As much as you guys hate it, its what Pontiac needs to do. The local street racing board (you can imagine what kind of cars are driven) was in an uproar over it and the last time they said anything about Pontiac was when they'd make fun of Trans-Am drivers (again, not my opinion of course). I dont particularly care about drifting but its wildly popular among the youngins and thats one of the groups GM needs to get. Besides, in the grand scheme of things how much is GM spending on this using a stock bodied car vs. what Pontiac was spending on Nascar?

 

drifting a FWD sport???? Have you EVER watched drifting videos from Japan?? They are all Supras, 240SXs, Toyota Altezzas(lexus IS300 over here), plus a bunch of cars we never got. Notice that all these cars are high hp rwd cars? I'd like you to try and pull off any of the sustained drifts that these guys do in a FWD car, impossible. Personally I'm not a NASCAR roundy round guy
A) its boring except when they crash
B) its WAY too comerciallized and
C) its pretty much a spec racing series now, why keep up the pretense??

I'm very impressed that GM is being proactive with an emerging sport, usually they are late to the party. Who knows, maybe the solsice will join the GTO, I doubt that they are constrained to one car. I hope that it will stay relativly grass roots though, as I understand it, even getting to the 'pro' drifter level in Japan isn't as inaccible as getting into other forms of racing (SCCA being the obvious excption).

I'd like to see a bunch of f-bods in this sport, they're just about perfect: MT, RWD, huge hp, natural tendency to oversteer

 

Thanks Guy, I needed a good laugh.

 

see, the problem with labels is they are a "i know it when i see it" kind of thing. too bad we can't all agree on what we see.

personally, i don't know how any of you can consider a fully functional, powerful RWD race car rice.

and one more thing, Kumhos on a Camaro are OK because they are Korean, but Yokohamas are rice because they are Japanese? have you checked the prices on those tires guy? most ricers can't even afford to look at them.

not every Camaro driver has a mullet. not everything Japanese or Japanese inspired is rice. FAIR ENOUGH??

 

What he said

And to the guy that said drifting is for FWD.... Man, oh man. That's wrong on so many levels. You should research drifting a little bit before saying stuff like that.

Basically, FWD cars don't drift, they ***-drag. You MUST be able to control the slide when drifting, and you can't really do that without a MT, RWD, and a decent amount of power. For those who think "power sliding" is drifting, there's also a lot more to it than that. You can use power sliding to initiate a drift, but it's not the only, nor is it the best way to actually drift.

If you want to see what I'm talking about, I have more than a few good drifting videos mixed in with the rally videos on my box

 

Funny. Lots of hate for drifting with the Mustang roadracing crowd as well. I don't get it at all. I know when I'm at the track (time trials, not REAL racing) and I screw up and get all sideways, it's fricking FUN. SERIOUS fun. It's no wonder at all that this "sport" (really more of an exhibition event) is getting a lot of attention. You can bet the people that do it seriously are pretty far removed from the image-only F&F ricer crowd.

Fun to watch, fun to do. Simple as that. So it's not a "real sport". So what?

 

Doing burnout and donuts is fun too... but should it be a 'sport'?

 

So what if they call it a "sport". What's the big deal?

Is there anybody railing against drifting that doesn't honestly believe it looks like FUN?

If people want to get together and do burnouts and/or donuts and call it a "sport", they're free to do that as well, why not? Drifting looks to be a TON more interesting and fun to watch or to participate in, though.

I think the negaivity is 100% based on preconceived notions, and hatred of the "ricer" and F&F crowd(s).

People who participate in these types event will gain a TON of car control skill. That can't be a bad thing.

 

There's a HUGE difference in the ammount of control required between donuts, burnouts, and powerslides as opposed to drifting.

They call driving in circles a sport, as well as driving in a straight line, so what's wrong with driving sideways at speeds nearing 100mph where absolute control of the car is required?

 

Why did Pontiac get out of NASCAR? No idea.

Why did they get into drifing? I think the end of this article sums it up best: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/class...tive-headlines

 

Great article! My favorite part:

I love that pontiac guys quote too. At least they're realizing they need to do something to start to get rid of the "american cars suck!" mentality that is all to prevelant amongst younger drivers nowdays.

 

Like Z28Wilson said...

It's it's not a sport. A sport has a clear, defined winner.

If you want to call it something, call it a skill or something to that effect... not unlike Ice Skating, or Skateboarding, or any other 'sport' like that.

And, to newby, if you want to call this a 'sport' then why downgrade doing burnout, and donuts? I mean, where do you draw your line on how 'difficult' something must be and to who before you slap the 'sport' label on there?

 

do you drive a sports car or a "skills" car? isn't the definition of sport basically spirited competition? how does drifting not apply as a sport then?

you guys can split hairs all you want, it won't do you any good. its fine that you don't like it or value it. but that alone does not demerit it from being a sport.

 

I guess we will soon see the following shows on ESPN then?

The Iron Chef
Bob Villa's Home Again
Super Millionaire

and a host of others... since they all require skill... I guess they are all sports shows, right?

 

"Sports" comes down to competition involving one non-objective winner. Now you tell me who did the "better" drift...based on...what, exactly? Do they measure the tread left on all four tires, least amount remaining wins?

If you insist on calling this a "sport", it's an exhibition sport at best. It is the synchronized swimming of the Olympics...curiosity brings you in until you realize...this is just plain silly.