Domestic drift cars all hype or do they have a future.

[T3h m4d]

I was wondering to see what u guys would think about this somewhat of a "fad" lately first With the GTO and now a Viper (you may have seen the GTO on Car And Driver TV) I think the GTO is a nice Drifter but, are these cars even practical for drifting or do you think that Dodge and Pontiac are trying to appeal to the drifting comnmunity, which is dominated by Nissan, Mazda, Toyota etc.

[chexmix78]

I am not sure if it is so much of a fad. I think the new GTO is pretty cool. On the same level the Tempest GTO was cool. It was an unassuming car with a big *Censored**Censored**Censored* engine. I think they built this car following that formula. It performs well, has lots of power, rear wheel drive. I believe it has a 6 speed. It’s perfect car for someone who wants a performance-oriented car and isn’t trying to compensate for anything J. It isn’t flashy. Like I could see my 35 year old brother in law convincing my sister that they should get a GTO way before he could EVER convince her that they should get like a corvette or mustang. So for what it is and the money I think it’s a perfect car. I used to think it was kind of on the bland side but I read an article that convinced me why it should be inconspicuous. So I don’t think they are trying to follow any fads, I just think they built a car that was long overdue. I think it is a step in the right direction, which in this case was step backwards to the days of yesteryear. Just my thoughts.

[Parry]

It doesn't matter how popular the hachi's and 240's are, you can always find a camaro. For that reason alone I think we'll start to see more domestic drift cars....availability.

Depending on the year and model, you can get a car with posi and a 350. All you need to spend on is suspension, getting the car set up. It's really a better staring point than many other cars, and it's fairly durable. A chevy small block is a hard motor to kill. I've watched 302 powered camaros lay miles of rubber...they defininately have the sack to spin them up. Hell, I'm sure you could do the same in a 2.8 with enough convincing. I don't know why more people don't rock them.

I guess it's the same story with the 5.0 Mustang. I'm just not as big of a 5.0 fan. You can only watch so many of them grenade and spray down the track with hard to clean fluids before you start to develop this slight annoyance at every one you see .

Ask CrazyHawaiian, he's all about camaros. And I'm apparently all about mis spelling his name....

[zdss14]

domestics are defentaly going to become more common, there easer to find, and a lot of realy cheap parts, even brand knew parts a generaly cheeper(at least thats what i have found) in many cases it makes more sense to drive one

[nissanguy_24]

The GTO came first, then the viper... And no neither of these cars are practical drifters, However there are plenty of less expensive domestic cars that you may see used. Such as the camaros of Revlimit and Crazyhawaiian.

[panda_3ight_6]

Im quite sure these companys arent making it just because of drifting, they probaly came up with the concept of the GTO about 5 years ago so I wouldnt say they're following trends... it is a trend how ever for alot of american cars to be going back to RWD, like the lincons and mercs.

[soultron]

I hate to do it, but I'm gonna agree with panda. (oh the burning) it's not like the Viper and Goat are drift cars. Matter of factly I don't get how everthing japanese with rwd is a drift car and others are a joke. For most people who don't have 5 g to spend
mustang IIs and monzas and such are perfect beaters to try with decent low priced after market. but no one ever brings those up so no one looks for them. I've got a list I'm putting together of
Cheapies you can find pretty easily and drift without too much work.
The Camaro will see plenty of drift time, and so will the 79-92 stangs. It's gonna be cool as hell.

[svtxchinoy]

Don't think the GTO is all that new to drifting. The cars been out for awhile now as the Holden Monaro, so some people somewhere must've already started to use it. I agree that the domestics are gonna grow in following since parts are cheaper and more available. S13's, AE86 etc. are more popular drifting cars because thats what we see they use in Japan mostly, its their domestic car, hence easier and cheaper for them to get replacement parts. Don't think their worrying much about a Silvia JDM conversion like we are. =P

[nissanguy_24]

The 240 and 86 are also staples of the drifting world. So they will always be around, especialy the S13 as 86s get more and more rare. But i do believe we will see more and more american cars, especialy mustangs and camaros drifting. I doubt the viper or gto will become big drift cars... but who knows maybe pontiac will take some information from Rhys when designing the next version of the GTO. the GTO is just a pig plane and simple and the Viper is just way to expensive to become common drift cars... And yeah they do use the holdens in austrilia but they arent super popular or anything, but they arent strangers to drifting. the Aussies will drift anything as you know.

[raging panda]

the holdens in australia arent popular as drift cars, but as track cars, they are the holden staple race car. The V8 4 door race series they have down there is full of moneros and they have dominated the races from the few i saw on speed channel. I thought it would be easy to hook up the GTO as it already has a racing backround and we would just need to import the parts, but i really havent looked into what the public gets down there for the car, mostly because I cant afford a GTO, and if I did, it wouldnt be for my drift car, unless I was sponsored.

[scirocco]

that gt500 viper that was drifing at D1 (i think) is too flucking awesome. I love that thing. Personally, i think it's great that people are bringing domestics into the drift scene. They tend to have relatively bad handling and i think it is awesome that people are bringing american muscle to the track. However, when they bring 600hp cars to the track and just power over the whole way through, that's when i think that they should go back to drag racing (which i find fun but it costs too much to be good at it). anyways, i personally like the volkswagen scirocco and i dont know why. i just like it since its a european car and it sort of resembles a hachiroku or, more appropiately, a hachigo. anyways, i dont think its a great car for drifters with not a lot of money since u have to get the rear-wheel drive conversion. Anyways, the day when i see a '70 shelby gt500 pulling off a braking drift ill sh|t myself in happiness, then blame the smell on my dog.

[Parry]

roccos are awesome. I know there's synchro-swapped roccos running around....i believe there's one up in vermont that belongs to a hillclimber. Pretty mean car.

[zdss14]

hey svtxchinoy, im reading a artical in muscle mustangs and fast fords right now about racing in nyc, are you involved with that?

[Tsunami]

Dude I just got that issue last night! You see the blown 1000hp with the full-house GR40 suspension?

[mranlet]

Check out Crazy Hawaiian's site - powerslideways.com and the accompanying bbs for more domestic talk.

-MR