Cancel

Open app

Search

Drift 101

5.0 (33 reviews)
Closed Closed

Drift 101 Photos

You might also consider

Recommended Reviews - Drift 101

Your trust is our priority, so businesses can't pay to alter or remove their reviews. Learn more about reviews.
Yelp app icon
Browse more easily on the app
Review Feed Illustration

Reviews With Photos

Met Don :)
Christi S.

It was a life changing experience. I got the two full day lessons for my husband and he thoroughly enjoyed it. Naoki is amazing. He was meticulous in training and could think of whatever is going through your mind at any given moment. For context, my husband is an engineer. Naoki is extremely knowledgeable and his training has brought impeccable results. Even though it was just for fun, my husband now has aspirations to drift more frequently in the future. The first day was a one-on-one with Naoki. No one else was on the schedule so we basically had the track to ourselves. The first few moments was basically getting the feel for the car, and scoping the course. Husband practically got down how to do donuts and figure 8s the first day. He went in with very little knowledge of drifting and didn't know much about it. We've only watched Tokyo Drift the day before..lol! But he got the hang of it after a whole day and got a grasp of the mechanics behind drifting. The second day was on a different track with the whole crew and also with another classmate! He found that he enjoyed drifting with other people because it gave him much more learning feedback. The second day was largely engaging in much more maneuvers involving 2nd gear, at a higher speed. A bit more challenging than the first day because he was practically trying to correct his drifts by giving the right amount of throttle. It gets a bit more technical here and he also started the 2nd day with handbrake initiations. There was a lot of time spent on the track. It was also an eventful day because we got to meet one of Naoki's students that have been actively training to get his pro drifting license. It was an exhilarating experience because one of his students came so far and we got to see the fruits of his labor. If you decide to come here, I'd highly recommend it! A thing to note though is that, Willow Springs is practically a desert. We came during the summer in August, and it was extremely hot. Although the 100 degree weather did not deter my husband from drifting, it is something to consider the next time because no one likes dry hot weather lol. We're from San Diego and although it was a short trek, we ended up staying at a hotel in Palmdale that was pet friendly (Residence Inn Palmdale Lancaster). All in all, it was a wonderful experience and I do not regret gifting my husband these lessons. He would probably remember this experience for the rest of his life. I was a bystander the entire time, but nonetheless still fun to watch and meet a lot of inspiring people. I would definitely recommend drifting at least once in your lifetime. It's such a niche sport. You'd be in good hands with Naoki and his team at Drift 101. Such a harmonious crew!

Christine R.

Super fun! I bought Drift 101 as a Birthday gift for my fiancé, Tim. When I picked him up after each session, he was glowing. Makes a great gift for anyone passionate about cars and who is interested in drifting. Tim liked Naoki and his team's enthusiasm and friendly approach which made it easy to learn. He had a nice amount of practice time behind the wheel and he is walking away from the class with better car control. This experience has him enthused about getting into drifting! Thank you for the great memories!

Lindsay D.

I purchased a half day drift lesson for my boyfriend who has no drift experience, but loves cars. He had an incredible time and I had so much fun watching him. 100% recommend this to anyone who likes to play around with cars. The instructor was great and it was so easy to purchase a gift certificate and book a class.

Amazing day at Drift 101!! I had never driven manual before - Callie taught me how to within 10 minutes no problem. Once we got on the track, instructions were personalized to everyone's individual needs. It was awesome to see myself progress as the day went on. Our instructors - Naoki, Callie and Conner were great teachers, personable, and they made it fun for us. Lastly, the amount of the actual driving time is LEGIT!!

