History of drift

Analyzing the history of drifting states that it starts from Japan. Arguments say drifting to be the return of a competitive sport by the mountain road racers in rural Japan. Eventually the informal challenges on back mountain roads which were known as Touge (pronounced as “Toh Gey”) evolved into heavily funded and advertised competitive events and were sanctioned by organizations and are held on private tracks. Though drifting began in the United States in 1996 at Willow Springs racetrack in California, hosted by the magazine “Option”, it became popular only around 2002. But the drift race has now exploded into a massively popular form of motorsport since then. Even though the Japanese drifters are still considered to be at the cutting edge of the techniques and car development, their American counterparts are catching up very quickly.
The drift king Keiichi Tsuchiya, who is said to be dead in a car race, used to swing the car around the corners, making the crowd amazed and shocked. It was Tsuchiya who later commented on this art of driving as “drifting”. Even though this is not the origin of drift, it is normally where the drifting probably obtained its name and introduction. Keiichi began his racing career by driving many different cars in a series of amateur car racing events in 1977. It was great learning experience for him inspite of the difficulty in racing with those underpowered cars. Later Keiichi was appointed to drive the ADVAN sponsored oyota AE86/Sprinter Trueno (JDM Corolla GT-S). During many races, on a downhill corner, he used to drift the car and always carried a better corner speed than the opponents. It was this technique that made him the Drift King, as most believe that he was the first in the drift scene.
Most many of the the drifting techniques used today were developed by the rally drivers competing on dirt, gravel and snow. The fastest way through a corner on such surfaces is generally sliding.

More Car Driving Tips and theories

1. Manji Drift
2. Handbrake Drift
3. Drifting Today
4. Changing Side Swing
5. Drifting
6. Cars for Drift
7. Oversteer
8. Configure car for drift
9. Kansei Drift
10. Drifting Techniques