Twice per day the Drift Zone comes alive with the roar of highly tuned engines and the scream of highly stressed tyres.
CarFest has long been supported by some of the UK's finest drifters, and this year we’ve upped our game significantly and this is the place to watch our drift teams battle. If you know your drifting then you’re in for a treat, and if you don’t know much about drifting read on – you’re in for an even bigger treat!
The Drift Zone will play host to teams of talented drivers showing off their skills and doing battle, head-to-head, in a competition to find the CarFest Drift Champion. You really don’t want to miss this action!
Drifting 101:
When you push a rear-wheel drive car a little too enthusiastically into a corner and the rear end tries to overtake the front, in that instant, before you’re facing the wrong way on the road and wondering how you got there, is a drift.
With practice, talent and an unhealthy appetite for tyres you can turn that instant into minutes, and when you get really good at it you can change those minutes into a competitive motorsport.
From Qualifying, where you show your skills to a panel of judges who choose the daily battlers, to Battling we have it all on display.
A Drift Battle is a head-to-head tandem drifting competition where two drivers take turns leading and chasing, always sideways, through a course. They are judged on their line, angle, speed, and close proximity.
So, if your idea of motorsport fun features screaming tyres, billowing smoke and roaring engines then you’ve come to the right place.
Drift Bingo:
Listen out for the key phrases that will enlighten you on what is going on inside these cars
Angle: How sideways the car is compared to the direction the track goes
Clutch Kick: Quick jabs to the clutch pedal while keeping the throttle pinned to break rear traction
Feint: A sudden weight shift to the opposite side before turning into a corner, also called a Scandinavian flick
Manji: Weaving the car back and forth along a straight in a continuous slide
Shift Lock: Forcing the rear wheels to skid by dropping to a lower gear without matching engine speed
Clipping Point: A specific spot on the apex of a turn that the driver must touch with the front or rear bumper.
Tandem: A head-to-head battle where a chase car mirrors a lead car as close as possible
Wall Tap: Gently grazing the safety barrier with the rear bumper without crashing
Each day of CarFest the Legends will show us what tightly packed racing is all about on the CarFest Legends Oval.
Legends Racing is not to be missed. These 5/8 scale, 1930’s styled, Fords and Chevys may look small and cute but underneath the hood is a powerful motorcycle engine that propels the cars from 0 to 60 in sub 4 seconds.
These pocket-rockets may be small but boy do they pack a punch!
Legends Racing 101:
Legends were designed as a feeder series into America’s premier race series -NASCAR. This is where race-craft is learned and earned. The cars are fitted with steel bumpers designed to help to literally push fellow drivers down the straights helping both cars hit higher top speeds - two cars, twice the power, half the aerodynamic drag. This is ‘bump drafting’.
Legends cars are built on lightweight, tube-frame chassis and powered by sealed motorcycle engines (so that nobody can tinker with the internals in search of an advantage). These affordable, high-thrill ‘spec’ cars reach speeds over 100 mph on short ovals or even dirt tracks.
Legends Racing Bingo:
Listen out for the key phrases that will enlighten you as to what is going on during a Legends Car Race or going on inside the car:
Pocket Rocket: Small in size, big in power. These cars make over 330bhp per ton.
Bump Draft: The art of two cars working together, the laws of aerodynamics mean two cars travel faster than one, but they have to be very, very, close.
Sling Shot: Using the slipstream to gain on you competitor, the chasing car will dive out of the slipstream and overtake the car in front.
Locked Diff: Legends cars are closer to a drift car than a conventional race car.
Racing Line: There is no conventional racing line in Legends you can overtake on the inside or outside! They use parts of a track that many race series never even see.
Flat-Shift / Auto Blip: After leaving pit lane the clutch is never used, the on-board electronics ‘blips’ the throttle automatically to match revs for seamless and lightening-quick gear changes.
Left Foot Braking: Without the need to use the clutch pedal, the driver’s left foot does all the braking! What might seem easy is a very hard skill to master.