Track days are cheaper than you think, check the links above and get the cheapest miata you can buy. Buy the cheapest tires that survive track abuse (Kenda KR20a is like $100 a tire and CRAZY durable), fix it up w/ fresh fluids/pads, and RESIST upgrading
one thing I feel contributes is the fact that drifting has more going on, at least if you're filming it. There's the engine noises, tire squeal, and all this other stuff that make it succeed on social media a lot better than autocross or track events.
I love that I found this video! The last year has been my first full year in Autox and I absolutely loved it! Took first place in my stock fiesta st in H street. But trying to convince my friends or anyone I really know to go along with me and just "try it" is more difficult than if I were to ask them to take the SAT's for fun. Love to see another UA-camr showing off autox and why it is so great. Ive learned so much about my driving and my car by the end of the season. And now im building a NA Miata for next year. Cheers 🥂
I think most risk-taking car guys are put off by the perceived over-cautious behavior of autocross orgs. It's just that venue requirements and insurance can limit event scope
As someone who does both drifting and road course track days, street takeovers and street "drifting" is almost certainly why it has a bad rep. I get asked all the time to clarify what drifting even is by friends and family who are ignorant on the subject-- their first assumption is the dickwads in intersections on the news. They're always pleasantly surprised when they learn what it actually is. Also drifting tears up concrete, which is expensive af, and just another reason larger tracks don't want it (track maintenance is costly enough).
Having spoken to a few drift track owners, I've learned that drifting damage to asphalt is mostly a myth. A few track managers I know used to have reservations about drifters until they were convinced otherwise after going to a drift event and examining the asphalt. However, overheating the surface with a standing burnout is still a risk
@@ProjGR Not so much damaging the track top surface, but it definitely damages the edges and seams. That's not really a trait inherent to drifting alone, it's dirt dropping that causes it, but more to do with the fact that exceeding those limits is more normal in drifting. Dropping a tire on exit isn't the fast way around, so it's not done, but when the goal isn't how fast something is done then the priorities change. Just look at the metric ton of money Luke Fink spent per year repairing his drift track when he ran it.
Great video. I think you’re right that marketing and social media are the biggest differentiators between drifting and grip driving awareness. I’m 24 and I’ve been doing rallyx/autox/track days with the SCCA since I was a teenager. I’ve watched drifting blow up in the last 10 years and it’s all because of the entertainment value and the media it creates. When I tell people about racing they almost never know what the SCCA is or that there are racetracks nearby. However in the last few years I have noticed a larger percentage of newcomers and young people at the events I go to and I’m always happy to see it. Gears & Gasoline has been making super high quality, entertaining track content and I’m sure they’re introducing lots of people to this world. There are a few channels making similar content but we need more. I was particularly surprised to see AdamLZ doing stage rally content, I’m sure that was new to many of his viewers. It’s all positive, the more people get into it, the more funding events will get, which will make them more accessible for everyone. My algorithm gives me track day/amateur w2w reels and it gives me hope!!
Really good video, happy this came up in my recommended! Looks like you and I are fairly local and will cross paths at some point as well. I think your point about community hubs is a huge one. Drifting has social media as a home, while track/autocross have very little than themselves.
Great video! I did autocross for a few years but stopped after literally just attending a drift event like 7 years ago. Something about the style and the comradery at the drift event was something I'd never found at autox. Before I even had a car that I could feasibly drift, I shot photography at the local events for years just to be around that scene. I'm building a grip based, supercharged Miata and I have no intentions of doing any track days with it and I feel like that speaks volumes about the state of grip driving events today.
The biggest enemy of autox is the SCCA. They have no idea on how to market it. And lets be honest, driving around cones in a parking lot is a lot harder to make look cool than drifting. The huge rulebook doesn't help or the poor seat time ratio. For hpde I think its more that it's so fractured. There are probably at least a dozen orgs in my area running events at the same tracks. However there is no effort to work together to advertise as a whole and so there isn't a lot of reach. Also a lot of the track guys come from road racing and can be fuds about safety stuff. I know the clubs with less regulations around me skew a lot younger (and tend to be scarier on track). I think there is just a much less risk adverse culture in drifting. I always think the biggest hurdle is just convincing someone the first time to go out on track. Social media is really your key marketing there.
