As we head into the final round of the Cody’s D1NZ National Drifting Championship, the tension and hype was unbelievable. With about six drivers in close contention for the Championship title, any small mistake here could cost the drivers dearly.

The sixth and final round was held at Hampton Downs raceway  – a high speed track with sweeping corners and elevation changes throughout.

The five big names to watch out for and leaders on the table were Mad Mike Whiddett, Curt Whittaker, Gaz Whiter, Fanga Dan Woolhouse and Cole Armstrong. Nothing is set in stone though, with plenty of other drivers keen to get their hands on the trophy.

Practice on Friday treated us to brilliant weather and a bunch of different vantage points to shoot from. Milwaukee Tools driver Mac Kwok, above, had geabox issues and would not go on to compete unfortunately.

The judged section consisted of a medium right hand sweeper, following through into a longer left corner, up and over the hill with clipping points crossing from inside to out, and then onto the straight.

Entry speeds were around 175km/h coming in to the first corner. Above, Fanga Dan had no problem hitting that speed in the LS2 V8 Commodore.

It was awesome to see cars emerging from over the hill in packs of three or more at a time. The D1NZ drivers always prefer to practice in battle groups if they can.

Another attraction for spectators was the hardpark happening on the inside of the track. One car that had a lot of heads turning was this grey RX7 FD sitting on CCW Classics.

Over the hill and onto the main straight is where the spectators could get a great view of the cars in action.

The inside clipping point on the peak of the hill is where a lot of drivers were dropping into the dirt in practice. Doing this in battles will hand the opponent valuable points.

One question on everyones mind was whether Gaz Whiter in the Tectaloy S14 Silvia could make the jump from third place on the points table to take the championship trophy. If anyone can it would be Whiter, with 3 series wins under his belt already he definitely has the experience to take it out.

A slight collision in practice left Mikes RX7 with damage to the rear of the car, luckily Mike had shipped over his U.S based Mazda RX8 which was rushed to get here in time for the event. It would be a risky move to use the RX8 however, as he hadn’t practiced in this car in over a year.

Series contender and V Energy driver Cole Armstrong came up against Nico Reid in the GT-Refinishers S15. Both drivers were looking on form until a mechanical problem meant Cole could not continue.

The first battle of the day for Red Bull driver Mad Mike was against skilled D1-Pro newcomer Darren Benjamin. Darren has proven himself in the other rounds and his performance here was no different.

After going One More Time (OMT) Darren went slightly off track giving Mike the advantage.

Another great battle of the day was Gaz Whiter vs Curt Whittaker. Curt proved to be just too good on the day however, placing Gaz in 6th for the round.

Mad Mike’s second battle did not go his way, tapping the side of Fanga Dan’s Commodore and spinning him around. This gave Fanga the advantage and placed Mike in 7th for the round. From here he could only wait patiently to find out whether he would have a place on the championship podium or not.

Brad Lauder’s blue on yellow Alcotane S14 was looking unstoppable with clean and consistent runs throughout the day.

Jumping the inside corner on his chase run meant Andrew Redward in the Nankang S14 would finish the round in 5th place with Lauder moving through.

Jason Sellers met Brad Lauder in the battle for 3rd and 4th place in the round. The judges asked for one more time before deciding on Lauder for 3rd place.

After beating Jason Sellers, Curt Whittaker moved on to battle Fanga Dan for the round win. Both drivers were also after the valuable points to jump up in the championship standings.

It was clear that both Curt and Fanga had mastered this track and they gave the crowd an epic battle to watch.

The judges announced that it was too close to decide and so they would go one more time. Both drivers had earned their place in the final and it could have gone either way, but eventually a decision was made.

Curt Whittaker takes the round win, Fanga Dan close behind in 2nd place and Bradley Lauder earning 3rd place.

The round win also gave Curt enough points to win the championship title and take home the D1NZ 2011/2012 trophy! Mad Mike Whiddett placed closely behind in 2nd overall with Fanga Dan taking 3rd place overall.

It’s been an amazing season of drifting here in little old New Zealand. Each round of D1NZ has been unique and I’ve really enjoyed photographing the events. I’ll leave you with the new champion for the year, Curt Whittaker!

