[fine69]

I'm a little shocked after seeing the clips that follow.

I've never seen such explicit ways of putting one's life at risk. One can see people flying out of car, getting hit by a car doing 200 kmph, hanging out of the cars while it does triple digit speeds and what not.

I really need someone who knows about Saudi Arabia (or not) but at least this "sport", if you can call it so, to tell me what is really happening in this part of the world.

Can someone really do this, especially out of boredom?!!

Any why can't the law put this to an end, I'm sure they can if they want to.

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Excerpt from Wiki

The cars are mostly rented from rent-a-car services, for a very little cost per day, this is also why the cars appear to be stock. The most popular choice of cars are mostly FWD, including Hyundai Sonata, Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Nissan Altima and Mazda 6. Some also drift with RWD cars, such as the BMW 7 Series, Chevrolet Caprice, Chevrolet Lumina and Infiniti M. Some even drifting with 4WD cars, such as Subaru Legacy (4WD models), and some also drift with mid-engined sports cars such as Porsche Boxster and Ferrari F430. Drifting on trucks, SUVs, bicycles, and motorbikes have been noticed.
These stunts are performed due to the high amount of boredom for youth in Saudi Arabia, as cinemas do not exist and mixing between unrelated men and women is forbidden.
Often, the police receive notification of the drifter, usually by worried citizens, and are called out to make an arrest. The drifters are rarely caught, with the police generally giving up after a long period of time.
In June 2012, a Saudi youth was sentenced to death by beheading for killing two people while drifting his car near Riyadh.

Tafheet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Few other links WARNING: Graphic Scenes in videos

When Automotive 'Drifting' Goes Horribly Wrong, in Saudi Arabia - Neighborhoods - The Atlantic Cities

Saudi Arabia: The Culture of Drifting « American Bedu

[athanedar]

Just one word comes to mind after watching the video "Abuse" of good cars. There is a saying "Empty mind is devil's workshop". This sport / game (if i may call it) is just a byproduct of empty mind trying to pass time.
Horrible !!

[SDP]

Just saw this. Was not aware of any such thing. Thanks for sharing.

Although the skills are remarkable for most parts, doing this in an uncontrolled environment is plain stupidity.

[mempheS.D]

Hehehe. This should have come up a long time ago infact.

During my childhood years in Bahrain (which is a little more sober and much more liberal than Saudi), I've chanced upon to see some some "maniac sport" as these.

1. Tafheet is one. AFAIK, highways that are away from city limits are chosen. Traffic is on the lighter side here though not NIL.

2. Drifts at a massive roundabout - All entries and exits to the roundabout get blocked owing to the fear of aggressiveness that the cars would demonstrate. You don't wanna be hit by something drifting at 100+

3. A carnival of cars - honking, revving hard - usually after winning local club football matches.

AFAIK, these unscrupulous activities get away with no punishment or fines UNTIL one ends up killing somebody or destroying public property. Sad, but true.

The Arabs may not be well-skilled engineers as the Europeans are. But, the daredevilry that the former exhibits is unmatched and fearful. I'm sure the videos demonstrate that passion.

Blame boredom and more importantly - lack of good education emphasizing on virtues - which is why my Indian School with a CBSE syllabus had at least 20% Arab students, thanks to some sane parents who didn't want to lose their kids to insanity. Of course, then the rich and effluent had British and American schools.

[evilshantanu]

I really dont care about the morons who tried doing this, but these clowns are putting at risk all the other cars on the road. Ina lot of cases have hit the other cars quite badly. Well there is some place in the world where drivers / driving sense is worse than our country

[mempheS.D]

Originally Posted by evilshantanu

Well there is some place in the world where drivers / driving sense is worse than our country

Nobody sane would ever say anything in favour of this madness anyway.

On the contrary, it would be wrong to say that driving sense is worse than in our country. In fact, driving manners (lane discipline, using indicators, right must go right, speedlimit) are at par with the United States, say about 70% at least.

