifting isn't about driving around the streets and swinging your vehicle's tail end around, its more of an art than what that movie is going to portray. The announcer in the trailer even said that it's the latest underground trend to come from Japan. Sure, it came from Japan, but it's not the latest underground trend. If you look back to the TRUE history of drifting, you'd know that drifting originated way back in the '70s or may be later, when a Japanese racer named Kunimitsu Takahashi started doing controlled slides on a grand touring circuit.
"Drifting started out as a racing technique popular in the All Japan Touring Car Championship races over 30 years ago. A legendary driver named Kunimitsu Takahashi was the foremost practitioner of drifting techniques in the 1970's. Takahashi's aggressive drifting skills — he was famous for hitting the apex (the point where the car is closest to the inside of a turn) at high speed and then drifting through the corner, preserving a high rate of speed — earned him several championships and a legion of fans who enjoyed the spectacle of burning tires and perilous speed." (by Todd Cabell from the Crutchfield Advisor)
That's the true origin of drifting. Then Keiichi Tsuchiya came along and started to perfect it.
"A street racer named Keiichi Tsuchiya became particularly enthralled by Takahashi's drift techniques. Tsuchiya began practicing his drifting skills on the streets, and quickly gained a reputation amongst the "hashiriya" or racing crowd. In 1977, several popular car magazines and tuning garages conspired to produce a video of Tsuchiya's drifting skills on windy mountain roads. The video, called Pluspy, became a cult hit and inspired many of the professional drifting drivers on the circuits today. Tsuchiya earned himself the nickname "Dorikin," which means Drift King in Japanese." (also by Todd Cabell)
Drifting then became an essential technique to use in Touge racing when an opponent is threatening to take position ahead of his opponent. (In touge racing, when an opponents vehicle overtakes the lead car, the overtaker automatically wins that round.) Drifting can be easily utilized to 'block' a vehicle behind you and prevent them from overtaking you, which could mean an automatic win. Touge is also not about having a high horsepower vehicle like a Nissan Skyline. Touge circuits are downhill and uphill. Usually a lighter and more nimble vehicle is prefered. Touge circuits are usually not very wide, they're usually narrow where in some cases there isn't even enough ground for two vehicles to be driving side-by-side. And usually, touge is never driven with two vehicles side-by-side. At the start and finish points, its usually one car that leads and another follows. Their positions change after the first round, in which they switch position and go the other way around on the track (uphill then downhill, or downhill then uphill).
Though in touge racing, FF, FR, MR and 4WD vehicles are eligible, usually FR cars are favored due to their superior handling characteristics. As well, in drifting, there won't be any 4WDs or FF cars. In F&F3:TD I see a Lan Evo driving around. Sure, it may look like drifting, but if you're in a Lan Evo, or any other 4WD or FF vehicle that looks like its drifting, its not, the driver is usually side-braking or has toe-out set on the rear axles enough to easily lose control. Drifting isn't about going sideways, drifting is about smoothly transitioning sideways in a smooth manner, not like that crap that's going to be shown on the Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift.
Another thing, if a car needs a nitrous system, then it isn't really a car. It can't produce enough power that it needs and it runs the engine on a lean setting, which translates to engine wear. Besides, real cars are modified, have turbochargers or superchargers, not some ugly nitrous bottle in the trunk. If a driver can't afford to install a turbocharger and intercooler system in his/her car, and just goes for a bottle of NOS, that person really isn't being good to their car, running it so rich that it gets more air than fuel, meaning less lubrication on the piston and sleeves, translating to a faster engine breakdown, meaning much hotter engine. So be man and toss the bottle away. You're only as big as the reliable and constant WHP you're giving, as opposed to just simply boosting WHP by a stupid button.
The official Yokohama Tire D1 media packet defines drifting as follows:
"Drifting pros finesse their cars into spectacular powerslides around a series of corners of a set course as powerful engines roar and the tires bellow smoke. The driver controls engine power, shifts gears, and feathers the brake pedal, while at the same time spinning the steering wheel in a precise fashion from left to right, linking corners with pinpoint accuracy. The driver is controlling and maneuvering the car beyond the limits of the tires' traction."
