^^DuckJAI makes a good point. I think it would be tough for many to shell out the cash to learn how to drift. +1 for parking lots, +2 if there is snow!!
…alot of people here are already having a tough time posting FS and getting their asking price. more than half of the replies are probably lowballs.
Good luck Jason, I give you alot of credit.
I honestly may come out to one of these lessons one day, but I think hitting the track and learning from other son members would make more sense.
Drifting School ? I’m a professional driver and here’s my input:
It seems your lacking a few lugnuts. You started with a website, that’s not bad; however, the website has 0 beneficial functions. People who want to learn to drift will want to know how you are going to do that.
You should be listing things such as:
exactly what they will be learning
how they will be learning it
how many lessons they will receive, duration of each session
the curriculum of their learning process
what they will know (techniques etc) by the time they graduate from your school
exactly how much this will cost and what their options are
have diagrams and explanations of all your lessons
credentials of your instructor, Mike Kent drove in dmcc didn’t he ? care to explain ?
As well you should be offering different packages for beginner, intermediate, and advanced students, as well as help with specific techniques, in case some students will already be familiar with some techniques.
Why do you have a picture of a skyline on your website, it really hardly shows anything related to learning to drift. At the least you should have different pictures and videos of different drifting aspects your school will cover.
Re-think your business plan and revise your approach, first impression is often the lasting impression, and right now, no offense but it fails.
Exactly. 240 owners are cheap. No 240 is perfect and is always being upgraded. That’s where all their money goes. And then there’s gas and insurance. Do you think they would want to spend more money to learn how to drift?
Some people may flame me for this but I think that people want to learn drifting by themselves at track days, “the street” and in parking lots. It probably doesn’t sound too good if you told everyone you went to drifting school. Wouldn’t sound as cool to their buddies.
Kinda like how people love to say that they did all the work to their cars themselves.
Dan, I think you need to get out to one of Peter’s Drift days to see what actually happens there.
I’m not saying I’m above any Pro from not taking a course but when it comes to drifting, it’s something you just develop since there is no real standard. I look at it as a style of driving, you can’t really teach that. Maybe to a certain degree but not all of it. I guess you really have to be a drifter to understand it.
I wonder if the top 10 DMCC Pro Drivers have ever received Professional Training? Imo, drifting is like playing street basketball. You don’t take classes to learn that type of stuff like AND1, you learn it by yourself and develop a style you’re comfortable with.
Come to a drift event and you’ll see who attends them and what skill level they have attained. Much better than training in a parking lot (from what Jason has told me in an email.)
I can list at least 5 people who have started out with NO track experience and just have attended track days and within the summer have gotten to an extremely applaudible level.
I’m also not shooting his idea down, but I’m giving him positive critisism so he knows what to plan for since I and many others have discussed this sort of program before. It is VERY hard to attract customers when there are no near by tracks to practice on and PAYING to training in a parking lot is not what many 240 owners would do.
Look at ALL of Ontario’s PRO drifters. Has any one of them received any special drifting training or courses that have brought them there? I don’t think so.
With that said, parking lot drifting then going to the track is what most people do and has shown successful in many cases. Why would people turn away from this and pay someone to learn it? You have to give good enough reason and show the steps in the program like Vlad mentioned. It’s a good idea but to present an idea to the public with empty content is not going to attract many customers.
Knowing SON240, no one is going to pay someone to teach them how to drift in an parking lot when they can do it themselves. This is SON240, not G35driver or my350 forum.
lol Jason son240sx.org should not be part of you business plan to cheap and would prefer to break there own cars
from my impreason jason was looking for input on intrest and or ideas
he also stated mike kent was to be the head instructor not himself and that he would be hirering drivers to do the teaching
as for the choice of cars on the site lol
also my thought would be why teach in a rhd car when most people are driving lhd cars i think it would make it harded to learn then translate to your lhd.
good luck jason i hope this works maybe youll also use it as a local drift track when not teaching
isnt am to pro just having a lot money and sponsors/connections in most cases? well here in canada that is.
we have very very few grass root drivers that drive in the pro series. what does that tell you about the people here in ontario? they don’t take drifting that serious since it cost too much
but if this gives us more drift events at a cost effective price go for it as it will help the drift scene get bigger which we need it to be. I would support it if it will help make the drift scene get bigger.
