I've been observing this "debate" for the last few days, and thought I'd throw in my 2 cents. Before I do though, I'll clarify a few things about myself. In GT5, I drift RWD cars, as that is what I find most enjoyable. In real life, I don't drift anything on any kind of regular basis, but I am a fan of all things motorsport. F1, endurance, drag, drift, boats bikes and snowmobiles...hell, even lawnmowers, if it's got a motor and can be raced, I'm a fan. I can even manage to appreciate and find beauty in NASCAR
After having spent the last 3-4 months frequenting this board, I am absolutely flabbergasted at all the hate focused around the drive-train of a drift car. It makes absolutely no sense to me.
I think many people forget just how small-time drifting still is in the global motorsport community. Yes, it's been legit in Japan for a while now, but everywhere else in the world, it is a very small blip on the radar. It's only been in the last 5 years or so that drifting has really started to make much noise in both North American and Europe. All over the world, the drift community is still working hard to be considered legit by most other forms of motorsport, much in the same way that import drag racing fought a huge uphill battle in North America before people accepted it...and what do we do? Instead of uniting together, we fight amongst ourselves.
And at the end of the day, what is everyone actually fighting about? They're fighting about the definition and use of the word "drift". For some reason, probably because it is the godfather of drifting, the RWD drift community has made an attempt to lay claim to the word drift. Anything that is not RWD is not drifting. Who the hell is anyone to try to claim a word? Grow up. I've drifted a snowmobile on a frozen lake before...anyone care to try and tell me what I was doing wasn't drifting?
To me, the whole idea of saying "FF and AWD drifting is not drifting, RWD is the only acceptable form of drifting" is as ridiculous as saying "softball is not baseball, hardball is the only real baseball". Of course there are difference, and of course they are not compatible with each other, but that doesn't mean that they aren't part of the same family.
After observing this drive-train debate for a while, I've noticed a very amusing trend. It's not an absolute, but more often than not, the people who seem to have a problem with non RWD drifting are from the Americas, Europe and Australia, whilst the people who seem to be most open minded and encouraging towards FF and AWD drifting are Japanese. I don't think it is possible to credit any one person with "inventing" drifting, but I think most will agree that it was the Japanese who pioneered the idea of "drifting culture". I just think it's funny that all these cultures who are sort of the "new kids on the block" in the drifting world are the ones who are getting the most bent out of shape, while the people who have been doing the drift thing the longest are the most accepting of new and different aspects of drifting. As someone already said, if FF and AWD are not drifting, then why does Keiichi San himself accept it?
I also find it amusing that most people who actually drift for real are the more accepting, or at least tolerant, of other forms of drifting, and people who only drift in a video game (like me) are the most biased...I guess it's actually quite common for the armchair quarterbacks to be the most biased and opinionated.
Personally, I give props to anyone who drifts anything.
@OP: I really didn't think much of the Act Z in GT5, but after seeing those pics of your real car, I have a new appreciation for it. It's a very unique looking car, beautiful in its own way. Congrats on owning a pretty rare piece of extremely under appreciated automotive history.
If I can offer a little advice though, next time, try to take the high road and avoid insulting people's cultural background. We're a global community here, and that kind of stuff is really not appreciated.
Are you talking just the civic, or both pics? If you're talking about just the civic, I have to point out the obvious...the 86 isn't making any smoke either...
Since we're sort of discussing what is and what isn't drifting, I think it may be best to leave the GT5 drift trials out of the discussion, as we all know how poor they are.
