Idea to 'improve' drifting...

Drifting has been criticized by many as not being a true motorsport because it is judged. Although many of the criteria are objective in nature, the fact that the input of judges decide who advances is a turn off for some.

I came up with an idea to change drifting in this respect. I really don't know if it would take off or not, but I figured I'd share.

There are GPS datalogging devices that can measure things like braking g, lateral g, entry/exit speed, and of course, timing. Most of the criteria that drifters are judged on could probably be measured with a GPS system.

I've seen a UK car mag called evo use a certain system called V-Logic(I think) for their testing. Not only was it very accurate, but it allowed comparison between cars to be plotted out via a graph. The graph could show which vehicle was better at each corner, etc.

Sounds pretty cool, right? Now apply this to drifting.

I figure each car could have a system like that. The drivers make their runs, the data is downloaded, and whoever had the best combination of cornering g, braking g, entry/exit speed, etc wins.

How does that sound? I figure an advancement like this would help drifting gain more credibility/acceptance in the motorsports world.

Who cares if it gets accepted or not, fact is that drifting is an art.

Your idea is thoughtful, but having everything calculated is like having mathematicians figuring out how much the mona lisa painting is worth based on angles of lines, colours, and everything...

Who cares if it gets accepted or not, fact is that drifting is an art.

And that is what gets people riled up when drifting is referred to as a 'sport.' It can't be both.

figure skating is an olympic sport, but it's judged.

oh well.

it's about style, not just the angle you take...

Can you imagine how long that'd take on the race track to download each car's run?

Man, at D1... the races went quick. Sometimes too quick, but that just means you've got to pay attention.

Drifting is fairly fast paced and is all about style... I agree it's an Art form.

More of an underground practice and following, hence spreading the culture. Thats what I'd like to see..

Maybe they should have staged events like with rally, in different countries? who knows

Can you imagine how long that'd take on the race track to download each car's run?

Man, at D1... the races went quick. Sometimes too quick, but that just means you've got to pay attention.

Drifting is fairly fast paced and is all about style... I agree it's an Art form.

not slow at all...
you can view real time data in rally racing, F1, etc.
so it wouldn't be difficult to have it view real time by the judges, etc.

but it'd take away from the sport...

unless you used it as a tie-breaker tool...

like if 2 guys have awesome runs, you could see who had the greatest angle to determine...
just a thought...
i'd hate to see something like that though

hey flylwsi in yur sig are those the nsx's in grip volume 4, i luved that scene!

you can view real time data in rally racing, F1, etc.
so it wouldn't be difficult to have it view real time by the judges, etc.

but it'd take away from the sport...

unless you used it as a tie-breaker tool...

like if 2 guys have awesome runs, you could see who had the greatest angle to determine...
just a thought...
i'd hate to see something like that though

How about the reverse? How about style playing as the tie breaker?

My idea for scoring would work like this:

Avg. Entry Speed
Avg. Exit Speed
Drift Angle(in degrees)
Lateral G
Braking G

There'd be more categories, I just can't remember them all at the moment.

Whoever has the highest total of those categories would win the round. For a tie-breaker, or even just bonus points, there could be a style rating. How does that sound?

hey flylwsi in yur sig are those the nsx's in grip volume 4, i luved that scene!

i believe so. on the black one, you can see a Grip Video sticker just behind the door.

they're from a huge NSX club in Japan called Top End.

ya i no i have the dvd its my favorite drifting dvd

that club is awesome...


at any rate, in this case, i think using the style as a tiebreaker would be kinda cool as well...
but it won't change either way...
and honestly, the "style" already takes alot of the technical merits into account...

Yeah, I see what you mean. The judging takes a lot of those quantitative criteria into account.

The GPS method would be better than just 'eyeballing' it, imho.

With the judging, it kinda seems like they're thinking: "Hmm, it looked like he was a bit faster than the other guy...I think. I guess he wins."

keep in mind that the people judging D1 aren't just "some guys", they're racers, and drifters themselves, some of the best...
so they can look at what these guys are doing and make the decisions like that...

it's like figure skating judges, or pageant judges, etc...
anything like that...
they're not just haphazardly judging that stuff...