Drifting is defined as a driving technique in which a car's rear slip angle is greater than the front slip angle and the front wheels are pointing in the opposite direction to the turn. However, we here at Ministry of Drift feel that this description is a little lackluster compared to what you learn when you experience the sport firsthand.
Drifting is fast-paced, no boundaries, completely controlled chaos. The basis of the sport is not a new concept, despite popular belief. It's beginnings can be traced back to techniques used in dirt track racing and rally racing. Modern drifting got it's start as a racing technique popular in the All Japan Touring Car Championship races over 30 years ago. Motorcycling legend, Kunimitsu Takahashi was the foremost creator of drifting techniques in the 1970's. He was famous for hitting the apex of a turn at high speed and drifting through the corner mainting a high speed exit. The concept took hold. Particularly for a street racer named Keiichi Tsuchiya, who began honing his skills on the mountain roads of Japan. This quickly gained him notoriety and reputation among the racing crowd. Around 1977 several popular automotive magazines and tuning garages produced a video of Tsuchiya's skills known as Pluspy.
One of the earliest recorded drift events outside of Japan was in 1996 at Willow Springs Raceway in Willow Springs, California. It was hosted by Option. After that, the rest as they say is history. Drifting has exploded throughout the world as a grassroots and quickly growing motorsport that based on the amazed faces of spectators will be here to stay for many years to come. As of 2007 there are several sactioning bodies for professional drifting. D1 Grand Prix from Japan, others in Malaysia, Australia, Canada, The Republic of Ireland, and the UK. The US even has it's own, Formula D.
There are several techniques for initiating a drift. The most well known being Hand braking and clutch kicking. Clutch kicking is done by "kicking" the clutch to send a shock to the powertrain upsetting the car's balance. This causes the rear wheels to slip. Whereas Hand braking involves depressing the clutch and using the handbrake to induce a loss of rear traction. More intricate methods include what is known as a Feint or Inertia Drift (sometimes called the Scandinavian flick) or Kansei (Lift off). A Feint involves transferring the weight of the car towards the outside of a turn by first turning away from the turn then quickly turning back into it using the inertia of the rear of the car to swing into the turn as desired. Kansei is accomplished by letting off the accelerator while cornering at very high speeds. Cars with fairly neutral handling will begin to slide, the drift is then controlled by countersteering.
Drifting competitions are judged based on speed, line, and angle. Line involves taking the correct line usually predetermined by clipping points at designated areas of a turn. Angle is the angle of the car mid drift and speed is the speed entering a turn, the maintaining of that speed and the speed at exit. Typically the competition is broken down to two sessions. Tansou (speed run) and Tsuiso (chase attack or tandem). Tansou usually incurs that the drifters get individual runs in front of the judges to try and place for the top slots. Tsuiso or tandem is the crowd pleaser. Drivers are paired off, each driver gets a turn to lead. In a tandem battle it's not necessarily about passing the car in front of you, but more so about keeping up to the car in front of you, mimicking his speed and angle and maintaining a close gap between the two cars. Spinning out forfeits a run unless both drivers spin out.