Drifting is one of the most popular recreational events after the quarter mile. This is the whole “art” of driving a car in a long drift. Drifting makes your heart skip a beat when two powerful cars race side by side at breakneck speeds, burning rubber and emitting a menacing roar from the engine.
To show good results, a drifter needs to train for a fairly long period. But another important component is choosing the right car. The most important thing is rear-wheel drive, good chassis balance, as well as a limited slip differential and many other subtleties. Below is a ranking of some of the most popular cars in the world of drifting.
The description of this car looks quite simple: a rear-wheel drive bulletproof tank from the land of the rising sun. The R33 GTS-T modification is especially revered among drifters. This model was equipped with a 2.6-liter engine with 276 hp. power that made it possible to create “miracles” on the track.
Toyota Corolla AE86
A small city car, a legend of yesteryear, which is now quite difficult to find on the market. Although this car was not initially powerful, its engine was very “fertile ground” for additional tuning. Which ultimately allowed the four cylinders to generate maximum torque.
Many modern drifters turn their attention to the charged version of the German two-door sedan BMW M3 E36. Firstly, this car has over 280 hp. power; secondly, BMW has a limited-slip differential as standard, as well as racing seats and a professional Brembo braking system.
This car is known not only for the Need For Speed games, it also earned its excellent drifting reputation thanks to its 3.5-liter V6 with 276 “Horses,” which quite quickly and confidently forced the rear-wheel drive heavyweight to take turns. There are many different modifications available for the engine, shock absorbers and brakes. Another advantage of the model is good chassis balance, which has a positive effect on handling.
A cute rival to the Nissan GT-R, with 640 hp. power in the Extreme Tuning version, makes the car jump in corners, in the truest sense of the word.
The muscle car proves to be talented not only on straight quarter-mile stretches, but the power and rear-wheel drive also bring quite good results in drifting, allowing the car to wag its stern like a drunkard.
Nissan 200SX (S13/S14/S15)
The most popular and best choice among the absolute majority. Engine power ranges from 180 to 200 hp, depending on the version. This model has always been considered the best choice between price and quality and has repeatedly won the crown of the king of drift.
For many car enthusiasts, drifting is an art that can take many years to master. In addition, it is necessary to have the right car, and that is what I will tell you about now. Which car is best suited for drifting? I'll tell you about 12 Japanese cars that were born to go sideways. This will be my big addition to talking about Japanese drift cars.
1.Nissan 350Z
It's no secret that the best drift cars are made in the Land of the Rising Sun. After all, it was in Japan that drifting began as a sport, and to this day, young Japanese drivers show the best drifting skills in the world. So what makes the 350Z so good?
Thanks to the rear-wheel drive transmission and 3.5-liter V6 engine, the car has amazing handling and allows the driver to easily and easily enter a controlled drift. A little tuning will turn the 350Z into a real drift car. Unfortunately, the car isn't cheap, and even buying a used Nissan 350Z will put a hole in your pocket. But if money is no problem for you, you can't go wrong with this choice.
2.Nissan Skyline
Another brainchild of Nissan, but this time – the legendary Skyline. Few cars have managed to become so iconic that their mere appearance in front of a young public makes the crowd open their mouths in surprise (and even girls who are not in the know recognize them).
Skyline was originally positioned as a car for drifting, and was produced in several modifications. The engine was positioned left, right or center to accommodate powerful turbos, limited slip differentials and nitrous oxide. All-wheel drive, the 4WS system, allows the Skyline to bite into the road and maneuver nimbly. For the faint of heart, we do not recommend looking at the cost of insurance on this monster.
3.Nissan Silvia
Yes Yes. Drifters love Nissan. Well, what can you do? By the way, Nissan Silvia is not an ordinary car. Japanese youth purchased it and tuned it to such an extent that it skidded even in a straight line. Drifters idolize the Silvia as the best drift car you can find, but the price won't make you hang your teeth and sell your kidneys.
4.Toyota Supra
In the early 2000s, we all played Need For Speed: Underground. It was thanks to this game that the drifting beauty Supra with its twin-turbo engine became a legend. Rear-wheel drive is the foundation of any drift car, and the Supra is no exception. If you're looking for amazing power in addition to drifting, the Toyota Supra is waiting for you.
