Give us the story of your first time (Drifting)

[HC4Drifter]

Okay I thought it would be cool to hear about all of the stories people have about their frist time drifting, what made them decide to drift, what they were thinking when they first drifted and how they felt afterward. Since I began the thread I will start out with my story.

It all started two years ago, my brother, enlisted in the army and after his basic training, was based in hawaii. Within weeks of him being there he got involved in the Drift scene, he bought himelf a Rx7 and began to go touge. He would call me and tell me about how he is doing a new kind of racing and I would take no attention, I thought it was just like the street races we would go to in Mira Mesa, California. But I would soon learn that it wasn't. After I wrecked my first car, I got myself a cheap Rx-7. I did not know anything about what you could do with that thing except to drive it fast, then my brother came home on leave. He said, "So you got an Rx7 huh? How's about you let me drive it?" Since my brother taught me how to drive and drag race I figured you know what why not? After all he taught me all I know. We hopped in the car and we took off out of my driveway. We drove for a while and he told me about how he joined a team in Hawaii called More Quicklier Racing and how he did this type of racing called drifting. When he mentioned the term drifting I just got a really confused look on my face and he saw it. He stopped the car. We were at the top of old julian highway, a winding road with three hairpin turns and a few other treacherous turns, he turned to me and smiled, "You ready to see what drifting is?" I gulped, he had the same look on his face as when he first showed how to drag race. I said, "Yeah sure lets see what this drifting thing is." Then my life stopped, we went through a few turns rather quickly and I asked him, "hey aren't you taking those turns a little fast?" My brother just laughed and said, "Relax you haven't seen fast yet." Then a cold chill came over me, Oh my god what did I get myself into. We barreled towards the first hairpin turn all the signs were saying 15MPH! My brother was going 60! "Uh Richard, hey hey Oh my god!" My brother approached the turn, braked in a way I have never seen before, then he pulled the car away from the turn then in! My tires began to make a noise I had never heard before we were facing the inside of the turn my brother was in second and was acting as relaxed as can be, and he then engaged second and pushed our way out of the turn. "What the hell was that?!" I asked in astonishment. "That is what you call a drift." He replied in a very matter-of-fact way. The rest of the drive consisted of him telling me about what his technique is and silence during the hairpins. A whole new world opened to me and you traveled through this world sideways. Ever since then I was hooked my brother took me on a run every night either on Old Julian Highway, Highland Valley, or empty school and wal-mart parking lots. I learned more than I ever thought I could. It changed my life permanently, right now my brother is in Afghanistan and I am here still working on my technique. Soon my brother will be home with his turbo, and my poor Rx-7 has just passed away two days ago. I am now in search of a different car, a better car, a 1986 Toyota Corolla. I am currently stuck with my grandparents 1996 Altima which was given to me a couple months ago when my car began to show problems. Now I am beginning to look for a way of trading this altima, which is quite fun to drive if you like that kind of thing and trying to get a corolla. I love the way they look and i love the way they sound. I hope to get my hands on one soon, because I do not how long I can go without drifting a car of my own. I am even beginning to take out the Z's from mossy nissan of poway. Nevertheless my search will continue for my next drift machine until then I will use my friends cars. Drifting changed my life and it does to everyone who is touched by it, it is not just a type of motorsport it is a way of life.

[Buddyworm]

That's a damn good story. Mine is pretty much me hearing about drifting online. Watching a few videos and going "cool". Forgot about it completely. Then I saw a segment on SPEED with Rhys Millen, his GTO and drifting, just weeks before the first event at Irwindale. I saw that and was awestruck, and also hooked. I began scouring the internet for all things drift and eventually decided that I wanted a 240SX.

I'd loved the 4-banger imports when I was in junior high but my interest in them and the tuner scene faded quickly simply because I couldn't drive. But now I had my license and once again I found myself surfing used car adds just to see what was on the market. I eventually asked my dad if he would loan me some money to help make up the difference my savings couldn't cover for a car. He agreed after a while and the hunt was on. It took me damn near the entire summer to find my car and when we finally did my dad surprised me by saying I didn't have to pay him back for anything. Rather, he would cover the whole balance of the car. I don't think I've ever been that elated in my life.

Ironically my first real slide (I say slide because it wasn't an actual drift...) was in a Civic (...that's why). It was rainy and I did it on an impulse but it turned out textbook. I got sideways before the corner, the rear stepped out, gently kissed what I now know as the apex and gassed it all the way through to the outside edge of the road.

