Tafheet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tafheet, or Hjwalah popularly known elsewhere in the world as "Saudi Drift," is a motorsport phenomenon that involves trying to drift a car - often a full-size sedan - at very high speeds around 180-200km/h across a tarmac left and right. In the process, racers often drive dangerously close to traffic, barriers, and spectators watching from the sides without any protection. Often, the police receive notification of the drifter, usually by worried civilians, and are called out to make an arrest. Very little of the time are the drifters caught, with the police giving up after a long period of time. The laws in Saudi Arabia are very harsh, with lashes for traffic violations such as speeding, so it is unbearable to think of what will be done if a drifter is caught.

Some of the more popular tafheet techniques include:

• "khamis" - turning the car a full 360 degrees
• "tareed" - which is to wiggle the rear wheels left and right at high speed.

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 and Mazda 6.

Some also drift with RWD cars, such as the BMW 7 Series, Chevrolet Caprice and Infiniti Q45.

Saudi Drifting has become popular in several racing games and simulators, such as: Live for Speed, Gran Turismo, Grand Theft Auto & Need For Speed.