5. Mazda RX-7
When Mazda launched its RX-7, car enthusiasts just laughed. The exorbitantly inflated price was on par with such monsters as Porsche and BMW. For the modest Japanese company Mazda, this was a fatal mistake. The RX-7 may be pricey, but if you can afford it, it's your go-to drift car. Although a little capricious.
The rotary engine drinks buckets of oil (and if it knocks, you'll squeal like a bitch) and produces serious power only in the high rev range, so you'll have to work hard to tame it. But if you can curb the RX-7, there will be no obstacles left for you in the world of drifting.
6.Nissan 200SX
If you love drifting but don't have a lot of capital, we recommend taking a look at the Nissan 200SX. A budget drift car will give you as much fun as many expensive cars, and you'll save half the cost. Yes, it may not look very impressive, but it will open the way for you to the wonderful world of drifting. Look, for example, at five modifications of the Nissan 200SX in the S13 body in different versions.
7.Nissan Silvia S15
If you want to be respected both in the city and on the track, we recommend purchasing the Silvia S15. The most daring model in the Silvia line is one of the best drift cars on the planet. In addition to the chic design, the manufacturers gave it a powerful engine and an ideal chassis, making the S15 a luxury car for any drift enthusiast. Besides, as I already said, he can be turned into a real star of the Stance scene or an ultimate ring machine.
8. Toyota Corolla AE86
What did Toyota Corolla forget in our article? It would seem that no one needs a family car with a disgusting design for nothing. But don't confuse AE85 and AE86! The charged version of the AE86 has its advantages. First of all, this is the most popular drift car of all time, on which many drifting luminaries took their first steps.
So if you're looking for a simple car that will help you master the basics of drifting, we recommend checking out the Corolla AE86, ugly but cheap and legendary.
9.Honda S2000
Manufacturers could not even imagine that their brainchild S2000 could become the object of desire of any drifter, but after ten years of production, the car has become a cult car, and this does not surprise me. With a powerful, high-revving 2.0-liter VTEC engine and fantastic rear-wheel drive, the S2000 is ready to play cat and mouse with anyone on the drift track.
10.Toyota Chaser
If you are interested in careful, safe driving, you have come to the wrong place. The Toyota Chaser is a determined, powerful drift car. The car was once used in Japanese racing, and it is this pedigree that makes the Chaser one of the best drifting machines around. The availability of modifications and low price make this car a great way to burn some rubber.
These days, few people have this tidbit left, so if you want an exclusive, stand-out drift car, look no further than the Toyota Chaser.
11. Mitsubishi Evo
Thanks to the Fast and the Furious film series, Evolution has become a legend around the world. Featuring an amazing 2.0-litre engine with a giant turbo, the Evo will make any modern sports car bite the dust.
Through tuning, the Evo can be transformed into one of the best drift cars. Yes, it's not cheap, but it's built to perfection and is well respected. However, like any car, it has both advantages and disadvantages.
12. Lexus IS
Go sideways in a Lexus, seriously? Despite the stereotype that Lexus build cars for old men, the IS is a very popular drift car in Japan. The luxurious nature of Lexus will appeal to those who value comfort and convenience during hard drifting. And you won’t find fault, after all. Each of us would probably like to be blown by a cool breeze from the air conditioner while violating all existing traffic rules.
Drifting is when drivers get behind the wheel to send cars into deep drifts, making noise, blowing clouds of smoke, mercilessly destroying tires. This is a whole subculture of modified cars that has become popular all over the world. It is very likely that it will now receive official status in the FIA - the International Automobile Federation.
Since Japan is the birthplace of drifting, it is only natural that the first FIA intercontinental match took place in Tokyo. The support of the international federation is the first step towards raising this type of motorsport to the major league, on the same level as Formula 1, WEC and.
The event was presented by promoter Sunpros, who has been promoting the D1 Grand Prix since its inception. This happened in Odaiba on the same "circuit" as D1GP. The participants demonstrated skidding skills on a small “track” with a hard, even surface, which was organized in a parking lot in the center of Tokyo.