See all

Photo of Lyn K.
373
470
1107

9 months ago

Helpful 1
Thanks 0
Love this 2
Oh no 0
Photo of Rick C.
200
12
9

10 months ago

Helpful 0
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0

1 year ago

Helpful 0
Thanks 0
Love this 1
Oh no 0

1 year ago

Helpful 1
Thanks 0
Love this 1
Oh no 0

3 years ago

Helpful 4
Thanks 0
Love this 6
Oh no 0

3 years ago

Helpful 2
Thanks 0
Love this 1
Oh no 0
Photo of A G.
0
18
0

2 years ago

Helpful 0
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0

2 years ago

Helpful 1
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0

4 years ago

Helpful 0
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0

3 years ago

Helpful 0
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0
Photo of Jeff T.
186
14
1

5 years ago

Helpful 1
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0

8 years ago

Helpful 3
Thanks 0
Love this 2
Oh no 0

8 years ago

Helpful 1
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0
Photo of Gina P.
1
26
30

5 years ago

Helpful 0
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0
Photo of Hunter T.
206
33
11

9 years ago

Helpful 4
Thanks 0
Love this 2
Oh no 0

5 years ago

Helpful 0
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0

4 years ago

Helpful 0
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0

6 years ago

Great vibes and cool slides! Naoki Cali and Cody were awesome teachers and made everybody feel welcome - Great experience!

Helpful 0
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0

7 years ago

Helpful 0
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0

6 years ago

Helpful 0
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0

5 years ago

Helpful 0
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0

7 years ago

Helpful 1
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0

7 years ago

Helpful 0
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0
Photo of andrew c.
214
107
6

6 years ago

Helpful 0
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0
Photo of Don B.
0
18
6

8 years ago

Helpful 2
Thanks 0
Love this 2
Oh no 0

7 years ago

Helpful 0
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0

9 years ago

Helpful 6
Thanks 0
Love this 1
Oh no 0

5 years ago

Helpful 0
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0

9 years ago

Helpful 3
Thanks 0
Love this 1
Oh no 0
Photo of Ann J.
0
11
2

6 years ago

Helpful 0
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0

7 years ago

This was wonderful. I got this as a gift to my boyfriend and he really enjoyed it.

Helpful 1
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0

6 years ago

Our first experience drifting. Instruction was concise and patient. Really great experience.

Helpful 0
Thanks 0
Love this 0
Oh no 0

8 years ago

Helpful 2
Thanks 0
Love this 1
Oh no 0

Ask the Community - Drift 101

How much is the drift class? also I don't drive manual... and is there group rates available?

I am a recent student. Price depends on one or two days, one or two people, and (probably) using one of his cars. They will teach you how to drive a manual very quickly. No worries. Go to their site. They encourage you to call versus emailing. Group… Read more

Is this more of a business or a school because I want to be a professional drifter and what would I have to do to get in?

Go see Naoki for 2 or 3 days, then buy a car and try to destroy it. If you don't ask him embarrassing questions like that, and are smarter than you seem, he might be able to teach you something.

Hi, i have a project where I am looking to speak with avid fans of drifting in the LA community, How would I find these people?

Hello. Can you email me directly at Naoki@Drift101.com or you can call me at 818-216-7017. Thanks,

View All 4 Questions

Review Highlights - Drift 101

I want to go back and take another class; Naoki's voice and lessons were still in my head 3 days post class.

Mentioned in 25 reviews

Read more highlights

You might also consider

Verify this business for free

People searched for Driving Schools 153 times last month within 20 miles of this business.

Verify this business

Extreme Speed Track Events

Extreme Speed Track Events

(40 reviews)

For value and seat time, I give them 5 stars. However, if you're a beginner or new to track days,…read moreI'd get an instructor or bring a friend who has some track day experience. Don't expect NASA or SCCA level organization here. It's a legit group run by fellow enthusiasts with other day jobs. If you have some experience already and don't want to spend $500 on a NASA HPDE, this is a great option.

