American Drifting heading the wrong direction?

[A.YEN]

the main point i want to make is that we really have to stick together as a group of drifters..... i always tell alex that to group is so small and sometimes it just gets ugly. And with the A, B , C, licening stuff its been thought out when we all sat around one day, but how do we approch it? still working on it. i know the promoters need to make money back but it really is unfair sometimes to compet with higher level cars. dont know.

but any ways hope we as all the us drivers keep drifting and one day show the JDM whats up

someone said that they rather bo on mountain than on TV.... its not about the TV, its about improving your skills. like i said youll be buying a new car everyother month. Drive the mountain for pleasure. Everyone know thats what its for, not to loose your life.



drive safe everyone ANDY YEN SWINGBattle

[AlexPfeiffer]

Ghost of Duluth, Thanks!!

[Coiloverkid]

HAHAHA look what i found

[dae]

heres one problem i see with our drift scene. If you get caught on the streets you are fked in a big way. in japan its no biggy. and this is why i dont think we will ever catch up with the japanese ( at least not your average drifters ). Maybe the bigtime pros can. But our scene will never be like japans =/

[Ghost of Duluth]

You are exactly right. Our scene will never be like Japans. That is why it needs to become American. Sure you can't go round just a-Drifting all over like a Bobby Labonte at the Bristol. The police see that and tend to get angry really quick. Specially when you do it at John Q Mall in South Potato Iowa. See, in Japan, the majority of Drifting happens out in the middle of nowhere on the top of a mountain. From talking to people, the novice guys stay near the bottom while the better guys get higher up until the best guys are at the top. It also happens late at night, a time that alot of you can't stay out past. (No offense but them there's the laws). So police tend to let that slide. Plus the whole attitude and culture in Japan is different. People take responsibility for what they do. Here in America, the police HAVE to save young Dan Drifter from himself because he will wreck his car, sue someone or cry to his mommy and she will call a congressman or the chief of police and, well, you know the rest. Also, watch the Drifting. They are very organized and respectful of other drifters AND oncoming traffic. Meaning they don't just get all happy feet and bust a move without first having the road checked out ahead and posting people with radios to warn. Unlike here where your friend dares you to do this and the ol "Hey, Watch this, Bubba's gonna Deerift"" final words come out.

Drifting needs voices. Voices that will steer it in a direction that is a happy medium for everyone involved. Drifters, sponsers, law enforcement, companies....everyone. That is the only way it will grow and we as drivers will prosper. I think there needs to be a drivers league, a union of sorts. With a go between and a mediator and the whole shabang. You guys at the pro level need to band together now, while it's still early and build the foundation. If you do not, then this is a million head monster that has a voice for each head. Nothing gets done that way. Elect a president, speaker, treasurer, all that stuff. Make a site, newsletter and have meetings (when you can) to make a difference in the sport. Only with strength and planning can you effect rule changes and car specifications or any of that. One voice is overlooked in a choir, but when they all sing together, it's beauty.

[malcolm]

Like I said before..... the biggest rule that is needed is the following:

-all suspension mounting points MUST remain in the stock locations.

(therefore you can't bring a tubeframe car to a drift event because the suspension isn't in a stock location.)

also, here are some others I have thought of....

-must use production lower a-arms on the front suspension

-curb weight of the car must be greater than 85% of the original, production model's curb weight.

(therefore even if the car is a semi-tubeframe, it will have no weight advantages)

If all these rules were brought into place, then costs would plumet. It would make it a lot easier for a smaller team to put together a winning car.

The rule about the stock mounting points comes to mind from the Speed WC GT series. They made a rule change that allows the teams to move the suspension locations a maximum of one inch in any direction from stock. Now Schnitzer in Germany is using their computers and advanced programming to find the ultimate suspension mounting points. They send the info to PTG, and they fabricate the necessary bits. Now the car is 2 seconds quicker. Three years ago, I could have had a decent chance in that series (we run what amounts to a father-and-son racing team, but we've got help from some sponsors). But now that the factory teams can use their big budgets to make the cars faster, we have no chance. Cadillac is spending 9 million dollars over two years to just RUN the cars, nevermind building them.

Before, there were still teams with huge budgets. The difference was that three years ago, sufficient rules were in place to keep the factories from building cars that we couldn't compete with. Now the rules have been relaxed due to pressure from the factories. Now, costs are so high that anyone with a reasonable budget will be lucky to finish second-last.

What I am trying to say is that this has to be avoided in drifting. Factories can be allowed in drifting, but we NEED rules in place to keep them in check with reality.