Although this is a one-time event, there is a possibility that it could become the parent of a full championship in the future. Obviously, there have been official competitions around the world for many years now, but the FIA's participation speaks volumes about how popular drifting has become.
List of participants
IDC brought together the best drifters from all over the world. Each competitor has won unofficial championships before. A total of 24 drivers representing 15 countries took part in the competition. It was a motley crew, including locals as well as pilots from Lithuania, Thailand, the United States and other countries.
Bringing the best drivers from different regions to compete for first place in an international drifting competition has allowed this increasingly popular motorsport to be compared to Olympic sports such as figure skating.
It also showed what an FIA sanctioned drifting competition could look like. In Tokyo it was loud, noisy, crowded, like at the inauguration events, everything went according to the well-established scenario. The large stands were not packed to capacity with spectators, as would have been the case at the D1GP round, but could boast a fairly dense filling.
The event was lively and interesting. The Nichiei Racing GOODRIDE team especially stood out from the other participants. This is an international team of drivers: Zhang Shao Hua from China, Feng Jen Zhi from Chinese Taipei, Auttapon Prakopkong from Thailand and Matt Field from the United States.
All team riders won or took prizes at the regional drift. Matt Field was the 2016 Irwindale Formula D champion, Hua and Zhi are the 2013 and 2011 Chinese Drift Championship winners respectively, Prakopkong finished 3rd in the D1GP Thailand in 2012 and 2014. Unfortunately, Field and Zhi only made it into the IDC top 16.
Expert opinion
Many specialists and experts in the field of motor sports admitted that these competitions have become brighter than many similar events held in the past. Watching the leading drivers and cars was much more interesting than many might have expected. The cars went into a controlled skid, froze for a few seconds and then continued on their winding path with a squealing sound that indicated the enormous load on the tires. The turbocharged engines made a strong impression, straining the air around the spectators, filling it with smoke.
The audience that gathered to watch the competition was varied. It's a mix of single older men, families and tourists. They all came to see the global event that was taking place in the backyard of the main motorsport arena. The support of local drivers was the most active, a considerable part of the public jumped up and started screaming when a car driven by a local pilot entered the track.
Features of scoring and regulations
The competition used an electronic scoring system similar to that used in D1GP - why come up with something new if there is a proven scheme. The judges took into account speed, changes in movement and angle stability across five sectors of the course.
The competitors went through 2 stages during the day - first Solo Run, and then Battle Run. In Solo Run, scoring is based on criteria with an emphasis on angle and speed. Each sector has a different percentage for scoring. For high speed and large angles, drivers receive additional points. They get lost during spins - reversals, scrolling in place.
The Battle Run is a competitive stage of a tournament held in a head-to-head format. The pilots were paired up based on the results of the first stage - Solo Run. The drivers took turns becoming the lead and then the pursuer. The leading car is trying to get away from the pursuing car and out-drift it. The pursuer also tries to divert attention from the lead car with better, longer and deeper feints.
Masato Kawabata's No. 13 Nissan GT-R was crowned the winner of the first IDC after the points from each run were tallied. Second place went to Arkady Tsaregrantsev from Russia, and Daigo Saito took an honorable third place.
Drifting Potential
Undoubtedly, the FIA recognizes the potential of this type of motor sport, which is enough to move to a global level. FIA President Jean Todt said: “With the founding of the FCC Intercontinental Drifting Cup, we are creating the foundation for a standard format that will help the sport continue to grow professionally and achieve world-class competition. We are setting the standard for what I am confident will be a hugely successful form of motorsport.".
At the same time, the FIA did not confirm information about the launch of a series of world championships, similar in structural organization to the Formula 1 Grand Prix. Most likely, officials believe that for now the existing competitions held around the world are sufficient.
However, the FIA's enjoyment of drifting has divided fans. On the one hand, the regulation of drifting through the rules of the International Association adds legitimacy to this motorsport, making it official and popular. Thanks to such a large organization as the FIA, drifting can receive funds for the promotion and development of specialized associations existing in more than 40 countries.
