No drifter writes naturally. Especially when said drifter has to introduce themselves to the world.  What do I say?  How do I talk about myself without coming across as some pious person who knows everything there is to know about drifting?

Actually, thats a very good place to start.

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My name is Pete, and I DON’T know everything there is to know about drifting. Or about cars.

Or about life in general.  I am just a guy with a passion to slide fast, drive sideways, and have

fun doing it.  That’s what this sport is about.  Going out with your buddies on the weekend,

burning through used tires, slapping the wall, totalling your car and laughing the whole

time, knowing that you wouldn’t want to spend your time doing anything else.

 

 

That's how I got my introduction into the sport.  

 

The year was 2013.  I had just graduated high school decided to go through my Honda phase,

so bought my first “race car”, a 1989 Honda CRX.  It was 4 colors, had a high compression

B18c and had TE37s, which were probably worth more than the car.

 

 

                                                                    A few local guys liked to get together in a local mall parking lot on Thursday nights to just hang                                                                         out.  No racing, no ricers, just 10ish cars hanging out, talking and drooling over what we wanted to                                                                     build.  

 

                                                                    One October night, a white Miata came rolling into the lot.  It was lower than any car I had ever                                                                         seen, and it was sitting on some crazy gold wheels.  It had a hard top, a roll cage, turbo noises and                                                                     had a weird handle mounted to the transmission tunnel.  I was intrigued.   (The car still exists..I’m                                                                       planning on doing a feature on it in the coming weeks)

 

                                                                     A guy named Larry, who I only knew through facebook, popped out of the car and mentioned                                                                            that he and a few others were going street drifting that night if anyone wanted to roll with.  I had                                                                        no idea what that meant, but wanted to find out.

 

 

 

We stayed in the parking lot for a few more hours, and rolled over to Larry’s shop around 11 pm.  There were a few BMW’s there, a 240 and Larry’s Miata again, which was on the lift getting new tires put on for the night’s festivities. I wasn't 2 feet in the door before a light got thrust into my hand.
“Hold this.” The guy said, and went back under the car.  From that point on, I was in..I was one of the car guys.  No  more was I just a sideline player.  I was now elbow deep in a strange car in the middle of the night with a bunch of people that I had never met before.

 

We left the shop around 1 to head to the skid spot that was being hit that night.  5 cars sliding and 3 or 4 others following as spotters.  Still not quite sure what's going on, I hang back and jump behind the last car in the small convoy headed to nowhere.  

Once we got to the spot, The spotters blocked, the drifters slid, and for the most part didn't crash, (poor BMW lost his exhaust leaving the parking lot near the drift spot), and I had my first taste of tire smoke.  From that moment on, I knew what I was shooting for in life.  I wanted to get my hands on a drift car.

 

Snap to present day. It took me almost 4 years and countless other vehicles to finally work up the courage (or stupidity.  It is yet to be decided), to buy a drift car.  I started big, though, trading a motorcycle I owned for a 1991 240 with an RB20DET in it.  Not even 2 seconds into my new passion and I had already made my 1st mistake: Buying a swapped car that “only needs a battery to run”.  2 months and countless bloody knuckles later, I sold it without ever drifting, and purchased a 1997 E36 from someone who had owned and drifted it for 9 years.  Nothing better than a turnkey drift car.

From the moment I got the 240, people would ask what I had slid before.  I would sheepishly admit that the only sliding I had ever done was snow skids in my big Chevy 2500, which doesn't even remotely compare to dry drifting in a 5 speed car.  I have since slid 5 corners and spun out on 2 of them, so needless to say I am still very new to this.  I am excited, though, to learn the ins and outs of the sport, all while documenting my story as well as the stories of others.  

My goal for this column is multi-faceted.  It's not in my blood to focus on 1 thing (incredible amounts of un-medicated ADD mixed with too much Mtn Dew will do that to you), so don’t be surprised if the topics I write on are all over the map, but I hope that each week is an interesting piece that can show you something you’ve never seen before or shed new light on old ideas.

 

I hope to cover my drift build, my skills progression, local events (both on the track and..ehrrm..off the track), Local car builds and the stories behind the drivers. I don't want what I write to be super techy, but I want it to come from a more simple side of the sport, where anyone can sit down, read what I have written, and walk away with a better understanding of why we do what we do.  I hope to not only write, but also photo journal through my Instagram account (@thedriftbeard) and link those photos up with what I write about week to week.

 

Currently, the publishing time table is write Monday-Thursday, Edit Friday-Saturday and post sometime on Monday afternoons around 3EST, so be watching www.driftillustrated.com each week for the newest DriftBeerd Column.

 

I am really excited to begin this journey with you all, and I am looking forward to learning through trial and error, and passing my trials and errors on to you in hopes that you learn as well.  In the coming days, I will post a question and answer session that I had with myself, basically giving a flavor of what to expect going forward.

