If you've never heard of Evergreen speedway, I'm not surprised. It was originally built as a horse racing track, but was eventually paved over. The outer track is 5/8 mile, while the inner bank is 3/8 mile. Evergreen hosts Round 5 of Formula D this season, and has played host for a number of years now. I showed up "bright" and early to find nothing but rain, gloom, and a pit area packed full of eager attendees with all kinds of entries. While i'm always excited to visit drift events in other regions of the country, i still can't help but be disappointed at the trends that are going on today, one of the larger or which is the shitbox style of tuning, in which absolutely no regard is given towards styling or aesthetics. Many of this events entrants had vehicles that quite literally may have been drug out of the junkyard just yesterday in time to show up this morning. It appears that many of the others had found stock cars in decent condition, and then set out to intentionally deface them with spraypaint, poorly fitted body kits, and an altogether low amount of effort and taste.
Derriks car stands out like a fucking Kilimanjaro amongst them.
While Dpomps has proven that his ideas about styling are on par with many of the others that true drift junkies look up to, seeing his car in person at this venue that was primarily populated with extremely "budget" car(casses), it just made his steed stand out that much more.
(prime examples)
There were a few other entrants with panache, both on and off the track on this day. Rob Primo, Formula D driver sponsored by Achilles Radial and Garage Autohero, was there testing in preparation for the upcoming season opener Formula D event in Long Beach, CA this following weekend. With a fresh dyno tune and a wider power band on his twin-scroll turbo, feeding matching tial wastegates howling like pissed off teakettles, the 2jz engine sounded wicked when the wick was lit.
Ray from Autohero and Yoshi Shindo were both in attendance and I was glad to meet both of them for the first time. Yoshi is a fellow asshole so we immediately got along like kindred spirits. His infiniti G37 sedan was looking mighty snazzy as well, and we kept taunting him to take it out on the track for a few laps! Maybe next time.
Also in attendance was former FD driver Nikolay Konstantinov. He and some buddies were rolling around in a mundane looking beige s13 coupe, but under the hood lay a mean looking tuned RB25 engine! Super sleeper!!! Nikolay is a pretty intense personality, never one to hold back from letting you know just what he thinks, and his style behind the wheels is the same way, with nothing held back!
This heap couldn't make a complete lap due to the terrible ride quality. Later found out that he was on "coilover sleeves".
AE86 corollas in clean condition are getting more and more uncommon, so its refreshing to see one that has been well respected and well looked after.
This driver was consistent and impressive all day long. His car, while retaining the stock exterior, still looked very nice due to the clean paint, lack of damaged panels, and more importantly, lack of tasteless "mods", reinforcing my theory that "just because you CAN, doesn't always mean you SHOULD"
Full gallery here
https://www.facebook.com/emerson.finepants/media_set?set=a.10151928254566595.1073741842.598386594&type=3&uploaded=206
Sorry that people cant blow 5k+ on a drift car that gets beat on at track days. Have you seen cars such as team burst? Have they ever been fully in one piece? Some people dont use their parents money to build a drift car
ReplyDeleteAnd what car did you bring Tyler? Or did your parents not buy you one? Drifting isn't about great looking cars slowly sliding across the pavement. Dents and missing fenders and a little questionable smoke are trademarks in the drift world. Seems like you'd be more into the show scene if this is how you really feel. Maybe you don't quite get what drift is.
ReplyDelete@austin, $5k on a drift car? Thats pretty damn minimal. Try getting into any other form of motorsports on a $5k budget. Comparing some of the cars that attended this event to Team Burst is laughable.
ReplyDelete@anna, my car is in SoCal, where I live, right next to my truck, and my motorcycle, all of which I own outright. No loans. Like i said in the article, I'm up here for work, not for play. It just happened to be convenient that i had the day off and could attend the event with a friend of mine. Drifting IS about watching GOOD LOOKING cars. Anything less isn't worth watching. While damage is commonplace and to be expected, the overall lack of concern for aesthetics and encouragement of intentionally smashing panels is a very very sad trend indeed.
(Fyi, my AVERAGE work week is 60hrs, so i'm not sure where all this "parents money" went, but it sure as hell ain't in MY bank account)
I think you missed my point, Tyler. Drifting is about driving not watching, first of all. Also this was an open event, people come out to these with what they have and do the best they can. I'm saying it doesn't hurt to have help from mom and dad. But not everyone has that. You start with zero and build up any way you can. And they're all still a work in progress. Not the cleanest. Not the prettiest. But they get sideways, and technically that is what drifting is, is it not? No one I know would intentionally hit a wall. But if it were to happen they wouldn't be fucked because they didn't spend way too much money making it perfect in the first place. Just replace it or buff it and move on. Its sad that you'd let the aesthetics of a car ruin your eye for good quality drifts and unique style. Just because someone has a beautiful car with pristine paint and no damage does not mean they have more skill than a car with no fender or a dent in the side. I'm not going to be able to change your mind or dictate what you prefer to view on the track. My whole point to this is that I think you're missing out on what the actual drift scene is. Not about a good looking car. Its about actually drifting. You don't have to think its worth watching, but in that case any commentary you have on track days is essentially invalid. Not to mention most of these guys are either just starting out or haven't been on the track for too long. Everybody's gotta start somewhere.
