The D1 Grand Prix

The art of drifting can be traced to the early days of motorsport when pre-war Grand Prix and dirt track racing drivers such as Tazio Nuvolari also used an at-the-limit form of driving called the four-wheel drift. The bias ply racing tires of the 1960s-1980s lent themselves to driving styles with a high slip angle. As professional racers in Japan drove this way, so did the street racers. After several years of hosting amateur drifting contests, Option Magazine & Tokyo Auto Salon founder Daijiro Inada, and drifting legend Keiichi Tsuchiya hosted a professional level drifting contest in 1999 and 2000 to feed on the ever increasing skills of drifting drivers who were dominating drifting contests in various parts of Japan. And thats how the DVD come about, The D1 Grand Prix abbreviated as D1GP and subtitled Professional Drift, is a production car drifting series from Japan.

If high speed is something that excites you or leaves wanting more than the high speed cornering on a rain soaked track makes all vehicles equal at the D1 Grand Prix of Professional Drifting. In the rain, the only thing that matters is the skill of the driver. Despite the conditions many drivers in the first round of the solo runs, achieved 100 points! During the Tsuiso Round the drivers really put their skill to the fest as many battles ended in nail biting spin outs. SILVER STATE CLASSIC CHALLENGE, the craziest race held on any public street. 92 miles of road is blocked off, and it's full throttle and death defying speeds with on Average Speed of over 300Km/hour (almost 190MPH). It's difficult for the driver, and excruciating for the car.

Considering the fact that the D1GP is a series geared towards production cars only, there are a number of different race regulations that the vehicle must undergo in order to be eligible to compete. They are: Only Two wheel drive (FR/RR/MR). The vehicle has to be a production, road-going model by a major vehicle manufacturer and must be rear-wheel drive, front-wheel drive, or all wheel drive from the factory. The vehicle must retain the original chassis/body—only stock body constructed from a vehicle manufacturer is allowed. Slick Tires (S-Tires) were prohibited after the first season as they are not road legal, after Nobuteru Taniguchi used them to win the championship in 2001. The series now only permits commercially available road tires approved by the organization.