Admittedly, the motorsport of drifting is a strange one. Those not passionate about it, roll their eyes at it while the general population complain about the noise it makes.

The problem with drifting is that it’s a subjective motorsport, where the only thing quantitative about it is the scores judges give. Yes, in a way it’s like ice skating. But the thing is, drifting has become so mainstream and so competitive over the years that a lot of people have forgotten the point of any motorsport: to have fun.

Like everything else that gets commercial sponsorship dollars, grassroots enthusiasts lose the passion to try to compete with the ‘big boys’ that have unlimited budgets. But unfortunately those are also the events that gets noticed and most of the press. So what’s there to do to help a new generation of drifters come into the fold?

NOS Energy Drink, who has supported drifting for years, created a half hour documentary with the aid of Will Roegge called Keep Drifting Fun. It travels the nation getting an inside look at both professional competition drifting and grassroots amateur drifting along with insight from drivers, event organizers, and more.

If you’ve ever wondered what it is that makes drifting so popular or successful, take a look at the documentary. It’s really the passion of the drifters and the fans; at the end of the day they just want to have fun and find a hard time finding something comparable.

It was inevitable. The slew of ads for the Scion FR-S that will soon inundate every auto enthusiast’s computer screen have started hitting the internet.

Thankfully, the footage below is fittingly exciting. Fast-snapping shots of the FR-S dashing by at a rapid clip show closeups of various car parts, which seems exciting and cool until the whole car is showin in a bird’s eye view for a split-second. In that short time it goes winding around a hairpin turn with the back end hanging out farther than a desperate hitchhiker’s thumb on a desert road.

“Sport is back,” the video declares, in reference to what will undoubtedly be one of the year’s best-received sports cars, which will be available in a little over two weeks on June 1. Watch the video below and see for yourself.

For more Scion FR-S news and info, visit FR-Sforum.com.

Atlanta’s city council recently passed an amendment that made several changes to the city’s noise ordinance, directly targeting drifting.

The amendment prohibits car drifting on private property within 1,000 feet of a residentially zoned district, stating that “car drifting produces excessive noise which is a nuisance to residential neighborhoods.” While its obvious that drifting makes a ruckus, the decision might be slightly misplaced because it discourages amateur drifting events designed to keep such activity contained in a safe environment.

This amendment won’t impact the Formula Drift Atlanta event since that takes place at Road Atlanta, which is outside city limits. But Atlanta is known for hosting many grassroots drifting events in local parking lots – legally of course – to help keep it off the streets. A petition has been setup to veto the ordinance amendment, which tries to fight back by stating that autocross events, Gymkhana events, and even automotive dealership test drive events are not being targeted in the amendment yet potentially produce the same amount of noise.

[Source: Wrecked Magazine]

Drifting has become an automotive phenomenon around the world with race leagues devoted to the sideways sport, leading drifters to push the limits constantly.

The King of Europe Drift league is one example of an entire organization devoting to the art of the drift, and with no vehicles biases, all types of mean machines show up. The video shows some of the racers skills as they drift side by side, in full circles and right through some really long turns. One enthusiast even brought a full size highway tractor, complete with over sized wing on the back.

Nothing is better than watching a big rig go sideways — during a drift, that is.

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Venerable pro drift racer Rhys Millen got his first chance of the year to work toward becoming the next Formula DRIFT champion but came in second place.

Despite Millen losing out for the top spot, we get some excellent footage of his Hyundai Genesis drift car blowing clouds of tire smoke. In the video he tells us the car performed very well during the Streets of Long Beach race, which was the first on the 2012 Formula DRIFT schedule.

Aside from being great at driving sideways really fast, Millen also used to be a rally racer. He’s also been a Hollywood stunt driver in the past.

The car he’s currently driving uses a turbocharged version of the 3.8-liter V6 in Hyundai’s production Genesis Coupe, only it’s been bored out to 4.1 liters. It also makes 650 hp and 650 lb-ft of torque. As you can see, that’s more than enough to light up the rear tires and keep them burning.

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Aspiring Canadian racers have something to look forward to this summer as Scion announces its plan to sponsor motorsports drivers for the second year in a  row. 

Timed to coincide with the 2013 FR-S release, the company will hold a series of racing events. Those who wish to participate will need to contact Scion Canada to register. In order to qualify, those participants need to run in at least two races, which will include a slalom, time-attack, drag racing and more.

All of the events will happen under Scion supervision in the spirit of encouraging amateur racing. While it’s an almost laughably small prize, first place winners will be awarded up to $500, second place is good for $300 and $125 for third.

A division champion will also be crowned to receive an extra $800 as a prize. It seems that Scion recognizes the likelihood for its predominantly young, male  target market to want to race the new sports car and is trying to offer a safe venue for the activity.

“The all-new FR-S is a legit sports car – a car that is light, nimble, sleek, sporty, and offers a pure driving experience on the race track,” said Larry Hutchinson, senior executive director of Scion Canada. “We’re excited about the contributions that both the FR-S and Scion Racing contingency program will be able to make to enhance Canadian motorsports.”

There wasn’t any word on the other competitions, but given its track prowess we can’t help but wonder if a drifting competition will number among the undisclosed contests.

If so, it could lead to some interesting YouTube videos courtesy of our neighbors from the north. If nothing else, the boy-racer community will have a closed-course outlet for it’s fast-and-furious imitation. Hopefully that will be enough to contain the hooning.

