Drifting History

Some info on Drifting History, where it started and how it has developed over time!

Drifting mainly started in Japan in the 1970s. It was a racing technique first seen in the Japan Touring Car Championship races. Kunimitsu Takahashi, was the foremost creator of drifting. Kunimitsu Takashi was a legendary motorcycle racer who started racing cars in the 70s. Kunimitsu was renowned for hitting the apex of corners at high speed & drifting through the corner, keeping the exit speed high.

Kunimitsu Takashi won several championships driving like this and a legion of fans who loved his drifting style and smoking rear tires! Many professional racers in Japan drove like this and so did the street racers.

Keiichi Tsuchiya studied Kunimitsu Takashi driving technique and began practicing his drifting skills on the mountain roads, where he quickly gained a reputation amongst the racing crowd and has inspired many professional drifting drivers of today. He also helped to organize the 1st D1 Grand Prix championship in the late 80s.

Drifting to some degree had also been used by Drivers as early as the 1930’s in Grand Prix races, to keep the speed up through the corners.

Rally drivers have also been using the drifting technique for many, many years and still use the this technique today with there 4WD (Four Wheel Drive) cars.

Since the 90s, Drifting has rapidly grown from the D1 Grand Prix in Japan. When in America there was a demonstration at a Drag race meeting put on by Kenji Okazaki and Keiichi Tsuchiya in a Nissan 180SX, the drift scene had the yanks hooked.

Soon to follow, Drifting found its way across the seas to Australia, Europe and the rest of the world, gaining popularity as the years passed by.

Drifting has now become a massively popular competitive sport! Judges for these drift competitions now award points for various factors from drivers in mainly RWD cars (Rear Wheel Drive)

The Top Levels of Drifting originated from the highly competitive D1 Grand Prix series. Other formulas like Formula D in the U.s.a, King of Europe & the (BDC) British Drift Championships in Europe, there is also Formula Drift Asia in the Malaysia/Singapore/Thailand/Indonesia, NZ Drift Series in New Zealand and ADGP – Australia Drift Grand Prix, have come along to turn it into a legitimate motor sport worldwide…..