Samuel Hubinette (Formula D WINNER!)

[Brian]

why the *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored* do people want to pass? if the lead car is doing fine, you should mimic their lines and whatnot. but, if the lead car goes way off course or super wide, then you should pass.

[Ghost of Duluth]

k passing is a part of the game here. Why would you make the pass? why to win of course. The pass is the clear win in Drifting. Why would you mimic the car ahead of you if you are trying to beat the car ahead of you? If you are putting on an exhibition then sure, if you are competeing then no way. You want to drive better and make the pass. Thats the clear win but not the best way to win. Outdriving the person ahead of you while being behind them is the best way to win in my opinion

As for prepping your car for contact, no way. You don't go into an event prepped for contact. If you do then it's that much easier for you to justify in your mind that bumping the guy out ahead of you is ok to do. I understand bumping is inevitable but if you slam into someones car just to get the win then you will probably get slammed in the mouth and unlike your car, your face probably isn't prepped as well as your car is. People tend to get really touchy when you Earnhardt them.

What you need to do is drive your best, if you get passed don't get pissed. You got passed because either you screwed the pooch or the other person just plain was better than you. So since this is a sport that was originated by the Japanese, act Japanese and suck it up, go back, practice and get better. That should be your only recourse there. In the end everyone should know that you are ultimately responsible for your own car. If it get's banged then it get's banged. But you shouldn't be prepared to go out there and trash someone just to get around them. If you can't beat them without passing them then you don't deserve to beat them in the first place. Watch the Viper video. The only way Hubinette could have won was to grip into the corner and make the pass. If he hadn't have made that pass he would have lost. Plain as that. He knew it and he made the move for the win.

Also what alo of you didn't see were all that little tricks that people pulled out there to get the win. One that I can remember is slowing into the first corner so the guy couldn't get his line straight, then gunning it so the other guy spun out. If I can remember correctly, it happened to the Discount 240 guy. I think that was him that got that treatment by the white Silvia 240. While it can be thought of as a dirty move, it was a smart move and it worked. The lead car kept going and the following car spun out.

[Brian]

yep this is the "new style" drifting...or i guess it would be better called "american drifting"
no longer will it be about fun, but now it will be about winning... possibly at all costs.

oh well, if thats what people want, let them do it. but i can tell you that i wont participate in it.

[CrazyHawaiian]

I dunno man, I dont think you are supposed to pass someone in a tandem battle. I have seen it done here in Hawaii when our local guys battle the Japan guys, but only when someone screws up. I've always been under the impression that you are supposed to stay as close to the rear bumper of the guy in front regardless of what happens. So if the guy slows down, you slow down, and if he speeds up, you speed up. Show how much control you have by staying glued to the rear bumper. Then when you're in front you go all out 100% and the guy behind you is supposed to do the same thing and try to keep up. Cuz as soon as you start getting everyone under the impression that passing will get you a win, then it becomes more race drifting than show drifting, and like Dave said, people will start crashing into eachother because of aggressive driving. Cuz if thats where drifting goes, then I'm going to build my rollcage outside of my panels dirt track style, so when people hit me their cars get screwed up and my cars body panels are still cherry. People should be driving aggressively in the sense that they are extremely close to their opponent while sliding at speed, but not aggressively in the sense that they are going to cut off someones lines and possibly cause a collision. Remember, drifting isn't a race, its a show of skill. Anyway, thats my .02.

[Ghost of Duluth]

Agreed, outdriving the person ahead of you while being behind them. Thats the best way to win. Skill.

[murdoch]

Originally posted by swifty949
the weight bias can be handled by custom suspension set up. The SR20DET is a motor that has a lot of aftermarket support, and is durable. VQ35DE is still new...

Ross's car is not ready yet. Hopefully a sponsor will come through to provide transportation to TX. It's a small time race budget, so it's hard to transport the team and car on the limited funds.

Chris is a friend of mine (he drives/owns the moto ex 350z) and he had a lot of reasons for swapping motors.... here are the facts..

1.) the 350z now ways almost 200 lbs less than a stock s13 (after the swap and all of the work he did on making the car as light as poss)

2.) the sr20det makes approx 360 hp to the wheels where as his old v-6 made about 320 (power to weight ratio is a lot better now)

3.) the sr20det sits lower in the engine bay for better balance. the stock 350 is balanced well but chris has his car close to a 50/50 split right now with the sr20 in it...

4.) he blew up his v-6 supercharged motor. Whe he started doing the swap he was sponsered by "Signal" and of course you know that Signal has excelent knowledge of the sr20det engine. plus they had a couple extra motors laying around... might as well throw it in the z.

5.) sr20det = cheaper to fix than a new vq35de

all in all it made sense to do the swap, solid/cheap engine, better balance in the car, better power to weight ratio

[Ghost of Duluth]

Heck yea, I would have done it too. Faster, lighter, CHEAPER. Cause we all know that in the grand scheme of things, thats the big catch. Specially if you have to pay to fix it. Sponsers only go so far.

