help me understand the point of drifting

drifting take some talent. try it and you will see what I'm saying. especially if you have to maintain a drift through corners or if you're tandem drifting right next to another car. i saw Formula Drift in person this summer and it's a cool sport. the cars are going pretty darn fast while they're drifting too. i think the drivers do it because it's fun and it's a car control challenge. a former rally driver Tanner Foust was competing in the competition that I saw. here's some photos i took of the event - http://www.flickr.com/photos/apexrally/sets/72157609589523558/ . cheers.

 

Back in the RWD rallye days, we used to say, "If you're pointed where you're headed, you're too slow."
Side-sliding a car on dirt, gravel, or snow can be a blast. And it doesn't destroy the tires.

Smoking the tires on pavement is just to make heap big smoke?
+1 on "performance art", rather than "sport".

Aha! That's why they're not out in the dirt. The high school girls can't get out of town to watch it.

 

I saw drifiting first hand at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah. It was at GT Live and was pretty interesting. I've watched drifting here and there and I love Japanese cars to death but I just can't get into it. To me it's sort of like pro wrestling. It's a great spectacle, does take skill, but at the end of the day not a real sport to me. But to each his own.

 

The point is it filled 10 minutes of airtime on Speed.

So for all intents and purposes it's officially a sport.

 

Ice "drifting" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfavkh41NfE

 

As others have said, it's not meant to be any form of racing, but to be a show. I really enjoy watching it, and respect the skills of those drivers. I mean, anyone can hold a little oversteer at 30 mph for a few seconds, but what those guys do (sliding around turns continuously at 70+ mph) is in a different league.

 

It`s a "sport" much like skate boarding. Gives ugly kids a place to be with their own.

 

This blew my mind. Thank you for posting. Wow.

 

its a ton of fun IMHO... sport, eh maybe but in a snow covered parking lot, hell yeah

 

Definitely save tons of tire threads by Drifting in Snow, too bad I'm in Texas

 

While not interested in drifting, I do appreciate their car control and if I am to be honest, I wouldn't mind giving it a try sometime for grins and giggles. Only things that hold me back the lack of a legal place to try and the cost of tires. I buy my own tires.

Many years ago I had a Subaru and lived out west. I would take the Subie off onto the dirt and gravel roads in Nevada and go for it...2 and 4 wheel drift through the corners. It was a lot of fun. Now, I find it fun to slide the pickup around in a deserted, snow covered parking lot.

 

you can buy semi worn tyres cheaply. A couple of my friends in the UK drift and normally buy their tires for around £5-10 a pop.

 

yea if you know where to look there are places you can find cheap(er) already worn tires, sure you have to have some extra rims laying around but a quick search on craigslist prob will do you good....

 

I prefer the Japanese high-speed, mountain togue style of drifting to the westernized parking lot based, slow, smoke heavy version.