For good or for bad, drifting may never be the same.  The official release of the film The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift in theaters today will expose drifting to the masses.  Just as the original The Fast and The Furious movie made the Japanese car culture widely popular among teenagers and young adults, the Tokyo Drift film will do the same for Drifting, but on a much larger scale.

Drifting is a racing technique that involves skidding through a corner sideways.  It originated in the mountains of Japan more than 15 years ago and evolved into a competitive motor sport in that country before finding its way to the United States.  Today, two organizations, D1 Grand Prix and Formula Drift, promote drift competitions for both amateur and professional drift drivers in the United States. 

Most people, and even most car fanatics, never knew what it meant to ‘Drift’ or about ‘Drifting’ until they heard of or saw Tokyo Drift.  Still, anybody that has been to a professional drift competition will tell you that it is impossible to know what drifting is until you experience it first hand because it involves theatrics, showmanship, competition, extreme burnouts, dramatic car collisions, excessive amounts of tire smoke, and of course umbrella girls---all of which are embodied by things that appeal to us.

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