Our Uniqueness

How would you choose a drifting school to attend?

Some are expensive, and some are reasonable.

Why us?  What makes us so unique?

Would it be not much difference, especially just learning Donuts & Figure 8s?


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1.  Our Chief instructor has created and modified all appropriate programs since 2006 based on the experiences from all of our graduates' needs and goals.

2.  Instructors have experiences in Grip Racing and Drifting in National Level.

3.  Use of classroom lounge, for download sessions.

4.  Explaining the Science Behind of Each Techniques of Drifting

5.  Visualizing the Pre- and Post- lessons, including the comparisons of the instructor and student driving.

(*1-Day Course:outside view only, and 2- and 3-Day Course: in-car and outside views for Standard and Premium courses.)

6.  Be able to offer Appropriate Advice to drifting competitors.   Our Chief instructor is one of the judges for local Formula Drift ProAM competition for years.

7.  Be able to offer Basic Car Set Ups for both grip racers and drifters.

Happy Drifting!

Testimony - Case of Zandara Kennedy

Testimony from:

Zandara Kennedy 

I am a stunt performer and stunt driver who has taken almost every performance driving school in North America, from stunt driving to road racing to rally driving and finally drifting. 

When I first tried drifting, I loved it immediately, and eagerly entered into an arrangement for coaching and arrive and drive competition with the most prominent “drift school” I could find on google.  After a year of wasted time, and an embarrassing amount of money spent trying to advance and running into the same roadblocks - 'coaches' who could not explain to me how or why a technique was supposed to work, and being provided with cars that were not set up to perform at the level I was supposed to be driving at, I finally came to Taka and Yoshie at Drift School USA.

From the get go I realized their approach is special - from instructional videos shot at all angles inside and outside the car, filming and video review of each on-track session in their climate controlled trailer, specifically isolating maneuvers and showing me exactly where I need to modify my techniques. Drift school USA’s approach is designed to teach real skills, not just take your money and let you roast tires. 

I was incredibly frustrated when I realized that I’d learned more from Taka in an afternoon than I had in a over 30 days of dedicated 'instruction' and track time from the other school. More than anything else, his detailed analysis and explanations meant I understood exactly what changes to make to achieve a certain result and *why* they worked. 

I would not hesitate to recommend Drift School USA to any driver looking to step up their game through one on one coaching and real technical analysis. 

If you want to feel good and have fun with some cheap seat time, by all means, save money by going for the cheaper up front price tag of another school, you won’t even realize how much you’re missing at first.  But do yourself a favour and ask for the credentials of the your instructors. When I started digging there’s a reason the other schools don’t name their instructors or publish their resumes.  The decades of competitive driving and instructional experience put this school truly in its own league. 

If you want to make progress, fast, you won’t find a better deal than Drift School USA.

IMDB - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2620419/

Happy Drifting!

Bring Your Own Car

Instruction ONLY Lessons are available for purchase at Our Store.

Taking the class with your own car.

If you decided to bring your own car for the class, pelase prep your car to the conditions as below.

1.  The car MUST be RWD (Rear Wheel Drive)

2.  The car MUST have CLUTCH TYPE LSD (Limited Slip Differential) installed.  OR, alternately, welded diff or spool. 

3.  The car MUST be free from any fluid / oil / air leaks.

4.  The car MUST be free from fire hazard.

5.  The battery MUST be secured.

6.  The seats MUST be secured.

7.  The seat belts / harnesses MUST be properly attached and in good working conditions.

8.  The E-BRAKE needs to be working condition: both rear brakes need to lock hard evenly when you pull the e-brake while you are driving.

9.  Please bring at least 2 sets of rear tires mounted in wheels for each day just for the lesson purposes to maximize your seat time, in addition to your commute tires on the car if you are not towing.

10.  Please provide own tools and services for tire changes / repairing your car.  We will not be able to provide these for safety reasons.

11.  If there are any issues with your car during the class, we will NOT be responsible for any damages or time loss.

12.  Once the class starts, we will NOT be able to offer any refund or reschedule for any reasons.

13.  Steering angle modification is recommended. 

Happy Drifting! 

Wanna be the Next Formula D Star?

Our proud graduate, Alec Hohnadell (left), earned 2nd place in Formula D at WA event in 2015.  It was his first podium in his 2nd year professional drifting career and in his 4th year from the first drifting experiences.  

  

(From LEFT: Taka, Alec, JTP, Gale)


When Alec took our class, he was 16 years old.  

He used to be a professional Jet Skier before moved into drifting community, and learning drifting was one of his dreams and decided to take 4-Day Intensive course with us.