We can't let them build 1000 bhp, 1700 lb, tubeframe cars with tires that are 425 mm wide. The factories will do this. They don't care about ruining series. Wanna know how many racing series that Porsche has killed? More than I can count... They go in, find all the loop-holes in the rules, and build a dominant car. With drifting, it will be difficult to do that, but they will eventually. We just need rules in place to prevent them from ruining major-league drifting.

[mranlet]

Originally posted by A.YEN
than on TV.... its not about the TV, its about improving your skills. like i said youll be buying a new car everyother month. Drive the mountain for pleasure. Everyone know thats what its for, not to loose your life.

That was my pot shot at commercialism in America, dedicated to the origins of the sport.

I couldn't agree with you more, Andy

I always say "its no fun if you're dead" - this alone says enough about my stance toward street driving.

I don't care is an event or driver is on TV or not. I'm not all about boycotting anyone who isn't hardcore underground - if the skill and attitudes of the drivers are good, of course I will come to the events. I do care who I'm giving my money to, but if an org like Formula D or D1 is putting on a great event I will gladly contribute! (the quality and business creedo of APC parts is another story...)

I'd still rather be on the mountian than on TV though

-MR

[A.YEN]

i really wish that one day we can all hang out on a turn one day and drift the nite away. i too still love the underground life because of the pleasure of driving. and we did hang out on a turn before but the cops got smart. geezs that would be the life. dont get me wron about underground, thats where i started and i will never forget what got me here today. its my roots

drive safe ANDY YEN SWINGBattle

[marshun]

i dont think that americans are going in the wrong direction. or about the horsepower thing. its all about skill in the end.

but i've been reading about some events and seen some video's. it kinda seems some of the judges are biased. so.... idunno on that part. thats sketchy

[mranlet]

To me there's nothing like having a mountian, some fun cars, some good friends, the night and no worries - It's that feeling you get on the last day of school when you are loving every second and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world, only it's there with you every time you hit the hill...

Originally posted by A.YEN
i really wish that one day we can all hang out on a turn one day and drift the nite away. i too still love the underground life because of the pleasure of driving. and we did hang out on a turn before but the cops got smart. geezs that would be the life. dont get me wron about underground, thats where i started and i will never forget what got me here today. its my roots

drive safe ANDY YEN SWINGBattle

That's all I wanted to hear

-MR

[parknglotdrfter]

haha parking lots work fine tho, but... thats only because thats the only place im allowed to drive and we dont have drift events down in texas very often

[MomoRocks]

What i think

to tell you the truth, this is how i think. I truly do think that drifting will go the wrong way in america. Look at racing, it was great but then you had hot shot punks that made racing pretty dumb. As much as i love racing and i dont hate civics, i see them every where. i think the same is gonna happen to dirfting. soon or a later the mainstream is gonna make it so big that everyone is gonna do it n then BAM!. again hot shot punks are gonna ruin it talkin their mouth off when they can only do so little. Stuff like this i love but when it goes mainstream, i see the downfall of it. i would really hate to see when everyone beocmes a "drifter" (or so they will say) when they dont even know what a AE86 is. It saddens me.

[zdss14]

ya know it seems like most drifters arn't about all the mainstreem stuff as it is so if we put out that image about not being posers and what not, and make shure no one screws it up then it will all be ok, it's our sport so lets make it what we want it to be and not let other stuff make it something diffrent.

[LexmarkX73]

drifting will never be the same as it is in Japan. it took, what 20-30 years before the grassroots "touge" became a mainstream event (D1)? drifting has been in mainstream america a little over a year now, and its already at the D1 level with very few real enthusiests who understand the real meaning of drifting. its not meant to be a fad you go watch, it is supposed to be something you do. well ive rambled off long enough, but to end, i'll never really enjoy D1 as much as small events with people who make do with the cars they have, or just drive instead of watching others do it :P

[NismoSigma]

Drifting in USA is at the point were people are still experimenting for what car is good for drifting. In japan theyve had 20 or more years to find sutible cars so they can drift. They tested what they can find and they got the Silvia, AE86, RX7, etc. In america u see guys using old muscle cars, or hoopties. It might seem like it is heading in wrong direction, but main diffrence between Japan and USA is how they got promoted. In japan it was underground for a while, but in US, it just boomed so there isnt an underground scene. also in usa, people dont demand alot of action going on in a sport. look at nascar, just left turns and not alot of passing, in drifting its diffrent, lots of stuff goin on at once, this might confuse some americans but they will catch on. Drifting is not a fad, in 10 years they are gonna have a show on VH1 called i love the 2000's and in 2003 or 2004, theyre gonna talk about drifting. At this point it is unstoppable, it will continue to expand and we will learn from it, in about 10-20 years, americans and any1 else will be able to compete with the japananese but at this moment, americans are just learning, were in pre-school but we will graduate. Just stick with the sport, it'll all be good.