Words: David Atkinson
Photos: David Atkinson & David Sanson

I’m really grateful to join the Drifted community, I will be posting my experiences and car build progress for this season, and more I hope! I want to introduce myself and explain how I started drifting. To all people I say that, they think I’m stupid but I started drifting virtually on Forza Motorsport (yeah the first), and I still play every week. But I really learned to drift when I bought my old kouki S14. I participated on several training days and did my first competitions. I finished 4th on the exhibition round of the 2010 Drift Challenge where I had never drifted in battles before, not bad for a beginner! I also finished 5th and 2nd on pro-am at the Drift Cup (2010-2011)

Last year I changed my plans for a new car and bought the ex-PS13 from the UK off of Jordan, the Editor of this very website. I really fell in love with this car, she has an awesome style with soft and reliable specs, but she was unfinished…

I made the changes which she needed for the Autoworks Festival at Paris where Team Orange came to judge us. I finished 5th (3rd French driver) with practically no handbrake. I had at once a good feeling with this car.

Next, I finished 4th on the round 3 of the DC.

But unfortunately I crashed it with another car on the next round during the training, who stopped my season (I think Jordan was upset when he found out too!).

I haven’t a lot of experience but my first results motivate me to continue in competition. A French team elected me ‘Rookie of the Year’, a good reward and I hope to improve in the future. It’s a real pleasure to run with the drivers whom I admired behind my screen a few years ago.

For this year, the PS13 was rebuilt with better specs and lot of work was done on the steering for higher angle, she’s really more able now! It will again be necessary to wait a few weeks to discover the new look.

This is the short story of my first season last year, but I’m back for 2012. I will be competing in the French Drift Challenge by Dark Dog and some European rounds. That will allow me to meet new people as well as drift on new tracks. Hopefully I’ll get to meet some Drifted readers too!

Hope you enjoyed my first post on Drifted, see you on track guys.

Words: Mike K.
Photos: Robin Gouyet 

We’re excited to kick off our coverage from Round 2 of this year’s Formula Drift Pro Championship with a little desktop action. Enjoy this shot of Conrad Grunewald kicking up the front right wheel of his Hankook Tires Chevrolet Camaro SS as he transitioned into the horseshoe during Friday’s practice. Click below to select your size and check back later this week for more from Road Atlanta.

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As most of you are aware it is around this time when drifters from all around the world make the voyage over to Japan for the Ebisu Drift Matsuri. All round good guy at Wreck ‘Em, Luke Jobson is luckily enough to be one of those guys. Before “Ginga”, as Luke is known, set off for a filming frenzy he sent me a hard drive with all of my old footage from our journey to Japan back in 2009. Accompanying the “Outrun” crews journey through Japan we managed to capture a tonne of events, including a MSC round at Maze.

Jealous of hearing updates from Ginga I decided to put together this clip utilising my old footage. I love the style/excitement and just the general atmosphere that goes down at MSC rounds!

This footage was shot in Standard Definition on a Sony FX7

::Mez

::Wreck ‘Em

Whenever we hear the words ‘Rocket Bunny’ you cannot help but think of Anthony ‘Scotty’ Scott’s Team Skylinepart.com SIL80, and this year its bigger and better than ever. Over the last 6 or so months, Scotty has rebuilt this world famous monster with reinforcement and weight saving in mind, almost everything is now space framed, polycarbonate, carbon fibre or fibreglass.

The main reason why it is now so wide is that not only is it rocking Rocket Bunny arch extensions, they are fitted on top of Rocket Bunny over fenders. This makes for a huge body and a very wide stance.

As you can see the numberplate is still present, it is hard to think of this car as road legal, it is without a question a hardcore machine with one thing in mind.

The gunmetal grey and chrome XXR alloys are a stunning new touch on this years build, just as we like them; nice and wide with plenty of dish. The addition of 60mm custom hubcentric spacers give a purposeful stance and a very wide track.

At the heart we have an already proven SR20DET producing around 400bhp. Scotty seems to have historically bad luck with engines, this unfortunately manifested itself during our shoot as he spun a big end shell at its debut this weekend at the Northern Drift Championship. A speedy rebuild is on the cards before its first event of the season at JDM Allstars next weekend.

Looking at the fuel filler cap gives you a realistic idea of just how much width the car has now acquired.

The famous 6666 Bunny can be seen here guarding the towing eye, The red and yellow is a good look for most, some may have their reservations about the colour but it is so vibrant in the sun, it will be hard to miss it on track.