I like the swap. Kudos to your friend.

[murdoch]

Originally posted by murdoch
Chris is a friend of mine (he drives/owns the moto ex 350z) and he had a lot of reasons for swapping motors.... here are the facts..

1.) the 350z now ways almost 200 lbs less than a stock s13 (after the swap and all of the work he did on making the car as light as poss)

2.) the sr20det makes approx 360 hp to the wheels where as his old v-6 made about 320 (power to weight ratio is a lot better now)

3.) the sr20det sits lower in the engine bay for better balance. the stock 350 is balanced well but chris has his car close to a 50/50 split right now with the sr20 in it...

4.) he blew up his v-6 supercharged motor. Whe he started doing the swap he was sponsered by "Signal" and of course you know that Signal has excelent knowledge of the sr20det engine. plus they had a couple extra motors laying around... might as well throw it in the z.

5.) sr20det = cheaper to fix than a new vq35de

all in all it made sense to do the swap, solid/cheap engine, better balance in the car, better power to weight ratio

yeah... al in all it makes sense... he also did some other mods too... he has a skyline rear end on it... lock n load

[slide]

I think that if you are the car in the rear and you out drive the driver in front of you, and the oppurtunity presents itself for you to safely pass, while maintaining your drift, you can further show your driving skill. I have seen it in Japan, and it is amazing to see the amount of pressure put on by the following driver, and the intense scramble by the lead driver to try and regain composure and battle back to hold the lead. That is where the ultimate drivers skill is put to the test. If you guys get a chance you should check out video options Vol. 101, Masatoshi Asamoto of Team Orange, put on a clinic during this round of the 2002 D1 Grand Prix season. And in the final round he destroyed his competiton completely. When he lead he left the comp. when he trailed he decided to lead again and the the opposing driver couldnt do anything about it. Awesome display of driving, making it obvious who the better driver was. You got to remember both drivers have the ability to do what ever they can to be the aggressor from the lead or the tail. The passing is part of the game, and as the drivers get more skilled it will be more and more incorporated into the battles to come

[foilman]

Hmm, not a thread I wanted to jump in on but there are things I can help clear up ...

There are no written rules on passing, bumping etc. But the unwritten rules are that you are not allowed to run into another car and that a pass, or any charge on the opponent (except for the initial run toward the first turn) should be done in drift. Passing is encouraged, but obviously you shouldn't shove the other guy out of the way.... which means a pass usualy happens when the other driver makes a mistake in execution or choice of line.

In the first match-up of Alex and Sam, Alex had a weak exit from turn 1, but then moved in on Sam and applied great pressure. On the next run, Sam also made an impressive charge, but he caught Alex by gripping through the horseshoe turn. Based on that, it's my opinion that Alex won hands down and a re-run was not warranted. Sam had a smoother run, but Alex displayed more skill. Unfortunate for Alex, but those things happen. Sam is an amazing driver though and the Viper a beast of a car.

Perhaps he was a little to bullish, but the line between making a clean pass and shoving somebody out of the way is tough to define. General motorsports protocol is that if the passing car is even at the entry of the turn (or sometimes has it's front wheel at the driver's door), the lead car must provide room. But this is drifting and it's new, and the turns sometimes tight, so give it time to evolve.

About the viper: it is Dodge's carbon-kevlar chassis Competition Coupe and even according to Dodge, not registerable for street use. It's a full blown racecar. The rules state we must use production cars with a minimum run of 250 units, but there is an allowance for certain vehicles that are approved by the series.

Scores are not given during the tandem runs (at least for now), just direct comparisson of the two drivers.

-Tony
Finishline Motorsports

[slide]

that is absolutely correct

[nissanguy_24]

If the viper is unregisterable then it will not be allowed to compete in the D1 series.

[s0nny80y]

Originally posted by Todd@Tires.com
What a great weekend! Big congrats to Sam and the Viper!

See you all in Miami...preferibly with a lil less breakage.

hey, whats happening in miami? I'm so psyched cause all I know of drift events down here is DGTrials hialeah and drift showoff homestead AND d1 drivers search homestead. If there's more, PLEASE TELL ME!!! Thank yew

[Ghost of Duluth]

I think that needs to be sticky-tized. Excellent info there. Also on the Viper, boy was I wrong bout that one.

[MR2Drifter]

Drift Atlanta Web Videos

Hey Group,

My name is Joe Vick and we were running the Turbo MR2 this past weekend at Drift Atlanta. It was are first drift event and we learned a good deal. Like others our Saturday runs were good but I was not too happy with our sunday runs. My brothers took video of the entire event and we have now compressed highlights to the web. You can download the videos from the following address.

http://www.vickracing.com/flash/Driftzone.swf

I look forward to seeing you all in Houston.

Joe Vick
VickRacing.com