But drifting in its most purest form is found in the offroad World Rally Championships.
"Drifting started out as a racing technique popular in the All Japan Touring Car Championship races over 30 years ago. A legendary driver named Kunimitsu Takahashi was the foremost practitioner of drifting techniques in the 1970's. Takahashi's aggressive drifting skills — he was famous for hitting the apex (the point where the car is closest to the inside of a turn) at high speed and then drifting through the corner, preserving a high rate of speed — earned him several championships and a legion of fans who enjoyed the spectacle of burning tires and perilous speed." (by Todd Cabell from the Crutchfield Advisor)
That's the true origin of drifting. Then Keiichi Tsuchiya came along and started to perfect it.
"A street racer named Keiichi Tsuchiya became particularly enthralled by Takahashi's drift techniques. Tsuchiya began practicing his drifting skills on the streets, and quickly gained a reputation amongst the "hashiriya" or racing crowd. In 1977, several popular car magazines and tuning garages conspired to produce a video of Tsuchiya's drifting skills on windy mountain roads. The video, called Pluspy, became a cult hit and inspired many of the professional drifting drivers on the circuits today. Tsuchiya earned himself the nickname "Dorikin," which means Drift King in Japanese." (also by Todd Cabell)
Drifting then became an essential technique to use in Touge racing when an opponent is threatening to take position ahead of his opponent. (In touge racing, when an opponents vehicle overtakes the lead car, the overtaker automatically wins that round.) Drifting can be easily utilized to 'block' a vehicle behind you and prevent them from overtaking you, which could mean an automatic win. Touge is also not about having a high horsepower vehicle like a Nissan Skyline. Touge circuits are downhill and uphill. Usually a lighter and more nimble vehicle is prefered. Touge circuits are usually not very wide, they're usually narrow where in some cases there isn't even enough ground for two vehicles to be driving side-by-side. And usually, touge is never driven with two vehicles side-by-side. At the start and finish points, its usually one car that leads and another follows. Their positions change after the first round, in which they switch position and go the other way around on the track (uphill then downhill, or downhill then uphill).
Though in touge racing, FF, FR, MR and 4WD vehicles are eligible, usually FR cars are favored due to their superior handling characteristics. As well, in drifting, there won't be any 4WDs or FF cars. In F&F3:TD I see a Lan Evo driving around. Sure, it may look like drifting, but if you're in a Lan Evo, or any other 4WD or FF vehicle that looks like its drifting, its not, the driver is usually side-braking or has toe-out set on the rear axles enough to easily lose control. Drifting isn't about going sideways, drifting is about smoothly transitioning sideways in a smooth manner, not like that crap that's going to be shown on the Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift.
Another thing, if a car needs a nitrous system, then it isn't really a car. It can't produce enough power that it needs and it runs the engine on a lean setting, which translates to engine wear. Besides, real cars are modified, have turbochargers or superchargers, not some ugly nitrous bottle in the trunk. If a driver can't afford to install a turbocharger and intercooler system in his/her car, and just goes for a bottle of NOS, that person really isn't being good to their car, running it so rich that it gets more air than fuel, meaning less lubrication on the piston and sleeves, translating to a faster engine breakdown, meaning much hotter engine. So be man and toss the bottle away. You're only as big as the reliable and constant WHP you're giving, as opposed to just simply boosting WHP by a stupid button.
The official Yokohama Tire D1 media packet defines drifting as follows:
"Drifting pros finesse their cars into spectacular powerslides around a series of corners of a set course as powerful engines roar and the tires bellow smoke. The driver controls engine power, shifts gears, and feathers the brake pedal, while at the same time spinning the steering wheel in a precise fashion from left to right, linking corners with pinpoint accuracy. The driver is controlling and maneuvering the car beyond the limits of the tires' traction."
But drifting in its most purest form is found in the offroad World Rally Championships.
posted by Miki01 at 5:53 PM
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