Drifting/Ken Block

[Partridge]

I was going to post this on the Beamer thread but thought I better had give it it’s own post (I don’t want do derail).

I’ll probably get shit for saying this, but drifters are the spawn of the devil in my opinion. For some reason there was a drift pandemic on our estate. Most of them were greasy looking Ken Block wannabes in “Monster†branded hats sitting around by their cars smoking rollies trying to look “wasterâ€Â. Probably have never had (consensual) sex.

I’m fairly easy going but when you keep getting woken up by a 200SX with Skyline alloys and a drain pipe glued to the back rumbling past your window at 3 am the joke wears a bit thin.

And the way they cover their cars in stickers...I got over doing that when I was 13.

Maybe if they added “loose virginity†to their do list instead of spending weekends trying to stuff their knackered Nissans into road signs they wouldn’t feel the need to pretend to be Ken Block.

A lad, about 20 or 21 took a fairly tidy 1995 535i in a nice shade of blue. This car could be seen with the driver driving like a twat (sorry, “driftingâ€Â) round a roundabout nearly taking me, and the Rover 45 I was driving at the time out.

Lo and behold, next time I saw it, the list of modifications were as thus: it’s alloys had the centers removed and painted black-why? The bonnet sanded back to bear metal, the leather seats replaced with “race†items and it’s windows filled with stickers. As well as looking like it had been pushed through a holly bush. So a nice, useable, well cared for 90’s exec, well on the way to being a youngtimer is now probably a bean can. Nice work.

I’m not including the guys who go to tracks to do it, and stay out of my way in this, rather the knobheads who think sliding a shitty old Nissan in Tesco’s car park will get them laid.

None of this happened before bloody Fast And Furious and KEN BLOCK (a man who I wouldn't leave my girlfriend alone with), with his half arsed ginger face fungus, DC shoes and silly sunglasses shambled into the scene.

Does anybody else echo my sentiments? Or should I just shuffle off quietly in a corner and die somewhere?

[Cheggers]

At least you're not bitter about it

[Spiny Norman]

I've gone drifting in most of the powerful rwd cars I've owned, not always intentionally though!

Ken Block's talents hugely over-rated IMHO. He practises his stunts for months before committing them to video for teenage boys to spaff over, but a brief spell in WRC soon put his gas at a peep....

[Guest]

I don't think having sex with a Rover 800 counts as consenting whichever way you view it.

[Mr Lobster]

Ken Block strikes me as a bit of a knob tbh but we had some IXO 1:43 Ken Block Fiesta models in stock the other week and they sold like red hot firey cakes. And that itself makes him a bit better in my eyes.

[gtd2000]

I think young lads/men have done this sort of thing since the internal combustion engine came about.

 

In the early 80's it was known to me as "broad-siding" or simply "getting the back end out".

 

All of the older lads with cars did this kind of thing all the time - the difference might be that it wasn't normally taking place in residential areas?

[Tayne]

Ken Block?

Ken Block's a dick!

 

"hey look, its Ken Block's latest video!"

That's great, a jumped shoe salesmen spent three months practicing to make a 10 minute video.

I could watch that, or I could watch in-car footage of a 10 minute rally stage where an amateur in a mk2 Escort gives it full beans down an unknown single track country road surrounded by trees, rocks and bridges whilst his best mate reads incomprehensible instructions from the passenger seat.

I know which demonstrates more skill.

And its not the man with the stupid shoes.

 

"Hey Ken, are you a rally driver? Or an exhibition driver? Or a gymkhana driver?"

"Uh, I'm a rally driver who makes the odd video."

"So why is your WRC record appalling?"

"Well to be allowed to drive in the WRC, you can only drive the car in europe, you have to have eleven fingers, be left handed, have been to mars and I have a young family."

"No Ken, it's because you are shit!"

 

I'd love to kidnap him and take him to a empty car park in Milton Keynes on a sunday morning.

As I take the blindfold off, I'd point out the course of traffic cones laid out moments ago, the waiting amateur entrants with their a-series Minis and home built LoCosts and tell him that he'd just been entered into an Autotest.

He could use his car but would only get the same number of practice runs as everyone else.

If he doesn't win the event he dies.

And I wouldn't even have to put this unassuming gent on the grid.

Russ Swift by Tayne, on Flickr

 

 

Now drifting seems to be a sport where you use the skill required to drive a car very quickly to drive it slowly whilst the wheels spin.