 

Slide fast, Drive Sideways and have fun

 

Pete(TheBeerd)

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Catch My Drift Presents: THE LITTLE E36 THAT COULD

 

Owner: The Beerd

Car: 1997 BMW 328i

 

My earliest memory of racing is watching tractor pulling on a fuzzy TV station while on a vacation in Rhode Island with my family when I was 4.  I remember sitting in our rental house in awe of these crazy wheeled machines dragging things down a mud track, of course not understanding a bit of what I was watching.  I tried to find it on TV when I got home (I think, the early years are a lil’ fuzzy) but was disappointed because I couldn’t. (Who woulda thought that Tractor Pulling wasn’t a national phenomena).  

 

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                                                                             My next interaction with racing, and what really got me into it was my introduction to stock                                                                                  car racing (We’ll call it MASCAR to save our lawyers some work).  I’m not sure of the reason,                                                                                but I attached myself to the Jeff Gordon Bandwagon.  Hearing the roar of the engines and                                                                                  watching the cars speed, and sometimes crash, past the barrier cameras infatuated me, and I                                                                              wanted more.

 

                                                                              Unfortunately, I was born into the wrong family.  My father is a master craftsman. He has                                                                                       been building, fixing and doing custom renovations on houses since he was 15.  He can                                                                                       build, engineer and create anything...with wood.  Regrettably, that talent doesn’t translate                                                                                   over to motor toys.  I never had a project car in the garage, never had a motorcycle to tinker                                                                               on, never even had as much as a riding mower to take apart and put back together. Hell, the                                                                               tools to do so didn’t even exist in my house. (and still don’t, really. Makes working on my car                                                                               incredibly difficult). My grandfather was into kart racing and car stuff, but he passed away                                                                                     when I was 7, so I never was able to glean knowledge from him.

 

So I was on my own.  I walked the line that most kids walk.  I started in car audio, throwing subs in the back of my first 3 cars.  I also dabbled in street racing. Not at any dangerous speed, though, as I was driving a Saturn and a Volkswagen.  My Honda got me my 1st speeding ticket, and it was a doozy. Wrote off speed at that point.  Too expensive, not worth it.  A few years and a few motorcycles went by, but I still had an itch for a project car, but it wasn’t until late 2016 that I realized what I wanted to pursue.

 

I wanted a 240.  

 

I mean, I wanted to drift, but I guess those are synonymous with each other.

 

Unfortunately, 240s come with 240 problems, and as I learned, I REALLY don’t want 240 problems.  (Hole in the floor pan, frame rails that were absolutely not safe, but were “not the worst” the next owner saw, all of which were the least of my worries. This 240 was shady).  

 

The 240 was a stepping stone, however.  I traded one of my motorcycles [insert pic of bobber] for it, then was able to turn around and sell the car and buy my current car, a 97 328i.

 

I had seen this car in action in January and February of 2017, driven by fellow Dumpedling’s driver Tim (we affectionately call him Yakuza Onramp for his desire to constantly slide highway entrances and exits), so I knew it had great potential.  So when Tim decided he wanted to sell it and buy an E36 M3, I jumped at the chance of owning a turnkey, reliable drift car.

 

A little background on my experience with vehicles.  I have owned 10 cars and 5 motorcycles at the ripe old age of 22, and I’m shooting for 30 by 30.  I can always see potential in a project, but I don’t always have the skills or know-how to help the project realize its full potential, and I end up selling.  I also get very discouraged and over a project when it leaves me stranded or no-starts on me for no easily apparent reason.  It has happened with 3 of my 5 motorcycles and just about every project car up to the BMW.  It will no-start once, I’ll “fix” what I think the issue is, and it will do it again and I will just throw it up for sale and get rid of it the same day.  This is why I jumped on the E36 so excitedly.  

 

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I started my relationship with the car by just driving it around for a week, learning its quirks.  City driving, highway driving, even a 5 hour trip.  The car was flawless (in my twisted mind anyway).  I was now ready to mod.

 

I have now owned the car for approximately a month.

 

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It already had Koni shocks up front, an LSD and steering rack spacers, so it was a good project to build on.  I got an open differential from Tim and welded it and bought a race seat and a set of harnesses.  

 

I have installed the welded differential and began to slide around a little bit, feeling the car out.  I work a crazy schedule at work, so I haven’t really been able to do much learning so far, but I am getting more comfortable as each day passes.  I have yet to install the seat, and I have a set of tires I have to burn off so I can throw some race slicks on the front that Yakuza Onramp randomly came into possession of.

 

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One of the questions that interests me the most is “What do you do when you’re not drifting?”, so you will see this pop up in most of the interviews I do with other drivers.  For me, I work for a high volume Mortuary Transport Company and Crematory.  Yes, they are dead. No, they have never sat up. No, it’s not weird.  When I’m not doing that, I play bass and piano in a rock band.  Music comes naturally to me, so you would think I would pursue that instead of cars, of which I know nothing about, but hey. I never claimed to be smart.

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My future plans are to intake swap with some other BMW (no idea what. I don't know all the BMW jargon yet) to get more high-end torque.  I am also planning to make a body kit and paint it some random color. (apparently S chassis aftermarket front and rear bumpers can be made into a kit?..again BMW jargon)

 

After that? Who knows.  I might slide it, might sell it, might keep it and buy something else.  I am really in love with the RX7 FC, so if you know of anyone giving one away, give me a shout.

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CATCH MY DRIFT