I managed to snap a couple of action pictures before the bottom end went, this being one of them. It certainly looks at home on the track giving lots of speed, smoke, angle and noise.

The interior is occupied by a pair of Driftworks embroidered bucket seats, serious seats for a serious car.

As we peel away the bodywork, you start to see some of the work completed on the main body. The rear end has basically been reproduced from scratch to improve chassis stability and rigidity, the inside of the rear bumper is now also reinforced with tubing to add strength. When removed, the bumper, rear lights and tyre guard also come off as pictured.

The front end is pretty much the same story as the back, a lot of space framing for strength, the front bumper is reinforced like the rear bumper and bolts on, it has the front lights and grill attached via the framing inside the bumper and they all come off as a whole.

Another view of those awesome 18 inch XXR rims, I am personally a big fan of these wheels, as nice as they were a big improvement on the Ultralites he ran last year.

The reason behind all that grip and smoke, Maxxis MA-Z1 245/40/18 tyres, this rubber is specifically designed for drifting by Maxxis. It can be rather expensive though as Scotty doesn’t just run these for competitions, he also uses them for practice days to maintain consistency.

Behind those lovely wheels and equally as nice, are Brembo GTR 4 pot calipers squeezing 2 piece racing disks.

The Holset HX35 turbo now sporting a wastegate exiting through the bonnet, making for some awesome noise and bonnet flames.

The adjustable Aeromotive fuel system is rated up to 1000bhp and provides plenty of fuel for that thirsty SR20DET.

Another angle of that seriously clean engine and bay, it’s such a shame that the bottom end has failed and it all has to come out again, the guys over at Skylinepart.com HQ will have their work cut out but I’m sure it will be ready in time.

The interior is pretty much completely stripped, sporting an OMP racing steering wheel, a 4 point roll cage which was custom fabricated by Skylinepart.com and is a work of art, protecting the man behind the wheel very well. Carbon fibre makes an appearance here and there. The race dash cluster is from EBT and displays all the engine vitals Scotty will need to know.

These Driftworks bucket seats are the business, very supportive as this car really can throw you around inside if your not secured enough, getting in and out can be a bit of a mission, but that’s better than bruises. Coupled with 4 point harnesses makes for a very snug fit.

Hydraulic handbrakes are very useful for initiating drifts, not the best for a parked car but thats easily rectified with a good old bungie cord. The custom fuse box is on show in the interior for ease of access.

The switch panel has everything you need at your fingertips, carbon fibre and a start/stop button are nice touches. External pulls for fire extinguisher and engine kill all tucked away nicely.

A very strong roll cage, it would take a serious knock to shift that, with all the reinforcement, Scottys 2012 Rocket Bunny is a very safe place to be.

With the exception of the reinforcement, this car has undergone some extreme weight saving, anything not needed for race regulations has be replaced with an improved, built from scratch version, or removed all together.

Seconds from disaster…I managed to capture this image literally 10 seconds before the engine started making a hideous knocking sound, most of us knew straight away that this was the dreaded death rattle, failure of the big end bearings.

Intercooler protection, Scotty has built the front of the car around where the intercooler now lives, this angle also shows the frame work the front wings are fixed to.
Alot of fabrication and man hours put in but very much worth it for that outcome.

Clearance… For crazy lock, crazy clearance is needed, as you can see there has been alot of inner arch removed and strengthened with more steal tubing, this also adds to engine cooling.

Race fuel tank accompanied by a swirl pot to deliver petrol in the bends, the white plastic mud guards wrap around the entire rear wheel well so the rear bumper doesn’t fill up with shredded tyres and as the rear quarters, arches, bumper and boot lid are all fibreglass, they also protect these panels from damage during tyre delamination.

During the weight saving process, the Rocket Bunny was fitted with polycarbonate windows all round with the exception of the front windscreen, this not only dramatically saves weight as glass is very heavy, they have also lowered the centre of gravity making the car very stable during transitions from corner to corner.

Expect to see lots of fire from the wastegate poking out of the carbon fibre bonnet this year, it wasn’t out for long this weekend but it was already spitting flames, I regrettably wasn’t able to capture any on camera as I was on the other side of the track when I saw them.

