I'm really glad that drifting wasn't an established form of motorsports back in my early racing days, because I'm pretty sure my career may have taken a whole different path. All race drivers love to slide (drift) whatever they may be driving, but drivers realize it scrubs tons of speed and makes for very slow lap times (on asphalt). When you're on the limit, you're always on the edge of sliding, but attentively work to maintain the balance of pushing hard enough, but not so much as to cause excess friction between the tires and the road surface. Being able to drive consistently right on the edge, lap after lap, at speeds in excess of 230mph in some series like IndyCars, is one piece of what makes a professional race car driver a professional race car driver.

A former Service Manager at Parker Johnstone's Wilsonville Honda sent me a great clip that highlights the car control necessary to be a top-level professional race driver. Although the driver (Ken Block) is behind the wheel of a Subaru (ugh…), it's fun to watch. The clip's at the end of this post.

During the years I worked at the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, I spent some part of each day sliding Datsun (now Nissan) 240Zs, 260Zs, 280Zs, 510s, Formula Fords, and later Roush-prepared Mustangs. Here's a commercial that Bob made in a non-Roush LTD. It was filmed at Sears Point Raceway (now Infineon Raceway). Bob drives this boat through the "accident simulator" and hops the FIA curb in Turn 3A. You have to love the way it handles – like a front porch swing!

Here's what Chevrolet was doing in 1984:

Here's what Dodge was doing in 1984:

And here's what Honda was doing in the '80s:

And the reason the Big 3 are currently in trouble?!

Sorry. I felt the need for a little editorializing...

Back to the story….

It became a matter of great pride amongst the instructors at the Bondurant School to see how far we could hang it out and how long we could keep the slide going. Well, as you are probably aware, what we were doing slowly morphed over time into current-day drifting, brought to the general public's awareness in movies like The Fast and the Furious. Here's one form of a modern-day drifting competition:

 

The whole point of this post was the following video (finally!). Take note of the multiple skid marks leading into each obstacle and you'll see there was a lot of practicing going on for each of the shots. I particularly like the varying camera angles – the editor did an excellent job with each sequence.

So, on to the clip. Enjoy the production and Ken Block's talent!