Drift origins

From its start until now

  • This is a bit before 1950 that the drift was born ... in Europe.
  • 1950s : Enzo Ferrari credits the Italian driver : Tazio Nuvolari as being the inventor of the four-wheel drift.
     
  • 1960s-1980s : Drifting became popular in Japan thanks to Kunimitsu Takahashi.
  • 1987: Keiichi Tsuchiya, known as the "Drift King", made a video clip "Pluspy" (link to the video), what became a hit and inspired many of the professional drifting drivers on the circuits today.
  • 1988 : Tsuchiya helped to organize one of the first events specifically for drifting called the "Ikaten".
  • 1996 : One of the first drift events outside Japan took place at Willow Springs Raceway in California.
  • 21st century : The drift discipline has became popular worldwide. This caused prices of FR cars to increase drastically.

Present: Drifting has evolved into a competitive sport with professional leagues and competitions held all over the world, including the D1 Grand Prix in Japan, Formula D in the United States, and the British Drift Championship in the UK.

Movies that helped the discipline to become popular

Drifting has been featured in a number of popular movies, including:

  • Initial D (2005) with the Toyota AE86, that you'll find here !
  • The Fast and the Furious : Tokyo Drift (2006)
  • Need for Speed (2014)
  • Overdrive (2017)
  • Baby Driver (2017)



These movies helped to introduce drifting to a wider audience and have helped to make it one of the most popular motorsports in the world.