Think Drifting is Boring? Watch This!

If you think Drifting is boring, watch this!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5qanlirrRWs

There is “drifting” every weekend on dirt tracks everywhere.

The difference between drifting on dirt and asphalt is that on dirt, the cars are actually…racing. :waffen093:

Yep !!!

Still boring . Autocross without the clock .:smilie_bett:

Not boring really. Put 75 lbs. of air in your rear tires and you can do that too.The automotive version of figure skating. It takes some skill to do either one well, but they’re both just silly.

Ok, I guess no one cared to actually watch the WHOLE video before they commented :mad:

If you did and aren’t amazed then I don’t know what to say…

Scott,

Could not see it earlier due to technical reasons…here is the long version that I know you were dying to hear…:rolleyes:

But I can now & I have seen that video previously and it is impressive indeed.

Nonetheless, my first thought was -that thing is bad to the bone, followed by–um, okay, so he is continuing to burn the tires down and… some more, and…lemme get a sammich, followed finally by–that thing would be really impressive if they got it hooked up and ran up pikes peak with it.

And not to be insulting, but you know, you could put hard tires on the 07 and blow them up and drive around sideways with the subarus during intermission at showtime…but I am betting you won’t.

The only correlation I see is wheels and a motor. What I don’t see is any sign of mano a mano competition.

I was impressed by the shear horsepower of this vehicle and yet how it is completely controlled by the all wheel drive. Also is the amazing driver skill that is shown by this guy. Hot Rod magazine did a story this month on this car. While I didn’t read the whole article I did see that the frame of this car is carbon fiber (like a TUDOR Prototype) and the 845 hp power plant is a NASCAR based Roush motor. I did have that same thought, Pikes Peak. Then I thought “could this thing go flat out around New Smyrna?”. I remember back in the '80’s when Audi campaigned a very boring looking, boxy all wheel drive car in the Trans Am series. It cleaned house to the point that SCCA kept taking power away from it until Audi took their ball and went home. This car brought back those memories and made me wonder why all wheel drive seems to have never been tried in oval track racing?. Any high horsepower rear drive vehicle “with the tires pumped up” couldn’t do what this Mustang does. Ah, what am I thinking, you guys are right. All this technology and the possibilities are boring. Back to your regular “antique Monte Carlo technology programming”. Sorry to interrupt…

er, what kind of car is that red one again…?

Re: 4wd in racing. The pinnacle, no doubt.

And an unfair advantage against any 2wd car, front or rear. In indy, sports cars, whatever.

Years ago in StockCar Illustrated I read about a guy that had a heavy Nova bodied dirt latemodel that ran a truck transfer case. Due to it being heavy it was not dominant, but was a winner. Even then, there were rumblings from the competitors, and rightly so.

SO, it is “best”, but at a cost, and at the additional expense of complexity and breakage.

And if it is a “given” then everyone has the same deal, and the advantage not only goes away, but becomes ho-hum, and really, 4wd makes a bad driver look good, and a good driver look great.

Watering down the aforementioned “mano-a-mano” deal that we are all there for in the first place.

All that said, you are right of course, and the “Hoonicorn” is (literally) in it’s own class.

You make great points Old School. Yeah, true it would be an unfair advantage against single axle drive. I wonder, though, why it’s not used in F1 where things like traction control are legal (another innovation that trivialzes driver skill). They seem to be on the cutting edge. I remember the peculiar looking 6 wheeled F1 car from years ago. I dont know what that was all about. I think the mano a mano thing is why true motorsports guys “don’t get” drifting. Picking a winner by “judging” is as bad or worse then Rex Guy running out and declaring that 3 more laps need to be run after Victory Lane interviews in that FUPS finale. If somehow drifting could involve actual competition then the rest of us could embrace it. Sorry for being all over the place here, just felt this video could generate some interesting debate about drifting. Love it or hate it the drifters are probably the only thing keeping Ozzy from turning the Speedworld Oval in into a parking lot for the dragstrip. (And I meant no offense to the Antique Monte Carlo crowd. That’s where I cut my teeth and in my opinion still routinely put on the best show of close competition in weekly short track racing despite not being the fastest cars or the sexiest looking. Red Eye Super Stock race, case in point.)

