What makes a Drift Car, Race Car, Show Car (Old & New)
After watching the film "OUTSIDERS JAPAN" by a tuning company in England called Drift Works I learnt alot about the origins of drifting and the whole cult behind it in Japan and how its expanding worldwide through competitions like the BDC in the UK, D1 Grand Prix in Japan, Formula D in the USA, King of Europe, WDS in China, Formula Drift in other Asian countries, NZ drift series in New Zealand and the Australian Drift Grand Prix.
So then...
What is Drifting
Driftins is a style of driving in where the car is forced to "oversteer" causing the car to slide out from the rear of the car. The "drift" is controlled by the use of throttle, brakes, clutch, gear shifting and steering input to counter this "oversteer" to keep the car in a controlled slide around a series of turns and bends.
Physics wise the use of throttle and brakes help to shift the weight balance of the car back and forth through turns and to make it even more challenging and in competitions gain more times do all this along a "racing line" a specific neat and precise line through the corners which allows more extreme slip angles and a much more dramatic looking drift.
When competing drivers are paired off in rounds, each driver taking it turn to lead. The competing of these and the points system varies from competition but the main thing judges are looking for a good racing line, a large positive angle and of course visual show factors. The show factor is based on things like the amount of smoke, how close the car is to a wall to increase crowds reaction.
Angle is judged by how positive the angle is in conjunction with speed, the higher the speed and angle the higher the points achieved. Speed is everything but makes the slightest mistakes ruin a race for the driver.
There are usually 2 sessions a qualify or practice then the final session. The cars run in groups of 16 with pairs of cars running in a chain then narrow down to groups of 8, 4 then the final 2.
Drifting History & Culture
The actual activity of drifting isn't based on on the racetrack competitions wich is ever so popular in the automotive sector. It originated in Japan in the 1970-80s when Japanese Touring Car driver Kunimitsu Takashi began developing a type of racing style that involved the slipping of the rear of the car, while not winning races as much the crowds amusement was much higher with this style of driving.
A Japanese Teenager began replicating this style of driving on the twisting mountain roads of Japan in 1987. Japanese drivers then began developing there skills in the early hours of the morning on these closed mountain roads ant this is were the whole culture of drifting was born. With these mountain roads been so narrow and tight in the corners with drop offs at the side of cliffs it was clear to me it took a great deal of confidence or a slight bit of insanity to compete in this sport.
It was a religion to them back then, old rear wheel drive cars were available for cheap over there so the fashion was to actually beat up the car and just replace it once it was no longer road worthy. This brings me onto "what makes a drift car", combine this with the drivers confidence and you have the recipe for drifting.
What makes a Drift Car?
The car isn't everything in this game, the driver skill and confidence is a great deal of it. But there are certain cars that are seen to be cult classics and were most commonly used in the origins of drifting and still used to this date to start with and build and develop on.
These are the following, a few I found at the BDC drift event I went too.
Nissan 200SX’s, Silvias
So then...
What is Drifting
Driftins is a style of driving in where the car is forced to "oversteer" causing the car to slide out from the rear of the car. The "drift" is controlled by the use of throttle, brakes, clutch, gear shifting and steering input to counter this "oversteer" to keep the car in a controlled slide around a series of turns and bends.
Physics wise the use of throttle and brakes help to shift the weight balance of the car back and forth through turns and to make it even more challenging and in competitions gain more times do all this along a "racing line" a specific neat and precise line through the corners which allows more extreme slip angles and a much more dramatic looking drift.
When competing drivers are paired off in rounds, each driver taking it turn to lead. The competing of these and the points system varies from competition but the main thing judges are looking for a good racing line, a large positive angle and of course visual show factors. The show factor is based on things like the amount of smoke, how close the car is to a wall to increase crowds reaction.
Angle is judged by how positive the angle is in conjunction with speed, the higher the speed and angle the higher the points achieved. Speed is everything but makes the slightest mistakes ruin a race for the driver.
There are usually 2 sessions a qualify or practice then the final session. The cars run in groups of 16 with pairs of cars running in a chain then narrow down to groups of 8, 4 then the final 2.
Drifting History & Culture
The actual activity of drifting isn't based on on the racetrack competitions wich is ever so popular in the automotive sector. It originated in Japan in the 1970-80s when Japanese Touring Car driver Kunimitsu Takashi began developing a type of racing style that involved the slipping of the rear of the car, while not winning races as much the crowds amusement was much higher with this style of driving.