Discuss this story at FR-SForum.com.

GALLERY: 2013 Scion FR-S

While Subaru is targeting 5,000 units for its new BRZ sports car, Scion believes its version of the joint Toyota-Subaru project will more than double that forecast.

Speaking at a drive event for the car in Las Vegas, Scion brand boss Jack Hollis pegged sales for the new rear-drive sports car at 10,000 units for the year, with the FR-S going on sale June 1st. The following year, Hollis said he expects to double that number to 20,000 units, roughly equal to the number of tC models moved last year.

With the outrageous hype surrounding the car, Hollis even hinted that internal estimates might be cautious. “We’re confident we will sell every one we can get our hands on,” he remarked, adding that the FR-S has had 27,000 “hand raisers.”

When questioned further about the natural tendency of coupes to have dramatic sales declines by their third year, Hollis deferred to Scion FR-S/Toyota GT 86 chief engineer Tetsuya Tada who commented that by that time he expects to have something else to keep sales high. Both Hollis and Tada refused to speak on the topic of a higher performance FR-S, though Tada has in the past admitted that an FR-S Roadster is in the works.

Exactly who will be buying the FR-S? Hollis explains that the group will be a higher percentage of males, with a higher household income than current Scion buyers and will likely be new to the brand. Speaking to another Scion rep we were told that the ratio of manual transmission takers compared to those who choose an automatic is expected to be 50/50, while early preorders put the stick shift sales at 70 percent.

On the topic of buyers Hollis added that the reason for the influx of buyers new to the brand is that they’ll be motivated by the driving enjoyment that the FR-S delivers, regardless of its price.”Those who can afford any sports car they want,” he said, will opt for the FR-S simply because, “it’s fun to drive.”

Exactly how much fun? Read our recent review here to find out.

GALLERY: 2013 Scion FR-S

With all the media coverage that’s surrounded the Scion FR-S, it’s hard to say anything new about it, yet the bang-for-your-buck sports coupe refuses to leave headlines well enough alone. 

The latest news coming from Scion tells us there won’t be a turbo variant, at least not any time soon. We do expect to see a convertible at some point, but a release date (or any information) is hazy at best.

What’s totally clear, however, is our mega gallery of FR-S pictures, which you can peruse at your liesure.

GALLERY: 2013 Scion FR-S

Americans haven’t even seen the Scion FR-S in dealerships yet and Japanese tuners are out in Japan crashing the beloved Toyota GT 86 at drift events. 

When a rear-wheel drive car is going anywhere from 60-80 mph and flinging itself sideways, there’s a very good chance it’ll crash sooner or later. That’s part of the appeal of drifting: the inevitable, disastrous crash that is bound to come. Unfortunately this Up Garage Toyota GT 86 might be the first GT 86 to crash in a competition motorsports event piloted by Tetsuya Hibino.

It’s not an overly dramatic crash. In fact, it’s pretty run-of-the-mill when it comes to drifting accidents. But it’s still one of those sights we love to see on video. The cause of the crash is unknown, but given how relatively new the platform is, a suspension parts failure can’t be ruled out but chances are it’s was just overzealous piloting behind the wheel… or just the fact that it’s drifting and they get paid to create excitement.

The fully-decked out drift car shows the potential of what the FR-S / GT 86 can become behind the hands of the right tuners. FIVE:AD in America has already debuted its new aero kit that looks great for the FR-S.

Watch the video of Toyota GT 86 crashing in D1 Grand Prix after the break.

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Discuss this story at FR-SForum.com

We fell in love with the Toyota GT 86 when we first drove it, so how could it get any better? Well, try more than doubling the car’s factory displacement by swapping out the Subaru-sourced 2.0-liter boxer 4-cylinder for a 5.0-liter V8.

Donated from a Lexus IS-F, this custom machine is the ride of choice for Japanese drift and road racer Max Orido, who will compete in the D1 drift series this year.

Watch the video below and we sure to check out our Scion FR-S First Drive here:

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Some automotive enthusiasts saw EVs as a sign of motorsport’s eventual dom, but electric vehicles are proving that to not be quite true.

Quimera Responsible Racing wants to be the first on the market with a true All Electric Drift Car (AEDC). While electric cars won’t roar like a V8 they can burn serious rubber.

It isn’t actually far-fetched to imagine them competing at an actual drift event. Quimera sure hopes that its AEDC will be well-received by drifters nationwide, and is currently hosting a design contest for the car’s livery.

The international competition will grant the winner and a friend a trip to California’s Irwindale Speedway – aka The House of Drift – for the car’s official unveiling on October 12. Quimera will also give the winner $5,000 in spending cash, so if you’re interested click here.

Quimera hopes to encourage all forms of motorsports through its electric vehicle platforms in the future. We’re curious to see how their AEDC will perform out at Irwindale Speedway later this year.

Drifting is becoming a worldwide phenomenon, with car enthusiasts yearning to go sideways all over the globe. In this video a driver doing his best Initial D impression comes up a little short.

The driver catches a mound of sand and rolls his car right over. The car is clearly more injured than the driver’s ego, who continues to drive the vehicle past the stunned audience.

Hopefully this will remind viewers that drifting can be a dangerous pass time, and to try and not hit the only sand mound in the vicinity when you have tons of asphalt to have fun on. Just a suggestion.

Check out the video below.

Arab Drifting Gone Horribly Wrong!