These events eventually led to drifter participation in road racing events with the SCCA, NASA and Speed Trial USA - ultimately an opportunity to better understand what it feels like to control a car at high speeds in a safe environment.Īs the underground current gained momentum with the support of enthusiast websites including Club4AG, which promoted sanctioned drifting events including Speed Trial USA, this unusual new "sport" of drifting began to surface and peak the curiosity of mainstream racing enthusiasts and media alike.
Soon, sanctioned SCCA autocross events opened its doors to drifting enthusiasts, which gave local drivers an opportunity to practice maneuvering through tight, technical turns. Many American Drifters tell stories of watching hours of Japanese videos and reading countless pages about technique - and it was these hands-off lessons that became their driving school - where they learned about speed and basic racing techniques like traditional grip-driving, braking in a straight line before the corner, accelerating out of the apex of the turn and honing the valuable drifting skill of heel-and-toe braking - which they would then fine tune in their cars in open parking lots and back roads. Sales of front engine/rear wheel drive (FR) import cars like the Nissan 240SX (S13, S14) and the Toyota Corolla skyrocketed among the underground import crowd craving the drifting scene.Įngine and body modifications became secondary to good driving skills. Key in drifting was suspension tuning, good tires, and brake upgrades - a must have before any engine modifications. Early American drifters learned that older imports like the Nissan 240SX, Toyota Corolla, Mazda RX-7, Nissan 300Z and Toyota Supra were more desirable when modifying for function as well as form. American drivers learned that the type of car had a huge impact on performance when drifting, and went against the grain in what was a growing tuner "show car" scene - which was all about painted vinyl interiors, Supra wings, "Powered by Honda" stickers and side marker lights. Magazine covers like Carboy, J's Tipo, Option, and Autoworks opened a window into Japanese racing movements including Drifting, VIP and Group A, which eventually evolved into Japan's number one grand prix circuit knows as JGTC or Super GT racing. and has since become today's tuner scene. It was here that enthusiasts pummeled through hundreds of car magazines and racing videos that featured modified cars that looked very different than what was in the U.S. Most of today's Formula DRIFT pros tell similar stories about following the Japanese car culture, and how they uncovered access to this underground world through the Internet and in small Japanese bookstores in Japanese neighborhoods, primarily in Southern California. When drag racing was exploding across America, a small number of enthusiast's fascination was leaning toward an underground sport in Japan called canyon racing and drifting. The American Drifting scene's roots can be traced back to the late 1980s and early 1990s.
To the novice, it would appear that drifting very recently crossed the Pacific Ocean and exploded into the world or racing not more than two years ago, but hard core enthusiasts know different.
I have a lot of parts already, ready to go on.In Japan, the art of Drifting has been popular among the street racers or "hashiriya" for more than 15 years, and has morphed into one of the country's number one attended motorsports in less than a decade, where professional Japanese Drifters are the equivalent of national celebrities.
The PTE name comes from the Itashi/Anime on the side which if you YouTube is a pretty funny cartoon called Pop Team Epic.ġ993 RZ JZA80 Supra (Originally 199 Silver) Anyways long story short, he apologised about teh poor body but assured me the mechanicals are A1 he owned the car for 20 years and used it for occasioanl drifting. I did some research and managed to track down the original owner on Twitter! He sold it very cheap to a dealer there and realised he sold it too cheap and was upset (The dealer was Pakistani lol). As you will see from the looks like garbage BUT to its credit its still all mechanically stock, stock twins, clutch etc. It turns out its an early RZ Manual! It has the main things people want.2JZGTE, V160 Getrag, B03B Diff and the ALFQZ Vin tage (Genuine RZ).
My business partner did however click on it and pointed it out to me that this might be a good buy/project Trawling Yahoo Japan (As I do daily) I saw this art work, and TBH did not even click on the add.pretty much thought it was an auto NA POS off the bat. So another Supra joins the Gorilla Industires fleet (Thats 3 now!) This one is purley to restore and fick!