Often wondered if I.... or people I know.... Could do this professionally like Phil and the like... What makes someone good enough to do this pro? Is it the car? Money? Skill? I'm sure their are people with the skills but live in Norway and drive a 36.... Seems like drifting is like the NBA.. A lot of good basketball players in street courts around America but they rarely "make it"
Practice and skill is all of it. Nothing to do with money and car as any good driver will get a drive on a company sponsored car if he good enough. Almost no world class driver owns or pays for the car he drifts. Nothing to do with money or car as SO many big money cars get their ass handed to them on a daily basis.
Depends if you get the backing from sponsers imo. I doubt anyone could work a 9-5/5 days a week and then travel the country/Europe doing events, not without a lot of help anyway. Fair fucking play if you can though.
MB automotive just seemed to jump in it randomly. And has done bloody well! Built his own car and pays for it. The only thing that was sponsored was the entry fee by shaan at drift street imports from what I know.
No you can't. All the above own/run businesses to fund their driving. At best you could possibly run a drift business that pays for your drifting or have a company pay for your car/tyres. But they won't pay you. And you'd have to be better than everyone else that's been doing it for ten years
Going by traditional motorsports, skill is 2 or 3 in the line.... Bringing in money and sponsors is key! I know someone who has tested for BTCC, SLS McLaren race team, Porsche GT cup, amongst others. As an idea, for a season with SLS he had to bring in £300k in sponsorship (oh yes, in 30 days). Drifting is not quite at that level, but its heading that way
Sorta interesting question its what i'd like to be doing in 10, 15 years time I think its a combination of all three things Car, Skill and Money in that order But mostly determination If you have a look at the progression of D'mac as an example he bought a AE86 taught himself to drift got to a decent level of skill and then got sponsors and now he is in Formula D Thats a brief outline of it but i think it comes down to that You can start in any car its having the determination to get there There is a guy in IDC that runs a sr20 powered e36 and in round 2 in Fermoy he came 5 or 6 from memory he has no sponsors but he got a car got the skills and now he just needs sponsors but he was killing fully built cars Look at James Deane ok he owns his own workshop and has sponsors but ultimately its the buying of that first car and having the determination to train up to a decent level of skill and to having the determination to get there which has got him to where he is today Anyone can do it but its having the to get to for example Formula D but tehre are obviously lots of different circumstances and it all gets allot more complicated. But i know where I wanna get to and I know that I wanna be building drift cars and helping out the guys getting into the sport with basic stuff and competing and showing it can be done by a guy from a lower middle class background with a basic ish car with limited funding Anyway that's my two pennys
I think there's quite an important distinction that needs to be made here in as much as your average NBA professional player who has 'made it' will be getting paid a considerable sum of money whereas your average professional drift driver will not. It doesn't matter what spin is put on it Case in point former Miami Heat/NBA player LeBron James has earned approximately $450million to date with $126million of that directly associated to his daily wage with the remainder earned through endorsement deals. The point that I'm trying to highlight here is not that NBA players get paid more than drift drivers, as we already know that to be the case, but more the fact that the term 'professional' in the drifting sense is very different to the term professional in other sports such as NBA. The majority of BTCC drivers have to subsidise their living costs through other means so it's a pretty safe bet to say that a drift driver will have to do the same.....unless you're definition of professional drifter is sponging off others and kipping on their sofas. I think Stav is correct in the respect that if you are considered to be one of the most skilled drivers around then somebody somewhere will fund your drive in their car however in order for you to get to that level of consistent skill you will require money. No fucker is going to fund your drive whilst you're getting yourself to that level. and when you do get to that level (in the UK at least) the chances of you being able to do nothing but drift a car for a living with no other form of income is extremely unlikely. That's just my opinion of course
When most of the drivers in F1 are paying to be there, drifting probably has a bit of a way to go yet. Autosport few years ago reckoned there were maybe 50 UK racers actually making a living out of being paid to drive ........... so realistically its never going to happen unless it becomes part of LMS or soemthing
^^^ This, been involved in motorsport for years and ultimately stopped racing due to finances, the majority of 'racers' just have rich parents. From memory Lewis Hamilton spent circa £4m on racing lower formulas prior to getting a paid F1 drive, this is obviously covered by sponsorship but you get the idea. Also the majority of sponsorship deals at lower levels are predominately created to fudge some sort of taxation. With regards to drifting, pretty sure the only place to make good money out of being professional is in the states but it will be an expensive game getting spotted and supported. 1 in 1000000 may achieve it.