Pointless.

 

 

Also.

I was going to post this on the Beamer thread

 

We have a BMW thread?

[Rod/b]

He's quite simply a poor man's Russ Swift.

[whitevanman]

I think young lads/men have done this sort of thing since the internal combustion engine came about.

 

In the early 80's it was known to me as "broad-siding" or simply "getting the back end out".

 

All of the older lads with cars did this kind of thing all the time - the difference might be that it wasn't normally taking place in residential areas?

 

 

what he said...at least around our way...........and yes I was one of the guilty

[rml2345]

He's quite simply a shite Russ Swift.

 

EFA me old china.

[DodgyBastard]

I was going to post this on the Beamer thread

 

We have a BMW thread?

 

I think he was referring to my for sale thread, I wouldn't have minded if it had been derailed, I fucking hate Ken Block too. Also it's been derailed on other forums with debate about how much it costs for metric tyres. I really didn't think the car would go down too well here but thought there might be a chance of someone wanting to swap something shite for it.

[Partridge]

I don't think having sex with a Rover 800 counts as consenting whichever way you view it.

 

Gives new meaning to “doing it Rover style†though.

 

Well, the jury may be out on drifting but it seems we’re all in agreement that Kenny from the block is a twat. Which makes me happy.

And, Tayne, well said

[dollywobbler]

Drifting is just the new 'young people driving like twats' isn't it? There used to be street racing on the mean streets of Birmingham when I grew up. I never went anywhere near it. Roads are for travelling on, not racing on.

 

Closest I got to drifting was learning a LOT about car control in a very snowy car park in a Mk2 Fiesta (my first car). No danger to other road users and I doubt I went faster than 10mph (though this was entirely sideways!).

[barefoot]

... a poor ..Russ Swift.

 

I've seen Russ Swift at santa pod & a bigger wanker you could not hope to meet but.

Who the fuck is Ken Block?

[Leyland Lawrence]

I think what I dislike (and I know some will differ) is seeing great low mileage Volvo 360s (pretty scarce) and 340s with FVSH etc being purchased and totally trashed by drifting, this model being a car of choice.

 

At times when I have been hard up I have bought a 340 because I found them to be safe and totally dependable. Now it can be hard to find a 340 for sale that isn't subtitled "GR8 4 DRIFTIN DIFF WELDED" or some such. The youngest Volvo 300 is now 20 years old and I would hope some might be left alone to continue to soldier on providing good transport for those on a budget.

 

h

[Partridge]

That’s the sort of thing the pees me off as well...

[Guest]

I think what I dislike (and I know some will differ) is seeing great low mileage Volvo 360s (pretty scarce) and 340s with FVSH etc being purchased and totally trashed by drifting, this model being a car of choice.

 

At times when I have been hard up I have bought a 340 because I found them to be safe and totally dependable. Now it can be hard to find a 340 for sale that isn't subtitled "GR8 4 DRIFTIN DIFF WELDED" or some such. The youngest Volvo 300 is now 20 years old and I would hope some might be left alone to continue to soldier on providing good transport for those on a budget.

 

h

 

That's a bit melodramatic. There are lots of mint 340s \ 360s left in the hands of the VEC, VOC and V300. There's plenty of love still for the standard examples of the 300 series - although the latter is keener on modifications. Their category is often the most populated at BKV shows after the Amazons and 240s.

The UK took the highest number of 300 series cars outside of Scandinavia, and when the interest in them faded many ended up in scrapyards before drifting became popular.

 

That said, The 300 is prime drift fodder because of their low values and drivetrain layout. Higher up the price scale, how many mint standard S13 200SXs do you see now? It's nowhere near as bad as that - all the Nissans I see locally are half arsed skidders and I can't remember the last time I saw a straight, uncrashed one without some shit ROJA wheels or cable ties on the bumper.

 

It is upsetting, but you can't save them all. I wouldn't mind a 360 but I don't have the room \ time \ space \ money to take one on without losing some of the fleet I already have - which may happen in the near future anyway.

 

They're not great as first cars because of the high insurance premiums. There are plenty of unpopular cars knocking around that can give dependable transport for under £500 - I dare say a basic 400 would be more than up to the task provided you didn't buy one with a CEM.

[Partridge]

OK, even I will admit these are pretty cool...