A Japanese Teenager began replicating this style of driving on the twisting mountain roads of Japan in 1987. Japanese drivers then began developing there skills in the early hours of the morning on these closed mountain roads ant this is were the whole culture of drifting was born. With these mountain roads been so narrow and tight in the corners with drop offs at the side of cliffs it was clear to me it took a great deal of confidence or a slight bit of insanity to compete in this sport.
It was a religion to them back then, old rear wheel drive cars were available for cheap over there so the fashion was to actually beat up the car and just replace it once it was no longer road worthy. This brings me onto "what makes a drift car", combine this with the drivers confidence and you have the recipe for drifting.
What makes a Drift Car?
The car isn't everything in this game, the driver skill and confidence is a great deal of it. But there are certain cars that are seen to be cult classics and were most commonly used in the origins of drifting and still used to this date to start with and build and develop on.
These are the following, a few I found at the BDC drift event I went too.
Nissan 200SX’s, Silvias
Ford Sierras
- You need a rear wheel drive car, a car that is powered fro the rear wheels.
- It needs a limited slip differential allowing the two rear wheels to spin at the same time and lose traction.
- A manual gearbox to allow more control with the throttle.
- A strong working handbrake to lock the rear wheels up.
- Coilover suspension allows fine tuning of the cars alignment to achieve better car control from adjusting car height, wheel angles, and suspension stiffness.
A supportive seat to keep you secure from the G forces in slides.
Increased steering lock to allow more steering angles to achieve larger angle drifts.
A powerful engine.
There are lots of definitions of a race car, like Formula 1 cars which are multi million pound cars. But as I visited all the time attack events I want to mainly focus on what makes up a Time Attack car. Much like drifting the driver is the main component that puts all the cars tuning and modifications into a complete racing package.
Time Attack rules state that the car needs to derive and start from a road going car, common starting points are things like Mitsubishi Evo's, Subaru Imprezas and other high powered road cars. I found a few examples of some of these cars in there standard form so it would be cool to show were these Time Attack cars started from.
But first I will look into the details behind the classification of these Time Attack cars.
Different Class's of Time Attack Car
TA Club Class
- Front Wheel Drive, Rear Wheel Drive, 4 Wheel Drive or Naturally Aspirated engines no turbo or forced induction powered cars allowed.
- Entry Level category.
- Limited power & speed modifications.
- Can race on a license were you pay and join on the day.
- Road Tyre's used.
TA Club Pro
- Front Wheel Drive, Rear Wheel Drive, 4 Wheel Drive.
- Serious modifications on power and focus on low lap times, more competitive timing system.
- MSA National B driving license required, A specific racing driving license and test needed.
- Road Tyres upto Semi Slick patterns.
TA Pro
- Front Wheel Drive, Rear Wheel Drive, 4 Wheel Drive.
- Super Modifications on power and aero dynamics to achieve much quicker lap times with more competition between each driver by a smaller time margin due to the level of skill and car capabilities.
- MSA National B driving license required, A specific racing driving license and test needed.
- Slick Racing Tyres allowed
TA Pro Extreme
- More extreme modifications, absolutely no limitations on any aspect of the car apart from the original base of car needs to derive from a production road car, apart from that the budget and limits are endless.
- Fastest cars of the event battling for the quickest lap time measured in sections of the track rather than a whole lap time, for example the track could be split into 5 sections and a time taken for each section and a complex point system worked out on an average time scale.
- A professional racing license required so a specialist test is needed to be passed to compete at this level due to the danger and speed.
- Slick professional Race Tyres.
Technical Analyze of what makes a Time Attack car
I began looking into what makes a Time Attack car in detail, looking into the parts and modifications that make these cars what they are.
Its interesting to see how these cars can originate from cars that are seen to be of "show standard" at some car shows. They then transform completely to extremely modified race cars.
Before
Simple.
Clean
After
Damaged & Worn Paint
Sponsorship logo additions
Visual modifications
Engine modifications
Aerodynamic Modifications
Its interesting to see how these cars can originate from cars that are seen to be of "show standard" at some car shows. They then transform completely to extremely modified race cars.
Before
Simple.
Clean
After
Damaged & Worn Paint
Sponsorship logo additions
Visual modifications
Engine modifications
Aerodynamic Modifications
Another example of a before and after from an ultra clean show car Mitsubishi Evo with immaculate paint and wheels. Its intended use on production was for racing and it was originally used for Rally Driving so if it was used for its intentions it wouldn't look like this.
A little bit overkill for its "intentions" these highly modified Mitsibushi Evos are a drastic transformation from the original base shell.
