Racer's Story

I have heard a lot of answers to this question. Many people seem to fear the consequences of commercialization and popularization, and some people could care less. Let’s look at the reasons for each view.

One view is that drifting will go the way of the “sport compact Honda” market, with parts listed at low-low prices in Super Street and Sport Compact Car, and drift-poseurs on every corner, pretending to be super downhill technicians. First of all, what’s so bad about parts being listed in magazines? That’s only a good thing! The premium that you pay now for Tein coilovers and Bride seats would drop dramatically if mail-order warehouses picked up those lines. Second, there’s no way someone can pretend to be good at drifting. Either you are or you’re not, regardless of whether the car looks like it could. Drifting is all about the driver. I could never see someone being perceived as a drifter just because they have a cool-looking car.

Some alarmists say that once a few idiots crash their 240SXs and die horribly on some mountain road, drifting will get a terrible reputation and all the cops will be out to get us. However, sliding on the street is already illegal; how can they make it more illegal? If my friend Joe Beard was thrown in jail for a month for drifting, how much worse can the cops’ view of drifting get? If you’re worried about being profiled as a drifter, just make sure that your car doesn’t advertise the fact that you drift (no stickers, guys). If you’ve got wheels and an exhaust, you’ll just look like another “tuner” car, and that’s already bad enough. In any case, the only way you’ll be identified as a drifter is by drifting. So don’t worry; just don’t drift on the street. Let me say that again. Don’t drift on the street.

Regardless of whether or not the cops crack down on us, many people worry about how drifting will be perceived by the public. Video games like Need For Speed Underground and various other games already have drifting as an integral part of the game. Will drifting become the next “street race” craze? I doubt it. Any fool trying to drift race on the street will probably hurt themselves. Imagine sliding blindly around corners on the street. Anyone who has spent the time and effort to learn how to drift probably will not engage in street racing. They know the dangers, they know their limits, and they have often spent a lot of their own money on their cars. Would they risk their beautiful cars just for the sake of a foolish street race? I hope not.

Either way, some fools will probably give the sport a bad name. Why worry about that? Is that really different from how it was two years ago when no one knew what drifting was? Or how about now? Some people know about drifting, but most people don’t understand; they think it’s stupid. The idea here is that no one will ever understand. They will either not know, not care, or think the wrong thing. Don’t place too much importance on what people think about your sport. You can’t do anything about it, any more than you can convince Donald Rumsfeld that invading Iraq was a bad idea.

There are still some people who say that drifting will never become main stream. I disagree. I recently communicated via email with the Washington-DC region SCCA chairman, who said that the SCCA was looking for volunteers in my area to run drift events. Grassroots Motorsports did a feature on the new Bondurant Drifting School, run by racing legend Bob Bondurant. GRM has also devoted several pages for the last few issues to topics such as drifting news or drift setup. Even the Speed channel has been showing footage from drift events, and Road & Track magazine chose to nestle a few short pages on Ken Gushi’s win next to its review of Mercedes-Benz’s latest luxo-sedan. If the SCCA is trying to organize events to capitalize on this new sport, and Bob Bondurant is offering drifting instruction, it seems that drifting has attained a status much higher than that of a passing fad.

My view is that drifting will remain mostly a grassroots movement. The professional circuit will remain popular and may even gain national attention for events such as D1. I can’t see drifting becoming hugely popular. Lots of people want to go fast, but it takes a special type of person to want to go sideways. In addition to wanting to go sideways; you have to spend a lot of time and money practicing it. It’s a highly refined skill, and I can’t see your average Joe Tuner getting into something that actually requires time and effort.

So what will we see in the future? Parts will become more available. Some idiots will wreck their 240SXs on the street attempting to drift. D1 will continue to be the Holy Grail of drifting. And hopefully, Drifting magazine will come back. Somehow, however, I doubt that. Drifting is big, but not that big.

# posted by the user : 02:12