I think people that cannot drive say that they are speed drifters just for the fact that it takes alot less skill to get a car sideways in a corner than to actually try to find where maximum grip is. Not saying it doesn't take effort to fight with the wheel but hey. Drifting is drifting I would love to see a speed drifter, which from what I can understand IS trying to get around the track as fast as possible, take on any of the top drivers on LFS in a race, any race that involves reaching a finish line before someone else.
LOL you too? =P I do quiet alot of drifting too =) I think drifters need to go back to physics class if they think that can complete a circuit the fastest while sliding the car around.
I do kinda like watching drift competitions, but only for entertainment and watch people make a lot of smoke.
From what I've understood, in speed drifting the goal is not to be as fast as possible, but..
Question for the drifters:
Can "speed-drifters" compete? What determines the winner then? Speed or style?
I can't figure out a how would a combination of speed skating and figure skating work as a competition.
Yeah, but those 360's are tricks that need to be judged. One guy makes finer tricks but is slower and another vice versa. Who wins?
Freestyle skiing is the only similar sport that comes into my mind, but comparing it to speed drift would mean that it had few corners where drifts are judged, and bad drift adds more time to your laptime than good.
If speed drift is not about competition, I rank it just below CityLife
Some people might disagree, most don't, but speed drifting cannot be competed for the sole reason that drifting can never be a race.
At the international D1 championships drivers always compete in more of a mix between large angles and decent speed, wich can be judged by experts based on style, lines, speed, techniques and extra criteria such as overtaking.
The winner is almost always the driver that showed most control.
It's a fun thing to do, but if you want to be fast, go race. Altough a few drifters indeed think drifting is as fast as racing..
That's where the problem sits. Drifters think absolutly that its the fastest way around the track, which is just simply not the case. When I use the term drifting its when the drivers exceed maximum slip angles.
Rally racing does have extreme angles at which the car enters a corner. But because they are on loose surfaces they are not exceeding the maximum slip angles which constitute a drift. If you watch WRC on the tarmac stages the fast drivers are not putting their car at wierd angles at all unless they are showing off. If drifting was so fast then they would be doing it. They are afterall masters of throttle control under limited traction enviorments which drifting is all about once those rear tires get warm.
For some of you this discussion about drifting and racing may have started here but for me this has been an argument that has been going on for years! I have yet to have a "drifter" show me any concrete evidence that drifting is faster than racing. I am not saying drifting isn't a sport or any of that, it's just more like figure skating =)
It only offends those who think figure skating is for pansies. Quite frankly, I don't have the balls to try and jump into the air and do a 360 and try to land on hard ice. I don't 'like' or 'enjoy' figure skating, but it is certainly challenging, and quite painful when something goes wrong. (More people have had life-threatening injuries from Figure Skating than from Hockey I'd bet.) Those who think calling drifting the figure skating of the motorsports world is an insult are just insecure about their chosen sport. That's not my fault.
Drifting well is very challenging. So is racing. Anyone who denies the connection between drifting and sincro swimming/figure skating is either blind or too ignorant to admit it. Drifting is about showing off; performing certain manuvers that are judged by a panel of judges. Exactly the same as in figure skating and sincro swimming. I've never meant it as an insult; merely a quick friendly jab all in good fun. I have respect for everyone professionally involved in all the aforementioned sports. They are all athletes and all have a lot of talent and bravery. I just don't like any of them, except for racing.
I don't see it as a split either; I see it as a new form of sport being created from some old ideals of another. The fact that there is a 'battle' between the two just shows the immaturity of human beings.
And for the record; 70's F1 cars had gobs and gobs of downforce. I don't know about concrete numbers, but they had maybe even as much downforce as modern F1 cars. Many teams where known to remove the front wings at the faster tracks because the amount of downforce generated by the floor panels (in the days of 'ground effects' and the rear wing was more than sufficient) and the front wing just added to the drag where it wasn't necessary. I think the main limiting factor for speed back then was the tires and the lack of power steering. The tires in the 70s were still rock hard, so the cars would have a tendency to push in a corner instead of turn like modern cars. Not having power steering, the front wheels would be quite difficult and tiring to turn through a fast corner. Sliding through the turn takes more pressure off the front wheels making them easier to turn. They would have less effect on the trajectory of the car, but still enough of an effect to point it in the right direction without tiring out the driver's arms too quickly. Thats why 4 wheel drifts were still very common throughout F1 in the 70s and even into the early 80s.
I've read and re-read, and I still don't understand what the purpose is in this so-called "speed drifting". Is it to race, or to drift? If it's to race, then the question that really BEGS being answered is.. what's the POINT? Surely speed drifting can't be about racing, because the best way to speed-drift competitively would be to not speed-drift at all.
Exactly - you're either after the fastest time (so you don't drift) or the most 'style' in which case you want biggest yaw angle for longest at highest speed, even though your lap time will be VERY slow.
No one yet has defined the differences between speed and show drifting. Partly, I suspect, because there isn't a difference, but people don't want to admit to sliding just for the sake of sliding.
Kewl! Once I've gone back and deleted all the posts where I said I didn't know what speed drifting was, I can then claim that I am, in fact, one of the world's best speed drifters. Furthermore, henceforth I wish to be known as a speed drifter, and anyone who beats me in a race will know that they didn't, in fact, beat me because unbeknownest to them.. I was actually not racing, but speed drifting.. and doing it MUCH better than they were. Never again shall I be mistaken for getting out of shape in a corner. Henceforth (and retrospectively), my apparently crap laptimes were all deliberate and highly competitive speed drifting
No qualms there I like doing it too =) I like getting my tu-tu out every once in a while, especially if there is not a race going on. Usually after a race you can see me putting some dorifto's in, especally so in the RB4. Hey wait I am almost as fast as Sam is now with his Speed drifting =)
Of course drifting is faster if you haven't got enough lateral grip (obviously drift setups are made to reduce grip) and have to compensate it with longitudal traction to get around corners. That's exactly why pre-war GP cars and today's rally cars drift.
Even modern rally cars are intent on maximum grip, wherever possible.. but the nature of the sport's ground surface and undulation means that it rarely IS available, and some of the hairpins are beyond the turning lock of the car etc. Drifting isn't preferable to traction.. it's simply the only one of the two options available
BTW Sam, being the quickest drift racer is about the same as being the worlds tallest midget
Get a REALLY tight layout, and a drift set and i'll show you drift racing, pulling the handbrake blocks the whole track, and your avoiding me while i keep the rpm's high
Drifting is drifting, simple? Yes. And please - mods, don't let this discussion continue. Don't let some people make all drifters look stupid again. This is just ridicilous.
I think people that cannot drive say that they are speed drifters just for the fact that it takes alot less skill to get a car sideways in a corner than to actually try to find where maximum grip is. Not saying it doesn't take effort to fight with the wheel but hey. Drifting is drifting I would love to see a speed drifter, which from what I can understand IS trying to get around the track as fast as possible, take on any of the top drivers on LFS in a race, any race that involves reaching a finish line before someone else. 
you really are the best speed drifter I have ever seen Sam, congratulations on your acheivment! =P 