People seem to be missing the point here. 1 in 1000000 may achieve it, but probably only 1 in 50 of them actually have the skills to achieve it in the first place. Just like all motorsports, the best drivers will end up getting the best deals, inc living their drift life for free. The rest, will pay. And if you rich enough, you can play at the highest level even if you suck. The thing is, you wont win. All the money in the world won't make a shit driver/player/whatever win. People really truly believing there are much better drivers, basketball players, whatever, out there, than the best in the world, who are just unlucky to be spotted/picked, are in a total dream world. Some in drifting go far NOT on their pure skills, but blag a good deal on supposedly being a popular face, as for most drift teams, they're purely a rolling advertismemt for a product. But that only gets you so far, still don't get you to win or to beat the highest level in the world. Also, the "50 UK racers making a living from driving" is slightly misleading, as although 50 may be the only ones who do it from racing alone, a fuck sight more of them make a living from related roles such as driver training etc the rest of the time, which is as cushy as a job can be tbf.
and i might sound like im getting old, even if your one of those 1 in a million that make it, it wont fund a rock and roll lifestyle, just the bare minimum, and it certainly isnt going to leave you with a mortage paid off and a pension! i cant believe i just wrote that.
I can appriciate people wanting to drift for free.. as it can be expensive. However alot of people are constantly 'hunting' for sponsorship and not being able to drift because they require money / help from a company.. some companies have nothing to do with drifting but still happy to sponsor someone. I personally wouldnt want to be sponsored by anyone other than myself. Nothing worse than seeing a car plastered to the hill's in advertising for crap like insurance companies, or bathroom appliance companies etc. It rarely looks good imo.
Agree with Mint, so many people are massively out of their depth and rely on sponsorship so heavily it doesn't look like much fun, as they can't do half the things they want to, and often seem to suck ball when they do. Best bet is to make decent money, drift, be good, and free shit comes to you if you're good. No matter what some people think, if you good, free shit, free drives, whatever, will come to YOU, and that will unlikely make your life 100% drift, but it will fucking help. And that life does not from fucking sponsorship begging letters. Almost ALL the people who claim people are lucky and theirs better drifters that just haven't been spotted are the bitter ones, or the ones who think they're far better than they really are, who think they deserve more than they've got. Which is almost 100% of the time total bollocks. A wise person will make sure they've died before sucky things like that become an issue.
i must agree with you stav it sbasically what i said that get to a decent level of skill and possibilitys open up
I dont want to be an arse but the exact words I posted are important there Driver training is still a job that you will lose if youre shit at it or dont turn up, and Sean Edwards proves its not all tea and biscuits ........ regardless, the point is that no-one is ever going to make a living from just driving, you are still going to have to have something else on the side. And thats if youre a top level single seater, not some unwashed dude driving a Nissan sideways
I know for a fact that I am not currently even a mildly good drifter, but many of the guys I know locally are truly amazing and could definitely compete, if based on skill alone. It's like anything, really, there will always be people getting paid as "professionals" who are not necessarily any better than, or even as good as amateurs or guys doing it for fun. Like everyone has been saying, skill definitely plays a part, but to a large degree it's down to money, free time and dedication.
exactly! 'pro' means the best in the country and doesn't mean they get paid. Don't even try to become that guy who gets paid. Have as much fun as possible, drive wild and prove yourself on a budget. Mingle with the right people if you want. If i were you i would do plenty of practice days before you start competing. That way you might be able to make more of an impact in your rookie season, which for many is the making or breaking point. If you hang around with and follow the big guns in the sport, you'll realise the sacrifices they make to get there. It looks great from the outside looking in, but it's nowhere near as 'easy' as it looks. Those guys that finish high in the pros in IDC have no real life outside of drifting. And that's by choice. They don't go out on the piss a lot, they don't go on expensive holidays, they drive shit daily cars and work every hour they can to try and compete with their peers. All the best though, I love seeing people reaching their goals.