Another flame producer in the form of a Japspeed Shotgun exhaust supplied by Scotty’s new sponsor, Japspeed.
Anyone who has herd these shotguns know just how good they sound.

It was an absolute pleasure shooting this car, I’ve always been a fan of it and really think it’s reached a peak, stunning from every angle, great on the track as let’s not forget he can even drive it to the shops, what a car!

Full spec below:

Engine:
Fully forged & balanced SR20 DET (@ 400bhp & 360lb.ft)
Holset HX35 turbo
HKS Camshafts
SuperSpark coilpacks
Aeromotive fuel system (rated upto 1000bhp)
Custom intercooler and radiator
Japspeed Shotgun exaust

Transmission & Braking:
Transmission tunnel enlarged to give easier access to Nissan Skyline RB25 gearbox
Nissan Skyline RB25 diff case housing & Cusco GTR 2 way internals
1 peice prop shaft
Brembo GTR brakes

Chassis & Suspension:
Driftworks C2 fully adjustable coilover suspension
White line antiroll bars
Driftworks geomaster rear hub carriers
Driftworks front & rear adjustable arms
Nissan Skyline GTR drive shafts and hubs
JoCa Performance modified front hubs
Front and rear fabrication to loose weight, stiffen chassis and quick release to make easy access for working on
Bars added from cage to front struts and rear subframe also to stiffen chassis

Interior:
4 point rollcage custom fabricated by skylinepart.com
ETB race digidash (available though skylinepart.com)
Driftworks bucket seats with 4 point harnesses
Full custom electrics by skylinepart.com

Exterior:
50mm rear over fenders
30mm front wings
Full Rocket Bunny kit over the top
Fibreglass tailgate
Fibreglass doors
Polycarbonate windows all round except front screen
Carbon fibre bonnet
Custom carbon fibre skirt reinforcement strips

Wheels & tyres:
18×9.5 ET30 XXR front alloys
40mm front hubcentric spacers
18×10.5 ET10 XXR rear alloys
60mm rear hubcentrix spacers
Neuton XL 235/40/18 front tyres
Maxxis 245/40/18 MA-Z1 rear tyres.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this as much as I have shooting it.

::Words & Photos: Ste Trackslide

Drifted have teamed up with Team Redmist and their sponsors Drift Innovation and RareRims to offer readers a chance to win a selection of top prizes.

Team Redmist are a brand new team for 2012 and are to compete in this year’s British Drift Championship. The team comprises of Stuart Egdell (UK), Mark Annette (UK) and Hugo Fernandes (Portugal).

The one problem that they face, being a new team, is that they need a livery design for all three cars! That’s where you come in!

We want you to design the new Team Redmist livery to be used on side of the three cars throughout the BDC season – not only could you win a top prize but your design will be seen by hundreds of thousands of people at events around the UK and during the BDC’s Channel 5 television coverage!

You can use Photoshop, Paint, Forza, or good old pencil on paper if you like!

One lucky winner will win a brand new Drift HD video camera worth £270 - as used to film the latest Team Redmist video.

To submit your entry please make sure you Like the Team Redmist Facebook Page and post up your design on their wall before Friday 25th May 2012. That’s just two weeks!

To Enter

1. Right-click here and select Save As to download the competition design pack.

2. Design the livery to your tastes – remember to not go too crazy, it has to be achievable and should include some components of the Redmist logo.

3. Like the Team Redmist Facebook Page.

4. Post your entry to the Team Redmist Facebook Page wall.

The Prizes

1st – Drift HD video camera - Click here for further information

2nd – Drifted Crest Hoodie & decals – Click here for further information

3rd – A set of RareRims wheel nuts – Click here for further information

The Rules

Every competition needs rules, and this is no different, so read carefully

1. One entry per person only.
2. The competition is open to everyone except Drifted staff and any relation thereof.
3. Entry to the competition is entered via the Team Redmist Facebook Page only. Drifted, Team Redmist, Drift Innovation and RareRims UK reserves to right to publish any entry on their respective websites or social media channels.
4. All entrants must supply their names.Drifted will only ever use details for the purposes of administering this competition, and will not provide them to anyone without permission.
5. Entries close Friday 25th May 12:00pm GMT.
6. The winning entrant will retain no copyright of the winning design. Team Redmist are to be permitted to reproduce, alter and use as they see fit.
7. The top three entries that are judged the most suitable will be highlighted on the Drifted website and Facebook page. The judging panel will be made up of members of Team Redmist.
8. The judges’ decision as to the winner is final. No correspondence relating to the competition will be entered into.
9. Drifted reserves the right to cancel or alter or amend the competition at any stage, if deemed necessary in its opinion, or if circumstances arise outside of its control.

