Girl Racers

Administrators Fictional/War Quarantine
1

A LONG article, but a very interesting read.

[url=http://www.laweekly.com/general/features/drifting-pretty/9259/]http://www.laweekly.com/general/feature ... etty/9259/[/url]

Heres a quote:

At one point the conversation turned to the subject of rice. Thao had said that all true motorsports aficionados were family, but that they just didn’t like rice. What’s rice? I’d asked.

“Rice is when you spend tons of money making your car look fancy, but put no money into making it perform better,� said Thao.

“Rice is when a car has cheesy neon running lights all underneath that make the street glow blue,� said Khristine.

“Rice are the ones that try to drift around corners on the street for no reason,� said Thao.

“Rice are the ones that trick out their mufflers to make them sound like bumblebees stuck in tin cans,� said Khristine.

“Or the ones that smash into walls while canyon racing,� said Thao.

“Or the ones that pull up next to you all gangstered up and rev their engines.�

“Or the ones that put wings on their cars that look like park benches.�

“Or the ones that have chicks riding passenger who think they’re cool ’cause their boyfriend drives a rice car.�

“Or crazy yellow tinted windows.�

“Or Honda Civics.�

“Or Hot Import Nights.�

“Or the little import model that comes to the meets every Thursday dressed in a tiny little dress even though it’s freezing cold outside.�

2

very interesting :lol:

3

All that trash talk coming from a bunch of folks who like to go around corners sideways slower than they could by just driving properly and gripping. Pot, kettle, black.

4

The competitions they participate in rates drifting. Because that is what the event is I think its ok, besides its not like any of use could just pick up a course and drift it. There is a knowledge of physics and the weight of your car. And from what I can tell, a true drift comes around a corner and sacrifices no distance or (and this is the key) speed. The probelm is 95% of “drifters” are into sliding the car around for the sake of sliding the car around yet think it helps them in racing.

5

Yeah, I’ve read about “four wheel drifting” in Speed Secrets: Professional Race Driving Techniques by Ross Bently (ISBN 0760305188:

[QUOTE=Ross]Neutral Steer
Neutral steer is the term used to describe when both the front and rear tires lose traction at the same speed or cornering limit, and all four tires are at the same slip angle. Sometimes described as “being in a four-wheel-drift,” this is ideally what a driver is striving for when adjusting the handling of the car and trying to balance it.

I love te feeling when I’m controlling the balance of the car with the throttle, driving through a fast, sweeping turn at the limit. If the car begins to oversteer a little, I squeeze on more throttle to transfer a little weight to the rear; if it starts to understeer, I ease off slightly, giving the front a little more grip. When it’s done just right, all four tires are slipping the same amount (the car perfectly balanced, neither oversteering or understeering) in a perfect neutral steer attitude through the turn.
[/quote]
Okay, now having gone to one of the “drifting” (I will call it “dorifto” in this post as real drifting has been described above) events that went down at Sears Point Infineon Raceway… they were NOT four-wheel-drifting. That was straight up controlling oversteer to look good and seem fast. I guess a good analogy would be that dorifto is to taking a turn, as Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancements is to modifying your car.

I’m not saying it doesn’t take skill to dorifto, but spending all that time and effort to get that skill is like… well here’s another analogy. Spending time and effort to learn to dorifto compared to spending time and effort to learn how to really race (like how they do in F1, Indy, NASCAR, LeMans, etc), is as spending time and effort to learn how to whack off really well compared to spending time and effort to learn how to please a woman while having sex with her.

6

ROTFLMAO!!!

Very good analogy, and I like the term “dorifto.” Overall I think both dorifto and drifting should be studied mainly to understand the car and get a feel for the laws of physics, but I’m right there with you in knowing its limit of usefulness in racing.

7

Well done :wink: