18 Best Drift Cars Ever Made

The basic premise of drifting is initiating controlled oversteer, then delicately balancing the amount of countersteering with throttle control to ensure the car stays appropriately sideways throughout a corner. The discipline shot to international fame through cult classic manga and anime series like "Initial D," and later through the "Fast and Furious" movie franchise. In particular, "The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift" was instrumental in introducing the art of drifting to a mainstream audience, as (spoiler alert) the film's hero character, Sean, uses his drift skills to defeat his mafia boss nemesis Takashi in a tight race down a winding mountain road.

Back in the real world, drifting has become a fiercely contested motorsport, with major competition series being run everywhere from New Zealand to Ireland. Competitions add extra layers of difficulty to the art of going sideways by scoring how well drivers drift in close proximity to each other, and how well the driver can link multiple drifts together, among other things. The more precise a driver can be in controlling their car's movements, the higher the score. Of course, for every meticulously measured pro-level competition, there are plenty more grassroots events that exist simply for attendees to have as much fun as possible, regardless of their skill level. The cars listed here are among the community's favorites and can be seen everywhere from grassroots events right up to national competitions.

Although it was the S13 that first thrust the Silvia/240SX range into the spotlight as a drifter, the S14 has now become the most popular generation with buyers looking for a drift-ready S-chassis. Data from Hagerty insurance shows that 64% of insurance quotes for the S14 were flagged as modified, as opposed to 52% for the S13. So, it's safe to say that at least half the S14s remaining on the road in the US are modified in some way, with many of those likely to be set up as drift cars. The S14 was lowered, widened, and featured better weight distribution than the previous-gen car, according to Hagerty. The other big selling point of the car is its engine bay, which is roomy enough to fit a number of engine swaps, with LS swaps being common in the US.

S14s were once very affordable, but their popularity among drifters has made them subject to what's often called, "the drift tax." As more examples get modified, raced, and often crashed, it gets harder to find stock examples in good condition. This pushes prices up, to the point where enthusiasts on a tight budget are now often priced out of the market altogether. Hagerty reports that an unmodified, well-preserved S14 can now command a premium of $20,000, a far cry from the four-digit price tags that the same cars would have sold for just a few years ago.

On the subject of rising prices, few cars have seen their value skyrocket quite as much as the MkIV Toyota Supra over the past decade. Low-mileage examples of the car can now sell for a quarter of a million dollars, making them practically unobtainable for anyone looking to modify one. However, there are plenty of examples out there that were already converted to drift cars long before the Supra became a collector's item. One such example is pro drifter Dan Burkett's Formula Drift car, which racked up over 230,000 miles of regular road use before being converted for competition. The Supra's 2JZ straight-six engine is famed for its ability to crank out huge horsepower figures with minimal modification, and Burkett's car makes 957 horsepower to the wheels.

Despite their reputation as one of the most well-known JDM cars, Supras aren't actually that common in Japan, and the ones that are modified there are mostly street builds. Their reputation as drift cars was earned mainly in the US and Europe, as Western drifters saw bags of potential in the car's highly-tunable 2JZ, creating builds that could make well over 1,000 horsepower. Ever since it was immortalized in the "Fast and Furious" movie franchise, the A80 Supra has remained one of the most sought-after JDM cars, and its popularity doesn't seem likely to wane anytime soon.

The Mazda RX-7 is the best-selling rotary car of all time by a considerable margin, with over 800,000 units sold between 1978 and 2002. The FD generation was the ultimate iteration of the car, with a suite of technology, powertrain, and styling improvements over its predecessor. The RX-7 was immortalized as a drift car in "The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift," with the movie car featuring a distinctive Veilside body kit. The kit has remained Veilside's most iconic product to date, and is still available to purchase, according to Motor Authority. However, it's far from the only kit available for the RX-7, as nearly every major parts maker has designed one, from local Japanese legends like Re Amemiya to new-school brands like Rocket Bunny.

The RX-7's potent 13B rotary engine makes it a natural candidate for a drifter, and its visceral soundtrack at high revs adds to its appeal. However, used prices for the car are starting to become out of reach of grassroots drifters, in part due to the "drift tax," and in part due to the car's high maintenance costs, which sent many examples to the scrapyard before they became collector's items.

The Subaru BRZ and its twin, the Toyota GT86, have now been on sale for 10 years, and in that time they've established themselves as two of the best cheap sports cars on the market. The second generation of the BRZ went on sale in 2022, with a number of improvements over its predecessor, including a revised chassis and a new, more powerful engine. It now makes 228 horsepower in stock form, but with such a huge aftermarket for the car, it can easily be modified to make significantly more. One of the biggest selling points of the BRZ is its price: It comes in at a fraction under $30,000 in base-spec form.

The car's top-tier handling, sizable aftermarket, and affordable starting price all combine to make a very attractive package for drifters looking for a new project car. It's common to see BRZs at grassroots competitions or as drift-ready street builds, but they can also be found at the highest levels of the sport.

