Monday 31st October 2005

Drift it with PistonHeads

Drift Academy teams with PH for a very special day

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Driftin'

Fancy trying your hand at drifting? Then come to the Pistonheads Drift Academy Day at a special PistonHeads price.

• What: Level 1 Drifting Course
• When: Thursday 8th December
• Where: Silverstone

The driving takes place in the ATC/Skidpan area on the infield of Silverstone circuit using Drift Academy Mazda MX-5s specially modified for drifting. At this venue we also allow you to bring your own car along to learn and practise. You must ensure that your car is suitable for drifting before booking a place.

This course is suitable for anyone who wants to learn advanced car control or drifting. You will be taught both the theory of drifting and practical aspects of controlling the car in small groups.

We only use wide open areas with nothing to hit apart from a stray cone. We only teach drifting in rear wheel drive cars fitted with a limited slip differential (LSD).

Friends and family are welcome to attend and you can book optional passenger rides if you want to treat them (or you!) An instructor will demonstrate high speed drifting in one of our competition drift cars.

Typical course itinerary

• 10.00 Arrival, coffee and introductions
• 10.15 Safety & course briefing
• 10.30 Morning driving/theory sessions begin
• 12.30 Lunch
• 13.00 Afternoon driving/theory sessions begin
• 15.30 Drift Competition
• 15.50 Debrief & Prize giving
• 16.00 Depart

All this for just £275 per person driving the Drift Academy MX-5 drift cars or £175 per person if you want to use your own car - (special Pistonheads rate)

• Details from the Drift Academy

[Graham]

:bounce: Im provisionaly up for this, taking the race car down for a laugh... Just need to adjust my diary...


see you there :driving:

[andyf]

"You must ensure that your car is suitable for drifting before booking a place."

What does that mean exactly ...

[M@H]

andyf said:

"You must ensure that your car is suitable for drifting before booking a place." What does that mean exactly ...

RWD with knackered tyres

[james]

andyf said:

"You must ensure that your car is suitable for drifting before booking a place." What does that mean exactly ...

It means that if you aren't sure that it is, you contact them and they tell you

[r988]

andyf said:

"You must ensure that your car is suitable for drifting before booking a place." What does that mean exactly ...

read the entire article

above said:

We only teach drifting in rear wheel drive cars fitted with a limited slip differential (LSD).

[andyf]

that's it? it just has to be RWD with an LSD?

Ace, my car qualifies

[Drift Academy]

Looking at your profile, you have the perfect car for it

[zevans]

I really can't BELIEVE someone has just asked if a 200SX is suitable for drifting...

[brioss]

Just booked up, first ever drift experiance, should be fun !

[Drift Academy]

Just a few places left.... don't leave it too late to book!

[rsvmilly]

Just booked up using DA's cars. Can't wait

[Graham]

I havent booked yet I still need to sort the dissy problem, but more importantly Im a little worried about cooling. My Tuscan doesnt run any fans so if there isnt much airflow it could overheat.

Whats the lenght of the sessions and do cars genreally run hot ?

cheers

G

[Drift Academy]

Usually we keep it to about 5 minutes at a time to avoid engine and tyres overheating. This might not sound like a lot, but believe me it's plenty when you're learning how to drift.

Cooling is the biggest issue as the engine spends a lot of time at high rpm without a lot of air flowing through the radiator, but most high performance cars are usually OK.

If you have no fans at all, then it may be a problem.

For anyone else, if you can override the fan somehow, it helps a lot. Some cars have secondary electric fans for when the aircon is on, so switching a/c on is a good idea.

We've only got one place left on this day now, so don't wait too long to book if you do want to come along!

>> Edited by Drift Academy on Sunday 13th November 17:49

[Drift Academy]

All places taken on the 8th, but we are also running a day on the 9th and have a few spaces on that day we can let any Pistonheaders have at the same price.
E-mail us for details: [e-mail]


>> Edited by Drift Academy on Monday 28th November 15:16

[rsvmilly]

I won't be giving up my day job but I had a damn good laugh.

Dave, I captured that footage for you. Quality is not fantastic but I edited it to make you look more heroic Drift

Ed, I have a fair bit of footage of your beastie in action. You were hampered by your poor steering lock but your donuts looked good.

Ed 1

Ed 2

Right Click and Save the above links.

[s3am]

I came along at the end to watch my brother in the CSL (and to bring some new tyres). Got some footage which I will post when I have a chance.

Looked like good fun out there!

[Drift Academy]

Glad you all enjoyed the day. A nice selection of cars as well.

The surface at Silverstone is really kind on tyres, so we'll be using this venue a lot in the future.

We'll have some photos up on our site in a day or two. Happy to host any videos you might have as well (just e-mail [e-mail] and I'll sort out the file transfer).

We'll be planning more days for PH'rs in the new year.

In the meantime, Happy Christmas to you all!

[s3am]

Here's some of the CSL
http://media.putfile.com/M3-CSL-drift

[Drift Academy]

Here are the link to the video clips submitted by Luckyone.
Best to right click and save as, especially for the big one.
All .MOV Quicktime format

26MB in-car clip

5.7MB TVR Practise1

4.2MB TVR Practise2

Happy to host others, just e-mail me for ftp information: [e-mail]

Photos follow shortly...Here's the group at the end of the day:

[Drift Academy]

Photos now online:

HERE