Features

Love it or hate it, everyone wants to drift. It really doesn't matter if you're a pro race driver and wouldn't be caught dead going around a corner the slow way or a 16-year-old fan boy with the keys to your first hand-me-down car. Drifting is the motorsport of the masses and is also the fastest way to make a grown man giggle with joy. The cool factor and car-control bragging rights don't hurt either, because deep down we all know that being able to drift your ride is a badge of honor and actually teaches you better car control.
That said, there's big difference between real drifting and what your dad thought he was doing as a kid on some frozen backroad in the Midwest. That's just power-on-oversteer, with a sprinkle of too-much-throttle and a healthy pinch of panic thrown in. Drifting is calculated, executed and followed through with finesse and control like a choreographed dance, while the ordinary man's backroad tank-slapper antics are just a result of circumstance and coincidence, much like a club-footed ape underneath a disco ball.
Even for those of us who know the difference and have yapped and ranted about the techniques, there's still a huge gap between knowing and doing. We wanted to be taught how to drift, not be fan boys, so we enrolled in Drift Association's Drift 101 and 102 schools, which promised to make even the most club-footed of apes capable of planning, initiating and maintaining a slide. Drift Association is one of the first and longest-running organizations in the U.S. that caters to beginner, amateur and pro drifters.