Hibino Qualifies First in Autopolis D1GP

Over the weekend it was a special cocktail of AE86 community love that brought everyone’s favourite Ebisu-jumping-drift master into the number one qualifying spot. Driving Toshiki Yoshioka’s old red NOS-assisted 4A-GE, now painted in a striking coat of matte black (and sporting some wicked bolt on flares), Hibino worked his way into the top spot in preparation for Sunday’s showdown.


Unfortunately the race day was not as kind to him, as the final standings saw him in fourth position, knocked out in the semi by the eventual round winner (and AE86 legend himself) Youichi Imamura driving the Team BOSS Potenza-backed S15 . Fourth isn’t the win but still a position worthy of some praise - especially considering the calibre of top-notch sponsored teams up against him! Well done Hibino! Can’t wait for the exhibition round in Tokyo!

Drifting Performance Tuning

Drive train
A proper mechanical limited slip differential (LSD) is essential for drifting. Open diffs and viscous diffs cannot be controlled during a sustained slide. All other modifications are secondary to the LSD. Popular drift LSDs include OS Giken, KAAZ, & Cusco. The most popular form of LSD for drifting is the clutch type, in "2-way" form; this is preferred for its consistent and aggressive lockup behavior under all conditions (acceleration and deceleration). Some drift cars use a spool "differential", which actually has no differential action at all, the wheels are locked to each other. Budget drifters also use the welded differential, where the side gears are welded to give the same effect. This makes the car very easy to slide at high speed, but difficult to park, and is hard on the driveline. Torsen (available on cars such as S15, FD3S, MX5, JZA8x) diffs are adequate, but not generally available aftermarket. The clutches on drift cars tend to be very tough ceramic brass button or multiple-plate varieties, for durability, as well as to allow rapid "clutch kick" techniques to upset the balance of the car. Gearbox and engine mounts are often replaced with urethane mounts, and dampers added, to control the violent motion of the engine/gearbox under these conditions. Gearsets may be replaced with closer ratios to keep the engine in the power band. (Japanese drifters confuse the "L" and call these "cross-mission".) These may be coarser dog engagement straight cut gears instead of synchronised helical gears, for durability and faster shifting at the expense of noise and refinement. Wealthier drifters may use sequential gearboxes or sequential adapters to make gear selection easier/faster.

Suspension
The suspension in a drift car tends to have very high spring and damper rates. Sway bars are upgraded, particularly on the rear. Caster is often increased to improve the car's controllability during a slide. Most cars use an integrated coilover/shock (MacPherson strut) combination. This type of suspension allows the ride height to be adjusted independently of the suspension travel. There is no perfect height setting or spring/shock combo for any car, but each driver will have their own personal preference. Many suspension manufacturers offer suspension tuned specifically for drifting, allowing many people to enter the sport competitively.Bushings can be upgraded with urethane parts. Most Nissan vehicles have a floating rear subframe which is usually fixed in position with billet aluminium or urethane "drift pineapples", to prevent the frame moving during drift. One suspension tuning method, still popular in Japan, is known as "Demon Camber". It involves setting the suspension with extreme negative camber in the front to reduce slide. Negative camber on the rear would only induce understeer, making the car more difficult to drift. The front of the car having better grip and less tendency to slide, it is easier to swing the rear of the car around to get a good drift angle. However stability, grip, and overall ability to control the car are compromised. It has thus fallen out of favor as a serious performance-minded suspension setup. However, many cars built for show (such as those driven by bosozoku) still use this style of suspension setup for its aggressive look. A few degrees of toe-out on the rear wheels in some vehicles (leading edges angled outward) can improve turn-in, and make setting up a drift a little easier. Generally drifting consumes tires rapidly and multiple sets may be necessary for a single professional event.

CockpitBecause of the large sideways forces, the driver must be retained firmly by a bucket seat, and preferably five point harness. This allows the hands to merely turn the wheel, as opposed to bracing oneself against the wheel. The steering wheel should be relatively small, dished, and perfectly round, so that it can be released and allowed to spin through the hands as the caster returns the front wheels to center. The locking knob on the hand brake is usually replaced with a spin turn knob, this stops the hand brake locking on when pulled. Some drivers move the hand brake location or add an extra hydraulic hand brake actuator for greater braking force.

