Archives » 2007 » March

Keiichi Tsuchiya or the “Drift King,” as he is more widely known, is a living legend within the drifting community. Keiichi Tsuchiya is credited with developing several drifting techniques widely used by professional drivers today. Unlike most professional drivers that come from wealthy families or have previous racing experience in other motorsports, Keiichi Tsuchiya earned his reputation and honed his drift skills from illegal underground street races. In fact, Drift King Keiichi Tsuchiya had his license suspended for illegal street racing not long after he began his professional racing career in the amateur Fuji Freshman racing series.

Read more…

Nobushige Kumakubo took first place at his home track Ebisu Circuit for the first D1 Grand Prix Japan Event of 2007 held March 24 and 25. Nobushige Kumakubo is 2006’s D1 Grand Prix Champion and is Captain of Drift Team Orange. Kumakubo is known for pushing his Subaru Impreza GDB, the first Subaru ever to enter D1 Grand Prix, to its limits with insane corner entry speed and extreme drift angle. Kumakubo is the driver to beat this year.

Results from Round 1 of the 2007 D1 Grand Prix Japan Season:

1. Nobushige Kumakubo - Subaru Impreza WRX GDB
2. Masato Kawabata - Nissan S15 Silvia
3. Masao Suenaga - Mazda RX-7 FD3S
4. Tsuyoshi Tezuka - Nissan Skyline BNR32
5. Ken Nomura - Nissan Skyline ER34
6. Tetsuya Hibino - Toyota AE86
7. Katsuhiro Ueo - Nissan S15 Silvia
8. Takashi Haruyama - Nissan Laurel C35
9. Tatsuya Sakuma - Nissan S15 Silvia
10. Takahiro Ueno - Toyota Soarer JZZ30
11. Toshiki Yoshioka - Toyota AE86
12. Kazuhiro Tanaka - Subaru Impreza WRX GDB
13. Toru Inose - Nissan S15 Silvia
14. Yukio Matsui - Honda Domani MB3
15. Daigo Saito - Toyota Chaser JZX90
16. Naoto Suenaga - Subaru Impreza WRX GCB

Drift angle is the angle a car maintains during a drift. Drift angle is important in competition and is often judged as part of a driver’s style - the more extreme the drift angle the better.

The most common way to increase drift angle is to upgrade pre-existing tie rods and tie rod ends with high quality aftermarket tie rod parts specifically designed for drifting. Kazama Auto and Tein are popular manufacturers of these aftermarket tie rod parts. Stronger tie rods with longer threaded portions allow for a greater range of adjustment. While special tie rod ends have adjustable spacers to correct tie rod placement for extremely lowered vehicles that have issues with tie rod ends binding and snapping.

Increasing the length of the tie rods will add much needed play in the steering wheel and give you that much more control over your car’s drift angle. This increased steering angle will also make recovering from drifts or slides a little easier since you will have more room for correction.

Increased steering angle often requires other modifications as well because at some point, the tire or wheel will come in contact with other suspension pieces, the fenders, or wheel wells.

Other options to increase drift angle include custom built steering racks or machining of the spindles.

Kumho has created some super cool tires that produce colored smoke instead of regular grey smoke when warmed up and drifted! The Kumho colored smoke tires cost $1995 per tire! The Kumho tires are not permitted in many drift competitions, as they are seen as giving an unfair advantage to teams with the funding to utilize them. The tires come in Blue, Red, and Yellow.

Read more…

Perhaps the most important modification to any drift car is suspension. Competitive drift cars use an integrated coil-over strut combination. A suspension system has many variables - adjustable caster and camber angle, toe-in and toe-out angle, adjustable compression and rebound damper, adjustable ride height, and variable anti-roll bar (sway bar) stiffness. A suspension set-up that allows for these variables is ideal for drifting; since a driver can fully customize the way their suspension feels and reacts to their specific drift car and track conditions.

The purpose of caster angle is basically to allow the front wheels to self-center while under the stress of cornering. Too much caster and you can get what is known as wheel shimmy. This is when the front wheels flick side-to-side rapidly reducing tire to surface grip. Too little caster and the car will oversteer. Caster angle is adjusted by sliding the front wishbones on the hinge pins. To increase caster, slide the top wishbone back or the bottom one forward or a bit of both, do the opposite to reduce caster angle. It is very difficult to measure caster angle so it is more a case of trial and error to get the correct setting. The best starting point would be both wishbones in the center of the hinge pins as there is positive caster built into the steering hubs naturally.

Read more…

Radio-controlled drift cars are equipped with special low grip tires that allow the RC drift car to slide. Typically, the higher end RC drift cars are all wheel drive (4×4) and have swappable shocks, motors, wheels, and brakes.

Yokomo is a popular high-end brand. Yokomo RC cars start around $300 – that includes a factory pre-assembled chassis with radio electronics, transmitter, and battery charger. To complete the set, you will also need to buy a body shell ($45 - $70), wheels ($50), and a set of tires ($12). So without any “extras,” like led lights, graphite parts, ect. – you are looking at spending around $450 and the price goes up from there! Not cheap by any means but there are less expensive alternatives.

Read more…

I love video games and drifting so it would stand to reason that I enjoy racing video games that let you drift. Project Gotham Racing is my overall favorite console racing video game series for drifting. More specifically, the Xbox 360 title, PGR3 is my favorite! I like that PGR gives you kudos for stylish drifting and I really like the in-car view on PGR3 where you can use the analog stick to look around as if you were in the drivers seat turning your head inside the vehicle.

MSR (Metropolis Street Racer) for Sega Dreamcast is also a favorite and pretty much the forerunner for the PGR series. In MSR, players gain kudos for stylish drifts and clean runs as in PGR.

Read more…

I made this paper Nissan Skyline and Silvia after finding this page at Nissan’s website. The site is in Japanese but the directions for folding the paper cars are fairly self-explanatory. When I printed the cars out, I used photographic computer paper to make the chassis more rigid. Plus, the shinny side of the paper made the cars’ finish look better. I also made some minor modifications (—cuts—) to the hood in order for it to fit closed properly and I used generic clear tape to hold my paper drift cars together.

Ohhh yeah, right hand drive! This Nissan Silvia is for real. I decided my paper Skyline and Silvia were soooo cool that I need a car model, Helena from Dead or Alive, for the photo shoot! lol

Currently, Yokohama Advan Neova ad07 tires are popular with many D1 Grand Prix drift drivers.

The ADVAN Neova AD07 is the Extreme Performance Summer tire member of Yokohama’s global family of ADVAN performance tires developed for sports car, sports coupe and performance sedan enthusiasts who love sport driving. Used as Original Equipment (O.E.) on the Lotus Elise, the ADVAN Neova AD07 is designed to provide high levels of traction, responsive handling and driving control in dry and wet road conditions. The ADVAN Neova AD07 is not intended for cold temperatures or snow.

Read more…