This is what happens when it goes wrong....

[Mux213]

Hey Everyone,

This picture was just posted in the dutch section of the site. Let it be a warning to you all. This is what happens when you drift on the public road where there is no room for error:



Just to serve as a warning that this may be one of the most fun things you can do with a car, you need to do it responsibly or you'll end up spending $$$$ or worse yet scrapping your car.

There are plenty of places out there where you can practice drifting and have loads of fun where the risk of accidents is near 0. (though the risk is always there, just ask Zax) Find them, use them, and have fun! Don't end up like the guy in the picture!

[robokill]

Not really accurate he was drifting home when eventually god a little overconfident and went into a sharp corner trying to do a highspeed drift the hachi ended up hitting 5 trees the rear end was smashed to pieces though the rear axles is still in good condition

[Mux213]

Robo,

What part isn't accurate?

You say he was drifting when he was driving home and hit a tree.

I say, don't drift on public roads where there is no room for error.

The fact he crashed on a public road drifting HIGHSPEED on a road with TREES at the side kinda proves the issues doesn't it? No matter how good you are at drifting, it sounds like a pretty stupid thing to do in the first place, highspeed drifting past trees. Must have been watching Initial D to much

Still I wasn't there so I can't judge his skill or intent. Overconfidence is a problem...

The point is though, that if you tent to go drifting on public roads, it is very likely something like this will happen to you some day. If you drift on circuits with plenty of runoff space (and not like Higgi or Zax, drift on a circuit with a big guardrail near the end of the track), or drift on big parking lots with no obstacles, you will have alot of fun and little risk of damaging your car in an accident.

(that said, I too try to drift around roundabouts when I can, and I dont have any skill yet, so call me even more stupid)

[robokill]

It was overconfidence the guy at least got the skill to keep the car sideways and control it but still he didn't see the danger of the corner i have driven there and its duable to drift but not at highspeeds :-)

[Mux213]

Robo,

Indeed, overconfidence in your skill is the main issue here. But overconfidence can be because you have great skill and therefor the dangers around you that use to exist start disappairing. Which is what happened here I guess.

But the people I am trying to warn here are those that have yet to learn the skill (like myself) and are overconfident in their ignorance of the dangers around us. They tent to forget what happens when things go wrong and only focus on the fun when things go right.

That said, it still doesn't change the situation in my eyes. We don't know whether he lost controll of the car because he turned out not to be as good as he thought he was, or because there were other things here, maybe an oil stain or something else on the road that upset the balance in his car.

If you have a road, that has trees or other obstecals (like most public roads have) then when you loose control you will crash your car regardless of your skill. Your skill can just limit that risk since it is less likely you loose control due to driver error. Still, even the profesionals make errors (just look at Taka who crashed his car awhile back) and when you make that at high speed with trees nearby......

If he was driving on a circuit, in a similar turn, with similar speeds, and he made the same mistake, he would not have hit a tree, but he would have gotten into a large sandarea and little would be wrong.

If he was driving on a big parkinglot, doing a similar turn, with similar speeds (try and find a big enough parkinglot!), and he made the same mistake, he would have done some donuts around a parkinglot and just got a scare out of the experience.

As for the discribed road being doable at lower speed corners. For sure it is doable. Any corner can be drifted at the right speed. We're talking about what happens if you do not hit the corner at the right speed. And that can be for loads of reasons. Overconfidence, not enough skill, oilspills, leaves on the road (especially now, its fall), you name it.

If you drift somewhere were there is no room for error, you are asking for trouble, whether you are called Bastiaan Olij and have just started learning, or if you are called Tsuchiya Keichi and are considered one of the best drifters in the world.

[NoHachi]

The real problems start when it doesn't happen to be a couple of trees you hit in your little "whoops" accident but a couple of kids who really shouldn't have been there...
Don't be an idiot and keep it on the track. If nothing else, meet at a corner with some friends who can look around and make sure it is as safe as possible on a public road (helps with police too, being caught drifting could mean bye bye to your drivers license.)

[Johan]

I'f I remember my teacher correctly he told me that the high voltage electrician most likely to be injured or killed on the job is between 35 and 40 with 15 to 20 years of experience. You know your skilled in your profession and have done the exact same thing countless times before. It's Somewhere around that point You get careless, my teacher told me.

So even if young inexperienced drivers are in fact more accidentprone on the road due to lack of experience and sence of consequence the case could very well the same in this sort of situation. You know your limits and skills as a driver but forget about them briefly.

Plus. On a public road even the most unexpected must be expected. Differences in road conditions, pedestrians or another motorhead high speed drifting in the opposite direction.

Racetracks and similar controlled environments are not only better suited for this kind of action. They are the only place for them.

/Johan, 32 years old - an accident waiting to happen then.

[ZaX]

2 bad for the guy. At least he had roll cage in his car. i guess it saved it's life.

I first started to drift with my bimmer on an emply parking space, then i started to be more convident (i'll show you my bmw videos).

These days I'm trying to avoid drifting on public streets.
On weekends we usually go to the industiral zone and drift there around the roundabouts.
Empty parking space is now too boring for me, so i much more enjoy drifting on a track where i can try what i want whitout involving anybody else.

Since there is NO other track in my region where i can pratice, Mobikrog (wich is in different country btw,slovenia) is the one, the only, the best place i have and it's great!
Altough i've hit the gurad rail on the driftday the damage was minimal (broken rear light). Reason i hit the guard rail was that it was raining and grass was slipery like ice so i could not stop in time. When it's dry you have enough place to stop.

IMO the best place to start pracice drifting is on snow. The speed's are much lower and usualy when you hit something there is no damage or it's minimal.
Above Zagreb (capitol of Croatia) is the mountain Medvednica. Acros the mountain is a oneway road (touge, bit like Irohazaka), so there is no oncoming trafic. On the northen side of the mountain snow stays on the road for 2-3 months. We go almost every night and drive up/down. Great thing about it that trucks (don't know the name!!) push the snow on to the side of the road, creating a "tunnel" aka snowbanks. Snowbanks are strong enough to keep you on the road if something goes wrong, yet there are soft enough not to damage your car if you hit it. Last year i've hit one with cca 60kmph directly. Nothing happend to my car, i've just spun aroung few times, but stayed on the road.

ps mux: have you seen video when Keiichi destroys Nobutero's S15 when drifting went wrong?

[Mux213]

Zax,

Damn you are a lucky lucky man! I wish we had places like that around here

No I haven't seen that vid so please give a link to it! I have read about the number of times Keichi ran his old Skyline (< R32) off a cliff

[KristianAE86]

zax -
i´ll come to you next summer....

& race that road with multiple cameras mounted