Engine
Engine power does not need to be high, and in fact if a car has too much power, it can be very hard to handle during a drift. Each driver has their own preference, and drift cars can be found with anything from 100bhp (74kW) to 1000bhp (745kW). Typically, engine tuning is oriented towards achieving linear response rather than maximum power output. Engines also must be equipped with upgraded cooling systems. Not only are the engines pushed very hard, creating lots of heat, but being driven at an angle reduces the airflow through the radiator. For turbocharged engines, intercooler efficiency is similarly reduced. Oil coolers are almost essential. V-mounting the intercooler and radiator improves flow through these components, and keep the expensive intercooler out of harm's way in the inevitable offs.

Steering
With increased steering angle it is possible to achieve greater angle with the vehicle, it will also aid in spin recovery. This is often done with spacers on the steering rack, custom steering racks, custom tierod ends, or machining the spindles. Increased steering angle often requires other modifications as at some point the tire or wheel will come in contact with other suspension pieces or the inner/outer fenders.

Body
Chassis preparation is similar to a road racing car. Roll cages are sometimes employed for safety, and to improve the torsional rigidity of the car's frame, but are compulsory in events that involves the 2+ cars tsuiou runs in the event of a side collision. Front and rear strut tower braces, B-pillar braces, lower arm braces, and master cylinder braces are all used to stiffen the chassis. The interior is stripped of extraneous seating, trim, carpet, sound deadening; anything that is not essential is removed to reduce weight. Body kits are usually attached with cable ties. When the body kit meets the wall or curb, the cable ties snap, releasing the part, as opposed to breaking it. As drift cars are pushed faster, aerodynamic tuning becomes more important as well. Rear spoilers and wings usually are useful only in large, open tracks where the cars develop enough speed to create a need for more downforce. Wheel arches are often rolled or flared to allow the fitment of larger tires. Airflow to the engine is critical, so the hood is often vented.

Tires
The cars quite often have different tires on the front and back, and the owner may have quite a few sets. This is because a single afternoon of drifting can destroy a new set of tires. As a rule, good tires go on the front for good steering. On the back, hard-compound tires are used, quite often second-hand ones tend to end up in a cloud of smoke. 15" wheels are common on the rear, as 15" tires are cheap. As a driver gets better, they will most likely want to upgrade the tires used in the rear for a higher grip compound. Although cheap/hard tires are fun purely for their slipperiness and ease of drifting, they quickly become a hazard for high-speed drifts. More advanced drivers require the most grip possible from all 4 tires. Competitive drifters often run DOT approved tires closer to racing tires, which is permitted, with the exception of some major championships including D1GP which only permits commercially available tires that are approved by them. The grip is required for control, speed, and a fast snap on the initial entry. Some companies have started to create tires with special effects for drifting. One such company is Kuhmo. They recently released tires designed especially for the drifting crowd. These new tires produce colored smoke instead of regular grey smoke when drifted. However these tires are generally not available to the public, and only to drift teams at the moment.

Kansei Drift
This is performed at race speeds, when entering a high speed corner a driver lifts his foot off the throttle while slightly turning into a corner to induce a mild over steer and then balances the drift through steering, braking and throttle motions. (note: the car that is being used for this style of drift should be a neutral balanced car therefore the over steer will be induce when this technique is applied, if the car plows through any turn this technique will not work)

Braking Drift
This is performed by braking before a corner while starting to turn in, vary the brake petal until loss of grip is obtained and then balance the over steer through steering and throttle motions.

Faint Drift
This is performed by rocking the car towards the opposite direction of a turn and then using the rebound of grip to throw the car into the normal cornering direction. (note: this is heavy rally racing technique used to change vehicle attitudes during cornering)

Clutch Kick
This is performed by depressing the clutch pedal on approach or during a mild drift, then pop the clutch under power to give a sudden jolt through the driveline to upset rear traction.

Shift Lock
This is performed by letting the revs drop upon downshift into a corner and then releasing the clutch to put stress on the driveline to slow the rear tires inducing over steer. (This is like pulling the E-brake through a turn - note: this is best to be performed in the wet to minimize damage to the driveline etc)

Side Brake Drift
This technique is very basic, pull the E-Brake or (side brake) to induce rear traction loss and balance drift through steering and throttle play. (note this can also be used to correct errors or fine tune drift angles)

Dirt Drop Drift
This is performed by dropping the rear tires off the road into the dirt to maintain or gain drift angle if losing power. (note: this technique is very useful for low horsepower cars, also good show move to produce a dirt rooster tail)

Jump Drift
This technique the rear tire on the inside of a turn or apex is bounced over a rumble strip to help lose traction resulting in over steer.

