The Wheel Thing: The bare minimum you need to know about the motorsport known as drifting

This weekend, sections of Long Beach, California will be shrouded in enough smoke from burning rubber to trigger a smog alert. And enough noise to unhinge a complete set of teeth.

Formula Drift racing comes to the city's street-based Gran Prix track. Should the subject of this wild racing phenomenon come up in polite conversation, here are few key bullet points that could prevent you from sounding like a culturally disconnected dolt.

• Drifting got its start on Japanese mountain roads, where thrill seekers would push their cars into an oversteer condition and then slide through curves.  
• It found adherents here in the US, and eventually, a pro racing circuit, Formula D, was organized. The actual rules and scoring are too complex to worry about; basically, drivers get points by maintaining crazy angles while sliding through turns.  
• The vehicles are rear wheel drive sedans and coupes (usually small or mid-size)  that have been beefed up with engines that produce as much as 700 horsepower. Some are equipped with nitrous tanks that can briefly boost the horsepower even more.
• LSD is a must for a drifter. That's LSD as in limited slip differential.  It's considered essential for performing the slips and slides that are at the core of the driving style.
• Drifting got a big boost in popularity after the racing style was featured in the 2006 film, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

If seeing is knowing, this video is worth tens of thousands of words:

Drift Racing in Long Beach, Calif

Susan Carpenter is auto and motorcycle critic for the OC Register. She joins Take Two each Thursday for The Wheel Thing.