On the other hand, there are concerns that International Association patronage will eliminate some of the unique and accessible appeal. Among some experts and fans of drifting, there are fears that it will become expensive, bureaucratic and branded, like Formula 1, and will contain rules that limit freedom.
But at the same time, it is unlikely that specific drift will need to be adopted like F1. Much of the appeal here lies in the variety of cars with individual settings and characteristics competing against each other.
If your sense of smell brings to your brain information about the mixture of smells of burnt rubber and gasoline, mixed with water-methanol, and your eyes see clouds of smoke that escape from under the wheels of bright cars, then don’t be lost in guessing - you’ve entered a drifting competition. This is a fairly young form of motorsport, which came from the Japanese serpentines, where in the 60s local street racers tried to improve their time on mountain roads in every possible way. One day, they used a rally-style cornering technique in which the car's rear axle would lose contact with the asphalt and go into a controlled slide. With the help of this technique, racers were able to significantly improve their passing times, and later began to compete to see who could negotiate a bunch of turns more gracefully and delicately. That's how drifting was born.
For a long time, it remained just a game for street racers and did not lay claim to the laurels of anything serious. However, over time, it became dangerous to drive on the streets, but nevertheless, the popularity of drifting grew, and everyone understood that legalization and a departure from the street image were needed. Some parts manufacturers smelled the cash and began producing components specifically for drifting. But in order to know what and how to do, the experience of athletes was needed, and it is best to gain experience from competitions, where machines and people work to the limit of their capabilities. But it was not just any manufacturer who was destined to unite everyone, but the rather well-known auto magazine OPTION MAGAZINE, which organized open drift competitions where everyone could show their skills. This was only the first stage in the development of drifting as a motorsports discipline. The next stage was to bring drifting to a professional level - so, the founder of OPTION MAGAZINE Daijiro Inada and the father of modern drifting, Keiichi Tsuchiya, decided to create D1GP - the first professional series, which is still considered the best in the world.
But globalization is doing its job, and over time there is an exchange of cultures. Thus, the culture of drifting migrated from east to west through videos from those same mountain serpentines and films in which Keiichi Tsuchiya himself starred, where he told novice racers about the correct drifting technique. In the USA, the whole drifting hobby has grown into Formula Drift. This championship is considered the second strongest after the Japanese D1, but due to different technical regulations and a completely different philosophy of preparing cars, it is quite difficult to compare them with each other. In Europe, the East European Drifting Championship (EEDC) is well-known, in which mainly representatives of the former Soviet republics compete, but sometimes quite eminent guests also come, such as Ryan Turk, a pro-series Formula Drift racer. In our country, the RDS - Russian Drift Series - rules the roost, and it will be discussed in this material.
Dmitry Semenyuk
Dmitry is the father of Far Eastern drifting in many ways. Firstly, he has more than forty races in drifting championships at various levels, which means he has remarkable experience in driving a car in a controlled drift. He tries to pass on this experience to novice racers throughout the country, and travels to regional events with seminars. Also, last year he participated in the stage of the same D1GP, which he was invited to after the Russia-Japan drift battle in Vladivostok. Participation in a championship of this level provides tremendous experience, both in terms of the qualities of a driver and in an organizational sense. Unfortunately, Dmitry was unable to prepare his own car for the competition and he had to rent a car from local racer Daigo Saito, and Dmitry got a Toyota Mark II, in which Saito won that same Russia-Japan battle.
By the way, at first hand it was not possible to get used to the rented car. Perhaps this influenced Dmitry’s final result. But in this case we can say that participation is no less valuable than victory. Because in addition to the fact that Dmitry is a racer, he is also an organizer of competitions, namely, one of the founding fathers of the RDS. Dmitry himself talks about it this way:
“The Formula Drift Championship was unable to fulfill its obligations to the participants and to regional partners. Many were dissatisfied with the organizers, the reputation of the championship was clearly ruined. I learned that the Formula Drift West 2009 champion, Timofey Kosharny, whom I was not personally acquainted with at that time, was going to create his own championship. I phoned him and proposed to create something unified for the whole country, with common rules, in order to jointly develop drift further.
