A Matter Of Drift

I was reading through an issue of Option this morning - and when I say reading, I mean looking at the pictures as the whole magazine is in Japanese - and I got to thinking about how obsessed everyone is at the moment with the cult of drift.

Now don’t be too hasty if you think this is going to be a slag-off session about how I hate drift, because it’s anything but. I absolutely love watching those D1 boys shred through set-after-set of tyres, and I especially like seeing when they head to other countries like the UK and hte US and watch them dominate local white-boys (like me) who think they have the sport down-pat. I love watching it, its just that I’m not really into it personally.

So it’s not that I don’t like drift, it’s just that I don’t understand the mind-blocking obsession some people have with it. For example, not long ago I was asking on one of the Australian forums I used to frequent quite a lot if anyone could give me a price on a decent second-hand set of Volks, and specified that I was looking for something between 9-10″ wide to fit on the rear of my 180SX. After I did, I got about two or three comments from people wondering why I’d be putting such wide wheels on my car because it’d be really hard to break traction with them, and one guy even going so far as to calling me an idiot for wanting them because there would be no way I could drift.

Drift? Who said I was going to use my car to drift? It just seems to me that so many people are caught up in the drift craze right now that as soon as you mention a Japanese performance car - especially something like a 180SX - they immediately assume it’s going to be built for sliding around corners and not even consider that it could be for track, or even drag work.

I’m not too sure how it is here in Malaysia, though I have to say I’m leaning towards the thinking that probably not so many locals are as simple-minded as my kinfolk back home, mainly due to the amount of media in local magazines that have suggested to me otherwise. I do know however that drift has a huge following here, I just hope when the time comes I buy my next car and start setting it up for the track, I don’t get people looking at me as if I have two heads.

- Leon.