That was my first dance with the Roasted Rubber Angel and she's never let me be since.
B-Wurm

[DriftFactory]

I guess I'll let you guys in on how I got started. I started with rally. Not that rally is really drifting but some of the same concepts apply. That was a loooong time ago. After doing rally for a year or two I started GT racing and at the time I was driving much older, and less advanced, racecars. As a result, drifting WAS the fastest way around the track. I know that now that has changed, but when you are talking 70's suspension geometry, it's a different story. I started to hear about a crazy new sport that was getting big in Japan "I remember the first D1" and I got hooked. Been doing it ever since.

[Buddyworm]

"I remember the first D1"

Duuuuuude! You're oooooooold :P Hehehe...

B-Wurm

[Octagon]

Ahh, my first time drifting. Well, it was in a 1994 Gambler chassis 305 sprinter at Attica Raceway Park in Seneca County, Ohio.

I'd received an invitation from a friend to hot lap his 305 sprint car in order to put my name back out on the table amongst open wheel drivers shopping for rides. I was more of a pavement driver, and hadn't really turned any competitive laps since I'd lost my quarter midget ride, but the chance of driving competitive machinery again was too much to pass up, even if it was just for a few laps.

I borrowed all the safety gear I could, since at that point I didn't even have my own helmet, and strapped into the car for the early practice. With a crunch, I engaged the in-out box and let the Jeep push me up to the staging area. The official looked me over and waved the Jeep to start pushing me out onto the track to get started.

Sprint cars, after all, have no transmission or starter. Just a magneto and a direct drive in-out box.

About halfway down the straight I had enough oil pressure to fire the engine. I clicked on the electrics and the engine snapped to life, jolting the car off the Jeep's push bumper and rattling the whole chassis. I idled around on the warm up laps, tapping at the throttle to feel for where the rear tires wanted to dig and where they wanted to break loose. I was lucky because it was early May and there was still some moisture in the track, so I had a bit more traction than usual.

The flag man let the white flag lay over the side of the tower. One to go before green. I tugged the belts as tight as I could and got up on the wheel. This was it, time to show what I could do.

Once I was on the back stretch I started rolling into the throttle, picking it up gradually to build some momentum into turns 3 and 4. Attica's 3 and 4 are more open and more steeply banked than 1 and 2, so you can get a good jump down the back stretch. I let off just a bit to hug the inside and let the tail out just a hair before pouncing on it to take the green for hot laps.

The car exploded out of 4 and threw me into turn 1. I jabbed right with the steering wheel to load the jacob's ladder, then jabbed left to aim the nose to the inside. The car settled beautifully on the cushion and I laid into the throttle, the rear tires spinning happily as the car backed in and rode the cushion through 2. I was flat out down the straight and then pedaled the throttle just a hair into 3, once again jabbing back and forth with the wheel to get the jacob's ladder loaded and get the car backed in, riding the cushion and balancing the car on its massive right rear.

I ran about 6 laps like that, my times were mid-pack and the 2 or 3 laps I ran tossing the car around the bottom of the track were loose and slow, but when the car was backed in on the cushion and I was running wide open crossed up and elbows out, it was phenomeonal.

[bk3896]

my 1st time was 2 weeks ago, we spun out and my friend and I laughed like little school girls =P

[MATT BACK VASS]

I had just turned 15 years old, and in my 85 300ZX. It was a rainy day, and my dad wanted to teach me how to handle a rear wheel drive car in the rain.

He raced flat-track motorcycles, so it was pretty easy for him to get in my car and combo the entire albertsons' parking lot. he then made me do it.

i got hooked on driving in the rain before i even knew it was called drifting.
this was early 1998.

[skyliner34]

Ok some might say what I did was not drifting but here go's.
I'm 13 but i've been into drifting since I was 12. A few month's
ago in winter snow was melting but f's in the teens left ice.
I was going down a hill on my bike doing 30 to 39 mph.
At the base of the hill there's a car parked at the courner(sp)
when i hit my brakes they lock up and the back comes out!!!
going 25mph(est) sideways I let go of the brakes and I hit the a'pex(sp)
of the turn sideways both wheels spinng.
It was the scaryest s*** i've ever done.
I can't wait til next winter

[Paddy]

Got offered a job taking photos at the first round of the Irish D1, didn't have a clue what all this drifting malarkey was about. Seen a few vids and photos and never really thought much of it.