I will now analyze all the technical elements that make up a time attack car what it is, everything from here onwards will show cars that at first glance look like there original road going counterparts but thats were the similarities end.
Starting from the ground up.
Brakes
The first point of contact for the car and most important safety aspect is the wheels, tires and brake combination.
- The tires help grip the car to the track, helping it enter and leave corners at higher speeds with less chance of loss of grip greatly increasing the speed of overall laps.
- The wheels need to be light enough to shave off weight of the overall car, the lighter the car the faster it can be. But they need to be strong enough to take the high forces the car goes through when it accelerates, brakes, corners, and in the unfortunate event of a crash. A bent or damaged wheel will cause serious consequences.
- The brakes allow the car to stop from high speed, avoiding potential collisions and allowing a late entry to corners to again shave off more seconds of every lap.
- Gaps in the wheel design help air flow to the brakes keeping them cool and stoping brake fade from hot brake disks and pads.
The brake system is made up of 2 main components.
The brake disk, and the caliper.
The caliper operates with hydraulic pistons that when the foot brake is applied in the car depending on force push brake pads that are enclosed in the caliper onto the brake disk. This frictional force slows the car down.
Power
The second most important aspect to me is the power. Engine modifications, fueling modifications and other technical aspects can greatly increase the cars power output. Power = Speed in simple terms, and to achieve this power a complex ratio of Air, Fuel and Spark is needed.
As mentioned Air is needed to produce alot of power, a turbo is a way in wich more air can be added to the Air, Fuel and Spark mixture. A turbo works by recirculating air that the engine intakes through its air intake pipes and forcing it into the Fuel and Spark mixture at extremely high pressures causing an increase in power.
Modified induction systems wich allow more air to freely flow into the turbo system helps improve this combustion of forced air, fuel and spark producing large amounts of power.
To tie all these elements together the suspension and chassis modifications need to be upgraded, this is done through the modification of suspension elements, geometry set ups, chassis upgrades. All these elements tie together the brakes, suspension, alignment, chassis & wheels and tire combination. With all these race engineered parts a fine tuning and adjustment of the combination of these parts is available to alter everything about how the car drives from the ride height, the steering feel, the cars grip levels, and how tight the car can turn corners depending on the layout of the track.
Aerodynamics, Body panels & Safety
The final aspect of a race car is to do with aero dynamics and replacement body panels a car needs to be as light weight as possible while maintaining strength and rigidity to increase handling capabilities.
Like the majority of the aerodynamic parts these body panel replacements are made of carbon fibre to help save overall weight on the car with added benefits of streamlining the car to provide less overall drag. This helps improve straight line speed and acceleration.
What makes a show car?
Overall after visiting a large amount of car shows, I feel that the whole concept behind show cars is a simple one. Its the expression of ones individuality. Much like graphic design, car owners have a personal style and influence. And even more like graphic design it often follows trends of modern and historic timeframes.
Key points that make up a show car come from the owners interests and the cars aesthetics and how they combine to create an individual statement.
This expression of individuality is shown in different ways and follow small sub-trends.
Wheel choice
A distinct way in making a car stand out in an individual way is the choice of wheel, it can change the whole intended aesthetic of the car and what the owner wants to communicate.
They can express modern or classic influences within there construction and aesthetics.
These examples are all refurbished examples of a classic 1980s style wheel that originated on top of the range BMWs created by BBS, a wheel constructed in 2 parts that usually consisted of a polished outer barrel with the inner face bolted and used a variety of colors and materials.
This two piece design allowed a certain element of interchangeable parts to express individuality, most commonly used on old and classic cars to maintain that well restored show car aesthetic.
Solid face, white contrasts with the pastel mint green.
Standard mesh inner face in red contrasting in tone with the gunmetal grey car.
More modern and bright twist using a bright pink hue to create contemporary and modern impact on a classic restored car.
This example goes back to the route of creating an overall well restored appearance going back to the original gold centre.
Abstract twist of the standard gold and polished metal combo, the face is reversed out and inverted so it protrudes out rather than indents it creates a whole different effect within the mesh it makes it look more complex.
I got talking to the owner of this E30 BMW his was an interesting twist to the rest of the classic restored cars, he used a Ferrari 308 wheel a luxury Italian sports car made in 1975-1985 and really helps express a luxury aesthetic in a subtle way, the wheels cost over £2000.
A lot more modern car owners don't follow the same trend of putting on a standard restored wheel they go in a different route to achieve individuality within there show car.
A much more diverse range of styles and colors of wheels are used to create a range of different aesthetics.
Japanese manufactured race wheels influenced by the Japanese drift culture.