ReplyDelete"Watching the crowd respond to other participants, more than willing to drag rear corner panels across walls and smash in taillights and fenders, my opinion is clearly not that of the masses. Se la vie." FYI it's spelled "C'est la vie" for future reference.
First off I love a beautiful car as much as the next guy and Derrik's build is an amazing one but this is OPEN DRIFT not a car show or a competition round. I know a lot of drivers and many of them are just trying to get enough money to get tires and make the entry fee, let alone buy a $2k body kit. Open Drift is all about having fun and being with friends, not competing. If you want to see built cars such as Primo's or DPOMP's come to a Grassroots/Pro Am event or a car show; there are plenty of them. In regards to the Team Burst reference, I know these cars are no where near the build quality as them but at the same time body damage is a part of drifting and it doesn't matter how good of a driver you are or how much money you put into a car it will happen. And when it comes to parent's money I wasn't referring to you but rather many of the "quality built" cars you are referring to in the area. Many of them are built with the parent's money, for some examples check out "Goon Squad" on Facebook.
ReplyDeleteYou guys are completely missing the point. Tyler is not hating on budget builds or cars with damage. He's talking about the cars that were there (majority) where the owner intentionally did a "modification" that made the car look more ratty and less put together. Those two cars in the front. Wtf is that hood graffiti crap? It doesn't look good, and is the result of a kid getting bored and wanting to do SOMETHING, so they grab a can of spray paint and ruin the hood. Those guys also spent a ton of time/money painting the radiator support (and I assume engine bay), but ended up doing so in some off color that matches NOTHING else on the car, and makes the car look cheap and busted. The time and money spent to do these painting modifications could have been spent cleaning up the exterior, interior, and mechanics of the car. It's the same people/cars that drive half the event because they end up having some stupid wiring or mechanical issue, that could have been prevented had they spent a couple hours rewiring an area instead of painting their hood.
ReplyDeleteSame thing goes for the dudes that buy over fenders for NO reason at all. They can't even afford the wheels to fill out the fenders so they either have sunk fitment, or spend MORE money on spacers. what was wrong with the stock metal? And if you can't afford to paint your new over fenders, then you can't afford to purchase and install new over fenders.
All of these modifications take time and money, so you can't use the excuse that they don't have time or money and are "barely making it". that white car in front. If he had left that exterior bone stock, lowered it, and painted those wheels silver/black/gunmetal/white, it wouldn't look like a cheap piece of shit. Look at the beige coupe as a perfect example.
The other problem is kids thinking they NEED to modify their car. Every beginner ratty car has the owner wasting money/time on suspension arms, diffs, engine swaps, crap wheels, spray paint, etc all so the owner can get some instant gratification. If there was some patience and the owners realized that a stock car can drift and help the driver to learn, then this wouldn't be a problem.
Actually ya he was hating on those types of cars and budget builds. But like I said before it's all good. He can prefer what ever kind of drifting he wants. And it wasn't over fenders or mismatched paint that upset me. I could care less. It's the fact that he didn't like the look of a car and thought it was a pile so he immediately wrote off the driver. Everybody starts somewhere. Not everyone can have beautiful looking cars at this point in life. Does that mean they shouldn't participate until they can have those cars? No, that'd be stupid. But to dislike a car and make assumptions based on what you think the car looks like is uninformed and typically just wrong.
Delete"This heap couldn't make a complete lap due to the terrible ride quality." That's just not true. It made plenty of good runs.
And the 240 with the panther you're referring to, ya what he's done doesn't look great. But he's drifting for himself, not you. Did you look under the hood? See what kind of motor?
I don't know. I not a drift "OG" and it'll probably be a while before you see me on the track. But the way my car looks isn't going to be a reflection of my skill. Drifting means drifting. Not staying home and not participating because someone might talk shit about things they can't change about their car. Or stay home because it's not clean enough for the track. Seriously? That doesn't make any sense.
When people say that looks doesn't matter when it comes to drifting, you have to take into account this people were probably born/got into drifting during the formula D era. Whereas most of us are OG's and started in the era where style and skill go hand in hand. This is the unfortunate view we have to deal with on a daily basis and it it what it is. I'm not saying having an ugly car is right or wrong but you'll never catch me driving a piece of shit and adding parts that have no benefit to my skill. I will progress with my driving as well as keeping my car nice. Kids are too impatient these days.
ReplyDeleteI'm just gonna say this. Leigh and chobs nailed it, and I didn't see the cressida complete a single corner all day. Not even one. What i did see was it go wayyyyyyyyyy off course on the skid pad, off into the dirt, and into a barrier. And that skid pad is massive.
ReplyDelete