R USDM  cars meant to drift with nissans hondas and supra or corollas or r they just unwelcomed guests. Should we really bring in what wus the pontiac gto which is now the soltice with r energy drink and newly made sponsors why should we bring the new gto when it origonated from american muscle drag racing. why should they when JDM has been doing the same thing for years and not copying off the the real thing and switching to wuts the new coolest thing  

That's sorta hard to answer.  I mean with Ken Gushi tearing it up with the '06 Mustang I think it's not really that much about the car it's about the driver and how much control they can excersize over a car.  Now don't get me wrong.  Not any car can just go and drift even if it's the best driver in the world.  I would hate to see a Crown Victoria or maybe a Geo trying to drift around in a D1 event.  Well actually that would be pretty funny.  But whatever.
The Scattareggia  

i have already seen a crown vic wit the engine from mustang cobra drift and it was sick  

Ok...  I don't really care, FOB.
The Scattareggia  

The 06 mustang is pretty bad. I am not a fan of mustangs until the new one came out. It all depends on the driver. I am sticking to my imports though.  

I really think that the more diversified the cars are the more interesting the competition will be.  Bring on the American Cars.  

the issue goes a little deeper.  Drifting originated in the mountains of Japan.  The cars used were light weight, rear wheel drive, and well balanced weight distribution.  this is what made the AE86 corolla ideal.  its weight distribution was super close to 50/50, it was rear wheel drive, and very light.

In D1, all the Japanese drivers pilot cars that are basically streetable.  meaning they are basically tuner cars.  they take a stock car, bump up the power per tuner company (blitz, apex, hks, greddy/trust) with parts they sell.  they use stock suspension points but obviously beef everything up, with everything being fully adjustable of course.  the only thing different than the production version is the steering.  some cars need to be able to countersteer more.  most cars are in the 200-400hp range.  they also have a street legal series which only allows licensed cars to compete.  most of the drivers finance their own teams.  they are driving their own cars and they work on them themselves.

on the other hand,
the US drivers (forumla D) have built all out racecars.  JR Gitten's Falken Mustang has over 600hp and the rest of the car was built from the ground up as a racecar.  same with Millen's GTO, hubinette's Viper, and the other mustangs.  they come with big power from the factory, but the suspension design is not made to drift. the only reason these heavy, american cars can compete is they are no where near to being stock.  they were built as racecars, changed all the suspension configurations, and given tons of power. they also have a full pit crew to keep them going as opposed to the "grass roots" sytle of some japanese drivers.

the reason I say no to the original question has to do with the fact that america does not make cars that are ideal for drifting right off the assembly line.  the gto, mustang, solstice had to be fully backed by the manufacturer in order to build full race cars that are nothing near stock.  Japanese drift cars have the perfect characteristics to drift in stock form.  they only require light mods to be competitive.  take a look at the 2002 D1 champion - a 200hp corolla. in 2003 it was an RX7, another perfectly balanced, rwd light weight car.  from then on, it has been dominated by silvias (namely kazama's S15).

drifting lower power, close to factory cars takes much more skill than a fully built racecar backed by mopar, gm, or ford with over 600hp and even more torque.  the street legal series is what drifting is all about. if we just build a car from scratch with monster horsepower and throw on a factory body that resembles a production car, we will lose the whole essence of drifting.  this is why Japanese drivers continue to dominate.  they start out with cars that allow the driver to improve their skills. anyone can make a 600hp car get sideways.  but it takes tons of skill to do it with 200 hp, and win.  

DPImpreza puts up a good arguement. i wouldn't mind seeing american cars drifting but it is kinda sad that they need heavy modifications to do so.  if american cars want to drift then they should make a car that is driftable  

although i am really looking foward to Rhys in the new Solstice.  he is an amazing driver, and its a great car.  plus hes more acustomed to driving turbocharged 4 cylinders from his rally days.  but it is still a factory backed race car.  

i would love to see what kind of car Kazama would drive if he was fully backed by nissan. he would just be unstoppable.  

well lets see if usd cars are munt for drifting. in 2005 a gto won d1 anf in 2006 a viper. won so the anwer i think would be YES    

Maybe, some guy was trying to drift his Mustang in the parking lot next to my building the other day.  It probably would of been okay if it wasn't 1 in the morning.  

I know what you guys mean but what about drift patrol? All the Japanese cars are slightly modified but they we're built  to behave differently then the muscle cars of America. But again I brought up the drift patrol mustang because he's even said with light mod's and easy tuning he can get a 500 dollar mustang out of a junkyard and drift with it. The truth is a lot of the american cars do have some trouble with their weight but thats cause of the bulky v-8s and the such.

Also it looks more like people see a s15 they think drift, when people see viper they see grip, so Detroit  put money into these cars to wake people up to the fact that USDM cars are drift ready and can keep up with the jdm cars.

I think USDM cars can and should be on the field with all the JDM cars, hell Japan's in NASCAR now so why not America in D1?