Drifting (motorsport)
Drifting refers either to a driving technique utilizing a difference in slip angle between the front and rear tires of a car or to a sport based on the technique; this article deals primarily with the sport. When the rear wheels are slipping at a greater angle than the front wheels, the car is drifting or oversteering . Intentional use of this technique is sometimes referred to as opposite lock . The rear end of the car appears to chase the front end around a turn, the driver utilizes both front tires and the rear tires to control the actual direction of the car. More throttle induces more rear wheel slip angle and the rear of the car wants to overtake the front. The goal is for the driver to achieve steering lock and use the throttle to fine tune the car's angle and direction.

History
Many attribute the return of drifting as a competitive sport to mountain-road racers of rural Japan . Informal challenges on back mountain roads (called touge, pronounced "toe-gay") eventually evolved into a heavily funded and advertised competitive events, sanctioned by organizations and held on private tracks.
Drifting started out as a racing technique popular in the All Japan Touring Car Championship races over 30 years ago. A motorcycling legend turned driver named Kunimitsu Takahashi was the foremost practitioner of drifting techniques in the 1970's. Takahashi's aggressive drifting skills ¡ª he was famous for hitting the apex (the point where the car is closest to the inside of a turn) at high speed and then drifting through the corner, preserving a high rate of speed ¡ª earned him several championships and a legion of fans who enjoyed the spectacle of burning tires and perilous speed.
A street racer named Keiichi Tsuchiya became particularly enthralled by Takahashi's drift techniques. Tsuchiya began practicing his drifting skills on the streets, and quickly gained a reputation amongst the "hashiriya" or racing crowd. In 1977, several popular car magazines and tuning garages conspired to produce a video of Tsuchiya's drifting skills on windy mountain roads. The video, called Pluspy, became a cult hit and inspired many of the professional drifting drivers on the circuits today. Tsuchiya earned himself the nickname "Dorikin," which means Drift King in Japanese.
In 1977 Keiichi began his racing career driving many different cars in amateur racing series events. Racing these underpowered cars was difficult but again a great learning experience. Later Keiichi was picked up to drive the ADVAN sponsored Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno (JDM Corolla GT-S). During many races on a downhill corner he would drift the car and carry a better corner speed than his competitors. This technique is what made him the Drift King, not, as most believe, that he was first in the drift scene. In 1988, alongside Option magazine founder Daijiro Inada , he would help to organise one of the first drift events, the event was a success despite very few drivers were capable of drifting then.
Drifting "officially" began in the United States in 1996 with an event at Willow Springs racetrack in California hosted by the magazine Option, but it did not become popular until around 2002, and has since exploded into a massively popular form of motorsport. Japanese drifters are still considered to be at the cutting edge of technique and car development, but their American counterparts are quickly catching up. Many American enthusiasts consider drifting to be an extension of American motorsports such as dirt track racing , however "drifting" in its modern form as a sport unto itself is of Japanese origin.
Many of the techniques used today in drifting were developed by rally drivers competing on dirt, gravel and snow. On such surfaces, the fastest way to take a corner is generally by sliding.

Today
Nowadays, drifting has evolved into a competitive sport where drivers compete in rear-wheel drive cars to keep their cars sideways as long as possible. At the top levels of competition, especially the D1 Grand Prix from Japan and others in Australia , the Republic of Ireland , the United Kingdom , and the United States , drivers are able to keep their cars sliding for extended periods of time, often through several turns. Drifting competitions are judged based not on the time it takes to complete a course, but on line, angle, speed, and show factor. Line involves taking the correct line, which is usually announced by judges. Angle is the angle of a car in a drift, the more the better. Speed is the speed entering a turn, the speed through a turn, and the speed exiting the turn; faster is better. The show factor is based on multiple things, such as the amount of smoke, how close the car is from the wall, and the crowd's reaction. It is based on how "cool" everything looks. Final rounds of competition often include tandem drift runs nicknamed tsuiso (chase-run) in Japanese, where one car follows another through the course, attempting to keep up with or even pass the car in front. In the tsuiso rounds, it does not matter if the racing line is wrong; it matters who has the most exciting drift. Normally, the leading car usually produces a max-angle, but still close off the inside a little to prevent passing. The chasing car usually drifts with less angle, but very close to the lead car. But a car does not even have to keep up, and in fact in some cases a car that was left behind on the straight produces a beautiful drift, winning him that round. A spin, understeer , or collision results in a disqualification of the offending party.
To make judging less ambiguous, the DriftBox has been introduced, which uses GPS to measure the angle, speed and g-force during a run. This takes out the guessing element when it comes to judging the angle and speed of the drift.