We were heading to the track the morning of the final's, it was overcast and the country roads lined with ditches were dead quite. My mate was driving an E36 325 sportwith C/F bonnet and an M3 diff and we were approaching this t-junction. He dropped her down a gear, got the rev's up, flicked right, then turned hard left, while doing a clutch kick and all of a sudden we were very very sideways The engine was screaming on the rev limiter, the tires were smoking, the ditch was in front and the road in the side windows.

He looked across at me after straightening up and said "Dont say I never done anything for you"

It was pretty much from that moment in I absolutely loved it. Since then, I've done laps as passenger with D1 drivers, gone street drifting and I'm still photographer for D1 IRL

[gigglesnirt]

i dont know if i would even consider this drifting, but first time doing anything close, which was about 2 weeks ago, was driving in my car(1987 crown victoria) which was an old cop car, around some dirt roads, and i went around a curve at about 40, accidently slid around it and almost went into a ditch, but after this i kept trying over and over again and it was actually pretty fun, but thats about it till i get a fast car in about june.

[balmo]

drift day 6

[iMakeGraves]

I've never drifted myself, but the first time I was ever in a car whlie drifting was in Rhys Millen's GTO last year at Formula Drift. Talk about a *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored*ing rush... not to mention that I got to join him on a tandum run with sammy and the viper.

Lucky me.

[Drift For Food]

I can't even recall how I came across drifting in the first place. I somehow stumbled across that lovable TV series Initial D. Just being a car lover, I saw one episode and was hooked. Since then, I've seen everything up through the current 4th stage episode 12. Despite not being "realistic," I still love the series. That started a couple years ago.

I'm also an avid gamer, racing games being a favorite. About half a year before I came across Initial D, I came across a game called Live For Speed or LFS for short(note: not Need For Speed). Short of say the Nascar series, it's basically the most realistic and definately the most open and customizable PC racing game ever made. It offered me a place to test theories, theories not only about drifting but also about car setups and driving techniques. It offered a safe heaven for those crazy stunts that would normally kill you in real life.

I've been driving for somewhere around 10 years now. Even since my early days, I've been blasting down back roads throwing cars around corners like a madman. Back then I knew nothing. I just had a nack for driving pretty well fast. My brother and I would race home from school on about a 5 mile twisty gravel stretch between school and our house. Even back then we were looking for speed and the fastest way around a corner. The banks were fun to hook the front end in and hold you through the first half of the corner. After that, you'd come out and slide a rear tire out into the grass if you were going fast enough, sometimes the whole car if you didn't hook the bank well enough, lol. It was fun times, but I was clueless.

In time I progressed and learned about physics and concepts like friction and forces on object. I applied these to cars only slightly. Still, my understanding grew. When I came across LFS and drifting soon after, my desire for understanding exploded. I stumbled upon this site as well as others and began thinking hard about physics in terms of car behavior. I could think up and play out ideas and test suspension setups without ever stepping into a car. However, that wasn't enough for me. I also seeked a natural progression of my real-life driving ability, a desire to push further than where I was currently at. I began toying with drifting concepts in my real life cars.

Back then, I didn't have much, just an old Buick Lesabre, a fwd, boat of a car. Still, it was a start. I've already done a good amount of research and practice(playing really) with drifting, so the concepts behind it were known, albeit somewhat vaguely. By the time I first tossed my ol' Lesabre sideways, I've owned and pushed the car hard for about 4 years. I was comfortable, very, very comfortable with the car. As well, I've played LFS and drifted in there for about half a year. Because of these factors, the transition to real life came easily.

I came to a familar, relatively safe corner and proceeded to try to drift my Lesabre. It worked...kind of. At first I had trouble getting used to actually letting the car slide. I would countersteer and catch it. As well, I got on the throttle too easy and would understeer coming into the corner.

I practiced again and again and slowly began to get comfortable with letting the car come out on me. It was all very awkward and was difficult to understand. I used LFS as a tool to test and compare ideas with my real life practices. I'd go out in the car and try to drift some. I would come to some odd conclusions, strange oddities if you will, and I'd got back to LFS and test what I was doing and how I can change it. Suprisingly, the game match real life quite well, and one could directly compare actions between both virtual and real worlds. I'd try, hit an odd barrier, test on LFS, solve, and adjust and test back on my real life counterpart. It was all very enjoyable and understanding came so quickly.

I tested new techniques in the same manner. Since my car was fwd, automatic, a giant boat of an understeering car, and had no hand e-brake, I was was quite limited to what I could do. Still, I had feint and braking techniques to work from. I practiced and improved them to something somewhat near perfection, a level I haven't matched with any following car to date. Being so comfortable with the car helped imeasurably.

