Pontiac GTO Drifter

Pontiac GTO Drifter

Pontiac GTO Drifter

Running in the Formula D Drift Series. They said it was booed by the audience when it made it's debut here in SoCal. Don't undestand why. It's one nice looking GTO. Could it be the typical "racers" that'll boo anything that isn't made by Honda, Toyota, etc. etc.?

of course that's what it was. if it's not a s13, s14 or ae86, it can't doooorrrriiffttttooo!!! man there are plenty of examples of people who will ignorantly bash anything that wasn't built in japan (though most of our toyotas weren't either lol). I'd say a good 30% of this board will immediately hate on anything domestic, so why wouldn't the drift competition fans? Hell, it's not even racing anyway - it's cool, but all it really is is the motorsports equivalent of ballet.

oh im sure - i've never been to one (they don't have a whole lot of drifting in south FL), but you can just tell from talking to ricers and especially reading what they say online that they all think dorifto is da shit - "i can't wait to set up my civic/corolla/focus/insert random FWD car here to drift!" fucking idiots actually think they can drift a fwd car.

That's true. Ueo was my hero for a while because he won the D1 Exposition last year in his 170-hp Sprinter.

But I would like to point out a couple things. A few things actually....

1: Drift competitions take place on a drift track now. Very little drift (that I know of) actually take place on mountain roads where it originated. Therefor, what we know of as drift, is a motorsport now.

Kinda like Kenjutsu and Kendo.

2: Since it is now a motorsport, it's going to be interesting to see what we as Americans bring to the sport (i.e. Rhys and the GTO) and I'm sure the Europeans will get into it in the near future if they haven't already.

3: (A little off topic) And as far as balancing and tuning are concerned.... I can't really really agree that they also originated in Japan. Americans have been tuning anything with wheels since the invention of the automobile.

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now.

I have been wondering for a while now why people don't bring to early to mid 90s 3 series to the tracks. That inline 6 putting down 215 horses isn't the most beastly motor on the street, but it sure does pack a hell of a lot of punch, way more than any istock import, and RWD of course. The reason I mention this car is because it is something that is actually affordable and streetable (i.e. if you crash it sporting it won't be the absolute end of the world as opposed to a 911 or M3).

it's powerful and RWD...why not?

i just don't like the body...looks like a freakin bonneville.

hmm after taking a good look at it laura i agree it looks like a bonneville not to my taste

Laura is right, it looks like a bonnieville

hehe pontiac GTO hauls ass! it's one of the most ferocious cars to date...gotta love the sound on em too...

The only thing I have against drifting in america is that i'm afraid this culture would do to drifting, what it did to the import scene.. it would be a sad they when kids take over the streets in their shitvics going sideways into pedestrians..

But the america drift team has been using dumbestics for a while.. especially vipers.. as we see in irvindale

But the thing thing to get out of your mind is that POWER plays a major role in drifting.. I mean The Corolla GTS puts down somewhere around 90hp in the rear wheels and they could drift just fine.. drifting is more about balance than anything and 200hp seems about perfect to me.. The only thing big power do is gets you from one corner to the other quicker.

There's a whole article on Rhys Millen's drift GTO in the July issue of Car and Driver. He made a good point when he said:

"We've been thinking that a big-engined sports car, such as the 350-hp GTO, would be easier to drift than a small-engined turbocharged car. Turbo cars typically can't match the instant throttle response of a big V-8 and thus require more cajoling to spin the rear tires."

That's probably stock. Now.... Think of how much work and money you'd put into an import, now take that same amount of money and effort and put it into a large engine car (like the GTO) and what do you get? I mean, seriously?

I personally applaud Rhys Millen and Pontiac. I think he would have done alot better had they had more than two weeks to prepare for the D1. I think they'll be a force to be wreckoned with after all the bugs have been worked out and Rhys learns the car.

If I had 35G's.... I'd already have a GTO.

Go US drivers.

[

Good points man. I have read the little article the "drift king" tsuchiya wrote, and he says that he likes driving larger displacement vehicles such as the NSX because of the instant thorttle response (insert laugh at large displacement vehicle and NSX v6, but that's besides the point) as opposed to cars such as the S14 or 15 where the turbo's have to spool up and at some point "will surpise you".

