North Weald Drift*

24th February 2004.
www.driftracing.co.uk

* Well, 'get my drift' would have been too obvious a title, but I bet this one goes over everyone's head. Anyone remember the 'north atlantic drift' from their Geography lessons?

Have you ever tried to get completely sideways on a trackday? It's normally a guaranteed way to earn yourself a black flag and a telling off. So what if you could go somewhere where not only is it allowed, but it is positively encouraged? Like me, you'd probably go and take a look.

Nik from Drift Racing contacted us to ask if we would put their event on our Events Calendar. We were vaguely aware of the drifting scene but hadn't really taken much notice, so we were only too happy to oblige. Despite the proximity of the words 'Airfield' and 'Winter' in the description I decided to go and show my face.

What's it all about? Well, take a look at Drift Racing's site for the full story, but the basic aim is to get sideways and stay sideways in the most impressive manner and for as long as possible. Drifting is Big in Japan, where it has become almost an art form. Obviously rear-wheel-drive and lots of horsepower help, and the weapon of choice seems to be Japanese and turbocharged.

Sure enough, North Weald (Essex) was freezing cold, but I found that the rain soon took my mind off the howling wind. The scene may have been something of a shock to the seasoned trackday-goer - a rain-swept airfield, lots of cones and a collection of assorted, very, err, well-used vehicles, and not a Caterham in sight. I have to admit that I did start to wonder why I was there! Fortunately, first appearances are not everything. The day turned out to be fantastic fun.

Two areas had been set up - a simple circle, allowing the more talented to powerslide around in a continuous tail-out fashion, and a larger slalom course with a hairpin at either end. The format at each one was the same - queue up, then join the course for your run. One car at a time was allowed on the Circle, and three or so on the Slalom. Strict rules were enforced to keep cars separated from each other, and the whole system seemed to work well.

As the morning went on, more vehicles turned up, including the odd Noble, Evo and VX220, but the majoriy seemed to be early 90s, Japanese, turbocharged and rear wheel drive. I have to say that, in the majority of cases, enthusiasm outweighed talent, but the whole point of this event was to learn to get controlled oversteer. some were managing better than others - a well driven Escort RS2000 was charging around in classic sideways Escort style, whilst one poor soul averaged approximately 4 spins per lap! The wide open spaces of North Weald allowed controlled hooliganism in complete safety, and the standards did improve throughout the day as drivers climbed the learning curve.

Now it's confession time. After standing at the sidelines for most of the morning, smiling at some of the more, shall we say 'enthusiastic' attempts, Nik loaned me his weapon, the (as far as I know) unique Nissan 200SX Pickup (pic right). 'This should be easy' I thought. Well, it should be - I'm a racing instructor, I have around 130 race starts under my belt and my race car has to be driven sideways. Wrong.

My excuse is that it the Nissan was fresh out of the garage and it really didn't want to oversteer, but I have to say my attempts were pathetic! This is the first time I'd tried anything like this in a turbocharged car, and the lag made it difficult to achieve anything resembling a tail-out attitude. My second run had an interesting conclusion. The car was so new that no harness had been fitted, Having finally got the thing to go sideways, I realised we needed to point the other way for the next part of the slalom. A quick lift of the throttle provoked a vicious snap in the required direction, but unfortunately this resulted in be being propelled out of the seat and across the transmission tunnel! We then coasted sedately through the cones at 90 degrees to the intended direction with me trying to find the brake with my left toe, which was still in the footwell, unable to see anything but the passenger footwell and killing myself laughing. Mind you, I had plenty of time to formulate my excuses while I was pulling cones out from under the car.

I WILL do better next time.

Why would you want to go on a Drifting event? If you want to go fast, trackday-style, this isn't for you. If you have RWD or 4WD and you want to learn how to go sideways in a safe, controlled environment, then you should try it. The chap driving the Noble had just got it back after a particularly nasty accident and was using the day as a way of finding the limits of himself and the car. Above all, everyone who turned up seemed to be having a great time, which is the whole point of any hobby, isn't it?

Thanks to Nik for inviting me along, and to Andy from 1st Lotus for the organisation (and lunch).