Wired article on Drifting Featuring Tony Angelo and Chris Forsberg from back in 2003. Written by Charles Graeber This is an interesting read that gives you a bit of history on these two fellows. I remember reading it in the actual magazine back then.
Oversteering is a great way to crash and burn. It’s also the key to the fishtailing ballet of burning rubber called drifting. Start your engines: The out-of-control car culture of Japan’s meanest streets is coming to America.
Tony and I are sitting in the welded-steel roll cage of his 1989 Mazda RX-7 Turbo, waiting for the call. Beyond the dashboard, it’s a perfect summer night in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the sort of evening custom-made for young men and fast cars. The moon is full and high, and the humid air carries the scent of woods and fields. Threaded through the silhouettes of farmhouses and hills is a single road, a shoulderless country switchback squiggling in the moonlight. Tony’s here to ride these curves in an automotive style some people consider a menace, others a miracle. It’s called drifting, and it’s the biggest thing you’ve never heard of.
Drifting is the art of controlling a car while it’s going sideways. I say “sideways” because during a drift, the car slips perpendicular to the forward direction of the tires. I say “art” because cars are engineered not to go sideways, and, as any pro driver will tell you, sideways driving tends to be a bit hard on the tires - not to mention the suspension and frame - and is certainly not the fastest or safest way around a curve.