Cars
Almost any car can be drifted, to a point. The popular cars seen around the world reflect the local flavors and what is commonly available, but center around light to moderate weight, rear-wheel-drive passenger cars with an emphasis on good handling. Japanese cars are often preferred, due to the sport's Japanese origins, but are not necessarily at an advantage. In Japan, the top drift machines are the Nissan Silvia/180SX , Nissan Skyline (RWD versions), Nissan Fairlady Z , Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno and Corolla Levin, Toyota Altezza , Toyota Soarer , Honda S2000 , and Mazda RX-7 . US drift competitions will feature the local versions of all those cars (such as the Nissan 240SX and Toyota Corolla GT-S) as well as American performance cars such as the Ford Mustang , Dodge Viper and Pontiac GTO . Drifters in other parts of the world often adapt their own local favorites, such as the early Ford Escort ( UK and Ireland ), BMW 3 Series (other parts of Europe ), or Volvo 700 series ( Sweden ).
There is some debate over whether or not front-wheel-drive (FWD) vehicles can drift. By the technical definition (rear wheels slipping at a greater angle than front wheels), they are indeed able to drift. However, many consider FWD vehicles a poor choice for drifting, as the frequent use of the emergency brake (necessary to drift FWD cars) slows them down and makes them harder to control. Also since they use their front tires for both steering and power, the car loses control after a single slide, while RWD cars can drift through consecutive corners. In this way, the definition of drifting is frequently challenged to say that FWD cars cannot "drift," only oversteer. However, some drifters such as Kyle Arai or Keisuke Haketeyama use front wheel drive Honda Civics to drift, and succeed in doing so, sometimes besting their RWD opponents. Theoretically, FWD cars can drift by simply taking a turn without braking and skid into the turn (on the ice, a FWD accomplishes the same and by debated definition "drifts") and by using manji or lift off techniques (see below) to readjust the car coming out of the turn.
AWD vehicles, such as the Subaru Impreza WRX STi , and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution drift at a much different angle and are usually induced by power-over. As the front wheels are also driven on an AWD vehicle there is a noticeable lack of counter steer. D1 and other professional competitions do not allow AWD vehicles. However vehicles like the Impreza and the Lancer are being converted to only use the rear wheels so as to become a RWD car that can compete in drift competitions that prohibit AWD cars.

Sport
Many parts are available from aftermarket manufacturers that are specifically designed to modify a car for drifting. Almost all competitors take advantage of these products to enhance the suspension, driveline, chassis and body of their cars.
The most important drifting competition in the world is the Autobacs D1 Grand Prix , which originated in the Japan Ebisu South Circuit. Once confined to Japan , the D1 Grand Prix currently holds three points match, the other two in the UK and Malaysia , Also one Japan vs USA exhibition match at Irwindale Speedway in California , and an another three exhibition matches in Las Vegas , Silverstone and Shanghai , China . In the United States , the best known league is Formula D .

Drifting techniques
There are many different ways to drift a car, including: (NOTE: ABS and TCS should be turned off before attempting to drift. These systems are not made to take into account a driver wanting the car to slide).

• Braking Drift - This drift is performed by trail braking into a corner so that the car can "set" or shift weight to cause the rear wheels to lose traction , then controlling the drift with proper steering and gas inputs. Having brake bias can be beneficial to the drift depending on the driving style. Usually having bias on rear brakes helps to brake drift.

• Power Over Drift - This drift performed when entering a corner at full throttle to produce heavy oversteer through the turn. It is the most typical drifting technique for AWD cars (predominantly RWD). Keiichi Tsuchiya has been regarded as saying he used this technique when he was too scared to drift at certain corners when he was younger. However the chance of this technique leading to a burn-out instead of a drift is possible if executed at a bad angle.

• Inertia (Feint) Drift - This is done by rocking the car towards the outside of a turn and then using the inertia of the car to swing it back to the desired drifting line. By going away from the corner, and turning back in hard, you are coming from a much sharper angle. Sometimes the brake will be applied while rocking the car towards the outside to give a better weight transfer ; hence creating an even sharper turn. It has been said by many pro drifters that this is one of the hardest techniques to master as it has a high spin-out factor.

• Lift Off - By letting your foot off of the accelerator while cornering at very high speeds, certain cars with very neutral handling, such as the MX-5 or S14, will begin to slide, simply from the drop in torque and engine braking. The drift is controlled afterwards by steering inputs from the driver and light pedal work.

• Handbrake/E-Brake Drift - This technique is pretty straightforward; pull the handbrake to induce rear traction loss and balance drift through steering and throttle play. Some people debate the fact that if using the handbrake creates an actual drift, or just a power slide , but ultimately, using the e-brake is no different than any other technique for starting drifts. This is generally the main technique to perform a controlled drift in a FWD vehicle. This is one the first techniques beginners will use as their cars are not powerful enough to lose traction using other techniques. Also this technique is used heavily in drift competitions to drift big corners.

• Dirt Drop Drift - This is done by dropping the rear tires off the road into the dirt to maintain or gain drift angle without losing power or speed and to set up for the next turn. Only permissible on roads without barriers and lined with dirt or other materials which to lose traction. This is commonly done in WRC rallying.

• Clutch Kick - This is done by "kicking" the clutch (pushing in, then out, usually more than one time in a drift for adjustment in a very fast manner) to send a shock through the powertrain , upsetting the car's balance. It causes the rear wheels to slip and enables the driver to induce oversteer.

• Choku Dori - This is mainly used after long straightaways to slow the car down and to perform a stunning, high-angled, long drift. The car is thrown into a feint and is swung back the other way at very high speeds, while the driver uses the emergency brake to maintain the car's line and to extend the drift.

• Manji - This is done on straightaways, when the driver swings the car from side to side across the track. It is mainly used in choreographed drifting such as in events like Big X. Many techniques can be used to initiate this, such as clutch kick and feint.

• Changing Side Swing - This technique is used extensively in the Japanese D1 competition and is very similar to inertia (Feint) drift. It is often done on the first entry drift corner, which is often a long double apex turn just before a very fast straight-way. If the straight-way before that double apex is of a downhill orientation, the driver keeps driving on side of the track that is closetest to the corner. Then with correct timing in mind, the driver abruptly changes the car onto the other side. This movement has the car momentum to be altered causing the rear wheels to lose traction. The car is in a drift motion right now. Then the drift is carried over into the corner and through it.

• Dynamic Drift - This technique is similar to the Choku Dori. It employs all forms of the above techniques - and not restricted to only one - in combinations to accomplish the desired drift movement.