Timofey approved my idea, and we decided to organize a championship. We thought about the name for two months, there were different options, and in the end we chose RDS - a Russian drift series. I sent him this version, and a week later he sent the finished first logo. Then the logo we have now appeared. From that time on, we began to develop RDS. The first stage of the competition took place in 2010 in Krasnodar, it was the RDS West Championship, and in April 2010 we held the first RDS East competition. At that time there were only two RDS zones: East and West.”
Dmitry is also one of Alexey Rasputny’s mentors in the project Zero Drifter, where he teaches Alexey the intricacies of driving a car in a skid from scratch, and also talks about the “kitchen” of the RDS and some of the intricacies of judging.
Nikita Shikov
Nikita is a star and the main face of RDS-West. If we switch to football terminology, then this is the Neymar of Russian drift: RedBull sponsorship, an expensive Toyota GT86 RocketBull car, as well as frequent appearances in the press give him the image of a star that everyone knows about (or makes sure they know). In general, Nikita is a very capable and ambitious pilot who always tries to achieve his goals. And he is moving towards these goals step by step. At the dawn of drifting in our country, he bought himself a right-hand drive Toyota Altezza and began rolling ordinary dimes in the nearest free parking lot. Then he earned his skill and in 2008 took eighth place out of forty participants, while beating more trained pilots in an almost stock car. And then his career took off: his first professional team, a move to RDS, RedBull sponsorship and Russian vice-championship in 2009, 2011 and 2012. But then a series of failures followed. The 2013 and 2014 seasons were not the best for Nikita. Mainly talking about technical problems with his Nissan 200SX on 2JZ-GTE. By the way, a whole film was made about his last season, which is in the public domain and is called "Clouds are made by drifters".
Nikita started this season with a completely new car, RocketBull 86. Beautiful presentation, the car itself is interesting for its modification, there were a lot of spectators at the premiere. Perhaps none of the RDS pilots have so pompously shown off their new car yet. However, this did not save him from technical problems in the new season, and at almost every stage Nikita had problems with technology. The last major problem was the electric power steering.
The driver himself does not despair and his team continues to work on his car. By the way, Nikita participates not only in the RDS, but also in the EEDC international championship closest to Moscow. At the first stage in Minsk, he threw all his money and in the top 8 his competition was not anyone, but Chris Forsberg himself in a Nissan 350Z, which he modestly calls “Fat Betty”. And Chris Forsberg, for a second, is the current champion of Formula Drift, and this makes it gratifying that in the world of drift there are no restrictions on the participation of racers from other championships. In the top 8, Nikita lost to an eminent opponent due to an offensive mistake: Shikov fell into a puddle. The car spun around. Forsberg moved on to the Top 4.
Arkady Tsaregradtsev
If you ever hear this voice, you will never forget it. Arkady, perhaps, best of all in Russia, knows how to combine the career of a racer and a video blog host on YouTube. His show can be easily found upon request #OBSESSED. An unusual manner of presenting information, which is always reliable, as it comes from one of the best drifters in Russia, always interesting cars and excellent camera work, for which Anatoly Zarubin deserves special praise. If Russian Top Gear was created on the basis of video bloggers, then Arkady would certainly have to be in it. If not as one of the presenters, then certainly as Stig. By the way, Arkady is not only a drifter, but also successfully races in circuit racing the latest generation Honda Civic, made by the Estonian company Artman Racing, and the Seat Leon Supercopa, which was prepared by the Spanish department of Seat Sport. He also has a charged Mazda RX-7 in his garage, with which he continually sets lap records on the Red Ring, and also invites all interested Evo and STI owners to challenge the title of the fastest Japanese lap in Krasnoyarsk. In addition to being a racing driver, Arkady acts as a manager at that same Red Ring and successfully combines the cockpit of his Nissan and the director’s office of the race track.
Speaking of his car. Nissan Skyline GTR R32, which he nicknamed "BadAss". The 600-horsepower "getter" initially prepared for dragging was unacceptable for competitions and many modifications had to be made to it: the abandonment of all-wheel drive (after all, they drift exclusively on the rear), the replacement of a huge turbine with a smaller turbine and, as a result, a reduction in power by about 100 forces, a new welded safety cage and replacement of the suspension with a multi-link one. All this made it possible to turn a car that drives exclusively straight into a beast that can successfully compete with many world-class cars.