Good Luck!

Youtube stream below incase the Justin.tv stream fails!

Formula DRIFT Returns to Road Atlanta Home of the Inaugural Formula DRIFT Event Back in 2004

Road Atlanta opened in 1970 and was home of the inaugural Formula DRIFT event back in 2004. The 2.54-mile, 12-turn track is owned by Panoz Motorsports and hosts many events throughout the year including Formula DRIFT.

Utilizing Turns 10A, and 10B of the road course, cars slide sideways through the turns and then hit the loop before the Suzuki bridge and back towards Turns 10B, 10A, and then ends dramatically by drifting uphill on an incline.

Round 2: Road to the Championship at Road Atlanta will be one of the most anticipated events of the season. The event will be spread between 2 days of drifting action. Drivers are tested on the fast entry and tight turns of the road course and will have to prove that they have what it takes to reach the podium.

ALL TIMES ARE EDT UNLESS STATES OTHERWISE

Friday, May 11, 2012 – Practice & Qualifying

8:00am – 6:00pm - Will Call: Open for Vendors/Sponsors/Teams
10:00am – 10:30pm - Gates Open to the Public – Venue
10:15am – 10:35am - GTA: Session #1 – Track
11:35am – 11:55am - GTA: Session #2 – Track
12:10pm – 1:55pm - Pro /Am: Qualifying – Track
2:25pm – 2:45pm - GTA: Session #3 – Track
3:00pm – 4:00pm - Autograph Signing Session – NOS Energy Drink Booth
3:45pm – 4:15pm - GTA: Session #4 – Track
4:30pm – 5:30pm - FD: Open Practice – Group 1 – Track
5:30pm – 6:30pm - FD: Open Practice – Group 2 – Track
6:45pm – 9:00pm - FD: Qualifying – All drivers in reverse ranking order
9:00pm – 10:30pm - Pro/Am: Top 16 Competition
10:30pm - Gates Close to Public

Saturday, May 12, 2012 – Main Event

8:00am – 7:00pm - Will Call: Open for Vendors/Sponsors/Teams
10:00am – 10:00pm - Gates Open to the Public – Venue
10:15am – 10:45am - GTA: Session #2 – Track
12:00pm – 12:15pm - GTA: Session #3 – Track
1:15pm – 1:30pm - GTA: Session #4 – Track
2:00pm – 4:00pm - FD: Top 32 Open Practice – Track
4:00am – 6:00pm - Main Competition: Round of 32 – Track
6:00pm – 7:30pm - “Half-Time” Break – Venue
7:30pm – 8:00pm - National Anthem / Opening Ceremonies – Track
8:00pm – 10:00pm - Main Competition: Round of 16 to Finals – Track
10:00pm – 10:30pm - Trophy Ceremony and Closing – Main Paddock

*SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

All seven of us were fresh from sunny Portugal and were greeting by some very traditional English weather (rain!). We were joined at Luton by a Portuguese friend who lives in London and who would be accompanying up on the journey north to Teesside Autodrome, Middlesborough. We jumped in our rental cars and started the journey, finally arriving at the track at around 2am on the morning of the competition. I had sent my car to England the month before to be prepared and finished for the event. I had read on Facebook that at midnight the night before the event the car was at Protuner being mapped. I had no idea if my car would be at the track in time for the event! I tried not to worry too much on that, since I wanted and needed to get some sleep. We had to be on track by 8am , and I had been sleeping for just 2-3 hours per night since Wednesday preparing for the event!

We woken up on Saturday morning to freezing conditions, by Portuguese standards anyway! It was raining also and I was already missing the sunshine. After speaking with Team Falken’s Paul Cheshire I receive some good news – my car is on it’s way to Teesside with Danni Murphy, fresh from mapping! Yeah! Upon arrival at the track, it was really glad to see some familiar faces, and also some old friends. The atmosphere at BDC events is someting hard to describe.