Now that there is funny!

What’s the only thing worse than “Rex Guy running out and declaring that 3 more laps need to be run after Victory Lane interviews in that FUPS finale”??

“Rex Guy running out and declaring that 3 more laps need to be run after Victory Lane interviews in that FUPS finale”
after I have left the parking lot! :auto003:

[QUOTE=OldSchool+;154380]What’s the only thing worse than “Rex Guy running out and declaring that 3 more laps need to be run after Victory Lane interviews in that FUPS finale”??

“Rex Guy running out and declaring that 3 more laps need to be run after Victory Lane interviews in that FUPS finale”
after I have left the parking lot! :auto003:[/QUOTE]

DOH!!! :anim_pound:

driving

Agreed ,good driving , BUT — from the aerial view of the tire tracks he had been practicing the same thing before , it was not done “cold turkey”. Let any driver out to practice and he / she will get better at anything. nice video , also po po had the streets blocked off nicely.

[B][I]I had the opportunity to ride with on of those top drifting guys once on a race circuit. I can tell you this: no it ain’t easy as it seems and no, not everybody can do this with over inflated rear tires.

Those are carefully prepared race machines, with higly trained pros, like we see in stock car racing every w/e. Just not the same discipline, but as hard to achieve.

Those top notch Formula Drift Series cars cost more than a Cup Car.

And, in this, you win with your talent, because talent get you points toward the win. So even of rich dad buys you the ride, it just means you will participate, not necessarly be competitive.[/I][/B]

4 wheel drive isn’t legal in F1. Neither is traction control by the way. I also remember a 3 wheeled modified driven by Tim Richmond. I do know what that was all about.
All wheel drive isn’t legal in oval track for the same reason computers and fuel injection aren’t…those concepts terrify tech men. That’s it. Oh, and many competitors crying broke constantly to keep other competitors from beating them.
On the other hand, drag racing and drifting allow pretty much anything mechanically, and Ozzy is doing fine with both of them. Does that tell you something? Like maybe oval track racing had better start appealing to the young people and the tech savvy if it wants to survive.
Somebody who knows how to put race cars together needs to take a giant leap of faith and build a modern Super Late. Newer import or domestic small body, short wheelbase, fuel injected, maybe even all wheel drive and take it to Florida ovals. Run it during intermission, let the track owners and tech guys take a look at how everything operates, take it around to import and domestic dealerships to get them interested.

I think drifting is cool, I also think it has it’s place. A local oval track isn’t the best place for it. The twisting, winding, narrow roads (preferably up hill) is my idea of entertaining. Plenty of community streets established, that were built before the housing crash that never had 1 house put in…sounds like a logical place to purchase and hold events. I highly disagree with the consistent drifting events at oval tracks…special shows I can understand and even support (if its not drift cars only).

[QUOTE=Matt Albee;154392]4 wheel drive isn’t legal in F1. Neither is traction control by the way. I also remember a 3 wheeled modified driven by Tim Richmond. I do know what that was all about.
All wheel drive isn’t legal in oval track for the same reason computers and fuel injection aren’t…those concepts terrify tech men. That’s it. Oh, and many competitors crying broke constantly to keep other competitors from beating them.
On the other hand, drag racing and drifting allow pretty much anything mechanically, and Ozzy is doing fine with both of them. Does that tell you something? Like maybe oval track racing had better start appealing to the young people and the tech savvy if it wants to survive.
Somebody who knows how to put race cars together needs to take a giant leap of faith and build a modern Super Late. Newer import or domestic small body, short wheelbase, fuel injected, maybe even all wheel drive and take it to Florida ovals. Run it during intermission, let the track owners and tech guys take a look at how everything operates, take it around to import and domestic dealerships to get them interested.[/QUOTE]

Circle Track Magazine should happily back a project like that. They often put their money into oval track projects to increase magazine sales. And i can’t think of a better way to spend than to help save short track racing. Of course DAARA and the other organizations are gonna fight losing the current technology.