Choku Dori
This is done by pulling the E-brake through a strait to start a high angel drift and to hold this angle to set up for the turn ahead. (note: this can only be done at high speed)

Manji
This is a slow swaying faint like drift where the rear end sways back and forth down a strait.

Power Over
This is performed when entering a corner and using full throttle to produce heavy over steer (tail slide) through a turn. (note: need horsepower to make this happen) For the guys with the 240's, you cant do this drift with a stock KA. You need a SR swap or maybe a KA-T to do this drift

Drifitng Techniques

The basic driving techniques used in drifting are constant, though each car and driver will employ some subset of these techniques. They include:-Beginner techniquesThese techniques don't use weight transition, so are typically the first thing the novice drifter learns. However they are still used by the most experienced drifters, and require skill to execute properly.

Hand-brake or Emergency brake drift - While the clutch is depressed, the hand-brake is pulled to induce rear traction loss. As soon as traction is lost, the driver releases the clutch, depresses the accelerator, and countersteers. This is generally the main technique to attempt to drift a FWD car (clutch unnecessary).

Also, this technique is used heavily in drift competitions to drift large corners, or to trim the car's line mid-drift.

Power oversteer or Powerslide - This drift is performed when entering a corner at full throttle to produce heavy oversteer through the turn. The excess power causes the drive wheels to lose traction in a RWD or AWD car. This is the most typical drifting technique for all-wheel drive cars.

-Shift lock Initiated by downshifting (usually from third to second or fourth to third, and using a very fast shift) instead of braking, without rev-matching, causing the drive wheels to lock momentarily.
Helpful for very tight corners, allowing the driver to approach the corner at a slower speed and lower revs, while allowing quick acceleration when exiting the corner. This technique can be very damaging to the engine if mis-used as the ECU is unable to rev limit when the engine is oversped by the rear wheels. Premature downshifters are called "Rod Stretchers".

-Clutch kickThis 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. This causes the rear wheels to slip.

-Weight transition techniques

-Braking DriftThis drift is performed by braking into a corner, so that the car can transfer weight to the front. This is immediately followed by throttle in a RWD car causes the rear wheels to lose traction. FWD cars can also use this technique as it does not depend on the rear wheels being driven.

-Inertia (Feint) drift, or Scandinavian flickThis is done by transferring the weight of car towards the outside of a turn by first turning away from the turnand then quickly turning back using the inertia of the rear of the car to swing into the desired drifting line. Sometimes the hand-brake will be applied while transferring the weight of the car towards the outside to lock the rear wheels and help the rear swing outwards. This type of drifting causes the car to accelerate faster afterwards, because of momentum built up while drifting.

-Kansei, Lift off, or Taking InBy letting off the accelerator while cornering at very high speeds, cars with relatively neutral handling will begin to slide, simply from the weight transfer resulting from engine braking. The drift is controlled afterwards by steering inputs from the driver and light pedal work, similar to the Braking drift.

-Other techniques-Dirt dropThis is done by dropping the rear tires off the sealed road onto dirt, or whatever low-grip surface borders the road, to maintain or gain drift angle. Also colloquially called "Dirt Turbo".

-Choku-DoriThis is done by swaying the car's weight back and forth on straightaways, using countersteer and throttle to maintain a large angle. This is a show maneuver that usually involves many cars following the same line.

What is Drifting

Drifting is one of the greatest auto sports ever created. If you have never heard of drifting back home before coming to Japan; by the time you get back, it should be popular. So you ask what is Drifting, why is it so great, and where did it begin?

First off, drifting is getting your car sideways down a road. So what do I mean by getting a car sideways down a road? Basically drifting is the controlled loss of traction. Although the car may look as though it is out of control, a good drifter will be in control of his car at all times. So in essence a good drifter has the ability to take five or six opposing turns without having traction at any point in time. Good drifters take their cars upwards of 80mph and sway the car from side to side at angles of 45degrees or greater.

