drift competitions

Hey all, ive been wondering: To all u people in the states (basically all of you) you guys (and girls :D....if there are any..), do u have any drift competitions over there? Because here in New Zealand we have a huge competition called D1_NZ. Its like D1 in Japan, except its smaller and the people who attend are mostly youngsters. The winner was a guy with a 10k cefiro. He was going up against a lot of S15's and S14's. One guy he spent over 40 grand on his S15 (i know him) but the guy with the cefiro won the competition. This just proves that its the drivers skill that is what counts most, not the car.

is it the camo A31 from WSR? that car is absolutely beautiful. well actually ALL of WSR's cars are pretty hot.

anyways i'm moving this to the DRIFT forum since it's drift-related and not necessarily Silvia/240SX related.

well actually the DI grand prix is now being held in the states

When it comes to drifting in America, the big name is the SCCA Formula Drift series. This was its inaugural year, with four events, and it turned out to be a very successful year. There are two factory teams - one from Pontiac using the new GTO and one from Dodge using a Viper Competition Coupe - and the championship was a well fought affair. Many of the Formula Drift competitors also take part in the US D1 events, most notably Rhys Millen (driver of the factory GTO), Samuel Hubinette, Calvin Wan, and Chris Forsberg.

There are also the amateur NASA sanctioned US Drift events at the various tuner oriented Hyperfest events.

i heard rumours that the Competition Coupe is banned from Formula D as of next year because it's tube frame?

or something.

if i'm wrong, don't blame me because i heard it somewhere else.

i wouldn't be sad to see it go personally. a Viper doesn't look as sexy ass-sideways as an S13 or AE86 does IMO.

hey thanks for all your feedback j0, i never knew that D1 was in the US now, thats amazing. Drifting is becoming more and more popular around the world. I heard its quite big in aussie atm.

never answered my question man! was it the WSR A31 that won D1NZ?

Yes the Viper Competition Coupe has been banned because it's been deemed too far removed from the production Viper SRT-10. However, seeing as there's a new Viper coupe on the way, it's almost a given that Sam's going to show up at the season opener driving one of these.

http://www.viperalley.com/gallery/data/3046/3coupe_8931-med.JPG
http://www.viperalley.com/gallery/data/3046/3coupe_2178-med.JPG
http://www.viperalley.com/gallery/data/3046/3coupe_2174-med.JPG
http://www.viperalley.com/gallery/data/3046/3coupe_2169-med.JPG
http://www.viperalley.com/gallery/data/3046/3coupe_2164-med.JPG
http://www.viperalley.com/gallery/data/3046/3coupe_2162-med.JPG
http://www.viperalley.com/gallery/data/3046/3coupe_2144-med.JPG

The Viper Competition Coupe was pretty boring to see mid-drift, I'll give you that. There was so little movement in the car because of the ultra-stiff Trans-Am inspired chassis that it just looked like the tail was slipping instead of the car being thrown around. It's neat and tidy, but not necessarily fun to watch. Honestly, the GTO was much more impressive.

wow, Octy. for once me and you see eye to eye!

if Sam took out a mostly stock Viper, just like the one you pictured, i wouldn't mind that at all.

i hated the Competition Coupe because of the reasons you said, but also because of the stupidly exagerated tail-end (longer and weird looking) and huge racing wing.

never answered my question man! was it the WSR A31 that won D1NZ?

soz man, i dont wanna sound like a noob or anything but i dno what u mean by WSR. The one im reffering to is white. Here is a pic, the one that won is on the bottom right, sorry its not very clear..

http://www.d1nz.org.nz/WEBSITE/menu/news/rd4ad.jpg

For the record, the Viper CC is nowhere near a Trans-Am car. It was originally built for a one-make series, and is also run int the SPEED World Challenge GT series. It has an independent rear suspension (Trans-Am requires a solid rear axle), is a unibody chassis (Trans-Am is tube frame), and the V10 is not legal in Trans-Am. The Viper that ran in TA in 2001 was a tube frame V8 that was little more than a standard trans-am chassis with Viper bodywork and a Dodge V8 engine.

I agree that the CC is not close to the SRT-10, but it's closer to the SRT-10 than it is to a Trans-Am car.

I wasn't referring to it being solid axle or V8 powered (c'mon, give me a little credit) but the way the tubes are laid out are in fact highly similar to those of a Trans-Am car, or for that matter highly similar to the layout of the Pratt & Miller GTS Corvettes.

In either case, at least we're all in agreement that the SCCA has done the right thing concerning the car's legality. I just hope that Dodge sticks around. Formula Drift needs Mopar - notice how Hubinette has been making appearances all over Speed Channel talking about drifting, and doing so on Mother Mopar's dime - and Mopar can get along just fine without Formula Drift.

I wasn't referring to it being solid axle or V8 powered (c'mon, give me a little credit) but the way the tubes are laid out are in fact highly similar to those of a Trans-Am car, or for that matter highly similar to the layout of the Pratt & Miller GTS Corvettes.
...

I apologize, I did oversimplfy things a bit, and here's a bit more detail about the differences between the two.

The primary difference between the CC chassis (and the Pratt & Miller GTS Corvette chassis) and that of a Trans-Am car is that in the CC the roll cage structure is designed to stiffen the chassis. I believe (not entirely sure, though) that in GTS and World Challenge GT that you aren't allowed to have the roll cage structure be ahead of the front shock tower mounts or behind the rear shock tower mounts. In Trans-Am, the roll cage is the entire chassis; there is no underlying structure if the roll cage is taken away. If you removed all the bodywork and started cutting the steel tubing, the Trans-Am car would literally fall apart where the unibody car (CC or Pratt & Miller GTS Corvette) has an underlying structure that will hold it together. The Trans-Am chassis structure is actually very close to a Pro Stock or ASA chassis, and when Leighton Reese started running Trans-Am, he used the same chassis that he had been using in ASA.

I do also agree that the difference is subtle, and in many cases it is difficult or impossible to tell merely by looking at the car from outside. I think the bigger issue with the CC being legal is that there isn't really any direct street counterpart for it.

soz man, i dont wanna sound like a noob or anything but i dno what u mean by WSR. The one im reffering to is white. Here is a pic, the one that won is on the bottom right, sorry its not very clear..

http://www.d1nz.org.nz/WEBSITE/menu/news/rd4ad.jpg


aaah, i think that's a DriftCorp car...can't remember.

WSR is a garage in NZ who runs a few cars in D1NZ. they have 2 Cefiro's and an R32 4-door i believe, all of which are different colors of camoflauge.

and no i don't live in NZ, but i have a good friend in Wellington who passes all this info to me through MSN. :tongue: