Professional drifting, a motorsport discipline that combines skill, precision and style, can trace its origins to the mountain roads of Japan in the 1970s. It emerged from the illegal street racing culture there, where drivers would compete to see who could slide their car around corners with the most finesse and control, pushing traction to its limit.
As drifting grew in popularity, it transitioned from its underground origins to an organised, professional motorsport. The establishment of the Formula Drift Championship in the United States in 2004 played a crucial role in bringing drifting to a wider audience. This championship created a stage to showcase high-level competition, attracting professional drivers and car manufacturers who began to recognise its enormous marketing potential.
As a result, they started providing support to drift teams, leading to high-performance cars being purpose built for the sport.
Most forms of modern-day motorsport are heavily governed by technical regulations, but drifting is one of the last that allows complete mechanical creativity. Virtually any combination of chassis and engine may be used in competition.
While drift cars have traditionally been heavily modified street cars, the professional drift cars of today can perhaps best be described as unrestricted GT3 machinery designed to go sideways.
Beyond the track
The author and renowned Nismo track performance engineer, Ricardo Divila, took inspiration from Ken Block’s Gymkhana films to create a project that takes motorsport beyond the racetrack, and crosses paths with tourism promotion and film making.
For this, they needed to construct a bulletproof drift car that would have no possibility of failure during the short filming windows given by the government.
Together, they created Y Motorsport in 2019. This is a Los Angeles, California-based race team that resides in a 6000sq.ft shop dedicated to the construction, maintenance and operation of the car for this project.
The pair teamed up with Michael Bowser of Mirboco Engineering and Graeme French to execute the build.
In the world of high-performance automobiles, few names resonate