There are basically two kinds of drifts, there is a straightaway drift and there is a corner drift. Often a straightaway drift is combined with a corner drift. So is drifting illegal? Yes and no. It's kind of like a don't ask don't tell thing. The Kesatsu (police) usually ignore it unless it is done in a public area. The docks which is a very popular drifting spot is about half a mile from a police station but they very rarely bother coming down and passing out ticketsSo why is this so cool you may ask? For starters, it?s a sport that was started in and mastered in Japan.

(Mr. Keiichi Tsuchiya)

Drifting has many different roots and similarities with other motor sports such as rally racing, auto cross, and any other high speed racing. So some might say that drifting never began in Japan, but it definitely developed here into what it is today. One of the pioneers of the sport is Keiichi Tsuchiya. Back in 1977 Keiichi began his racing career driving many different cars in amateur racing series events. Later Keiichi was picked up to drive the ADVAN sponsored AE86/1984 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.

Drifting a car through a corner is not the fastest way around most turns, any race car driver will tell you strait out. Although it is not always faster to drift through a corner, Keiichi was able to use positions on the track that no one else in the race could. This helped to prove his style of driving. Along with improving his ranking in races, Keiichi?s style helped his reputation to grow. He is a racecar driver now and still takes to the mountains for illegal racing this also made his reputation grow.So where do these Drifters drift you ask? Why have I never seen or heard of then? In Japan the first and probably the most popular is in the mountains (Touge). Drifters flock to them because they are relatively desolate with few people and they have perfect groups of S turns to test a drifter?s abilities. The second is the docks, which are usually deserted of cars and people late at night. It is also done in isolated parking lots. I know in Kobe, the docks are a very popular place for drifting. I am not sure but I would think the same is true for the docks near Tokyo. This is where drifters learn or warm up for the mountains. Last but not least are the circuits. This is where competitions are held and contestants are judged on a specific group of turns on a 100 point scale. Circuits are very popular but are usually only open one day a week (Sunday or Saturday) and you have to pay to get in. In Japan there are over twenty different circuits scattered all over Japan. So can you drift with any kind of car? Technically you can drift with any car, but it?s mostly done with rear wheel drive cars. The reason being that rear wheel cars are better balanced for the swaying motion of drifting. Also having a rear wheel powered car, you are able to add power to the rear thus adding to or reducing your slide when needed.

(Keiichi Tsuchiya with his Honda NSX)

The following is a list of cars that are some of the most popular drifting cars: 1986 Toyota Corolla/AE86/Trueno/Levin, the Nissan Silvia S13 and S14, the Nissan 180SX/240SX, related mechanically to the Silvia, the only difference is in the body style and the fact that is lighter and has a better front/rear balance ratio, the Mazda FC3S RX-7, and lastly Nissan Skyline GTS-T. There are many other great cars that are used for drifting, but I want to keep the list short for the sake and simplicity of this article. I could go on and on about this topic, but like the saying goes ?seeing is believing.? So please search the net. I will list some popular sights that you can get a better idea of what drifting is. There are also numerous videos and magazine you can check out. The best videos and magazines out there are Options, Options 2, and Drift Tengoku (Drift Heaven). Car Boy video and magazine is also pretty good. I would say the best way to experience drifting without actually going to the track would be through a video.How to start Drifting...???There are two ways to start a drift. The first is the clutching technique. When approaching a turn the driver will push in the clutch and shift his car into second gear. Then rev the engine up to around 4000 - 5000 rpm (it all depends all the model of the car being used) and then slightly turn away from the turn and then cut back towards it hard while at the same time popping the clutch and causing the rear wheels to spin. At this point the drifter has a loss of traction and is beginning to slide around the curve.

Now comes the hard part. You have to hold the drift until the next turn. To do this you must keep your foot on the accelerator while at the same time adjusting your car with the steering wheel so you don't spin out. It's not as easy as it sounds. Then as the drifter reaches the end of the turn and approaches the next turn which is in the opposite direction he must cut thewheel in that direction and in some cases, if the previous drift was to slow and they start to regain traction, they must pop the clutch again to get the wheels spinning. And that is how you drift a rear wheel drive car.The second technique is used by a few drifters in rear wheel drives, but is the only way you can really drift a front wheel drive. You have to use the side brake. A front wheel drive can not whip it's tail out because the tires are being driven in the front as opposed to the rear. So when approaching a turn you pull the side brake to cause traction loss. And the rest is pretty much the same except that it's much harder to take more than one turn with a front wheel driver.