FALKEN TIRE DRIFT SHOWOFF

The Falken Tire Drift Showoff was a hit, to say the least. The event was held at Irwindale Motor Speedway on a beautiful, sunny afternoon. Thousands of people attended, which goes to show the outstanding marketing job that Falken Tire is doing to help make a difference in the tuner car movement. The company took it upon itself to give us a taste of what the Japanese market has been enjoying for so many years.

Among the thousands of spectators, a healthy number of show cars showed up as well—and why wouldn’t they? This was an Import Showoff event, but this car show was a bit different from the norm. It was a JDM versus DTM show. In other words, Japanese against Euro. The cars that came out were very hot, with enough JDM and DTM on hand to kill you. All the heavy hitters and the big crews such as Team Hybrid, Flux, Tuningwerks Competition and Art-N-Motion came out to show their stuff. While this was a huge attraction, it was far from the main one.

We’re talking about drifting. You may have seen all the crazy videos that have circulated on the Internet and most of us are familiar with the Option 2 magazine drift videos, but it’s a different story when the real deal is right in front of you. Drifting has really become mainstream just in the last year. You have to understand what drifting is all about so that you can truly appreciate the cars and what these guys are doing as they drift.

If you have ever seen anyone drifting or if you have seen the videos on the Internet, you know what makes this sport so exciting. It looks like an out-of-control slide through the turns, with tons of tire smoke and incredible sounds coming from turbocharged engines as they slide around a drift course with style and grace. The objective in drifting is pretty simple: you are to maneuver through corners of the course at a speed that forces the car into an oversteer condition, while the driver is monitoring the throttle to maintain the slide through the turns. The drifting is controlled by braking and throttle. It takes a ton of power to control the drift and run through the course with grace and style like some of the top drivers from Japan.

The cool thing about the Falken Tire Drift Showoff was that it had a drifting clinic with professional instructors teaching you how to drift like the pros. The instructors were the pros that Falken brought over from Japan and they were able to spend tons of time helping attendees perfect the art of drifting. After you proved that your skills were up to the task, 40 of the top drivers were able to compete in a drift competition, battling for a $1,500 prize. This ended up being a huge bonus for everyone involved.

The highlight of the show was watching the pro drivers from Japan go at it. These guys were incredible, giving the crowd everything it could ever want. The Showoff crew did a good thing when they teamed up with Falken Tire, the title sponsor of the event, to bring over a few top D1 drifters and their cars from Japan. Drifters Koguchi, Yamamoto, Komatsu and Bai made up the four drifters from Japan and they set the track on fire!

Even though these drivers are seasoned veterans, each has experienced his fair share of smacking the walls when coming in for a wild drift. This didn’t seem to slow the drivers up a bit. In fact, it just gave them more to drive for, because every time they hit something, the crowd cheered louder and they drove faster and faster. All of this created an atmosphere that hasn’t been around for a long time. It was an epic day in tuner history!

As you can tell by our own enthusiasm, this show was incredible. Some are even saying that it was the best show of the year.

The Falken Tire Drift Showoff brought it back to the cars and the people who build them. Even today, we are still hearing about this show and how hot it was. Maybe the Showoff crew will start bringing it to us on a scheduled basis, which would be extremely sick. It’s safe to say that we are seeing the start of something really big Stateside.

If you are thinking about getting more involved in drifting, you will want to be equipped with the right car. This will make the whole experience that much better. If you are interested in building a little drifter for yourself, you may want to look into one of these cars: Mazda RX-7, any model; Nissan 240/Silvia conversion, especially the 180 body; Nissan Skyline, any model; Toyota MR2; Toyota Supra; and any of the old-school, rear-wheel-drive Corollas. It’s better that you stick with a lightweight, rear-wheel-drive setup because it makes it much more fun to drift, not to mention a whole lot easier. It also requires less of an investment. Now that you know how to get started, get out there and build a drifter!