Saw the drifting competition at Laguna Seca. It had more tire smoke than a drag event!
Read some info here: http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/autoindustry/10868/
One guy stalled right away, the car was being worked on and someone yelled "loosen the tie wraps to the rear speakers, that ought to do it".
The Viper really put on a show and laid down so much smoke you couldn't see the other guys.

Once they got going in pairs they went back and forth from turn two to turn four, then turned around and went back up the hill. Some of the cars were underpowered and couldn't maintain a powerslide. One of the leading cars suddenly stopped in mid powerslide and the following car clipped his front fender popping the hood up! People started laughing and cheering. It was a real stupid event, just a bunch of showing off and sliding around, it took some skill to do it but why do it? I left toward the end because my eyes started getting irritated by all the smoke.

The viper guy was the best in my book but I guess he didn't win! the GTO driver put on a real good show too.

Oh, and I went to Monterey to get dinner after, and this ricer tore through a gas station to avoid a red light, he zig zagged around five pedestrians and cut-off a car entering the station! I guess he was "inspired" by the drifting he saw that day... :rolleyes:
I wonder how many kids will go splat on back roads after seeing this!

I guess this sounds like a put-down, actually, it was fun to watch for a while but I wouldn't want to watch a whole or half-day of it.
David

[ 05-06-2004, 06:53 PM: Message edited by: davidpozzi ]

i agree, that "fad" has got to be the biggest waste of equipment and time i've ever seen. hell, anybody can get any pos to "drift" if they try hard enough. however, it would be fun to take that viper out and thrash the hell out of it, if it wasn't mine.

Pontiac is sponsoring a team that does this- and they gave them a new GTO..
sad to think Pontiac pulled out of NASCAR just as a midsize rwd car was coming out from them, then they market it to the bozos that slide in circles. not that there isn't some skill involved, but still.
as for the "copy cat" aspect of people doing what they saw at the track on the street- how many people here have ever seen or participated in a street race? you know- like John Force, but on the street with a street car. i know people that have driven like Bo and Luke Duke running from Roscoe P Coltrane on the dirt roads around here, and a few have even attempted jumps...
everything has a copy cat aspect to it..

I dont see anything wrong with drifting. As long as you arent doing it in a stupid location. We all know what a stupid location would be so I wont go into that. But drifting is alot of fun if you have a car that can actually maintain a powerslide. Obviously it is alot slower than gripping to the track, but it is a nice rush. (memories of ford explorer drifting) dont ask :D

oh..you dont happen to have any vids of that viper tearing it up do you!? graemlins/hurray.gif

Borrowed this from the Chevelle board:

two guys chasing (http://www.vigvoodoo.com/Videos/AlexSam.wmv)

Jody

Here's the Viper.
http://rtimagazine.com/Samuel_Spiderman.wmv

that looks like fun. :D

Drifting is just another form of Car Folks enjoying what they're doing.

Really... what's more SILLIER than going around in circles for 500 miles? Especially in ... Pick-ups?

How about going in a striaght line for only 1/4 mile?

When you think about it... all motor sports are silly unless you enjoy them.

Live and let live... graemlins/thumbsup.gif