Insane D1 driver in a 350z

[RealBMW 02]

I should start by describing the canyon I usually drive. Its about 1.5 - 2 miles long and has a pretty steep grade. There is one straightaway which is halfway down, and besides that all the corners are practically hairpins. At the top of the hill there is a viewpoint/lookout. You can pull over at the viewpoint and see the road the whole way down. It only dips around the hill a few times. This road name is Mulholland. I call it Mulholland Raceway.
Map of Mulholland and other local canyons

So I get to the viewpoint the other night and see a guy with a 350z. i notice that he has R*S*R sticker on the back (one of his sponsor) and a drift day sticker on the side window.

I get out of my car and this guy says to me, "don't go down yet, I'm going down and coming back up. OK?"

I of course agreed since I was sure he wanted to push it the whole way down and up. So he starts going down the hill and I watch him intently.

He has a very good line, I think to myself, but he's really not pushing very hard.

As it is fun to watch cars come up, its kinda boring when they drive realy slow. So I kinda stop watching and just start to listen. I hear him finish the downhill, and right as he starts his uphill I hear crazy tire squeeling. I take a look and sure enough he is completely sideways around the second of two sweeping right handers.

i continued watching him the rest of the way up, and to my surprise he drifted every other turn. The last turn on the way up is a slight uphill 180° hairpin. you can see this turn perfectly from the viewpoint, and when he got to it he had the back end so far out. You could hear how quickly he got in and out of the throttle. Such amazing throttle control.

When he stopped at the top of the lookout, I started talking to him and he said he competed in the D1 drivers search and made the final round of competition, but had problems with his car in the last round and wasn't able to win. (so i lied, he isn' actually a d1 driver, but damn close)

Although I am all about grip driving and not drifting, I do recognize the skill that it takes to drift like that. Not to mention in a stock z on canyon roads.

It was so cool to see someone who has such mad skill actually use it on the street.

A little later he actually set out two cones and was executing perfect figure eight drifts using the feint drift technique. Man was this a killer night!!! PS sorry about the long ass post

ADAM

[BMWLotAttendant]

Nice....but where was the video camera?

[RealBMW 02]

wish I had one. I usually drive with spiff, and if I had been that night I would have footage. Unfortunately haven't seen him again.

[BMWLotAttendant]

Oh well...couldn't resist asking...maybe next time!

[RealBMW 02]

however, if you haven't seen spiff's vid. with my 02 in it check it out at www.sticky-flo.com under videos, then its the third one down, the promo one

[Torque]

Awesome. finally someone that drives their car. I just saw a Z with some 50 year old lady driving it while sipping on her morning coffee and going like 15 under the limit. I almost cried.

[007ben]

Saw a 346 m3 in the slow lane of i5 going either the speed limit or below last weekend.

[Hoppy's535i]

man iv drifted up hill ( 141 in holyoke, well coming back into holyoke) its insane shit... im not really sure how i managed it, totaly accidental, scary shit...

[gotKRAUT]

Originally posted by Hoppy's535i@Sep 10 2004, 11:56 AM
man iv drifted up hill its insane shit... im not really sure how i managed it, totaly accidental, scary shit...

you have way more control uphill in a drift...why is that insane...its much easier in my opinion...its harder to get the back end out yes but very easy to control uphill...

[Hoppy's535i]

cause it surprised me, dry roads. an e28 goin up hill and my ass end is out plus on coming trafic freaks me out on that road cause some peopl come flying down at like 80 and the guard rail shows it, well what im tryin to say is i was afraid to go into oncoming traffics lane

[RealBMW 02]

I always get my back end out going uphill. Its really not too difficult. You just have to carry more speed into the turn that you think can take it with.

Since its uphill the back naturally has more weight on it and you have to brake a little harder and longer than usual to transfer enough weight to the front. Then right when the back starts steping out get back on the gas to keep from swapping ends and to keep from dropping the revs and stopping the drift. The good thing about uphill is that its much harder to spin than downhill.

What amazed me so much with the 350z driver was how perfect his drifts were and how he was able to drift almost perfectly around EVERY turn. i sometimes get a good drift around a few turns, on a good day when Im really trying. He drifted ALL the turns.

[Hoppy's535i]

mine was just downshift and slam on the gas

[bitcore]

Dude, I love your stories.

[RealBMW 02]

The downshift then slam on the gas technique works....if you have power.
Thats a non weight shift drifing technique, properly termed "power-over".

I don't have any power; therefore I cannot drift with power over technique. Thats why I use braking to control the back end.

The cool thing about the weight shift techniques like braking and lift off is that they can be adapted so you can either grip drive very quickly or drift and show off.

I will sometimes just use a lift off technique. The weight shift is crutial to being able to get this right and it takes lots of practice.

On the touge that I normally drive, there is only one turn that I will attempt this on...and only very late at night (1:30 or later). Its a full 180° corner, but very large radius

Its slightly downhill coming into the turn, I come out of the previous corner in third and I'm full throttle leading into the turn. I'm usually at about 50 or 55 when I start my tuck in. [ I could be in second, but the rpms would be feathering on redline, and since its downhill second gear is not needed. ]

Just a split second after you first initiate the turn in you completely get off the throttle...but just for an instant...you will feel front tuck in very hard and the back start to come out. you NEED to get back on the gas quickly to control angle of the car. But as always, don't mash the throttle. quickly get back into it. Since the turn is so long and I am low on power I am pretty much full throttle the rest of the turn; however, I am continuously adjusting to stay on that fine edge of starting to loose grip, and actually loosing control.

My car has excellent ballance, and I have the weight shift down really well so I am able to use extremely small steering inputs after the tuck in point. I actually have pretty close to a zero countersteer angle, which is how you get the best speed from the turn. (you can let the back hang out more for more show, but this takes more power than I have to keep sliding at such an angle the entire time)

Its pretty scary to attempt, no matter how many times you have done it. Hearing all four tires screaming the entire way through a turn really makes your hearbeat, but you feel so great when you get it right,

Dude, I love your stories.

if you are reffering to my stories, thanks. they always seem to come out longer than planned, sorry for that. I drive canyons around 5-6 times a week, so I could talk about driving forever... and I do with my friends :P

[triggrhaapi]

BAH FUCK YOU SHOULD HAVE CALLED ME!!!!!!