Bright tones and hues to achieve a race like aesthetic and provoke energy into the cars appearance to show the cars race capabilities.
Another race influence wheel design with a more subtle aesthetic to give the car that pristine overall show finish.
A modern BMW wheel on an older model BMW, a sort of contrast between modern and classic aesthetics. But the wheel is of a top model modern race bred BMW bringing together old and new race technologies. The appearance also has quite an aggressive angular aesthetic that suits the angular lines of the cars body.
A Japanese restoration example, a 1990s car with a 1980s Japanese influenced wheel showing a starting point that alot of race car manufactures developed from creating the VOLK TE37 today.
Modern day reproduction for race purposes.
More examples of Japanese manufactured race influence wheel on road going race cars creating a race aesthetic on the cars overall appearance.
A modern twist to the geometric patterns of the BBS split. Suits modern cars alot more.
Two example of more "showy wheels" on cars at a completely different end of the spectrum.
An old Japanese car with wheels worth more than the car but the wheel has very angular elements and extravagant use of materials.
Again extravagant use of materials and technologies in the wheels production but the angular shape and aggressive aesthetic suit the cars purpose alot more with it been an expensive super car.
How color and aesthetics is used in modern and classic show cars
The other main aspect of what makes a show car is the aesthetic appearance of the cars, how the color and visual modifications work together.
The bellow 1980s VW Caddy Pickup goes against the grain of typical classic restored show cars as they tend to follow a trend of just carrying out a high restoration of its standard appearance with a few subtle modifications.
While not the most extreme modified car this car sways away from the mentioned trend with the addition of a wooden roof rack with some sort of barrel and storage box and the cars number plate mounted up there adds an abstract aesthetic to the car. It still however goes with the standard car height lowering which helps tie things together.
While not the most extreme modified car this car sways away from the mentioned trend with the addition of a wooden roof rack with some sort of barrel and storage box and the cars number plate mounted up there adds an abstract aesthetic to the car. It still however goes with the standard car height lowering which helps tie things together.
Combine this with the two tone pastel khaki/olive & cream colour scheme, the brown Script and contrasting uppercase condensed sans serif typeface it definitely demonstrates a unique and original aesthetic fit for its purpose of advertising for this Tiling Company. The tones used do still demonstrate a traditional context though so this works well with the cars history.
I like how well the colors work together, with the main colour scheme been made up of very dull and earthy hues to create a subtle and understated overall colour scheme that doesnt rely on contrast as all the colors work in harmony together.
Compare the previous Caddy Van to this one theres alot of different things going on, the colour Scheme is more of a high impact scheme. This works for the cars advertising purpose of been a promotion car for a company that sells Car Cleaning & Paint treatment products so the car needed to have a high impact and tonally strong colour scheme to demonstrate there products.
The car again goes against standard restoration methods but not as much as the above Tiling Caddy van, the reversed mounted gold wheels are very in your face and provide a contrast in colour and tone bringing alot of attention to the wheels wich look to be restored and minted to a very high standard, again promoting there products and services.
I liked this old fashioned tool box in the cab, it really suits the whole classic restoration concept and flows with the rest of the color scheme due to the way the brown works with the burgundy red colour.
All the colors work together apart from the golden hue used on the wheel, this contrasts with the whole scheme but not a clash. It just helps make them stand out
To contrast all the above examples here is how I prefer to see cars modified, I like the look of subtly and minimal aspects. Modification wise it has been lowered in height from an air ride system, small carbon fibre wing mirrors added and a carbon fibre spoiler, gold race wheels that have a very simple contraction and don't have a very high impact appearance allow you to appreciate the engineering and the aesthetic of the huge brakes behind the wheel.
All the modifications are subtle so they either compliment something like the wheel and brake combination, or they help portray a certain image without making a huge statement like the carbon fibre parts are very expensive and the material is used in racing so suggests the car has lots of engine modifications.
The white color is a blank canvas for details like the wheels and highlight elements like the brakes to stand out. As mentioned about the subtle modifications like carbon fibre and the lowering of the car the white helps all these things tie in together and lets you appreciate all the small details without been distracting.
This BMW owner really succeeded here with the "originality" concept that rules the show car scene. I personally hate it has far too much going on for me I prefer the more subtle and simple builds. The cars shape and size has been altered with the body widened to accommodate for deeper and wider wheels to give the car even more impact in conjunction with the bright and loud color scheme. In terms of aesthetic its probably the most "artistic" car I have seen due to the vivid use of a combination of bright toned contrasting colors topped off with the tonal contrast of the white wheels.
