sands

I was light until you boys over reacted. *cough cough*

Anyway, at least there will be a class.

How do you determine the winner?

teammediocre

not quite sure on all the details.got to drive one last night it was a blast.

Poppa Ray

SANDS Dude get over yourself. This is a hobby where we race(play) with toy cars basicly. Before everyone goes off the deep end yeah, it's gets kind of serious, the cost and technology behind what we do isn't childsplay. But it's still a hobby. Unless you're building the next fastest chassis on the market very few of us will ever get rich doing this. We do what we do for FUN. Oh and by the way this site and thread is about RC, not street rodding, so 90% of your rant is so off topic it borders on inappropriate. I for one will begin converting the old schumacher sst on the shelf into a drifter. Why? Oh I don't know how about for FUN. If you take that knob w/12345 and R out of your backside maybe you'll understand the meaning of the word.

spenzalii

iTrader: (2)

Hmmm.... sounds like this could get a bit out of hand here....

Poppa, sands, you both make valid points. I don't have any problem with much of what sands says because almost all the theories and techniques that apply to real driving apply to RCs. Of course, I don't know of how to measure your car on a skidpad on an RC, but the same driving skills, set up techniques, etc apply. It's all physics after all. I also agree that, while it does look cool and does require skill, it's more of a niche thing than anything else. I don't exactly think it will be taking the world of motorsports by storm per se. It isn't really that practical in real life, because you will destroy your tires and wreck havoc with your suspension.

But, that's where poppa gets it right. It IS a hobby, and it is for fun. While not practical at all in the real world, we are racing glorified toys afterall, whuch isn't practical in the first place. For many people, this is the closest we can get to the real thing, so it works for us. So whether you want to drag race down the street, jump over mudhills, drive at 10/10ths around the track, drift around corners or whatever, it's all fine and good. There's no right or whong way to play with your toys. So, to each his own. Enjoy what you do and respect what they do.

And bow I get off my soapbox...

BTW: What year 540 do you have, anyway? And saying it's better than a E class is subjective. Better drive, true. Better car, depends on if you want luxery or driving performance

vanguard

mr sands, wow. i guess you weren't around in the late 60's and early 70's. most of the guys (in high school) i knew had big block chevelles, camaro's, z-28, ford 427's, 390 mustangs, boss mustangs, 440 chargers, 383 roadrunners, etc etc talk about drift cars. those were drift cars. and we didn't use terms like, lift steering, trail braking and stuff like that, it was simple, we got power, no traction, and if we mess up, we bend sheet metal and bones. what i think is really funny is grown ups forget what we did as kids, i remember when that movie came out (name escapes me) the one with the blown charger, everyone was saying what a bad movie it was because it was going to make kids street race, uummm i think american graffiti came out about 30 years ago and no one complained then. and so now we're on to drift cars, bad oh very bad. the guys that run drift cars (the real ones) do it because they are having fun. the guys that run rc drift cars do it because they are having fun. if you think its stupid or the guys that do it are dumb thats fine. but don't go getting all uppity and then defensive when someone calls you on it. btw my clk430e is twice the car of your 540

poppa don't think its the 123 knob, he is from iowa.

signed your west coast tuner boy..

Turbonium

iTrader: (27)

while id agree that drifting a fullsize car is just silly and not much of a sport at all, i still say its fun with rc. the way you win is to be the first around the track, just like any other race. that in itself is a bit of a challenge. i got a comment from one of the guys after i ran mine. " i just cant get into it"... i said "i just cant get into oval... talk about boring!" but you know how opinions go... we ran 3 cars for a few minutes, and took 7 orders from spectators for more tires...

Turbonium

iTrader: (27)

and someone tell me how a 540 is cool for drifting...

HOMESTEAD33

you wanna drift? find a friend who's got a nice smooth concrete garage floor, and have some fun, i've done it many times, it's especially if you've got a traction filled run-way for it, so you can get some speed up. and as far as real car drifting, come on i can drift in my 91 POS lol!!!! and for those of you who haven't tried it, you should, it's loads of fun. washington(the street in front of my home track) is great for it, especially when it's wet out!

Poppa Ray

Everyone i just want to apologize some for my previous post. I was just a little irritated by sands post. I guess my biggest point of contention is this, obviously he isn't into drifting, seems to me he might even have something against it, so why is he looking at this thread?????? If your only goal is to bash something let it go. You go drive your 540 to your hearts content and I'm going to go drift the crap out of my sst.
On another note, making pvc tires, can you use some old trued down foams for this or is ther some advantage to using the sidewalls of a rubber tire (e.g. bump absorption, lateral sway).

liberalswine

This is from D1gp rules of judgement

"Because professional drifting events are judged on execution and style, it is mandatory that the judges are intimately familiar with the capabilities of the cars and the advanced driving techniques employed by the competitors. D1 Grand Prix judges are usually former professional drifters.

These expert D1 judges evaluate speed, angle of attack and vehicle control. All drivers make solo runs before "Best 16" head-up eliminations start. The competitors who make it to the Best 16 run door handle-to-door handle, going against one other car on the circuit at the same time. As fun as the solo runs are, these drift showdowns really ignite the crowd and brings the crowds to their feet.

Factors like slowing to the point of hindering the other driver, running into another car or spinning out mean an automatic loss of the run. To advance to the next round, drivers use tactics such as putting pressure on an opponent through a more aggressive drift angle, carrying a higher speed through a corner, and showing good strategy. Judges are thoroughly familiar with the capabilities of each competitor's car and if the driver is not pushing the car to the limit, they will be eliminated from the round."
I'm pretty sure that those who are planning on hosting drifting events will adopt the same judgement rules as the D1gp and "Touge racing" rules.

Please don't bash upon other's interests. Comments that you have employed portrays irrational judgement on your behalf. If you don't like something, simply keep your mouth shut.

kwong2001

Well I was under the impression D1 competitions are ran to where if crash/spin out, or get passed, then you lose? Kind like in Initial D...lol

liberalswine

I was suspecting Initial D to be an extreme over exaturation of the real drifting culture. However, after watching it for the first time last year (I've been into drifting since 91), it really isn't that bad. Other than the dramatic aspects between characters, it is really reflected upon the real culture and roots of the drifting paradigm in Japan; it was solely started in touge passes during the late 70's and early 80's.

nixaad

Blame Initial D for the craze.. I myself got hooked.

Clicky here INITIAL D World

a dedicated Initial D fan site.

NightKidZ

There is really quite a bit more to drift driving than simply a lack of traction. To get a nice beautiful long tire smoking drift requires the application of weight transfer technics, and conservation of momentum, and balance... lots of it.

NightKidZ

Hi there
There was a bit of input from a real life D1 GP judge into the making of Initial D anime stuff.

Cheers