Imagine a car drift. Now shrink it down to one-tenth of the scale.
With a driver clutch remote control, a small but tight-knit group of drifters spin their cars over a smooth concrete slab at the Aina Koa park in East Honolulu. These remote control (RC) drifters have been catching doors under this park pavilion for almost a decade.
“I always had passion for drifting,” said Roy Urata, co-founder of RC Drift Team Saikō. “It really appealed to me that I could do this and maintain [it]. The remote control car was not so intimidating to get in and learn how to work on it.”
Urata still remembers the first time he saw a drift car in motion. He was 14 and watching tire smoke fill the Hawaii Raceway Park tracks. The park is gone now. But people who are still passionate about drifting in Hawaiʻi found a legal way to keep the hobby up.
“Some of our friends moved away to the mainland to pursue drifting and others of us have just gotten further into remote control. [We] still travel for remote control. But we can still practice that here at home.”
RC drift has changed a lot over the years. It used to be all four-wheel drive cars that you had to put hard tires on to make them slide. Now the cars are all rear-wheel drive so that they can achieve their signature drift turns, making them almost near replicas of their larger counterparts.
“I really liked being able to mimic what I was seeing in videos,” Urata said. “Without the limitations of having to drive around on the street because we didn't have a track anymore.”
Right now, they’re gearing up for the Super Drift Championship race. Urata and his wife are the head organizers for the race in Hawaiʻi. The winner of the Hawaiʻi region will receive free hotel accommodation for the finals tournament in California this fall.
The local drift community has over 50 drivers on Oʻahu and is even expanding to the neighbor islands. While a basic drifting car kit will set you back $500, serious drifters will spend thousands to trick out their car. But Urata doesn’t think the price of the car is what makes this hobby.
“A lot of the draw to the hobby is the community,” he told HPR. “Life is hectic for all of us nowadays. So it's nice to have a group that shares a common interest and we can come together and kind of blow off steam for a few hours a couple nights a week.”
The final round of the Super Drift Race Championship Hawaiʻi takes place at Pālolo Elementary School on Aug. 30. Registration to drive is open to all. You can find more info on the race and see their cars in action on their Instagram.
This story aired on The Conversation on July 31, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m.