The training sessions start and my car still hasn’t arrived, Team Redmist team-mate Stuart Egdell tells me to go practice on his car. The car was a struggle for me, since the seat position is too low; I cant see shit! To make matters worse I can barely reach the pedals! I just want my Soarer!

Between the first 2 practice sessions, my car finally arrives at track. We hurry to fit the fire extinguisher, and the decals on the car.

I go into the first practice session under a torrential downpour.

Completely nervous to test the car , I get the confirmation to go from the start-line marshall. First gear…..second gear…..Kaboooom. Big clunking noise. I’m out.

I head back to the pits and hear the heart-breaking news that my Tomei LSD has self-destructed. Stuart immediately went to source a replacement diff for me. My LSD wasn’t damaged badly, but the crown ring had shattered.

Semi-Pro and fellow Soarer pilot Ricky Emery was kinda enough to lend me a diff, and the Irish guys at WKD Imports from Chambers Performance helped us change and weld he diff in the pits. We got the car ready for the qualifying just in time. The Semi-Pros had the luck of very little rain during their session, but it started to rain heavily before Pros went out to qualify. I had only ever drifted the Soarer in the rain once before, and that was at a trackday and not a full competition event. Plus at the time the car was completely stock!

Lots of changes have been made to the engine now and with new 265-profile rubber on the back, I wasn’t sure of how the car would handle. On the first lap it doesnt go that bad, except for a spin on the last turn after entering with too much speed. Second run and the track is so slippery. I spin right around when entering the first corner. Run over. Third run. Come on, gotta stay focused. My last chance of qualifying for the Top 16 battles. It was a pretty conservative run, close to clipping points, but I wasn’t that aggressive, since I didnt want to take any risk on not qualifying.

So I was pretty happy on qualifying on 10th position! And also very happy on the car’s behaviour, even though it hadn’t been aligned since the KD Race event in Lousada last year. Me and my friends were completely wet and cold, this Saturday was very weather-severe. We just dreamed about a hot shower at the hotel….not together I might add.

Sunday rolled around and it was time for the battles! Having known from Saturday that I was going to battle with Christian Lewis, I went to meet him, and he’s a top guy, a very cool dude. Basically, the two practice sessions on Sunday were really good. Lots of sunshine, a dry track, lots of smoke, people having fun and a wicked event. The car is totally different in the dry.

The first run with Christian is all good except a minor correction from me in the area of the first clipping point, a result of having entered with too much speed, but it was good overall.

On the second run with me leading we start off. First gear, second gear and flat-out.

A pretty nice run, with good clipping points and lots of smoke!

Unfortunately, I got disqualified for that run, since it was judged that I didn’t respect the drag cone pace rule.  That will make me not forget the rule again!

Christian went on to take the win in the Pro Class so I was really happy  for his success.

Me and my friends at Trackfreeks Racing and Team Redmist had a wicked weekend, full of fun and also plenty of stress and action. I really cant wait for Round 2 and doing it all again.

Thank you everyone for everything.
See you at Norfolk.

::Hugo

Words: Hugo Fernandes
Photos: Telmo Gil

Our retrospective post looking forward to this weekend’s Formula Drift event at Road Atlanta had barely been live for an hour when a petition hit my inbox early on Tuesday morning. Because of the sharing culture that surrounds social media and Facebook in particular receiving a plee for signatures is the kind of thing that most of us are used to, and ultimately end up ignoring.

This particular petition caught my eye because it claimed that the Honourable Mayor of Atlanta, Kasim Reed has passed a noise ordinance banning drift events from taking place within 1000ft of designated residential zones. The Internet is often a cauldron for hyping issues up and making mountains out of molehills so my presumption was that someone along the lines has blown things out of all proportion; at worse some kind of noise ordinance has been passed that prohibits a certain noise level from being exceeded at a certain venue after a certain time. Drifting wasn’t being victimised, Atlanta was safe, panic over, put down the pitchforks.

A bit more digging around quickly revealed that the petition and the reaction from the drifting community was, in fact, completely justified. The ordinance passed on 7 May by Mayor Reed to amend section 74-137(A) of the code of ordinances of  the city of Atlanta states -

Sec. 74-137. – Specific prohibited acts.

