Drifting (motorsport)

Drifting is a motor sport that originated from the same driving technique. Here, the driver tries to bring his vehicle to oversteer, while maintaining control and a high driving speed. In these maneuvers, the steered front wheels point to the outside of the curve, the rear wheels have a higher slip angle than the front wheels. As a motor sports competition drifting will be held around the world, where speed is essential, drift angle and elegance of the drifts.

History

The drifting as a driving technique is very common in motorsport. In disciplines such as rally, speedway or supermoto it is used to achieve higher cornering speeds.

The emergence as a motor sport goes back to the eighties. Japanese touring car drivers took advantage of the driving technique to gain an advantage in the race. Inspired thereof produced Keiichi Tsuchiya 1987, a video called Pluspy in which he drifted on a Toyota Corolla Levin on public roads. Back in 1988, a first competition in Japan was held under the banner of the D1 Grand Prix. It was not until the mid-nineties were held also the first events in the United States. Meanwhile, the sport has also gained popularity worldwide. Thus, in Germany the discharged since 1999 International Drift Challenge is quite popular. Films like The Fast and the Furious, which move in the environment of the tuner and drift scene, did the rest. Since 2011, the label drift United is in the mouths of national and internatiolen drift sports scene. Professionally organized racing events and shows in the drift segment will take place annually.

Organizes the series are mostly by private promoters. There is no ultimate motorsport authority, such as the FIA which will prepare a uniform regulations. In 2008, the first drift World Championships were held in Long Beach. Hosted by Red Bull Rhys Millen Pontiac Solstice GXP was on a first World Cup winner. The field consisted mostly of participants in the U.S. Formula D ( Formula Drift ). But there were also a few Japanese and Europeans at the start.

Competitions

The competitions are usually started with a qualification. Here the best 16 drivers usually have to qualify with good heat races for the final. In these runs, the drivers are typically individually move. The routes are often only a few hundred meters long, and mostly curvy sections of the right tracks. So there is drift events in the Sachskurve the Hockenheimring, in the range Priory and Luffield the Silverstone Circuit or on oval courses such as the Irwindale Speedway in the United States. Here is even drifted into the steep curves.

In the drifts, it depends on the achieved speed, drift angle, line choice and style. So liquid driving and close approach to the line route and limiting opponents are highly valued. The evaluation will be carried out by independent judges. In the finals two vehicles are simultaneously sent into the race as opposed to the qualification. In a direct duel the section is traversed twice, once every driver is the lead vehicle and must be overhauled. Either is determined by the panel directly a winner of the duel, or it may be given per barrel points, the highest score decides the race winner. Thus, a winner of the competition will be determined in the KO system.

To show purposes are also sometimes more than two vehicles on the track. Also, the event mode varies depending on the series and promoter.

European

Since 2012, the International Drift Series is organizing a European ( EM). The deadline of the season the finals will be held at the Nürburgring ( Müllenbachschleife ).

2013 United drift was held the first championship round of the international series. This year, a drift champion United is first named and may travel as a winner to Las Vegas.

European champion

• 2012 - Patrick Ritzmann
• 2013 - Dimitri Lust ( pro rating )
• 2013 - Jörg Stoll ( Street - rating )

Driving technique

When drifting mostly light vehicles with rear-wheel drive and high engine power and torque are used. Popular vehicle types are like the Nissan 350Z, Nissan Silvia or the Toyota Corolla Levin. This was also seen in Pluspy. Vehicles with four-wheel drive, as they come from rallying, are mostly converted to significant speed excess on the rear axle, the so-called counter steering or oversteering. This has the advantage of selectively control the drift angle on the spinning of the rear wheels ( but can via the driven front axle the position of the vehicle can be changed quickly, while a pure rear-wheel drive a much higher inertia adduced ). This ride is called Power Over Steer, ie a provoziertes oversteer through sheer abundance of engine power. Front-wheel drive are not suitable for drifting, since they tend to understeer instead of oversteer. A oversteer can be generated by inserting the hand brake when the front wheel drive though. However, this is referred to as "Slide" and not " drift ".

In addition to the hand brake and the Power-Over Steer the excessively rapid downshifting or pressing the clutch is used, to make the vehicles targeted unstable. These techniques are referred to as " shift-lock " and " Clutch - kick". Another technique is to bring the car in a pendulum motion. The driver tries to drive small wavy lines, so that the rear of the vehicle to slide during a sudden and strong Einlenkmanöver. A successful introduction of the drift is in this case called " Feint ".

Another technique is to place the rear axle of the car for a short time on a grassy area next to the track. In this case, the carriage is positioned so rocks that slides over the rear surface in addition to the asphalt and loses adhesion. As soon as the input drift angle is reached, the vehicle is moved back to the asphalt. This technique is referred to as " dirt drop".

The handbrake (E -brake ) itself is also used not only for introducing the drift, but also be used to extend a drift significantly by bringing instability in the running state, while the carriage has a tendency to rebuild grip on the rear axle. Another possible use of the E-Brake is the dismantling of a velocity surplus between curve combinations. For example, if a curve drifted in fourth gear and then follows a curve that requires the drift in second gear, it makes sense, by means of the E-Brake to greatly increase the drift angle before receipt of the slower curve and therefore when the reduce slipping velocity curve.