– Today on "Auto Aficionado" we're going to be talking about drifting with Paul Nigro from
Grassroots Performance. (electronic music) (engines rev) (tires squeal) If you ask most people about
the origins of drifting, they would probably tell you
it all started back in Japan, but they would be wrong. No, the truth is the style of
driving that we call drifting actually got its start
in the 1960s in England. (film projector rattles) It was during this time that a man by the name of Roger Clark, driving a Ford Cortina GT
was making a name for himself in rally racing across Europe. Clark went on to become
the first British driver to ever win the World
Rally Car Championship. It was his spectacular
and fearless driving style that inspired famous
motorcyclist turned racing driver Kunimitsu Takahashi. Takahashi took Clark's driving
technique back to Japan and refined it even further, winning several championships
and a legion of fans who enjoyed the spectacle
of smoking tires.
But the most recognized name in the sport belongs to Keiichi Tsuchiya,
known as The Drift King. Tsuchiya began practicing
his drifting skills on the mountain roads of Japan and quickly gained a reputation
amongst the racing crowd. (engine revs) (speaking in Japanese) In 1987, several popular car magazines and tuning garages
agreed to produce a video of Tsuchiya's drifting skills. The video, known as "Pluspy" became a hit, inspiring many of the
professional drift racers on the circuits today, racers like Paul Nigro from
Grassroots Performance. – Drifting style, drifting era, what comes with drifting
all comes from Japan. Now people say, "Okay, maybe
that was taken from Roger Clark style of driving and rally." But his style of driving and rally was still to go fast in that stage, versus drifting you're
sideways the entire way you're getting judged. (engines rev) And on top of that, there's
style points, your car…
It's a totally different set up. So I can how people say that maybe there's some sort of
origins from rallying. But I would say like the
true nitty gritty of drifting all comes from Japan. I started drifting over 10
years ago here in Ontario. But I say within the last four years, drifting has really caught on fast. And not just that, like
the lifestyle of crews.
I've seen crews come and go in racing, but the drift crews genuinely
tend to stick together. It's cool to see a lot of the guys that I had started with,
now, still going at it, you know, 10, 15 years later, right? I was always into cars. My family, they were a
big snowmobile family. So I kind of started off in snowmobiling at a really young age. I bought a racing go-cart. I enrolled myself in two
different racing leagues, so I started in karting. Then as I got older, I
got into Japanese cars. I was able to get my hands
on a JDM vehicle, my 180SX. Street driving it fast, the car wanted to step
out and get sideways.
Obviously I just let it hang
a little bit more and more. And then I researched the sport, I checked out a couple events
and then after street driving, I said, "Okay, you know
what? I think I'm ready." Went to my first event with like the tires in the back of my car and all my tools and I made it happen. And after that, I stuck with
drifting for a long time. (gentle electronic music) – [Kristen] Paul's entry
into the world of drifting began with an imported 1989
right-hand drive Nissan 180SX. A sister model to the Nissan Sylvia, this turbocharged
rear-wheel drive fastback has all the ingredients
for getting sideways and remains a popular platform
amongst many drift racers. – As soon as I could get a full-sized car, obviously some street racing was involved, but I would like to say that
I went straight to the track. And I realized there's no feeling… Everyone's going the same
direction, there's no cops.
And the respect when you're
the fastest one at the track versus the street is like, it's
a totally different feeling. Like, going to the track and just people knowing you're fast. And you knowing that
they're fast and okay, today's going to be a good race. Like, we're here to spin some tires and we're going to have a good time. (fast-paced music) (engines rumble) (engine revs) – [Kristen] Aside from racing, Paul also runs Grassroots Performance, a Toronto based shop that
specializes in LS swaps and essential parts for
high-performance cars, such as oil and cooling kits
and track proven components. – We quickly realized after a few events, it's going to be between
three and five grand to run each event. The prize money was 1500 to two grand. We were doing it for the rep and it wasn't even my
origins of racing, right? Which is wheel to wheel racing. But that's how we realized, okay, we know what all these teams need.
We know what everyone needs
to get to this pro level. We built a car to compete
in this pro level. Our car passed spec no problem, it passed tech inspection with no issues. But we knew the cars had to
be reliable, fast and safe. So we started selling
those parts to these teams, our reputation was already there and that's when we quickly jumped out of any professional racing and just started focusing
on Grassroots Performance. How are we going to sell parts? How are we going to
get people on the track for a cheap, reasonable cost
with quality parts still? – [Kristen] Today Paul's taking part in the last drift
competition of the season at Shannonville Motorsport Park. I'll be joining him to see what it's like to spend an afternoon
sliding on smoking tires. (engines rev) – Ready to go for a run? – Yeah, I was ready till
I came up here, yeah. – Okay, well right now it's
just open practice, so… We can take it easy and
get a feel for the layout. – Okay.
– So we'll take it easy
the first couple runs. – All right- – I say we get out there right now. (Kristen laughs) (engines rev) Other side. (Kristen laughs) (gentle music) Well, I mean, this is
like a backyard event. It's not really, there's no points. There is money being given away, but they're just trying to
match the cars evenly, right? And since I kind of just
showed up with the car they're like, "Okay, you're
going to race both crews, so…" It'll be fun at least,
that's the good part. – So you already put fresh
tires on this morning? – So these tires I did about two laps on so we lost some grip already, but we should have a
couple practice runs left. (indistinct) – [Man] There's no real
place to hold on to.
So if you put your elbows back – Uh huh. – [Man] You can actually brace yourself against the seat of it. (Kristen laughs) Otherwise, you could get tossed around. (upbeat music) (Kristen yells) (tires squeal) (engine hums) (tires squeal) – There goes our tires. – Amazing. – [Paul] That was a fun run, thank you for coming in with me. – That was so fun. Thanks, man. – Thank you, buddy. When I fully lock it, when
you let go of the wheel, it should fly back. And it wasn't doing that. So I spun a couple of times just cause I anticipated the swing back, but it never happened. So I think we got a little
bit to work on the steering, but the car is good to go.
Like we just cleaned these things slick. So it's running pretty good. I can't complain. Drifting, I never meant
for it to be competitive for myself to begin with. I did it because it was fun. I did it because the
car I had at the time, driving it fast, it wanted to drift. And I did it because I was good too. So I mean, all those
things in a track day, there was no competing in it. It wasn't until later that I was losing my fix for competition, that I'm like, "The car's already smashed. It can't get any worse. I'm already fast. Might as well go fast and win some money or get some trophies, right?" (upbeat music) – After a few adjustments to the steering and a quick change of tires,
Paul hits the grid again to compete with other drivers, eventually taking home first prize. (engines rev) (tires squeal) (engine revs) – You need the car, you need the backing, you need everything.
Back then everyone was
kind of at the same level. Now there's budgets and
sponsors and teams that come in. You can pay your way through drifting. If you got a budget, you can win drifting, you can go fast, sideways
and smoke the place out. Unfortunately, in
addition to the politics, money is a huge factor. And people just want to have fun and that's what Grassroots is about.
We still just want to have fun drifting, but now it's a lot harder
to be a pro drifter now than I'd say it ever was. (gentle music) (engine hums) – [Kristen] For more
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think in the comments. Until next time, stay tuned..