First 2-Day was 1-on-1 lesson from Taka, last 2-Day was 2-on-1 (?) lesson from JTP & Taka.

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Testimony from Alec's dad, Gale:

Taka, I wanted to let you know how much we appreciated your instruction. My teenage son has been racing since he was 5 years old but had never had the opportunity to drive a drift car. We spent four days with you and were able to link the track at Willow Springs and come back to Florida and win first place in quite a few big events. After 6 months we are signed up for the Streetwise Pro-Am series with a chance to earn his Formula D Pro License in September. I am sure it would have taken much longer to get to where he is now if he could have gotten there at all!

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It is possible to be a Formula D star within very short time like him, especially when you have right coaches with right team, and great friends & family support.

You would minimize the time to start competing with right knowledge with our special program.  We could even fly to support you at your ProAM events.


Who want to be the next star?
  

Check out our competition course if you already have your own drift ready car!

Our History

We are the original member who had involved with very first drifting practice events, which were held at parking lot of Irwindale Speedway (House of Drift) happened in early 2000.

Our school chief instructor, Taka, has been in driving industries for over 25 years, and our admin and assistant instructor, Yoshie, has been in driving industries for over 15 years.

At that time, there was no drifting schools available.  Only information we could get were videos and magazines from Japan, only available in Japanese.

We have studied and learned drifting techniques and drift car set ups by "Trials and Errors" for the growth of the grassroots for drifting community and later to aim better result in drifting competitions.

Hiro Sumida, Taka's driving partner, and him were the original drifting lesson programs' developers, called "Drift 101" in the US, who had been competing in Formula D series since their origin (2004).  

With the drift event organizer, we started official drifting lesson, Drift 101, as a partnership, and soon started offering "Drift 102" as our own advance lesson in 2006. 

Our responsibility was to create / improve the training program for the students and to develop the instructors for the school.

Yoshie was mainly a tester to give feedback to the created programs because she had least driving experiences with least knowledge about cars among three.

(From LEFT: Taka, Yoshie, Hiro, Mark, and JP)



We decided to operate our program independently later year and have changed our name to "Drift School USA" to offer more detailed and expanded programs from the first step.

It has been very grateful that we had a chance to get involved with drifting scene in the US from the origin.

Thank you very much for the support to all organizers and people to evolve our drift school in today.

Competition Course

Steven R. (Right) took 2-Day lesson and earned 2nd place in 2013.

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Competition drifting is not "What you think you did."

It is HOW your drifting looks from JUDGES.  

Even if you can drift a course without issues, it doesn't mean you can qualify TOP 16. 

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This is the course for if: 

1. You have your own car that is ready for drifting competitions. 

2. You think you are ready, but prefer to have lessons before actually competing. 

3. You think you are at the level for qualify in single runs but never qualified / rarely qualified, and don't know why. 

4. You set a goal to compete in drifting in the future and  want to hone your skills. 

5. You want to have better chance to qualify higher position. 


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*Evaluation session is included for the first time lesson. 

*Car Set-Up session is available upon request. 

*Ride and feedback for your car sessions are available upon request (An instructor drift your car and give feedback for improvement.) 

*Download Sessions with Video Analysis (analyze how you are doing, what and how you can improve.) are available upon request. 

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Rate: $475 for minimum 4-hour lesson for a private lesson, instruction ONLY.

You can purchase at Our Store.

*Minimum Requirement:

Be able to perform donuts & figure 8 smoothly

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If you don't have any previous drift experiences and don't have a drift car yet, but want to be a professional drifter who can commit for your goal with funds and effort, please contact us for details.  

Course Overview

Drifting techniques are...Ultimate RWD Driving Control Skills.

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 Exercises you will actually do are:

1st gear: 

(Basic Maneuver Lessons = Pre-Drifting Lessons):  

* Basic Donuts
* Advance Donuts
* Basic Figure 8
* Advance Figure 8
* Basic E-Brake
* Advance E-Brake

2nd gear (about 50 mph initiation speed):

* Drifting Mini Course (Type A)
* Drifting Mini Course (Type B)
* Other E-Brake Techniques
* How to Take Drift Line

3rd gear (between 55-65 mph initiation speed):

* Drifting Mini Course (Type A) with downshift
* Drifting Mini Course (Type B) with downshift
* Other Initiation Techniques

Optional:

* Hand Motion Exercises
* Faster Course Tryout

...and More!





Our specialized lessons would save from "the worst cases" while driving either on the street or on the track.  


Drift lessons are all about RWD car control skills.  We will start from the basic and slower speed.  It will help to overcome your fear or comfortableness to confidence on your driving techniques.