----- Concise Review…read more WHAT A BLAST!!!! SO AWESOME! GREAT FAMILY DAY!!! Five Stars are not enough! On a scale of 1 to 10, a 12 (yes one more than eleven)! Helpful in planning the race day. Great teachers, to help us learn how to race. Great hosts. Provided great food. Taught us more than we expected, and we hoped for a lot. Extreme Speed Sports Car Racing School THANK YOU EXTREME SPEED TRACK EVENTS!!! ----- Longer Review Our son is quite the car enthusiast. We visited Southern California - Palm Desert, Yucaipa, and Malibu - for Spring Break 2021. 00 - FINDING EXTREME SPEED TRACK EVENTS; INTRODUCTIONS We like Jay Leno's Garage (TV show) and knew of Willow Springs race track from his show... and we thought maybe we could race there. It out that Willow Springs is located north of LA, in the Mojave Desert, near Edwards Air Force Base. I explored Willow Springs' website and they have a list of groups who regularly race there, and who teach others to race there. I picked Extreme Speed Track Events and called and talked with Joel, who is very helpful. I explained that we just wanted to learn how to race, to safely go around the track and have a good time, and to maybe learn some "enhanced" driving skills. Joel assured me that is what they do, and we wholeheartedly agree... Extreme Speed Track Events can and will teach you how to race cars... on one of the most amazing tracks - Willow Springs International Raceway! More information about the amazing time we had: 01 - ARRIVAL We visited the office in the main building and the lady there pointed us to The Streets at Willow Springs. While we could see all the tracks from where we were we spent the first little bit in the building. They got us situated and got us breakfast - bacon and eggs and waffles... and flavored Starbucks in-a-bottle. 02 - PRE-DRIVING INSTRUCTIONS They gave us come classroom instruction in the building, about driving and tire tilt and camber... about how to read the track to determine how to set up one turn for the next turn. 03 - TO THE CARS We followed them for five laps, as they showed us how/where to position our cars on the course. 04 - THE CARS Our son and I each drove a stick-shift / manual transmission Toyota Celica... his black, mine white... that had been in the Long Beach celebrity Grand Prix... stock / factory cars with roll cage, lots of weight removed, and racing seats... and mufflers, etc. modified a bit, so they made a great rumbling noise. Our daughter drove a red automatic Toyota Solara, also stock with a roll cage. 05 - THE STREETS AT WILLOW The Streets at Willow has elevation changes and many curves. It's a thrill to drive. Given our novice status as drivers, our peak speeds were 85-90 mph, which was fast enough. Our track times were ~ 2 minutes. 06 - SKILLS SESSIONS After the first laps, then we had a combination of driving in circles, and high-speed braking. The circles were ~ 80 feet around... and by driving faster, and turning the wheel more we saw how that didn't help - turning the wheel more did not make us turn any more tightly... to get more traction you slowed down, steered back a little and then had more grip, better control. The fast braking helped us time going faster into turns, slowing, then powering out of the corners. 07 - DONUTS! Our son and daughter each got turns in the Miatas, making donuts and spinning out. Our son did some drifting on the skid pad, too! 08 - SCOOTERS As we were using the track one-at-a-time, they also had Honda scooters... which we rode to the other tracks... 09 - A RIDE WITH THE TRACK RECORD HOLDER I got to ride with Mark in his Miata, which helped learn what they were teaching us about slowing down and powering through the turn... 10 - AND THEN IT WAS JUST US In the morning, a father and son shared The Streets with us... when we were off-track learning, they were on-track, racing. We drove counter-clockwise and they went clockwise... they were tuning their racing Porsche for an upcoming race, and the 17-year old son was fast! They left around lunch time. Big Willow had several drivers on it in the morning, some Corvettes, Toyotas, Ferraris, etc. They also left around lunch time. 11 - HORSE THIEF MILE & BIG WILLOW After another round of laps on The Streets of Willow, Rob and Mark led us around several laps on Horse Thief Mile and Big Willow... in between we went to the skid pad and our son had an awesome donut/burnout... he was really having fun making smoke and was showing off what he learned this day! As we drove south through Antelope Valley, the sunset... to the right... a fitting end to a day that started with the sun rising to the east, to the left. What a day! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU JOEL, ROB, MARK, DIANE AND JOEL'S GIRLFRIEND / EXTREME SPEED TRACK EVENTS!!! ----- ----- -----

Drift 101 - driving_schools - Updated May 2026

Loading...
Loading...
Loading...