But then, there are these idiots who take birth everywhere thinking they are UNBREAKABLE.

[BoeingDriver]

I used to operate into major airports in Saudi such as Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam quiet often and let me tell you the drive from the airport to the hotel was absolute night mare. In india, we have drivers attempting to drive fast in low powered vehicles and two cylinders(at the most 4) but in Saudi Arabia, you have sheer maniacs in a minimum of 6 or 8 cylinders with 3500 cc displacement. Once when the driver was talking on his mobile phone while driving, I told him 3 times to not do it, eventually had to create a ruckus. He tells me " Habibi in Saudi you can thaak onn tha phone andh dhrrive no probleam, khalas." If you thought driving in India is crazy try saudi !!

[suhaildurrani]

I have been in one of this (as a rear seat passenger) during my schooling which happened in Riyadh, KSA. Never again i swear to myself.

I still remember the day walking and returning from school there is this epic (back then) illegal event happening and being forced to sit in one by one of the locals. The Camry was packed to the brim with 'random' but daring pedestrians to weight down the car and prevent it from flipping over. 5 in the back seat and 3 up front, the driver would touch speeds upto 180-200 within city streets and pull the hand break at around 150 kmph. People in the back get tossed like a marble-in-a-tin-can. They drift in a very controlled manner but is extremely scary view from the inside.

Back then Toyota Camry, Honda Accord and Hyundai Sonata were the most popular drift machines.

Their guts directly translates to internet glory.

[mayankjha1806]

How are they not destroying public property or someone else's private property. I can see some of them doing it on city streets with cars parked on the sides and then banging them.

Shouldn't the police put an end to this, or like everywhere else its the rich and powerful always get away?

[mempheS.D]

Originally Posted by mayankjha1806

Shouldn't the police put an end to this, or like everywhere else its the rich and powerful always get away?

I would attribute this to LAZINESS of the authorities. They do crackdown on such activities only for a short period after something really BAD happens. After that, it's all back to the same. Of course, the rich and powerful will get away. But, the ones who are not do get away too UNLESS no one's killed.

The Bahrain-Saudi causeway, I hear, is still a drag-strip after midnight. Many have lost lives, but the manicism goes on.

[carzone]

Seems its the new way of committing suicide. Drifting at three digit speeds on the roads with traffic and people standing to see them is utter madness. They say it is out of utter boredom, Arabs can get some dedicated tracks for this kind of boredom killer sparing the normal roads for the sensible drivers. They are not only killing their machines, but also other people as well as others machines. Saw in the 1st video that a car had its wheel come off while attempting to drift. People do not have knowledge about their cars and then attempt to do insane things results in this.

Before getting sideways, couldn't people see that there are cars ahead of them and they are going to hit them whatever care they take. It was like purposefully damaging their as well as others property.

[thumpingheart]

There are lots of videos on youtube showing such stunts by these maniacs. There have been lots of deaths I've heard. Lots of people get thrown out of the cars as they don't wear seat belts and crash into surrounding cars and barriers.

This is just outright scary to watch. A friend who grew up in Dubai told me once that these Arabs are extremely crazy and will take on any bet you challenge them to. They give a new meaning to words like "daring" and "impulsive" to the limit of actual craziness.

Its just insane! No value for life, property and cars (!!).. Very sad

[sandeep3in]

Are these videos genuine ?

Looks to me like it is an organized event for drift . I have heard that motoring in Arab states are under tight control of the cops and traffic authority.

There should be some one in this forum who would have been or is in a Arab state . Can they throw their insight whether such events really happens in the streets .

[tj123]

I can only say that are just a bunch of crazy Arabs youths who just risk there lives and cars for just fun, none of them are wearing any safety gear nor the cars are build to do such stunts.

Easy petro dollars fuel such madness.

[differential]

barbaric! value for human life is non existent. this kind of practice with so many spectators is unimaginable.

i never knew such a "sport" (for want of a better word) existed.

nothing more to comment.