What's weird to me is that the track day events and drivers definitely exist, but there's a massive inability for most of these people to market themselves and create content to get newcomers hyped. When I go to a local car meet, everyone and their mother knows what an angle kit is, but nobody knows what a 200tw tire is. It sucks so bad
@@ProjGR Creating content is weird. As a driver I most want to have a record on my person bests. However that magical lap often isn't super interesting to watch unless you're already a hpde driver looking for lines. "Track battles" is what I think the average person wants to see, but I think those are a bit harder to produce. The most interesting footage is when people have mixed in and out of car footage. That's super hard to do without a crew, and sometimes impossible depending on layout. I've tried cutting together some passing videos, but following someone for half a lap waiting for a point-by isn't exactly interesting video. I should probably start trying an audio overlay with commentary on what is going on. I know a few channels I've watched do that and it makes what is happening a lot more understandable.
I didnt have much of a challenge getting my drifting friends into autoX or Track events but, where im from (texas) it seems like drag racing is the most desirable motorsport. Getting some drag friends to come drive or go to an event has been extremely frustrating. They dont understand they dont need a lot of horsepower to go have fun or even beat up on more powerful cars. I get asked how fast i get in my little Boxster and i tell them if im lucky 130 on my local tracks back straight. Its all about "cost" to them. They said it doesn't make sense to spend so much money on event or car when they can just "do it on the street" for free or $20 at the local strip... But they're okay about sinking thousands of dollars into a truck to just barely touch 10's... Sorry for the rant, awesome video btw.
As a track enjoyer, I tried a drifting session and I found that I absolutely hated it. The depth to which I hated it was honestly surprising, even to myself. I don't like how the car controls when drifting, it's not fast around a track, and I don't find it cool. I don't hate drifters, I just hate drifting myself. But, I think it's just a matter of preference, if you just wanna go fast, track is where you enjoy that, if you want to feel cool and show off a bit, drifting is where you go. Driving fast feels much more of a solo or competitive endeavour, but drifting feels more like a "bro check me out" kind of thing. Maybe that's why people doing autocross/track days don't really care about sharing on the internet, it's just about your time on the stopwatch. Whereas drift is more like a dance where your performance is judged by others, and that brings its own culture of sharing and watching.
Agree, great vid BTW. I do track days where I drift once I am done lapping as the tires are shot and it always is somewhat frowned upon. Dedicated drift events in Austria are few and far between
What we need is a fully Grassroots Motorsports movement. Spec racing with a very low barrier to entry. I'm talking Stock Engine with cooling mods and better tires. Full contact close racing. Can probably do a Power to Weight formula to keep it competitive.
For drifting it looks cool and fun. Also it migth be due to anime partially. I mean honestly as a normal consumer what would you rather watch? An MMA match where they beating the crap out of each other or a BJJ match where in the fist 20 minutes spent with looking at each other intensely? People want to see exciting stuff.
Drifting is fun. Autocross is not*. Young folks want to have fun. Drifting is cool, its loose, and its wild. Its a great way to show off. The skateboarding analogy is perfect. *AutoX is fun, but not like drifting is fun. Its so type A. Sort fun in the same way golfing is fun.
If you do autocross right, it's just as exciting, but a lot of autoxers don't realize that a fast AutoX run feels a little like sliding through the full course. So many ppl underdriving their cars 🤦
Well I got into cars because of movies like Tokyo Drift and games like Underground 2 and track driving bc of prostreet and assetto corsa. I think almost every single person my age had a similar experience. Adam LZ and G&G absolutely helped get more people into drifting and track days respectively, media has power.
Autocross is a lot of time investment for such little seat time, track days/hpde are a blast but they are never going to look fun from the outside. Timed events on tracks are where it’s at. Competition, speed and a clear winner. I’ve watched some drifting and sliding around is so much fun, but can’t take it seriously as a Motorsport since it’s judged. It’s just ice skating routines of the car world.
Early 30s. Love both, can afford neither. God speed and good luck.
Track days are cheaper than you think, check the links above and get the cheapest miata you can buy. Buy the cheapest tires that survive track abuse (Kenda KR20a is like $100 a tire and CRAZY durable), fix it up w/ fresh fluids/pads, and RESIST upgrading
Same… so sim racing it is for me 😂
one thing I feel contributes is the fact that drifting has more going on, at least if you're filming it. There's the engine noises, tire squeal, and all this other stuff that make it succeed on social media a lot better than autocross or track events.