Oh yes, I almost forgot the signature design from CIAY, which makes “BadAss” the kind that appears in all the wet dreams of young schoolchildren and students. By the way, there is a separate playlist on Anatoly Zarubin’s channel about the construction and first races of this car, through which the whole country learned about Arcadia and his Nissan. With this Skyline, Arkady has been winning the regular season in RDS-Siberia for two years in a row, and also shows himself well at Super Drift Battles, where the strongest pilots of all RDS divisions compete in battle. True, this season Arkady is experiencing problems with the preparation of “BadAss”, and at the last stage he was forced to compete in a rented Nissan Silvia S14 from 24auto.ru, which, alas, cannot compete with the more prepared cars of his rivals. But Arkady is not only strong in participation. Most recently, he was the chief judge of the EEDC competition in Minsk and judged the notorious Shikov and Forsberg.
Georgy Chivchyan
Georgy, or simply Gocha, is probably the best Russian drifter #right now. Gocha has been participating in D1GP for the third year in a row: the first two years he participated only in the final part, and this year he plans to take part in several stages. At the same time, he does not forget about his native RDS-Siberia, competition in which has grown significantly in recent years and the duel “Arkasha vs Gocha” that was frequent in the past years is seen less and less often. The growth of riders is directly related to these two people. They were the first to organize drift competitions in Krasnoyarsk. At first, of course, these were ordinary little shops near supermarkets and shopping centers, but over time the Red Ring track was built and motorsport in Siberia reached a new level. And this level continues to grow to this day. It is planned to build several more routes in Siberia, for example the Kuzbass Ring, etc.
The already mentioned Anatoly Zarubin played a significant role in the promotion of Gocha. He went with Georgiy to Japan and documented in detail all his movements and races, and then edited it into a magnificent film Gotcha/Japan, which added a few more points to Gochi’s popularity. And where there is popularity, there are sponsors. Toyo Tires, Motul, Evans have recently joined the Gochi team, but NGK remains the permanent and general sponsor. Even the car is represented in the competition protocols as the NGK Silvia S15. By the way, the car has a very interesting layout and deserves special attention.
Under the hood it does not have the standard SR20DET engine, but a modified and improved SR20VET. This choice is due to the fact that the latter engine has a longer service life and can “spin” (after modifications, of course) up to 9000-9500 rpm, which is necessary for drift conditions. In general, the history of this car is quite interesting. According to Georgy, this is the first Silvia in Krasnoyarsk, it was imported from Japan and was initially used as an exclusively city car. But driving stock is always boring, and improvements were not long in coming. Ultimately, they led to the fact that the car was tested at circuit racing and in the very first race the brake pads were overheated, which is no wonder. After this incident, Gochi's auto parts store "Forward Auto" stocked a huge selection of brake pads for sports cars. Silvia was rebuilt, and with it the store’s assortment grew and grew to the point that it contained about 25,000 items. After Gocha teamed up with Arkady to organize drift competitions, Silvia was rebuilt for drifting, which it still is, but the list of its modifications changes every year, or even during the season. To participate in the Japanese D1GP, the Gochi team built a completely new Silvia S15, which will be in Japan for the entire season, and its pilot will travel from cold Siberia to island Japan.
Ekaterina Sedykh
If at one of the drifting competitions you see a white Nissan Silvia with a red cross on the doors rushing at speed, then don’t worry, everyone is safe. This is not an ambulance, but the car of Ekaterina Sedykh, the only professional pilot in the RDS. In general, Catherine can safely be called a heroine, because you need to have remarkable restraint and patience in order to be torn on several fronts at once. And she has many of these fronts. In addition to participating in the usual RDS-Vostok, she still manages to stop by the western division of the RDS, and also flies overseas to take part in the local FormulaD ProAm (this is the lower third division of FormulaD, in which you can go further and get a Pro license in order to have the right to race with the same Chris Forsberg or Daigo Saito). The differences between American drift and Russian drift are simply colossal. In America they love big and long turns, a lot of smoke from under the wheels, powerful cars - all this creates a show that is so loved in the states. We are getting closer to the Japanese understanding of drifting - what is important is the skill of the driver, the feeling of the opponent’s elbow and the ability to hold on in a pair drift.
