Motors Feature: the art of driftingDrifting is a highly skilled sport that, among other things, teaches you how to control your car even in the worst road conditions. Shane O'Donoghuesigned up for a lesson
It's all very well sliding a car around on ice and snow when there's nothing to hit other than more snow (as you'll read elsewhere this week in Motors), but unless you frequently travel into the Arctic Circle, you'll never have the chance to safely explore your car's limits in this way. Drifting, however, is relatively new to Ireland and doesn't require a huge amount of space, or money, to take part.
Before entering your car in the Prodrift Irl championship, you'll need to learn the basics.
There are several drift competition formats, but in essence, drifting is the skill of driving your car as sideways as is feasible for as long as possible through a sequence of corners.
The Drift Academy teaches young and old how to drift a car in a safe environment. Currently running classes of up to 20 students per day at Mondello Park for varying skill levels, the Drift Academy is hoping to spread its reach across Ireland, so we attended a course to see what it's all about.
A rainy and grey morning would make most motorsport participants grimace at the thought of a wet track, but Irish weather is ideal for drifting, helping to reduce the wear and tear on the car's tyres, as well as making it easier to drift, even at low speeds. That's particularly important to beginners, as I was about to find out. My tutor for the day was Darren McNamara.
At only 22-years-old, he is already a winner of the Prodrift Irl Series and a contender in the highly competitive US and European drift championships. His easy-going nature and strong Buttevant accent belie his abilities behind the wheel.
Our steed for the day was a 300bhp Nissan Silvia affectionately known as "Snoopy". There's nothing cuddly and cartoon-like about this car's interior though, as it's stripped out for purpose and features an ominous looking full roll cage. Darren talks me through the basics before a wheel is turned.
Along with a "minimalist" interior, Snoopy features a hydraulically-operated handbrake, which instantly locks the rear wheels to help initiate a slide, along with a special limited slip differential, which allows very little difference between the speeds of the rear wheels. It's crucial to drifting apparently.
Before learning to maintain a slide, it's important to know how to successfully initiate the drift, and it's the first lesson of the day. That hydraulic handbrake is invaluable and the wet conditions help my cause, as it quickly becomes second nature to drive around a ring of cones, yank on the lever, depress the clutch and apply a small amount of corrective lock before the car naturally comes to a halt.
Before long, it's time to actually reapply power to the rear wheels and of course comes the inevitable spin. Then another. And then another.
Despite the feeling of being a complete novice at the start, it doesn't take all that long to manage to maintain the slide that little bit further and after a few hours of tutoring I manage to lap the cone circuit four times before coming to a halt, grinning like the village idiot.
That drifting is fun is beyond doubt. At just 80km/h I enjoyed myself more than at any time on a high-speed race circuit.
Not only that; I learned more about car control in the event of a slide in a few hours than I have in my whole life.
Motoring journalists aren't the only people that believe they are better drivers than they really are. Numerous surveys have concluded that the average person considers themselves to be safer behind the wheel than they are in reality.
Young males are guiltier of this than any other part of the population, a fact that is supported by swollen insurance premiums and RSA publicity campaigns targeted at young men.
Draconian measures have thus far been relatively unsuccessful. To the uninitiated, drifting could appear to be the dubious work of boy racers, but it's a highly skilled sport that takes place under safe conditions and at relatively slow speeds. Karl O'Sullivan of Prodrift mentions that the Irish round of the European series will come to Mondello on April 19th and they expect about 6,000 spectators. Most of those will be the young men and women safety campaigners are trying so desperately to reach.
A very small amount of tuition could not only drastically alter these future drivers' skill levels in the event of an emergency, but also hammer home real awareness of a car's limits and the effect prevailing conditions have on them.
Aware of its unique position, Prodrift has signed up to the European Road Safety Charter, the first motorsport organisation to do so.
This means there is a proactive approach towards road safety at all of Prodrift's events, which should reach an audience of up to 35,000 people. It's not only young drivers that should go back to school; we could all do with a little education.
o For more information, check: www.prodriftseries.com and www.prodriftirl.com