I love that I found this video! The last year has been my first full year in Autox and I absolutely loved it! Took first place in my stock fiesta st in H street. But trying to convince my friends or anyone I really know to go along with me and just "try it" is more difficult than if I were to ask them to take the SAT's for fun. Love to see another UA-camr showing off autox and why it is so great. Ive learned so much about my driving and my car by the end of the season. And now im building a NA Miata for next year. Cheers 🥂
I think most risk-taking car guys are put off by the perceived over-cautious behavior of autocross orgs. It's just that venue requirements and insurance can limit event scope
As someone who does both drifting and road course track days, street takeovers and street "drifting" is almost certainly why it has a bad rep. I get asked all the time to clarify what drifting even is by friends and family who are ignorant on the subject-- their first assumption is the dickwads in intersections on the news. They're always pleasantly surprised when they learn what it actually is. Also drifting tears up concrete, which is expensive af, and just another reason larger tracks don't want it (track maintenance is costly enough).
Having spoken to a few drift track owners, I've learned that drifting damage to asphalt is mostly a myth. A few track managers I know used to have reservations about drifters until they were convinced otherwise after going to a drift event and examining the asphalt. However, overheating the surface with a standing burnout is still a risk
@@ProjGR Not so much damaging the track top surface, but it definitely damages the edges and seams. That's not really a trait inherent to drifting alone, it's dirt dropping that causes it, but more to do with the fact that exceeding those limits is more normal in drifting. Dropping a tire on exit isn't the fast way around, so it's not done, but when the goal isn't how fast something is done then the priorities change. Just look at the metric ton of money Luke Fink spent per year repairing his drift track when he ran it.
I was at that drift event! I’m an avid Track UA-camr, and a guest a Drifter too, and I love both.
Great video. I think you’re right that marketing and social media are the biggest differentiators between drifting and grip driving awareness. I’m 24 and I’ve been doing rallyx/autox/track days with the SCCA since I was a teenager. I’ve watched drifting blow up in the last 10 years and it’s all because of the entertainment value and the media it creates. When I tell people about racing they almost never know what the SCCA is or that there are racetracks nearby. However in the last few years I have noticed a larger percentage of newcomers and young people at the events I go to and I’m always happy to see it.
Gears & Gasoline has been making super high quality, entertaining track content and I’m sure they’re introducing lots of people to this world. There are a few channels making similar content but we need more. I was particularly surprised to see AdamLZ doing stage rally content, I’m sure that was new to many of his viewers.
It’s all positive, the more people get into it, the more funding events will get, which will make them more accessible for everyone. My algorithm gives me track day/amateur w2w reels and it gives me hope!!
I met g&g at VIR, they're great!
This vid is a culture shock to me because track/road racing is alive and well with the young crowd down here where I’m at
Really good video, happy this came up in my recommended! Looks like you and I are fairly local and will cross paths at some point as well.
I think your point about community hubs is a huge one. Drifting has social media as a home, while track/autocross have very little than themselves.
Great video! I did autocross for a few years but stopped after literally just attending a drift event like 7 years ago. Something about the style and the comradery at the drift event was something I'd never found at autox. Before I even had a car that I could feasibly drift, I shot photography at the local events for years just to be around that scene.
I'm building a grip based, supercharged Miata and I have no intentions of doing any track days with it and I feel like that speaks volumes about the state of grip driving events today.
The biggest enemy of autox is the SCCA. They have no idea on how to market it. And lets be honest, driving around cones in a parking lot is a lot harder to make look cool than drifting. The huge rulebook doesn't help or the poor seat time ratio. For hpde I think its more that it's so fractured. There are probably at least a dozen orgs in my area running events at the same tracks. However there is no effort to work together to advertise as a whole and so there isn't a lot of reach. Also a lot of the track guys come from road racing and can be fuds about safety stuff. I know the clubs with less regulations around me skew a lot younger (and tend to be scarier on track). I think there is just a much less risk adverse culture in drifting. I always think the biggest hurdle is just convincing someone the first time to go out on track. Social media is really your key marketing there.