To participate in each of the championships, Ekaterina’s team built every car, mainly a Nissan Silvia, because transporting a car across the same ocean would cost the same as building a new “korcha”. Ekaterina explains her love for Silvia by the fact that it is a very feminine car, and also by the fact that it is easy to maintain and configure. And the similarity of the coloring of her car with an ambulance is not just an interesting move by the designers, but a whole tribute to Catherine’s past. Before becoming a professional pilot, she worked as a medical practitioner. Until she went on maternity leave, during which drift found her. In general, drifting is not the first motorsport in Ekaterina’s life; before it, her husband successfully participated in rallies and took prizes in Vladivostok and Russia. Now they are participating together in the stages of RDS-Vostok.
Drifting and motorsport are not the only joy in Ekaterina’s life, but the main thing is that she is the mother of three children. And what adds to her heroism is that while she was “in a position,” she continued to train and take part in competitions. Ekaterina herself ironically says that there were two drivers in the cockpit of her Silvia during the season (and in the early stages, they thought there were three. They predicted twins). And after the birth of the baby, she had to rock and feed her son during the break between races at one of the stages of the RDS-Vostok. Ekaterina hopes that the Sedykh dynasty will continue, and her eldest daughter is already ahead of her and her father in computer simulators. So there should be girls drifters in the country!
Tetsuya Hibino
The first Japanese legionnaire in the history of the RDS. This is how you can describe in a few words the pilot from Nagoya Tetsiya Hibino. But to say so little about him would be a crime. Invited to Russia by Ekaterina Sedykh to take part in the rally, Tetsuya quickly became popular and was immediately invited to participate in one of the stages of the RDS-Vostok. To which the descendant of the samurai gave a positive answer, and after a while he showed all the pilots and guests of the Primorsky Ring how they do drifting in his historical homeland. And, not surprisingly, he won this stage, giving local pilots food for thought about drifting techniques and car preparation. By the way, he skated that stage in a car that was kindly provided to him by the team of Ekaterina Sedykh. After this, Hibino-san became a cult figure for Primorsky motorsport. And since this year, he preferred our championship to his native D1GP and is successfully leading in the overall standings of RDS-Vostok, although not in a Nissan Silvia, but in an 800-horsepower Toyota Supra with a 2JZ-GTE. He has had a love for Toyota since the years when he just started drifting, and he did it on the iconic Toyota AE86 - the legendary car of Japanese drifting. And 25 years later, Toyota decides to release the successor to that same 86 in the form of the Toyota GT86, a modification of which Tetsuya participates in D1GP.
Tetsuya was a pioneer of cooperation between Russia and Japan in terms of drifting. After his participation in our championship, a meeting was planned for RDSvsD1, in which the strongest pilots of both championships took part. The battle took place in Vladivostok, at the Primring, and brought together sixteen participants (eight best from each championship). Unfortunately, none of the RDS pilots was able to climb to the coveted table, and the closest was Hibino-san, who stubbornly fought with Yoshi Imamuro that it came down to two restarts. But in the end, Yoshi took third place, and Daigo Saito won this battle. RDSvsD1 was able to give everyone a huge experience and a reason to think: the racers about developing their skills, the organizers about how to make the competition even better, and the guests from Japan about why they should take the Russians seriously.
Everything that comes to our country from abroad necessarily becomes special and unlike its foreign counterparts, and drift is no exception. Each of these people helps the development of drifting in our country, doing this through the media and showing that Russians can also do something in side sliding, even at the world level. It’s a bit of a shame that there is still no single and mandatory world drift championship, where the strongest drifters from different countries can compete, and not just those who were able to make it there. But this is a matter of the future and I am sure that this development trend will definitely continue. And our country will be able to field people who will definitely be able to oppose something to opponents from different parts of the world.
