Ha! Looks like some silly fun -- about 45 minutes from my birthplace, too.
I've never understood drifting culture, but to each his own. The Spider is certainly no super/turbocharged ricer so it just doesn't have the torque or hp to maintain a drift or wheelspin for any length of time. It can get the inside wheel a bit spun up and, if lucky, break the outside one, too, for a wee bit of oversteer.
This Italian dude is really trying the Scandinavian flick on the bit of the track where the car is headed back towards the camera and there's the (double apex?) left hairpin. He's coming in with the car all unbalanced to try and make it a single late apex on the way out. Not too badly executed, actually. It's all a bit silly and probably not the fastest way around, but hey, it's his car and he's probably having fun. The driver's door flying open was an auspicious start.
Note how the modern white car with back striping (a Renault?) eats it alive. The 40 year gap makes the cars not even comparable...
The back always kicks out for me a bit in the wet in the Spider. There's a particular
left hand 90 degree turn that then goes uphill at the Aviation museum (where there are three lanes in both directions at the underpass, then narrows to just one as an uphill merge) that caught me by surprise as the back stepped out for the first time in the Fiat. It's very slippery there. It must be the way the oils collect as the water drains downhill or something. The asphalt doesn't look any different than a little further up, but the traction is certainly very different. The Spider slides a bit *every* time on the wet if I apply any throttle at all there. It happens on my family minivan, too, but it's FWD so that's no fun at all.
Another good run for slides is by the Rockcliffe pavilion -- that little scenic one-way drive right by the river that exits right by the Governor General's and Prime Minister's. It's in this vid, here:
http://vimeo.com/107553070.
between 2:30 to 3:35 or so. While that was boring and slow in the dry, in the wet I can get the back out three or four times in a totally controllable way modulating the throttle and actually hold it a bit. Not possible in the dry, though. I've also done it more than once on the uphill sweeping right that appears at 4:11, again in the wet. Not the smartest as there can be oncoming traffic, but at least there are no curbs...
Damn I miss the car already. If it rains enough over the weekend to get rid of any salt I might even take the Spider to work on Monday or Tuesday as we get unseasonably warm temperatures next week.
At least we're not in Buffalo.......
1974 CS1
32/36 DFEV; CompuTronix ign.
9.8:1 c/r; 40/80 intake cam w/ Isky springs
Vicks' SS header & adj. cam pulleys
A/R's progressive coils, Koni Yellow dampers
205/50-15s on CD-66 style rims
Momo wheel, Corbeau seats w/ 5 pt belt
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