This lasted for about 3 months...then the tranny broke on me, end piece on the line pressure cable came off, ran low pressure for a week and wrecked the tranny. Then I got my brother's old For Ranger 2wd as a hand-me-down. My first rwd care, er truck, and first manual transimssion to test with. ...still no hand e-brake. It was a pile of a truck but a blessing in descuise as well. Now I could practice on-throttle techniques and work on power over.

I took my first corner with a rwd. The truck had no power and was difficult to get free. The first couple attempts weren't of any great success. I resorted to heavier feint work, moderate braking into the corner and a pegged throttle on through. When I finally got the rear end out, I was very scetchy with the control. Countersteer was bad and any time off the gas would end the drift, even on the gravel roads I was working on, 70hp flywheel on a plus 2 ton truck translates to crap on the ground to work with, lol. I slowly progressed with a good amount of difficulting handing the countersteering. It had no feel and took a good 7-8 turns to go from lock to lock. I soon got comfortable with it and started to really enjoy the rwd platform. The biggest enjoyment was actually maintaining speed through the corner, something I hated with my fwd Lesabre, coming out of the corner at a crawl. The biggest fun came in winter though. I had a whole lot of fun with that pile and spent the vast majority of the corners sideways. It was great fun for about 4 months, then came my Scoobie

Ah 4wd...interesting... Now I've got my Forester and 4wd, and I haven't spared this car from drifting either. If you put a fwd car and a rwd car together, you've got 4wd...duh...but not quite. It's very unique and a bit different. It's not so easy to work with. With a fwd, it was just tossing the car around. A rwd had the front end/rear end seperation between throttle and steering inputs for independent control and adjustments. Awd combines throttle and force more acurate matching of throttle and steering inputs to control the car. It combines the ballsy gusto and pre-setup of tossing a fwd into a corner in a particular way to create an end result but also a fine balancing game of throttle and steering to hold, maintain, and adjust the angle and direction through the drift. This was and still is a hard platform to learn, feel comfortable with, and master, the most difficult of the three actually. I've been driving the same car for over a year and still am not fully at ease with the car. It's a blast to drive and very fast out of the corners. I miss the independent front/rear feel of a rwd platform where you could independently control the front and rear ends seperately with the throttle and steering. When I first started on this car, it was similar to the others. I'd come to a corner, toss it sideways, slide, and power out. However, it was a bit different in behavior when you got on the gas, no countersteer, and understeer similar to a fwd...but not always. A stock setup, full viscous diffs, and only average tires creates a less than stellar platform. This seems to be the first car where a well balanced setup would help greatly in its tossability and ease to drift...in time.

A bit long and winded
I'm Still loving drifting, still learning.
I'm still having a ball with LFS.
And I'm still watching Initial D, lol.

[Piner]

I was 10 years old when i still lived in MI my dad took me out to this large open field in the winter time in his 1974 dodge cargo van it was automatic and huge but it did have a 400c.i V8 . Well he just wanted me to just practice DRIVING it well when you 10 years old whats your first instint?
SLAM the gas and TURN the wheel!! lol. Well i had a long manji drift going for about 3 or 4 sways before my dad scared sh!tless told me to stop and let him drive.

[AE86_drift]

I start out the way most of you started out, watching Initial D. However, I'm an old guy(compared to most of the people on here), so this was about 4 years ago. I drove a 97 Civic at the time, that of course was all riced out. Tried buying a rusted 86 SR5, but that never worked out. Picked up a S13 coupe, and it's been fun ever since. My first ever real drift experience was the night that 2fast 2 furious opened. It was lightly raining out, and as soon as my friends found out, they went running out and got in their cars. I hopped in my friends S13 and all the other guys followed in thier S13's. We went flying around corners and I thought we were gonna crash. One of my friends eventually did, and that ended our drift expedition.

My first actual drift was last winter. My friend has an S12 and was doing some little drifts around a corner. He wasn't pushing his car hard and he was only getting sideways at the apex. I told him to let me drive just once to show him what he was doing worng. We hopped in and went flying down the road. I do the scandinavian flick and rip on the ebrake...about half a block from the turn. My friend is yellling at me cuase I'm gonna crash his car. We stay sideways all that way and through the turn. Than I mash on the gas a lil too hard and spin out. He was amazed at the fact you could stay sideways for so long, but took the keys from me and told me never again.