What's weird to me is that the track day events and drivers definitely exist, but there's a massive inability for most of these people to market themselves and create content to get newcomers hyped. When I go to a local car meet, everyone and their mother knows what an angle kit is, but nobody knows what a 200tw tire is. It sucks so bad
@@ProjGR Creating content is weird. As a driver I most want to have a record on my person bests. However that magical lap often isn't super interesting to watch unless you're already a hpde driver looking for lines. "Track battles" is what I think the average person wants to see, but I think those are a bit harder to produce. The most interesting footage is when people have mixed in and out of car footage. That's super hard to do without a crew, and sometimes impossible depending on layout. I've tried cutting together some passing videos, but following someone for half a lap waiting for a point-by isn't exactly interesting video. I should probably start trying an audio overlay with commentary on what is going on. I know a few channels I've watched do that and it makes what is happening a lot more understandable.
I didnt have much of a challenge getting my drifting friends into autoX or Track events but, where im from (texas) it seems like drag racing is the most desirable motorsport. Getting some drag friends to come drive or go to an event has been extremely frustrating.
They dont understand they dont need a lot of horsepower to go have fun or even beat up on more powerful cars. I get asked how fast i get in my little Boxster and i tell them if im lucky 130 on my local tracks back straight.
Its all about "cost" to them. They said it doesn't make sense to spend so much money on event or car when they can just "do it on the street" for free or $20 at the local strip... But they're okay about sinking thousands of dollars into a truck to just barely touch 10's...
Sorry for the rant, awesome video btw.
As a track enjoyer, I tried a drifting session and I found that I absolutely hated it. The depth to which I hated it was honestly surprising, even to myself. I don't like how the car controls when drifting, it's not fast around a track, and I don't find it cool. I don't hate drifters, I just hate drifting myself. But, I think it's just a matter of preference, if you just wanna go fast, track is where you enjoy that, if you want to feel cool and show off a bit, drifting is where you go. Driving fast feels much more of a solo or competitive endeavour, but drifting feels more like a "bro check me out" kind of thing.
Maybe that's why people doing autocross/track days don't really care about sharing on the internet, it's just about your time on the stopwatch. Whereas drift is more like a dance where your performance is judged by others, and that brings its own culture of sharing and watching.
Man that was interesting. Points that are not being made elsewhere.
A really nice video, keep up, I'm following you
Agree, great vid BTW. I do track days where I drift once I am done lapping as the tires are shot and it always is somewhat frowned upon. Dedicated drift events in Austria are few and far between
What we need is a fully Grassroots Motorsports movement. Spec racing with a very low barrier to entry. I'm talking Stock Engine with cooling mods and better tires. Full contact close racing. Can probably do a Power to Weight formula to keep it competitive.
I think your age demographic is varied by where you’re located. Lot of old heads out at the local drift events here in TX.
good, VERY good
For drifting it looks cool and fun. Also it migth be due to anime partially.
I mean honestly as a normal consumer what would you rather watch? An MMA match where they beating the crap out of each other or a BJJ match where in the fist 20 minutes spent with looking at each other intensely?
People want to see exciting stuff.
Drifting looks faster on camera even though it's not about speed🤷
Track days gotta have an average age of 55 fr fr
Damn, I’m old af. 😅
@@VictorPitstop 55 years young! ☺️
@@jonniemike9 lmao thanks! 🤣
Drifting is fun. Autocross is not*. Young folks want to have fun. Drifting is cool, its loose, and its wild. Its a great way to show off. The skateboarding analogy is perfect.
*AutoX is fun, but not like drifting is fun. Its so type A. Sort fun in the same way golfing is fun.
If you do autocross right, it's just as exciting, but a lot of autoxers don't realize that a fast AutoX run feels a little like sliding through the full course. So many ppl underdriving their cars 🤦
So basically you think that what makes a sport grow ou make it healthy are UA-cam views 🤷🏻♂️
Well I got into cars because of movies like Tokyo Drift and games like Underground 2 and track driving bc of prostreet and assetto corsa. I think almost every single person my age had a similar experience. Adam LZ and G&G absolutely helped get more people into drifting and track days respectively, media has power.
Autocross is a lot of time investment for such little seat time, track days/hpde are a blast but they are never going to look fun from the outside. Timed events on tracks are where it’s at. Competition, speed and a clear winner.
I’ve watched some drifting and sliding around is so much fun, but can’t take it seriously as a Motorsport since it’s judged. It’s just ice skating routines of the car world.