CHRIS HARRIS

Embracing the lost art of drifting through corners will make electric cars more exciting, says Chris

“I LOVE SLIDING CARS. MORE THAN ANY OTHER ASPECT OF DRIVING, IT’S THE THING I NEVER GROW TIRED OF”

I am sitting in a small room typing this, waiting to shoot a short film about sliding a car around on a skid pad. On the way here it struck me that going round and round in circles, a bit sideways, is actually the most puerile thing you can do in a motor car. But the reason I’m here is to show that an electric car can slide. And actually, when you think about it – if you want to show people a car they will automatically assume should be dull, is actually a hoot to drive, then sliding is the best way to do it.

And I simply love sliding cars. More than any other aspect of driving, it’s the thing I never grow tired of, never stop grinning when the back of the car moves and I have to steer in the wrong direction to calm things down. But the noble art of sliding a car has been subverted over the past few decades and now it is viewed by many as yobbish behaviour for people in old Nissans. The drift scene is guilty of taking what was mere oversteer and amplifying it to amazing, sometimes ludicrous conclusions, but unlike some other cranky old sods, I love what those nutters get up to. I’m just sad that so many people my age look down on drifters like they’re second-class citizens.

Because, actually, the drift boys and girls are the most honest car enthusiasts out there. They’ve worked out that sliding a car is much more fun than driving it in a straight line and are just living the tyre shredding dream. Put it this way – if you and a few mates go to a track day, within a few laps I guarantee someone will start hanging the back out and playing the loon. And they/we do it because just pounding around in circles clipping apexes and hitting the same braking points is actually fairly boring. Slithering out of every corner with your arms full of lock is way, way more amusing.

Over the years, I’ve probably squeezed a few too many sideways shots into videos, and people have said it’s boring and that no one actually drives like that on the public road and many other life sapping comments to boot. But if you had a circuit for the day and a free set of tyres, you would do the same. It also happens to be the case that pretty much every car looks better sliding around a corner than it does not sliding. But people have increasingly frowned upon this type of driving – even on circuits – and that makes me sad.

Maybe that’s about to change. Every carmaker now needs to persuade us that its electric offerings are great fun to drive. But there’s no noise, no mechanical emotion to trade on, so one of the best ways to deliver that message is by making the thing slide. Perversely, the electric revolution might even herald the true dawn of a new age of oversteer. There’s a phrase I thought I’d never type.