I agree with Alesserfate. I need to add to the website and explain more, in full our course. I know this will not be for everyone, and if 240 guys are so cheap, then why is it that they are always putting money into their cars. I am trying to create a course to help lower the cost for a beginner drifter, and even for the advance drifters. I want others to get involved in drifting, to build the community, to create more events. As for the Skyline and a pic of my eclipse on the website…well…sorry for the Skyline. I don’t have pics of the course yet. In February, there will be lots of pics and it will look more like a drifters site reather they a “scketchy” site. I am working hard and I like the input you all have provided me with. I am taking them all seriously. (even the negative, stupid rants some of you provide). Thank you and keep it coming.
Sam, I’m not saying people can’t learn to drift by themselves…I’m just saying that in almost all cases I can think of…people learn faster/better when getting instructed by somebody with more experience.
Why do people take guitar lessons, swimming lessons, cooking classes… this is all shit they could figure out by themselves but some people value the benefits of being instructed. It may not be for you but the above examples prove some people will pay to be taught.
With all that said, nobody is going to get involved with “sideways” unless the site improves dramatically and the program is described much more precisely. So, while I do agree the idea is sound, I think the execution is lacking…to date.
driftnation ran alot of these learn to drift deals. i been out to a couple. great guys willing to show u the hows and whats of drifting. i have talkd to mike kent at the track a couple of times when he had the blu/red 240sx, great guy.
jason id say talk to kendrik,wayne about starting something like this up…(for tips)
good luck and keep me in the loop…
I think you biggest problem is your name. Anyone that uses a ‘z’ in their business name isnt going to be taken seriously. You lose all credit. Call it something mature, not sidewayz drifting. Then you may actually get a more mature crowd out with some money.
Secondly, you are going to teach people to drift in RHD cars when most of them own LHD? I know the differences arent big but training the brain to drive RHD AND learning how to drift, well you’ve now added more complexity to your program.
I think you should take your site down, sit back, put together a real business plan and then do this properly. That way youll have at least a little bit of a shot to make it work. With what you have right now you have built a mountain of a wall to climb in order for you to suceed.
Imo, the key problem is that you don’t seem to understand the drifting community and lack the knowledge and experience in the actual sport.
The best thing for you would to be to get into the actual sport and try it out and develop your own skills. Then you’ll understand what can be improved and incorporate that into your drifting program. With no experience, it’s almost impossible to set a program that is suitable for drifters, even if you have a professional trainer.
Imo, a professional trainer will be restricted in teaching any driver in a parking lot since its such a low speed. Almost any advanced driver could probably teach what could be taught in the parking lot. A professional driver would only shine on a race track where speed becomes the biggest obstacle for drivers to overcome. This is being spoken from a person who actually went through the steps from parking lot drifting, street drifting and track drifting. This is where experience comes into play and you need to attain it to create a successful school.
I was acualy thinking of doing something simmalr this season. it sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders and have a bit of drive to you. Aere you really seriouse about helping the drift scene in ontario? give me a shout i would like to talk with you. not sure if we have met before or if you know who i am, but i think i may be able to bring a few things to the table that would help you out. I think this is a great idea, but need some real dedicated people to make a differance.
I completely agree. I mean look at my user name. I was 15 when I made it not knowing any better and thinking it was cool, lol. You need a more professional name and not something that a kid would use as their screen name.
+1 on you needing LHD vehicles more so. Most people are used to driving LHD and the beginners trying to learn driving as well as trying to coordinate shifts with their left hand is just something else to mess them up and distract them from what they actually came there to learn.
That being said, Rethink a few things, get a proper buisness plan, a legit looking website and more details and you could be on your way.
As a new driver who just started tracking last season, i attended a driftops event to start the season on a “skidpad” with instruction from professional driver Alex Lee. Driftops support on the skidpad was great, but it wasnt for me. At the skidpad i ended up in a ditch twice and i felt i had wasted alot of my day there.
Later in the afternoon i went on the track with nothing more than a 2 minute explanation on how to use the brakes to transfer weight from XuperXero (david), alesserfate (vlad) and i felt i was making alot more progess on my own than spending 3 hours at the skidpad with professional instruction. No offense meant towards any of the dops guys, they know i’m always down for their events and they have my support, but i guess i’m trying to say that hitting the tracks and figuring out my car reacted on my own was the most effective way for me to learn how to drive.
Drifting is just one of those things that you learn from doing. Having someone explain how to drive your car isnt the same as feeling the feedback from the wheel or learning to control momentum.
I’m not going to comment on your business plan, but tbh i think most of the son240 guys who want lessons in drifting should just try hitting up one of Peter’s (pantaloons) driftdays. You learn alot just from hitting the track. and if you really do want some tips, there are always a couple professional drivers as well as veteran amateurs hanging around at the trackdays.