My rant on American drifting and stephen papadikis - Tuner-Junction

Ricky · #1 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 06:59 AM

Stephen Papadikis sucks ass he should stick to drag racing. He can barely drift through 1st or 2nd gear in his s2000 and every one loves him for sucking. What pisses me off is that every one was saying he was going to be the next d1 superstar.

yeah ok

KibaRUN · #2 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 07:15 AM

haaha poser

ezeedee · #3 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 10:02 AM

in america, how good of an athlete you are has nothing to do with the amoun of skill you have in your sport. If you have good agents, and lots of good PR, then you're a good athlete.

Ive never seen him drift (i dont watch drifting) so i cant comment on his skill, but yea, thats america for you. No wonder nobody likes us.

I also heard he had a fat system in the trunk of his drift car

njn63 · #4 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 10:11 AM

i've seen him drive and he didn't seem THAT bad, he's deffinatly getting better. There are deffinatly worse people in the pro class.

KevlarRUN · #5 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 12:40 PM

put it this way.....if drifting is the way to go....and u were the michael jordan to nike as s.papadakis is to AEM.....and u decided to have a 'go' at drifting.....

and they'll build u an expendable car cos they want u to infiltrate the 'drifting' craze market with ur main already established guy

its pretty easy to get free track time....free fuckin car....and u can fuck up how u like...it just dont matter.....nothing is ur limit

when ur driving with no limit......dont u think u'll get good at it?

ppl dont have the access/resources like papadakis.

mad-ass · #6 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KibaRUN

haaha poser

you replace that nigga!

njn63 · #7 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 12:57 PM

people are just jelous that he can go out and in a year be at pro level. He's an exceptional driver and very few people know that he had a 240 a long time ago and has drifted before. Nevermind the fact that he has no real job so he can go out every day and just beat the crap out of a well prepared car and get good.

I kinda think his drag racing has suffered though at the expense of his drifting career. Drag racing is one of those things that you can't half a** and it seemed like he kinda was this year.

Ricky · #8 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by njn63

i've seen him drive and he didn't seem THAT bad, he's deffinatly getting better. There are deffinatly worse people in the pro class.

the problem I have with it is that they blew him up so much and now when he gets out there Im like ok? Hes is what Boz was in the NFL. Highly anticipated but when he got out there he wasnt good or bad he was kind of mediocre. If they didnt blow him up as much as they did it wouldnt be as bad. Taking into account the amount of resources they are dumping on him he better be much better then he is now. The problem I have with alot of the U.S. drifters is that when they ask them about their set ups they have no idea how the tech works. Some one just built them a car and go here. The worst was on an interview on speed when Ryan Goshi was explaining how shit worked on his mustang and hes like

I dont know exactly how this works but you pull it and it kinda helps the car kick out. He said something along the lines of that 3 times. I know his dad reamed him for that one. I think one of the only people in the U.S. that knows how his tech works and has really good skill is Millen and thats because he was a pro before all of this.

njn63 · #9 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 04:10 PM

Um... there are a shit load of people out there that were into drifting long before it got popular and those are most of the pros now. Millen actually is a complete noob to the entire drift scene/setup and that's why it took him a frigging year to even do anything in it. And if it wasn't for Pontiac's backing to give him a car/money to do it, i bet he'd be nowhere too. Look at the drift alliance guys who have been doing it for 5 years+ and know about setups.

(Ken) Gushi is an amazing driver but he has never had to work on his own cars. You gotta remember he was 17 or possibly even younger when he went pro and his dad owns a shop. He has never had to do more to that car than drive it which he is damn good at.

I just don't see why Steph gets so much shit. There are far worse people in the American drift scene. And of course our scene is not going to be amazing, it's still in it's infancy.

Ricky · #10 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by njn63

Um... there are a shit load of people out there that were into drifting long before it got popular and those are most of the pros now. Milan actually is a complete noob to the entire drift scene/setup and that's why it took him a frigging year to even do anything in it. And if it wasn't for Pontiac's backing to give him a car/money to do it, i bet he'd be nowhere too. Look at the drift alliance guys who have been doing it for 5 years+ and know about setups.

(Ken) Gushi is an amazing driver but he has never had to work on his own cars. You gotta remember he was 17 or possibly even younger when he went pro and his dad owns a shop. He has never had to do more to that car than drive it which he is damn good at.

I just don't see why Steph gets so much shit. There are far worse people in the American drift scene. And of course our scene is not going to be amazing, it's still in it's infancy.

its because they hyped him up sooooo much in all honesty I think he wouldnt be catching so much heat if he didnt have his name proceeding him and all the publicizing. Superstreet contributed to all this negative energy towards him because they were critisizing every other driver and then saying tarzan was getting him so good he was going to be the next d1 champ.

As for millen the whole family are thorough bred racers. His Unlce Steve Millen is legendary, his fathers a great driver as well and he drifts every once and awhile to. Ryce has only been drifting for a year but I can see him becoming a legend in the american scene because before he was a drifter he was a profesional racer. He understands the tech and is heavily involved in it. He also has that backround so he understands car dynamics alot better then the other drivers. Since he was brought up in the millen family he was probably bred from an early age to be a racer. Some of these guys start racing at age 6

njn63 · #11 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 07:16 PM

Millen has been drifting for at least 2 years. Otherwise, yeah, his family is insane.

I really don't pay attention to the media surrounding drifting so i don't know how hyped steph got. I can just tell you what i've seen first hand with his driving and that he's pretty good.

NismoCoupe · #12 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 07:42 PM

well put it this way most drivers just dont step into drifting without auto racing experience. millen has been racing autos for awhile, pikes peak road racing offroad stuff all that. So u really should have a good basis of driving and racing before trying to step into drifting. best start is auto X. for speed and line, once u learn that and practice more precise driving skills u can just about drive in any kinda situation.

as for poppadokis i dunno havent seen him drift, but its a lot harder then str8 line driving. and a hell of a lot more fun..

lets weight it out

8 sec. < 2-3 minute drift sessions

hmmm drifting wins

njn63 · #13 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 07:48 PM

Both drag racing and drifting are hard in their own respect. I'd almost put drag racing as being harder because it requires perfection every run.

And steph's drag car runs 6 seconds

KevlarRUN · #14 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 08:20 PM

i dont think u can even compare drag and drifting.......thats one of those apples and oranges debates.....

one thing for certain though......drifting aint got SHIT on pikes peak.......and the millen family hold the record......those cars are so much more heavily built than the likes of the drift cars they use.....and driving up dirt roads in 400kW awd cars isnt exactly grippin it either......

millen had a brand new platform that no one else had really built yet. and everyone saw the testing it went through.....millen isnt exactly bad considering how well he performs in formula D. he basically built that freakin car.

Disillusioned · #15 (**permalink**) April 18th, 2006, 08:40 PM

rhys millen has more experience getting shit sideways on the peak. im sure his rally racing experience would better prepare him for drifting. after all, rally has more in common with drifting than dragracing does...

SamHatesLag · #16 (**permalink**) April 21st, 2006, 10:17 PM

that guy...Ive seen him drag some mean sort of crx or civic, and the man can shift gears...sliding I dunno about

my rant with American drifting is that THE TRACKS ARE TOO FUCKEN WIDE!!!

Ricky · #17 (**permalink**) April 21st, 2006, 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SamHatesLag

that guy...Ive seen him drag some mean sort of crx or civic, and the man can shift gears...sliding I dunno about

my rant with American drifting is that THE TRACKS ARE TOO FUCKEN WIDE!!!

yeah pretty much