Wow, Drift really brings out a lot of posts nowdays. I love how everyone gets so excited about it there in the states. Its great and in a few years most of you will know the real deal behind drifting. Some people obviously think you need to install every safety and performance part on your car before attempting any type of "racing". I also notice that the trend for young people is to want to start in the parking lot.....that is prolly a good idea. I run Gymkhana every month as well as circuit and still do some street activities. Gymkhana or spining around cones and attacking a course will make you a better driver. I love drift and find myself wanting to drift during a gymkhana session and in some areas of the course it is faster to drift and in most areas it is faster to slow down make the turn and accelerate out. I encourage everyone to find some drift videos from japan in the '80s this is about the era that America and most of the world is in right now. D1, which is in the States right now is a very high level arena with lots of eyes looking at it so naturally the cars have all the goodys. To learn to drift or enjoy it you do not need a roll cage....the main reason anyone puts a roll cage in is to stiffen the chassis. Don't wear a helmet on the street......lol I have raced Ebisu without a helmet before!! If you are afraid of crashing, or afraid of dying or getting hurt then quit now!!! Not that drift is some super duper only the super human can do type of driving but everyone tries to do some crazy **** or they lack the fundamental understanding of how a car reacts under certain inputs and then they crash their precious car that they are emotionally attached to and so they stick to being the Slow and Curious and drag race.

The guys who run at Drift Session in Hawaii are the best drivers I have seen from the states so far......they prolly have the most practice. Most people there seem to take it seriously and work at their own pace. I was suprised to see that there are a couple of people there who are better than me in a lot of areas.........that sucked donkey dick for me cuz I thought I was the best......lol

Anyway just go try driving your car, keep away from other people . When you learn to drive your car you will know what parts to buy.........and whoever said dont use good tires in the front is obviously lost.

 

well of course you dont need a rollcage or helmet, but I hope you got one hell of a spine and skull dude!!!

 

 

Ranzo, where are you from originally??

And on a side topic...do you know of any japanese websites that sell ATS clutches?

 

Originally I am from Arkansas, but have been living in Japan since 1994. I have never seen ATS for sale but I can imagine if they did then they would be really expensive...... The prices they have for Carbon is what the Japanese pay for a regular Twin Plate.....lol


Yeah about my spine......it is fine... in all acuality most Japanese cars unless modified signifigantly where the cage bolts in to the floor, will not stop you from getting injured in the type of accident you are reffering too. I have seen cars roll and the Roll cage just punched through the floor of the car and the rear wheel wells causing the cage to toss about the car beating the driver in the head. There are only a few places where you can get that kind of speed and usually people use the brakes long before then just from fear alone.... Personally I have a five point cage in my car but it was not put in because I thought about crashing and so on.....hell if I died racing my car then I died happy so not really concerned about that.

 

i was planning on learning drift and practicing till i felt i was good enought to go to japan and race drift but since D1 in in the states. hell i dont have to go too far . even though many tell me that drifting will slow me down. drift raceing is a diffrent type of raceing and whether one is better than the other is irrelevant. it depends on the drivers skill and the course but thats just my $.02

 

Ranzo, why/how are you living in Japan? I want to try and live over there for a while possibly with a foreign exchange program or whatever...I heard that VISA's are only good for like 6 months? You know anything about that?

 

I work for a contractor on a military base . You can try for Govt. jobs or a contract job over here somewhere or you could try to teach english or something. a tourist visa in Japan is only good for 90 days.....your chances of getting any other type is slim.

 

one name: Frank Williams.

Except he was in a standard production car (a Ford Sierra as I recall) no harness or anything. Roof came down hard on the top of his head, crushed his spinal column, instant quadriplegic.

This is why I really worry about WEARING a helmet in my car... headroom goes from barely acceptable to feeler-gauge. There goes any roof crush safety margin. I am seriously contemplating getting a layback racing seat and bolting it straight to the floor. The other option is to not race RX-7s, but what fun is that?

 

3 months isn't bad...thanks for the info

 

i might be planning to go to japan later this year and check out some races

 

5 pt cage??? are you sure this is a full cage. BTW: Cages are suppose to be welded to the frame of the car or bolted with reinforcement plates so they dont punch thru. can i get some pics of your roll cage? Who made your cage anyways?

 

no it is not a full cage its only a 5 point so it does not come to the front of the car. and Even having plates oin the bottom where it bolts, as mine does, sometimes will not always prevent the cage punching through the floor in a high speed roll as we were discussing.

I think you would be very hard pressed to roll a Rx-7 unless you are just really dumb and drive out of control.

I do not have any pics of just my roll cage at this time but I can take some. My cage is made by Safety 21

 

DRIFTTTTTT

 

that is called a roll bar man! Personnaly, I don't believe in them and would never go with just the bar instead of a full cage!

BTW: If installed correctly, it won't come loose and wack you around in there!

 

WTf man, im assuming this is just post whoring...

can some mod delete this post as well as mines, thanks

 

Actually I am trying to attach a video, can someone tell me how to post a Realmedia video ? Otherwise how do I attach an mpeg exactly? It's in my documents, I hit browse on the reply page, it lists the location, but when I post nothing... Ranzo, Grow up....

 

Hmm Roll cage rollbar its all the same... The japansese refer to all of them as Rollbars no matter how many points it has. Check out some magazines and you might see a 12 point rollbar.

My Rx-7 is a unibody car so it would be impossible to weld to the frame

 

opps, well weld to the body/chassie what ever, you get the point

 

sorry about that. As for the real media link, just put the link to where ever the vid is. I dont think you can insert a movie in to the page

 

No it's not.

Rollbars are a single hoop, generally behind your head.

A roll cage has multiple hoops, generally one hoop behind your head and a second one at the windshield.

Unless you would prefer to remain ignorant...

 

I actually searched around for a corner i thought would work so i dont tear up my car, of course i spin out and ive gotten both back wheels off the road but the corner is big enough to learn as well. It close so when it rains i go out for fun. Not a bad way to learn id say

 

Ok ignorance...... Please enlighten me exactly what a "hoop" is and why you would have it in your car??

I realize that a roll "cage" would when looking at it give the appearance of a cage. However that cage is made up of steel BARS hence the general term rollbar and then to specify the size and so on you tell the number of points. a 4 point has a circular bar that bolts to the floor of the car behind the front seats and two bars that bolt onto that main bar that extent down to the fender wells. A five point would have a cross bar that runs diagonal between thos two bars. a Seven point would have the two bars that run to the front of the car and connect under the dash area.

so the Term 'rollcage' and 'rollbar' are effectivley the same, although the term 'cage' would give the impression of many points. It could be and is still refered to as a roll bar. I guess it all depends on where your from and how you talk. If I go into a Store in Japan and ask for a rollcage they will look at me wierd so i have just adopted the way the Japanese talk.

Besides all of that this thread is about drift and I really doubt that that you will aproach speeds that will exceed any normal rollbar/cage while drifting.

 

I'm gonna make myself a Ti rollcage