It seems as if the drifting fever is catching on here in Australia & America so Street Racing has asked Ryan Stevens of Velocity Racing Team Japan to give us an in-depth explanantion of the art.

  Basically, drifting is getting your car sideways down a road. It doesn't sound very hard does it? Sounds a lot like power sliding huh? Well it isn't. It's much more complex. Instead of a drifter causing a drift and then countering to straighten out, he will instead over-counter so his car goes into another drift. That is the reason many drifters do it in the mountains, because there are many sharp turns strung together. So in essence a good drifter has the ability to take five or six opposing turns without having traction at any point in time.

There are two ways to start a drift. The first is the clutching technique. When approaching a turn the driver will push in the clutch and shift his car into second gear. Then rev the engine up to around 4000-5000 rpm (it all depends all the model of the car being used) and then slightly turn away from the turn and then cut back towards it hard while at the same time popping the clutch and causing the rear wheels to spin. At this point the drifter has a loss of traction and is beginning to slide around the curve. Now comes the hard part. You have to hold the drift until the next turn. To do this you must keep your foot on the accelerator while at the same time adjusting your car with the steering wheel so you don't spin out. It's not as easy as it sounds. Then as the drifter reaches the end of the turn and approaches the next turn which is in the opposite direction he must cut the

wheel in that direction and in some cases, if the previous drift was to slow and they start to regain traction, they must pop the clutch again to get the wheels spinning. And that is how you drift a rear wheel drive car.The second technique is used by a few drifters in rear wheel drives, but is the only way you can really drift a front wheel drive. You have to use the side brake. A front wheel drive can not whip it's tail out because the tires are being driven in the front as opposed to the rear. So when approaching a turn you pull the side brake to cause traction loss. And the rest is pretty much the same except that it's much harder to take more than one turn with a front wheel driver

Who Does It?

On the average it is men in their early to late twenties, but more and more often you will see girls participating. There are some older men who do it such as Keiichi Tsuchiya (the drift king) who is in his fifties.

Where Do They Drift?

There are three places where drifting occurs. The first and probably the most popular is in the mountains (Tohge). Drifters flock to them because they are realtively desolate with few people and they have perfect groups of S turns to test a drifters abilities. This is usually where you will find the hardcore drifters driving Hachi-Roku's without bumpers. The second is what I like to call the docks, but it is also done in isolated parking lots. This is where drifters learn or warm up for the mountains. Last but not least is the circuits. This is where competitions are held and contestants are judged on a specific group of turns on a 100 point scale. Circuits are very popular but are usually only open one day a week (Sunday or Saturday) and you have to pay to get in.In Australia they race at tracks like Calder Park in Vic, Eastern Creek & Oran Park in NSW , Queensland Raceway, Qld
Mallala Motorsport Park, SA and Symmons Plains, Tas. It  is illegal to drift on any street, road or highway in Australia. Not only is it a danger to yourself, but you also put other lives at risk. The Australian Police issue heavy penalties to all street drifters.

What Cars Do Drifting

There are several cars commonly used for drifting. One is the AE86 Levin/Trueno (released in Australia as the Toyota Sprinter), because of its rear-wheel drive layout and the fact that it's relatively inexpensive, it is probably the most common drifting car. The second and third are the Silvia S13 and S14, which come in two different models; the turbocharged K's and the non-turbo Q's. Because of their high horse-power and free-revving engines, they are excellent drifting cars. The third is the 180SX, related mechanically to the Silvia. It is lighter and has a better front/rear balance ratio. Also popular amongst young drifters today is the Nissan R31, R32, R33 and even the R34.