Car drifting on private property within 1000 feet of a residentially zoned district. For purposes of this section, car drifting shall mean a driving technique or motorsport where the driver intentionally oversteers, causing loss of traction in the rear wheels, while maintaining control from entry to exit of a corner. A car is drifting when the rear slip angle is greater than the front slip angle, to such an extent that the front wheels are pointing in the opposite direction to the turn (e.g. car is turning left; wheels are pointed right or vice versa).

The full ordinance proposal can be read here.

Wait, what? That’s pretty specific right there. No mention or reference is made to autocross, or gymkhana or any other activity which makes equal or more noise for that matter. Just drifting. It also seems that the city of Atlanta are fans of Wikipedia, if their copy ‘n’ paste description of the sport is anything to go by.

For those not familiar with the drift scene in Atlanta, grassroots practice days commonly take place at Turner Field parking lot, home of the Atlanta Braves MBL team. These days take place only a handful of times each year. Without them the grassroots drifting scene in Atlanta would be on it’s knees, and much to the dismay of Atlanta councillors, taking place on their streets and highways outside of the safety and regulations provided by organised drift events. Drifted spoke to Atlanta-based drift organiser Howard Smith about the prohibition order -

” We (Drifters), are being singled out in this ordinance. Many noise producing activities go on at Turner Field. The SCCA runs there with similar cars and tires, The Braves shoot off fireworks after a home run, the Circus is there with Music and a PA system. I have done the db sound level checks during our event and found that we make less noise at the condo property line (73db), than a hairdryer (85db). My grand Daughter can scream at 120db to put things into perspective. Hopefully she won’t do that this weekend at our event. I fear the city council banning children in public places without muffler devices attached!
 Last year at the beginning of the school year there was an event giving away book bags and school supplies (in the lot right up against the complaining condo’s property line) with Hip Hop playing louder than our cars. But we get singled out in this proposed amendment.
 If this was truly a noise issue the city would have set forth a specific noise level not to be exceeded, but they know the other events would be shut down too, so they called for a specific ban on Drifting. This would be like banning soccer and allowing (American) football. You can’t do that, the soccer Moms would revolt.”

Howard continues -

“Hopefully Mayor Reed, (the best mayor I have seen since I moved here 25 years ago) will look at both sides of the story and come out and see for himself.
 I hope we can continue with these events. They are a melting pot of races, ages and economic backgrounds. We leave a money trail all the way from our homes (some several states away) to Turner Field and back. We build our cars in Atlanta shops and get tires from vendors located in the city. We have had more success in stimulating the local economy than the last Two presidents.”

I can assure you that they were Howard’s ‘family-friendly’ thoughts on the topic!

The timing of the ordinance couldn’t be worse with the arrival of Formula Drift in Atlanta this week. The Formula Drift series is a shining example of how far drifting has come in the last few years. I might suggest that Mayor Reed attends the event and witnesses for himself professional drifting and the level that it has now reached, not to mention the additional revenue that the event brings to local businesses in Atlanta. Most of the professional drivers competing this weekend started out their careers attending grassroots events such as those held at Turner Field, the very kind of events that he is shutting down.

Drifted spoke with Formula Drift’s President and Co-founder Jim Liaw about the matter earlier today and he made the following statement -

“I have seen this before with the emergence of sport compact drag racing.  It is all based on misconceptions as drifting is being demonized and singled out.  If you are to set rules & restrictions on drifting then help by offering an alternative.  These organizations that hold drifting events do so in part out of passion for this Sport but also out of public good; taking drifting off the streets into a safe environment.  One, I hope Atlanta can see past just the noise issue and come to a compromise.  Two, I hope that other venues outside of Atlanta city lines embraces drifting and shows Atlanta what they are missing out on; citizen support and revenue.”

We contacted Mayor Reed‘s office but, as yet, have received no comment on the matter.

I’d like to think that the drifting community is united, no matter where in the world you get down. Grassroots drifting is important to us here at Drifted and we urge every one of our readers to spare a moment for a worthy cause. You can do your part to VETO this ordinance, no matter where or who you are, by signing the petition using the link below -

Sign the Petition!

Visit the Save Drifting in Atlanta Facebook group to stay up to date with the latest ongoings -

Save Drifting in Atlanta Facebook Page

::Jordan

Biltema Drift Night was a non-alcoholic charity event held in Skien, Norway on a closed stretch of public road.

A night for the whole family, an exhibition run with no formal competition – a good way to spend a night!

::Dan