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.