Tweet
As Drifting accelerates faster and faster towards mainstream, I look around and see things slipping through the cracks. Things that made the sport so appealing in the first place are slipping away. Things like Honor, Respect and that underdog spirit that makes little people smile like giddy school children. We don’t have as much of those qualities as our brothers across the pond. Drifters in the motherland seem to be a mysterious lot. Usually they are sporting some wild hairdo, smoking cigarettes, making funny dance moves and/or imitating some form of animal. All fun and games, until they hit the track. Then that is where the business face comes on and the silliness goes away. Drifting is Japan has held a somewhat odd place in the motorsports there. People know it is dangerous but somehow, Drifters are respected for their abilities not shunned for their recklessness. Here in America though, things are radically different.
Americans have always done things our own way. We like things to be larger than life and twice as nice. If someone does something, we have to do it better, bigger and more times than they do. As an American, I know this desire. I have defended this attitude in the past and passed it off as just being American. It gets harder by the day for me to do that anymore. I am seeing that unfortunately, bigger is not always better. In certain ways, our rapid growth has made the sport better for all involved. Ways like parts availability, sponsorships and increasing interest for automakers to develop RWD cars for the mass market again. All of these help out the regular guys like you and I. Parts that were not easily obtainable 1 year ago are now as easy to get as an Iceman intake for a CRX. The explosion of the sport has spurred the growth of business as well. Small businesses like my own are starting to pop up all over the place. Some are good and will make it, some won’t. I hope I’m the former in that equation. It has also attracted an entirely new crop of drivers and enthusiasts who will partake at all levels of the sport, further driving this growth.
Unfortunately, with rapid growth also comes a backlash. The same basic things that will drive the sport will ultimately be it’s biggest destroyer unless steps are taken. There is a slogan that I used to see that goes “Live fast, die young” That pretty much sums up the attitude of most people that I run across in the sport. Instead of looking at it as a melding of mind and metal, they only look at the glamorous side of the sport and focus on that. Most people don’t care about bettering themselves or experiencing the “soul” side of Drifting, they would much rather decorate their car like a Drifter, learn what is needed to impress people and that’s it. That to me is sad. They never fully enjoy the sport since they are too hurried to learn and cram that they get mad at themselves when they screw up something or end up hurting someone when they are too impatient to wait on a track and try it in the mall parking lot. A good Drifter reminds me of a Skater. 99% of the skaters that I know are into it for the fun. They learn new tricks for themselves, not for girls, friends or their neighbors to look at. It’s too bad that in the end it will be these “Live fast, die young” people that will cripple the sport. Already I hear about people doing things on public streets that will eventually land them in the hospital, jail or worse and this is just the beginning. We have yet to have a death attributed to Drifting, but mark my words, there will be one soon. If you think it’s bad now, wait until that happens. Everything will be tightened up so much that you won’t be able to even take a car onto the street that has mis-matched wheels without getting stopped for imaginary violations and harassed.
This explosion of the sport has not only brought new people and sponsers but it has also brought undesirable people from other sports that are dying out into it’s fold. These same loudmouths did nothing for the sport they were in and now they are wagon hopping over to ours. Being at the top of the sport does not always mean that you are the best at that sport. Too many times I see drivers that are talented but ruin it with their attitude. I don’t care how talented you are, I will never sponser a person with a bad attitude. Being that way does not help out our foray into the wonderful world of Drifting. In my opinion Drifting is one of those interesting “odd” sports that people hear about but rarely ever see. That’s what makes it so exciting to watch. When we take it over here and blow it up so that theres an event every other weekend and it’s televised and Mariah Carey starts singing the national anthem, will it be so exciting to watch anymore? No, I doubt it. Plus we Americans like to change the rules. Rules that kept the sport on a level that anyone could compete in and have fun are about to be changed (or have been already). Rules that allow someone to go out and purchase their neighbors 240, strap in some suspension, some power adders, take it to the track and be competitive are taking a backseat to purpose built racecars and tube framed monsters. Street legal will no longer be the name of the game in the future of Drifting if manufacturers have their say. It has been commented before about the addition of jumps and other obstacles into the arena as a way to make it appeal to Americans. Isn’t Drifting exciting enough without the Dukes of Hazzard element added to it? We already have a sport that has all of that and more, it’s called Stadium Trucks. We don’t need it in Drifting.