Bottom line..."There still is no replacement for displacement". But as far the person who said it's more about balance....just because the car is made in america doesn't mean that it doesn't have a "balance" between power and handling...if a car can drift...well it can drift...how well is to be seen. Look what it says there...


The top drivers use rear-drive Japanese sports cars such as the Nissan 240SX, the Mazda RX-7, and the Toyota Supra. Typically, the cars have highly modified turbocharged engines because it takes a lot of power to keep the rear wheels spinning.

Japanese drifters want more power as well, but what they want most is response, that's where larger motors come in, good power low RPM.



Another bottom line is this...in America there are few options for an "import" drift car. We have basically:
350Z, G35 which are expensive
RX7, 300ZX, Supra, 3000GT which are rare and still very pricy
AE86 old, weak, rare, still nice though.
MR2, older, rare...good luck finding one with under 80K miles, plus I heard that they understeer for some reason, I haven't looked into that, can anyone fill me in?
240SX, probably the best bet but the KA24 isn't the greatest motor though.

And what else? Not much. I really would like to see an affordable RWD import come out, but it seems everyone is front wheel drive turbo or AWD happy nowdays.

I want to see some clips of that Viper hitting the track, it must be pretty intense.

its because mr2's are mid engine

its because japanese culture has brainwashed so many kids. they get hard-ons for everything made in japan which means anything from europe or the US is shit.

thats the whole point of the gto. a big ass v8 stuffed inside a plain looking car.

I think Initial D has a big part in all of this. What bothers me is the whole bandwagon jumping. I mean, before no one would bother looking at an AE86 or a 240SX. But now that drifting is becoming popular, everyone wants to sell their car and get one of those. I was thinking into a MK2 MR2 with a beefed up 5S-FE as a drift car. And this reminds me of the drifting event I previously went to. Apparently a Mustang was attempting to drift (Literally attempted. No joke. He ended up not drifting at all. And this was for the D1 Driver search, so Nomuken and Tsuchiya witnessed that). Even before he got to the turn, people around me were bitching about it being a Mustang and stuff like that. Atleast he's in there trying. I wanna see them go in there and try the same. More than likely they'll end up spinning out or won't be able to drift at all because they own a FWD car. People can be stupid at times.

Keiichi Tsuchiya has 2 favorite cars, The Acura NSX and the Hachi Roku.. BUT he only uses the ARTA NSX for the GT500 Touring series and to set lap records at tsukaba.. if you catch him in drifting competitions he would undoubtly be driving a Hachi.

Now where the hell did you see me say american cars have no balance?? If you EVER watched Tsuchiya drive in vopt videos, you know that balance is all that he talks about.. he takes on more powerful cars such as tuned S15's with less powerful cars such as Hachis, ITR, MR-S, and credit his wins to the balance in the cars.

Tell that to Katsuhiro Ueo.
Even in Japan high power cars has to slow way down to make the corner while lesser cars can make a smooth, flowing, perfect drift at full throttle.

The bottomline is that this car can drift, so why hate? (and I'm not making references to anyone here because it seems as though the majority are pretty open-minded). It may not be everyone favorite car, but why boo it? It deserves as much respect as any other Drifter.

Well first of all I noticed your term of endearment for domestics, and then you said that power has little use except for coming into the corner, and then you have to take into account that this is a post about a GTO, so I made an inference. But I don't really want to turn this into a flame battle, so if you agree that some domestics have balance I apologize for the assumption but otherwise don't mention it, because I am not going to change your opinion and you are not going to change mine. Just to clarify I really admire imports for how well they handle, but I don't like when people say domestics can't handle well, because I have seen plenty that take the twisties just fine.

Well said PsyVash, and agree whole heartedly.

I have to say this board has come a long way. Back in its infancy (before/during the demise of C3), this place was 100% domestic-hating ignorant rice with 10 times more posts about body kits and strobe lights than honest automotive knowledge and performance.

I'm very pleased to see that people here have broadened their horizons, and actually bothered to learn things before opening their e-mouth. Go vvti.net.

the sound of the rumbling v8 is sure unique at the track. and yes the gto can drift and it can drift pretty well too.