[QUOTE=Matt Albee;154392]4 wheel drive isn’t legal in F1. Neither is traction control by the way. I also remember a 3 wheeled modified driven by Tim Richmond. I do know what that was all about.
All wheel drive isn’t legal in oval track for the same reason computers and fuel injection aren’t…those concepts terrify tech men. That’s it. Oh, and many competitors crying broke constantly to keep other competitors from beating them.
On the other hand, drag racing and drifting allow pretty much anything mechanically, and Ozzy is doing fine with both of them. Does that tell you something? Like maybe oval track racing had better start appealing to the young people and the tech savvy if it wants to survive.
Somebody who knows how to put race cars together needs to take a giant leap of faith and build a modern Super Late. Newer import or domestic small body, short wheelbase, fuel injected, maybe even all wheel drive and take it to Florida ovals. Run it during intermission, let the track owners and tech guys take a look at how everything operates, take it around to import and domestic dealerships to get them interested.[/QUOTE]

I stand corrected. After outlawing TC in '93 then allowing it in 2001, F1 banned TC with the use of a common ECU in 2008.

A car sort of similar to what you are talking about was developed a couple of years back by the Circle Track magazine people. It actually was assembled and tested here in FL using Dalton Zehr as the driver. It was a regular Super Late Chassis outfitted with a stock port injected LS Chevy big block and a sexy new Camaro body. The point was using modern technology you build a stock based Super Late engine package that could be competitive for half the cost or less of current traditional carburated Super engines. The car tested well at Speedworld, ironically and was even run in a Super race at NSS where it finished mid pack after starting last. The motor cost was around 10k with the ECU I believe. I wish I could find a link to the articles. It was very interesting but the car and the concept seem to have vanished.

I read recently it isn’t about the speed (the earth is moving a bazillion mph & airplanes are doing 300+ and so forth), it is the change in speed or direction–G forces–that register in our ear & brain as “fast”.

Therefore, we pretty much all like cars that are “loose”-- fun to watch, fun to drive (well, right up until that wall part…) and so forth.

So here is my take. The “drifters” also like “loose”–on asphalt.

It was mentioned that we should “take racing to the youth” (Well I did, I drug my kid up the stands his whole life and he loves all things stock car racing. But that is an aside…).

What about a mini stock class that emulates/involves their precise cars? Rear wheel drive, hard as concrete tires, locked rear ends, rear wheel drive import cars (and maybe pintos too…).

Take the concept to the drifters, see if there is enough interest, and move forward as appropriate (or not).

Most of their drift cars are track only anyway. Look for commonalities (motor & wheel size primarily), specify cage and fuel cell requirements, and let those guys truly race in an event after they parade around sideways.

Heck, they are at Bithlo, the tree service races are at Bitlo, seems like it could happen.

Food fer thought.

I know we’re drifting off topic here (pun intended) but using the Circle Track model of using a stock port injected ecu motor to CUT costs of Super Late racing while modernizing it could lure a younger crowd back to our sport while making it healthier.

Here’s the concept: Maintain the chassis rules, ditch the ABC bodies and require ANY Stock body no older than 5-10 years modified with any ground effects you like, but no chopping down. Find a way for one manufacturer to develop an ECU that eliminates the techman’s headache of traction control (like F1 did). Then allow any engine configuration, granted that it chassis dynos at no more than say 600 hp and is stock based. It would allow innovation without an unfair advantage. Consider it a Modernized Outlaw Super Late. Puts the Stock back in Stock Car racing too. A pipe dream? Maybe, but if we continue to ignore progress we will become dinosaurs left behind. The modern Super Late Model motor has become this super expensive piece that is made more and more fragile (lighter internals and tighter clearances) to achieve more power. Expensive and Fragile is a bad combination. Cap the HP at a certain # and letting people get there how they see fit would save a ton of $. I wish someone like NASCAR (who would have the power to implement this) would jumpstart a project like this. Problem is Brian France cares more about counting and maintaining his family’s billions and NASCAR gave up on being the caretaker of weekly short track racing when his father died. One can dream tho…