History of drift! The concept itself and, in particular, the technique of drifting appeared in Japan in the early 1980s. The history of drifting began in the late 70s in the form of rally races, then they were very popular, namely the World Rally Championship (WRC).
Since 1973, the Japanese began to participate in the World Championship using Toyota, Mitsubishi and Datsun cars. And already in 1980, the first team of racing drivers from Japan appeared, led by Yoshio Iwashita and Kanjiro Shinozuka, who actively began testing cars from Mazda, Subaru and Nissan in rally racing.
The Japanese team did not take any prizes at the championship. For example, at the 1980 World Rally Championship for Manufacturers, the team had 7th and 15th places in the final standings. And in the world championship among pilots, the Japanese Yoshio Iwashita took only 42nd place.
As a rule, Japanese rally cars were technically well prepared, and racing drivers Kanjiro Shinozuka, Yoshio Iwashita, Yoshinobu Takahashi, Yasuhiro Ihuase and Yashiro Iwase skillfully controlled the cars and drove over rough terrain, took sharp turns at speed and skillfully slid - drifted.
That same drift – the beginning of touge racing
A group of young enthusiasts took sliding from the World Rally Championship as a basis and partially applied this technique to the Irohazaka mountain serpentine in the form of drifting.
For information: Irohazaka are two mountain serpentines connecting the central Nikkoto region with the mountainous part of the Okunikko region.
This is how drift culture was born in Japan and touge drivers appeared, and later such groups as “Touge racing” and “Canyon racing” arose.
Unfortunately, the new drifting movement in Japan has caused an increase in accidents. It happened that novice touge racing drifters were injured (due to accidents) and died due to the fact that the newly minted rally drifting technique was not ideal on the sharp turns of the Japanese mountains.
Those who managed to complete the distance with uphill climbs and high-speed descents had only to repeat and consolidate the entry into the turn and reduce the time to complete the route. After a while, the “toge” team began to organize simple “rides” with car drifts every weekend, and then drift competitions.
Drift is...
The most enthusiastic ones were called “rolling zoku”: they competed on toge. Initially, skidding was not a mandatory part of the toga, but, mainly from rally videos, the drivers realized that on a narrow and winding road, it was fastest to take corners in a controlled slide. Toge races are divided into two parts: uphill and downhill. On such narrow tracks, overtaking is almost impossible, so the races are a pursuit, the goal of the leader is to increase the initial distance between the cars towards the finish line, and the goal of the pursuer is to reduce it.
In places where the width of the road allows 2 cars to be lined up at the start, the races are held according to classic rules. A more complicated version of the toga is the "duct tape race", where one of the driver's hands is tied to the steering wheel.
Part of the Rolling Zoku began to use technical techniques of driving rally drivers, techniques for cornering quickly and without loss of inertia. By using rally cornering techniques, Toga drivers began to notice that their car control and lap times improved, while the racing became more intense.
World drift - Popularization
The popularization of drifting, oddly enough, began in the USA, or more precisely in Southern California. It was here that car enthusiasts leafed through (re-read) hundreds of car magazines (including rare Japanese issues) that featured modified drift cars that looked different from those in the United States.
While American drag racers in the 1980s were getting the most out of their 300-horsepower cars in 402-meter or ¼-mile sprint events, a small number of American enthusiasts were getting into an "underground" sport brought over from Japan called Canyon racing. and Drifting.
After some time, the Americans realized that they could make very good money on this movement, and began to actively promote the marketing company American Drift, where they told Americans how to make money on this culture (on imported Japanese cars, wheels, suspensions, etc.) to Americans. Later this drift culture went to Europe.
Today, drifting has become very popular among young people in Europe and the USA. It is now a large and growing culture where professional drift racing drivers compete at annual events held in various countries, such as the D1 Grand Prix.
P.S. When drifting in your car, you must understand that in the event of an accident, you will not have the treasured “Esc” reset button or rewind “<<», вы также не сможете волшебным образом вернуть свой автомобиль в исходное состояние, а главное вы не сможете оживить себя или своего пассажира в случаи аварии… Помните об этом! Берегите себя и окружающих вас людей.