So in closing, Drifting’s strengths can also be its weaknesses if everyone is not careful. Drifting doesn’t need braggart’s who are only in it for the glory and the girls. Drifting needs those soul sliders that want to cultivate and nurture a sport that could in all actuality be one of greatest automobile sports if developed correctly. If braggarts are allowed to win events and younger people see this and become like them, then braggarts will rule Drifting. I for one don’t want that to happen because it foretells a bad future for the sport that I love.
Americans have always done things our own way. We like things to be larger than life and twice as nice. If someone does something, we have to do it better, bigger and more times than they do. As an American, I know this desire. I have defended this attitude in the past and passed it off as just being American. It gets harder by the day for me to do that anymore. I am seeing that unfortunately, bigger is not always better. In certain ways, our rapid growth has made the sport better for all involved. Ways like parts availability, sponsorships and increasing interest for automakers to develop RWD cars for the mass market again. All of these help out the regular guys like you and I. Parts that were not easily obtainable 1 year ago are now as easy to get as an Iceman intake for a CRX. The explosion of the sport has spurred the growth of business as well. Small businesses like my own are starting to pop up all over the place. Some are good and will make it, some won’t. I hope I’m the former in that equation. It has also attracted an entirely new crop of drivers and enthusiasts who will partake at all levels of the sport, further driving this growth.
Unfortunately, with rapid growth also comes a backlash. The same basic things that will drive the sport will ultimately be it’s biggest destroyer unless steps are taken. There is a slogan that I used to see that goes “Live fast, die young” That pretty much sums up the attitude of most people that I run across in the sport. Instead of looking at it as a melding of mind and metal, they only look at the glamorous side of the sport and focus on that. Most people don’t care about bettering themselves or experiencing the “soul” side of Drifting, they would much rather decorate their car like a Drifter, learn what is needed to impress people and that’s it. That to me is sad. They never fully enjoy the sport since they are too hurried to learn and cram that they get mad at themselves when they screw up something or end up hurting someone when they are too impatient to wait on a track and try it in the mall parking lot. A good Drifter reminds me of a Skater. 99% of the skaters that I know are into it for the fun. They learn new tricks for themselves, not for girls, friends or their neighbors to look at. It’s too bad that in the end it will be these “Live fast, die young” people that will cripple the sport. Already I hear about people doing things on public streets that will eventually land them in the hospital, jail or worse and this is just the beginning. We have yet to have a death attributed to Drifting, but mark my words, there will be one soon. If you think it’s bad now, wait until that happens. Everything will be tightened up so much that you won’t be able to even take a car onto the street that has mis-matched wheels without getting stopped for imaginary violations and harassed.
This explosion of the sport has not only brought new people and sponsers but it has also brought undesirable people from other sports that are dying out into it’s fold. These same loudmouths did nothing for the sport they were in and now they are wagon hopping over to ours. Being at the top of the sport does not always mean that you are the best at that sport. Too many times I see drivers that are talented but ruin it with their attitude. I don’t care how talented you are, I will never sponser a person with a bad attitude. Being that way does not help out our foray into the wonderful world of Drifting. In my opinion Drifting is one of those interesting “odd” sports that people hear about but rarely ever see. That’s what makes it so exciting to watch. When we take it over here and blow it up so that theres an event every other weekend and it’s televised and Mariah Carey starts singing the national anthem, will it be so exciting to watch anymore? No, I doubt it. Plus we Americans like to change the rules. Rules that kept the sport on a level that anyone could compete in and have fun are about to be changed (or have been already). Rules that allow someone to go out and purchase their neighbors 240, strap in some suspension, some power adders, take it to the track and be competitive are taking a backseat to purpose built racecars and tube framed monsters. Street legal will no longer be the name of the game in the future of Drifting if manufacturers have their say. It has been commented before about the addition of jumps and other obstacles into the arena as a way to make it appeal to Americans. Isn’t Drifting exciting enough without the Dukes of Hazzard element added to it? We already have a sport that has all of that and more, it’s called Stadium Trucks. We don’t need it in Drifting.
So in closing, Drifting’s strengths can also be its weaknesses if everyone is not careful. Drifting doesn’t need braggart’s who are only in it for the glory and the girls. Drifting needs those soul sliders that want to cultivate and nurture a sport that could in all actuality be one of greatest automobile sports if developed correctly. If braggarts are allowed to win events and younger people see this and become like them, then braggarts will rule Drifting. I for one don’t want that to happen because it foretells a bad future for the sport that I love.
i love drifting to......not for the little asian girls running around half naked (but that helps to
Comment