History of Drifting

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Drifting is when a cars’ rear slip angle is greater than the front angle. Normally drifting through corners doesn’t give F1 or Nascar drivers a faster lap time which is why we don’t see it often unless it’s before a crash. Added by the wasted rubber it sure isn’t efficient. But what makes it so entertaining is the sheer skill and nerves it takes to control a swift car driving sideways down the corner whilst smoke pouring out of the rear tires.

Drifting first began in Japan in the 1970s. The type of tires at the time called bias-ply had troubling gripping the pavement which made maintaining high speeds difficult. Kunimitsu Takahashi was a participant in an All Japan Touring Car Championship and as a way of countering the undeveloped tires he mastered the art of drifting to achieve great corner exit speeds.

His drifting inspired rally racers to use a similar technique. Keiichi Tsuchiya was influenced by Takahashi and taught himself how to drift in the mountains of Japan which lead to illegal touge racing, a race between 2 cars along a twisted mountain road. Tsuchiya used drifting to pass through his opponents thus he received the name Drift King.

Soon the drifting culture spread overseas to the United States and films like Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift were born. Drifting has become popular in video game culture as well. The usual racing clichés include drifting to gain points or boosts of nitrous oxide.

Any car can drift but cars that can drift well are rear-wheel drive or RWD. RWD is a term for when the cars’ engine powers only the back wheels. RWD cars are common in racing compared to FWD cars that lose traction when accelerating heavily as the center of weight shifts to the back. In this case for drifting RWD cars tend to over steer when loss of traction making it easier.

Today drift competitions take place across the world. Drivers must take a certain path and are judged by speed, angle and sometimes the crowd’s reaction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drifting_%28motorsport%29

http://www.driftsession.com/drifting_articles/beginner_drifting/drifting_in_japan.htm

http://www.driftingstreet.com/history-of-drifting-japan.html

http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/ID/1953/The-History-of-Drifting-and-The-Future-of-Formula-Drift.aspx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLz3dGVh1og

http://askville.amazon.com/Front-wheel-drive-Rear-Wheel-key-differences-benefits/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=3870339