Drifting by Phillip Whelan

Drifting is the latest in motor sport competition, and having made the big time overseas is set to do the same in Australia.

The official terminology of a "Drift" is "To control a vehicle off axis to the intended direction of travel, whereby the angle does not exceed the drivers ability to maintain full control".

Generally in most forms of motor sport the competitor endevors to race a given track in the shortest possible time. However, this is not the case for expert drifters with style being everything, even on straights a driver will do his best to "fishtail" the car.

A panel of judges will score each driver on style, and the amount of time the car is in a controlled sideways drift. Scores are increased if drivers can demonstrate their ability to control the vehicle as well as ‘perform’ for the crowd by turning on the lights and or windscreen wipers during the drift. Lots of tyresmoke also helps to add to a drivers score.

Although it is possible to drift in almost any vehicle most drift cars are rear wheel drive turbo coupes with Nissan Silvias, and Skylines, Mazda RX-7s and Toyota MR2s proving popular.

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