Drift Championship

[Albannach]

Can someone please explain to me what the goal is in the 'European Drift Championship'?

I can't, for the life of me, figure it out.

[BUSHWHACKER]

A stiff neck?

[Albannach]

A stiff neck?

I'd rather sit in a draught to get one of those.

[animal]

its basically along the lines of smoking your rear tyres as much as possible,
you get awarded points for the amount of smoke and how close you drift to other cars whilst racing round the track as quick as you can

[Albannach]

its basically along the lines of smoking your rear tyres as much as possible,
you get awarded points for the amount of smoke and how close you drift to other cars whilst racing round the track as quick as you can

What's the point though? Any idiot can almost crash a car.

Is the goal to win, or is it to almost crash? If it's to win, then don't slide, just drive normally and the idiots sliding around behind you will lose; if it's to crash, then hit the first hard thing you see (actually crashing being better than almost crashing).

[TonyN]

Its like dancing with cars, you get points for 'style' (amount of drifting and smoke while still hitting apexes and staying on the racing line)

When you see the 2 cars running, they arn't really racing, the following car just has to be more spectacular then the first, if the first car makes a mistake or stops and does get overtaken the second car gets more points though.

US, UK and Jap ways of scoring are all slightly different

Its not 'racing' its dritfting. Fun to watch, and probably most excellent fun to do, but definatly not racing.

[puddlesurfer]

expensive in tyres i would imagine

[Apache]

I bet the commentators say 'word' and 'dude' a lot too - like those annoying twots who commentate on the X-Fighters!

"Look at that! A double twisted grave digger knacker grabber superman!!! ... sweeeeeeet duuuuuuude!!!!!!!"

[Albannach]

Its like dancing with cars,

Ah, dancing. That explains a lot. But I still think it's the most pointless thing anyone could do with a motor car.

And nae doubt we'll soon have 'Celebrity strictly come Dancing on ice with cars'?

[dieselboy]

What's the point though? Any idiot can almost crash a car.

Well that's the point right there. It's not almost crashing if you have full control. You need careful throttle, brake & and handbrake as well as steering position to be able to control exactly where the car is on the track and in relation to the other car.

If you watch closely you may see handbrake applied followed by a lot of throttle and sometimes throughout the drift foot brake would be applied whilst the rear wheels have lost traction.

It's completely the opposite of "just putting your foot down and turning".

[Apache]

Andy, it's what rally drivers have been doing since the dawn of time whilst going much faster, but with gayness added.

[TonyN]

A masterful summery Andy.

[Apache]

I'm sure you'd expect nothing less - and I hate to disappoint

[Albannach]

Andy, it's what rally drivers have been doing since the dawn of time whilst going much faster, but with gayness added.

Damn! You stole my thunder, I was keeping the slowness up my sleeve for later. And I deleted a gayness statement from a previous post.

I had a specific reason to buy 'Banzai' magazine, it's full of this Drifting nonsense. I can't understand the mentality of someone who would build a Trick car around a massively powerful engine then go out and 'dance' in it. Totally pointless waste of time.

And Tony P, I understand the physics of making a car slide, I just can't comprehend why someone would want to do it on a tarmac track. I mean, ffs, they even wave a wee hankie at the start of some of these dancing sessions.

[madmanc]

OK to quote

Drifting competitions are judged based on line, angle, speed, and show factor. Line involves taking the correct line, which is usually announced beforehand by judges. The show factor is based on multiple things, such as the amount of smoke, how close the car is to the wall, and the crowd's reaction. Angle is the angle of a car in a drift, speed is the speed entering a turn, the speed through a turn, and the speed exiting the turn; faster is better.
The judging takes place on just a small part of the circuit, a few linking corners that provide good viewing, and opportunities for drifting. The rest of the circuit is irrelevant, except as it pertains to controlling the temperature of the tires and setting the car up for the first judged corner. In the tandem passes, the lead driver often feints his or her entry to the first corner to upset the chase driver.

The finals are tandem passes, referred as Tsuiso (追走:chase attack). Drivers are paired off, and each heat comprises two passes, with each driver taking a turn to lead. The best of the 8 heats go to the next 4, to the next 2, to the final. The passes are judged as explained above, however there are some provisos such as:

Overtaking the lead car under drift conditions almost always wins that pass.
Overtaking the lead car under grip conditions automatically forfeits that pass.
Spinning forfeits that pass, unless the other driver also spins.
Increasing the lead under drift conditions helps to win that pass.
Maintaining a close gap while chasing under drift conditions helps to win that pass.
Points are awarded for each pass, and usually one driver prevails. Sometimes the judges cannot agree, or cannot decide, or a crowd vocally disagrees with the judge's decision.[citation needed] In such cases more passes may be run until a winner is produced. Sometimes mechanical failure determines the battle's outcome, either during or preceding a heat. If a car cannot enter a tandem battle, the remaining entrant (who automatically advances) will give a solo demonstration pass. In the event of apparently close or tied runs, crowds often demonstrate their desire for another run with chants of 'one more time'.[4]

There is some regional variation. For example in Australia, the chase car is judged on how accurately it emulates the drift of the lead car, as opposed to being judged on its own merit, this is only taken into consideration by the judges if the lead car is on the appropriate racing line. Other variations of the tansou/tsuiso and the tansou only method is the multi-car group judging, seen in the Drift Tengoku videos where the four car team is judged in groups

This as has all ready been said is a young mans sport born out of high powered race cars attempting to hit the apex of the corner to get the best velocity out of the corner there fore attaining a greater over all speed. Yes it can get boring from time to time but the skill involved in getting the car to the limit and then keeping it there is one of the allures to the sport. Yes I like to watch it and yes I would enjoy doing it but as Puddle said its flipping expensive.

If you have ever watched The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift this would give you a small insite into the amount of effort that it takes to drift a car at the level you are taking about.

All this is of course my Opinion,

Ta