The name might not be big in America, but the Holden Commodore holds a special place in the hearts of many Australian car fans. The Commodore has been one of the most popular models Down Under for decades, and it held the title of Australia's best-selling car for fourteen consecutive years between 1996 and 2010. Top-spec versions of the car are powered by GM's mod-ready LS V8 engine, and the car's traditional rear-wheel drive, and manual transmission layout make it the perfect candidate for a drift car. The Holden remained a local drift favorite for years but achieved some international recognition when Josh Robinson brought a Commodore Ute to the Formula Drift series in 2017.

Unfortunately, 2017 was also the same year that Commodore production was stopped in Australia, as rising production costs and dwindling sales had made the car unprofitable. Between 2017 and 2019, a rebadged Opel Insignia was sold under the Commodore name, but its non-Aussie roots made it deeply unpopular. 9News reports that the car was axed by 2020. Still, it's not all bad news, as the car's long-standing popularity among Australians means that there are still plenty of examples floating about on the domestic used market. Americans can also buy their own piece of drift-ready Aussie muscle, as the Commodore was rebadged and sold as the Chevrolet SS between 2014 and 2017.

The last car to bear the distinguished Silvia nameplate was the S15, which came in two flavors: Spec-S and Spec-R. The Spec-R was the more powerful of the two, featuring a turbocharged SR20DET engine that made 247 horsepower as opposed to the Spec-S' naturally-aspirated 163 horsepower SR20DE. So, the Spec-R became the version to get for drifters. The success of the S13 and S14 Silvia as drift cars ensured that the S15 was highly sought after even from the factory. This popularity has continued on to today, and the S15 is now one of several JDM cars succumbing to the "drift tax."

Prices will no doubt increase even further when the car is no longer subject to the US 25-year import rule, which currently prevents Americans from legally importing one. The first S15s rolled off the production line in 1999, so will be available to import from 2024. The Silvia is currently the most popular car among pro drivers in the Japanese D1GP Championship, with 10 drivers running the car in the 2022 season.

The Corolla AE86 already had a reputation as a great drift car throughout the sport's earliest days, but what really catapulted it to stardom was its prominent role in the cult classic Japanese manga "Initial D." The comic series featured a young hero, Takumi Fujiwara, who honed his drifting skills on Japanese mountain roads while working as a delivery driver. He drove an AE86, and as the original manga and spin-off anime became international cult hits, so did the car. Keiichi Tsuchiya, a Japanese racing driver nicknamed "Drift King," provided technical advice for the series, and it's been speculated that the main character is based off Tsuchiya himself, as he famously competed on Japan's mountain passes in an AE86 in his early days.

So, the car is not only an anime star, but also one of the earliest known drift cars. It's no surprise, then, to find out that values of the AE86 are on a one-way trend upwards. The car is now incredibly difficult to find in original, unmodified condition, and the few that do come up for sale can sell for more than their original list price. Ironically, this popularity has put them out of reach of drifters in many markets around the world, and now grassroots drivers have turned to a new generation of drift-ready cars to get their tire-shredding fix.

Known as the 180SX in Japan and the 240SX in North America, the sister car to the S13 Silvia has long been a drift favorite both in Japan and around the world. The 180SX was the first generation of the S-chassis line to really establish itself as a perfect car for drifting, with the classic front-engine, rear-wheel drive formula and an engine ripe for upgrades. In particular, the SR20DET available in JDM cars was the pick of the bunch — USDM cars had to make do with the KA24E at launch, and even the upgraded version never quite compared.

The S13's popularity as a drift car saw a broad aftermarket quickly spring up around it, leading to increasingly powerful builds and a wider array of kits available for drivers to add their own personal touch to their cars. Like many of the most sought-after drift cars, they're no longer as cheap as they once were, but their popularity at launch has meant that there's still plenty of affordable examples on the market for now.

While the R32 GT-R was making waves in the racing and tuning worlds, lesser versions of the legendary Nissan Skyline remained popular drift cars in Japan for years. The GT-R is a less-than-ideal candidate for drift car conversion for several reasons: Its status as one of the most sought-after JDM cars of its era makes it too expensive for many enthusiasts to purchase at all, and there's also the issue of the 4WD system, which needs to be disabled to drift. Not to mention, fixing a GT-R if something breaks will require considerably deeper pockets than fixing a lesser Skyline.

Buying an R32 GTS-t or GTS solves all of these problems, and the RB engine under the hood still has plenty of potential for upgrading, even if it's never going to live up to the crazy horsepower figures of an RB26DETT. It is annoyingly common to see lower-spec Skylines with GT-R badges, but that distracts from the real appeal of the likes of the GTS-t — they're affordable enough to buy with plenty of tuning potential, and probably won't bankrupt their owners if they clip a wall or blow an engine while drifting.