What is the point/appeal in drifting?

[swift996]

I hated when I had RX7s when people would ask me about drifting. In fact, with my M3 people will ask here and there. Thank god people know better with my 911.

I'm just curious why do people care about drifting as a driving technique or a motorsport?

I'm a big fan of sports car and endurance racing..I have interest in taking a BRZ fast around a road course.

Thanks...not trying to stir anything, just have never understood the draw towards drifting.

[Grateful Dave]

I went to the Long Beach Grand Prix this year and after 1 session of drifting, I was drifted out. Drifting is like watching monster trucks, it gets old fast. I rather watch real auto racing especially the sports cars. Drifting is probably fun to do, but I'm not going to waste my FRS tires on drifting.

[Guff]

Drifting is a fun sport because it is a constant battle at the limit of adhesion with your car, the track, and yourself. It is very involving and takes a lot of skill and experience to get good at. It requires good knowledge of your car's dimensions, it's tendencies in steering, suspension, and throttle, and of the track's width and surface.

Watching drifting is not nearly as exciting as doing it, but that could be said for anything...

[Draco-REX]

For spectators, drifting has a lot of noise, smoke, and cars going fast. Seems to work for NASCAR.

For drivers, it is entertaining to play with a car outside the grip circle. Granted, in pro drifting, the fronts are pretty well planted. But it's still a lot of fun. Ever play in a parking lot after a snowfall?

While there is a level of skill involved in drifting, it's hard to quantify which makes them judged events. Kind of figure-skating for cars. So it can get boring after a while if you're not there for the noise/smoke feature.

I would like to see limits on max steering angle, and tighter courses. Four wheel drifts are more impressive to me than just the two wheel power-over drifts that are seen in pro drifting.

Like this:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGLsS2g9vlM"]Mitsubishi Evo Lancer Drift - YouTube[/ame]

I'd like to see pro drifting be more like a game of HORSE.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Grateful Dave

I went to the Long Beach Grand Prix this year and after 1 session of drifting, I was drifted out. Drifting is like watching monster trucks, it gets old fast. I rather watch real auto racing especially the sports cars. Drifting is probably fun to do, but I'm not going to waste my FRS tires on drifting.

I agree with the Monster Truck analogy. I have to say though it definitely takes a significant amount of skill to drift two up like they do in the race, at those close quarters. I respect them for that.

I enjoyed the event in LB, although our vantage point wasn't the best since we could really only see one curve well. It would be a better event in an arena setting.

[swift996]

I agree with the Monster truck analogy as well and I do understand the tremendous amount of skill it takes to drift a car effectively. I just don't understand why it's so cool to people when you have the Perelli World Challange, American LeMans Series, Rolex Grand-Am Series, and other major GT/Sports Car racing around the world.

If you have ever seen the movie Idiocracy...I feel like drifting is a step towards it.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by swift996

..I just don't understand why it's so cool to people when you have the Perelli World Challange, American LeMans Series, Rolex Grand-Am Series, and other major GT/Sports Car racing around the world. ...

Yep, I definitely enjoyed the experience, the vendor area and the people more than the race. Probably not something I'd pay to go see but I'd go to another comped event in a minute.

Those that do enjoy it for the race probably wouldn't understand some of the stuff I enjoy either, and that's OK.

[Dave-ROR]

Like Nascar I've watched it just to see people wreck their cars. It's boring otherwise.

I find auto racing boring to watch in general (actually just change that to any sport).

I'm all for racing and sports and do both myself, but watching them is a yawn fest for me, except playoff hockey :P

[Longhorn248]

I wouldn't really classify drifting as a "sport", it's definitely a competition. I'm just not really a fan of something that declares a winner based on the preferences of a group of individuals since there's the opportunity for subjectivity to be involved.

I'm not saying drifting doesn't take an impressive skill set, just that it's not appealing to me.