One of the most overlooked aspects of drifting is the drag race to the first corner. In some series this element is removed by use of a pace cone, but it is this Speedhunters opinion that the pace gone introduces more tactics and mind games to the sport. You just can't beat an all out, flat to the floor race to the first corner.
This particular battle was between Brad Hackers and Jon Calvert and took place at the JDM Allstars final at Silverstone.
Away from the line and the 13B powered FD pulls away. Check out the heat haze from the exhaust and the fresh lines of rubber it's laying down.
Still laying down rubber with Calvert losing some ground.
No more wheel spin, just 100% acceleration into Brooklands.
But this drag race doesn't end with a lift of the throttle and dab of the brakes. It end's with a handful of hydraulic handbrake.
… just before disappearing out of sight and sending clouds of smoke above the horizon.
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Paddy McGrath
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
I was at this event, the sound that the dragon performance rx-7 made was incredible!
Wow We dont get that in mondello as much!
maybe short.. but what an awesome article!!
of course the rotary wins the drag race..
cool as hell.. "your man got took!!" - i love it, never seen 'it' from this perspective before.. 10/10
This is why you yanks ruined drifting.
Its not about a drag race to the corner. Its about the drifting. Thats why people had to make 3 million horse power cars just to compete. Driftig not about how much smoke you make either.. thats ridiculous!
Porr little cars are left in the dust.
i personally like retarded fast entry speeds and lots of smoke... bring on the power!
great article, and Dragon Mazda is F fast of the line and in Drift. I had a great time going against this car at Wembley! Great looking car!
haters gonna hate, what can you do?
Awesome!! Never have I seen the run to the first corner captured like this before.
RX7. NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS!
very very cool. and very good pics, it would be awesome if that first pic was put into the desktop section.
I get it's drag month and all, but I don't see any drag in drift. Acceleration is pretty much part of any motorsports, be it Time Attack, mashing it down the straight section to shave off time. Or maybe Super GT, seeing who can get the jump on the other to get the lead going into a turn. So this is kind of an irrelevant article. But since you pointed it out, the start of the battle is a very overlooked part of the event. But i'm going to contradict myself asking; Don't Formula D battles start with a designated lead/chase car?
Whats that sticker called on the rx7's license plate?
rx7!
STILLFAST
Until there are separate classes for cars, there needs to be a pace cone. Something like power to weight ratio separation. An LS7 Pontiac Solstice is going to wail on just about anything in existence. Unless of course you want a spec series............ (that's a bad thing in case you were wondering)
DESKTOP FOR NUMBER 1!!
So epic.
Good point you bring up about the "drag race" to the finish line I see a lot more agressiveness and tactic being played in Formula D also. Tanner in my opinion seems to be one of the best at this as I noticed he likes to bring in as much pressure as possible when he follows
Good article but I disagree on the pace cones. I think they should be there because otherwise, its just a drag race, and a drag race only. No pace cone means built cars will destroy privateers every single run. This is drifting, the battle is fought in all the corners not just the drag to the first.
Drag racing off the line to gain a lead on your opponent is fucking gay
The drag to the first turn is a great psychological and mechenical advantage. During the run the lead car can sand bag it's speed, drag with it's brake lights on and even (the ever popular) brake check to unsettle a chaser's turbo setup or rythem. Chasers can fall back to take measure of their opponents initial line to counter attack later or ride all over the lead car like white on rice to apply huge pressure.
You can't see the drag as a win or lose side event because the chaser will always come in 2nd. But it is part of drift and if it leads to bigger rwhp cars then that's just the nature of it because you already have teams who bring several gearboxes or diffs with various ratios to adapt to track conditions anyway. It sucks to be a privateer against a sponsored team but that's when you have to really take a good look at tyre choice and suspension to get you through along with testicular fortitude.
i think its tottaly down to the track design, some short tracks with small run ups its just not possible.To run a pace cone you need to have an0ther 100 metres form the startline to make it viable
tanner foust basically ran away in all his runs in FD last weekend thats how he won at irwindale
Tyre choice and suspension setup is not going to help against a Nascar powered Scion tC with full tech support from a race team. The only thing that is going to help in that situation is $. I'm not completely against it, but there needs to be another series for guys without the big bucks. Hopefully XDC can hold down that position, but the two series would have to work together to create a ladder for privateers and grassroots racers.
EEEE, cool S13