Who says drifting isn't motorsport

Drifting is like synchronized swimming or women's basketball:

I know that it exists and requires some degree of skill, but I just can't make myself care about it.

Drifting looks fun and probably would teach me a lot about car control.

Sport? Ehh.. The judging bit is the part that gets me.

HiTempguy wrote: You know whats gayer than drifting? Rollerblading BTW GRM, the day you run an article on drifting is the day I cancel my subscription, even though I got the 10 year. DON'T DO IT.

They've already done at least two. For that matter, they've BUILT a drift car. Look back on the site through their project cars. You're looking for a TRD mule Corolla.

Maroon92 wrote:

novaderrik wrote: it's as much of a sport as anything else that relies on judging to find a winner. gymnastics, figure skating, air guitar..

Everyone take a shot!

I don't know what's going on with the new drinking game, is it that for every snide remark we take shots? I saw this a bit in Hess's OT Libya thread :-)

Someone care to fill me in?

I hate drifting only because it took all my ae86's and 240sx's, chopped them up into little dorifto styrru pieces, then smashed them into the wall at Irwindale. After which they were still somehow worth 4 grand totaled...

Drifting = motorsport TRUE Drifting = racing FALSE

Brotus7 wrote: < I don't know what's going on with the new drinking game, is it that for every snide remark we take shots? I saw this a bit in Hess's OT Libya thread :-) Someone care to fill me in?

link

mr2peak wrote: You don't try to hot tub. If you try to hot tub, you are a looser.

Oh no?

James Brown says you're wrong

T.J. wrote: Drifting = motorsport TRUE Drifting = racing FALSE

This.

Drifting, like dancing, is about looking good foremost. That's the reason the cars are set up how they are with the hellaflush wheels and such; that's the style that looks best to that crowd, and the car's style is taken as part of the whole of the drift's style. It's part of the reason that it's MUCH harder to win at the professional level with a domestic car; the crowd just doesn't like them.

OK, it had to be said. There are only three sports. I think drifting is not one of them.

novaderrik wrote: it's as much of a sport as anything else that relies on judging to find a winner. gymnastics, figure skating, air guitar..

Man, the SECOND post in. It's lucky I have this flask of booze here in my office. <-- not actually true <-- possibly not true, you decide <-- ¤ glug ¤

Brotus7 wrote:

Maroon92 wrote:

novaderrik wrote: it's as much of a sport as anything else that relies on judging to find a winner. gymnastics, figure skating, air guitar..

Everyone take a shot!

I don't know what's going on with the new drinking game, is it that for every snide remark we take shots? I saw this a bit in Hess's OT Libya thread :-) Someone care to fill me in?

That'd be my fault. Congratulations, you are now drunk. Care to play again?

Woody wrote: Drifting is like synchronized swimming or women's basketball: I know that it exists and requires some degree of skill, but I just can't make myself care about it.

ok synchronized swimming is not a sport. womens basketball is..... drifting is not in anyways racing. real racing you win on the fastest time no style points involved!!!! and slideing sideways is not and never will be the fastest way around a course.

Like Patrick Bedard said in Car and Driver years ago (about Hollywood stunt drivers): "The Harlem Globetrotters never won an NBA Championship, but you don't hear a lot of people saying they can't play basketball."

That's pretty cool. I don't think the idea of drifting is all that silly. Raise your hand if you've never done doughnuts in an empty parking lot, or gone to the same parking lot when it was covered in ice and berkeleyed around.

The only silly part to me is spending thousands upon thousands of dollars to achieve big power...power that you have no plans on actually putting to the ground.

The figure skating comparison is completely accurate. So we should be drunk every time someone brings up drifting. Sounds like a good rule.

poopshovel wrote: The only silly part to me is spending thousands upon thousands of dollars to achieve big power...power that you have no plans on actually putting to the ground.

Cheebus, that sounds like me at Sunday's autocross in the Dover Speedway parking lot. Nice warm sun + 50-degree air temps + ancient V700s = lots of sideways because I forgot the tires were cold. On one pass I even groundlooped a 360 going through a simple offset left directly after the start.

Teh E36 M3 wrote:

mr2peak wrote: You don't try to hot tub. If you try to hot tub, you are a looser.

Oh no? James Brown says you're wrong

WELL WELL WELL

Yeah, that skit was pure genius. Still holds up.

ShadowSix wrote: Very reminiscent of the import drag racing thing a few years ago.

Import drag racing was a fad? I see a lot of guys still out racing Hondas, etc. Not a criticism, just wondering. Around here the fad is still going strong.

huge-O-chavez wrote: Sport? Ehh.. The judging bit is the part that gets me.

Seems like most people on this board have a problem with the relativity of drift judging. How do you know that, like in olympic gymnastics, the russian judge won't give you a 1 because you're about to beat their favorite?

There is some serious hardware in the drifting game. Wow. Monstrous cars.

Any 'sport' that uses Hella and fanbois this much in the description = OMGWTFBBQ

Wait there is free BBQ at Drift events?

I bet it tastes like tires.

HiTempguy wrote: You know whats gayer than drifting?

Umm, driving a Miata? I don't think this crowd can really cast stones at anyone. Don't be a hater.

ReverendDexter wrote: It's part of the reason that it's MUCH harder to win at the professional level with a domestic car; the crowd just doesn't like them.

Someone had better tell Sam Hubinette and Rhys Millen, since they swept the first season of D1GP (maybe FD, I can't remember) in this country in American cars.

I'm not going to try to convince people who don't like drifting out of their position. But for the sake of information, I do think people should know that the judges use a radar gun to determine corner entry speed and factor that speed into overall score. I worked the radar gun at FD Atlanta in 2009.

All I'm saying is that the judging is not entirely subjective.

Will wrote: All I'm saying is that the judging is not entirely subjective.

Unless there is a specific point amount that gets assigned to the entry speed, oh yes it is!

but there is judging, and that judging has weight when it comes to finding a winner. so it's not a real sport.

i just realized that this could also apply to the "IOE" winner at every Lemons race.. but at least they don't try to pass it off as anything more than a stupid award for making your car look the most stupid.

There's plenty of judging in road racing, it's just an easier job to do in most cases. Before computers, it was up to the time keepers' judgment who finished first etc (think that's not subjective in a bumper-bumper finish?).

As far as measurable performance, it's not just aesthetics, there are specific empirical parameters that are scored. Just like almost every Olympic sport. Or are we next going to declare boxers, olympic weightlifters, and gymnasts not true athletes?

And if you get really picky about what's a sport and what isn't, then the traditional definition of a sport is a competition of physical exertion (ie with athletes). If you look at the midsection of the average club racer, you'd be hard pressed to call anything but the top ranks of road racing a sport either - driving the athlete so to speak. Hell, even in the top ranks, it's more of a sport between bank accounts than drivers sometimes.

I'm personally not terribly interested in drifting but I do appreciate it (Ken Block's latest Gymkhana is breathtaking). But saying something isn't a sport just because it doesn't tickle your fancy is really petty, even when disguised as jest.