Every event since August 2025 has sold out  ·  Next event 27–28 June, Bishopscourt
Bishopscourt Racing Circuit · Co. Down

Take the wheel at Ireland's official drift academy.

Learn proper drift technique from pro drivers who compete right now, in custom-built drift cars. Everyone from age 13 is welcome, no experience needed, everything provided.

Book your lesson Grab a voucher
  • From age 13
  • No licence needed
  • Sideways from run one
  • Everything provided
Your mentor
IDS competition drivers
Your car
BMW E46, real drift spec
Your track
Bishopscourt circuit
Your path
Graded to a drift licence
The difference

Mentored by people who compete.

Every one of our mentors is a seasoned, proven drift driver still competing today, fighting for championships with the best in the business. They know what's working right now and what it takes to win, and those are the techniques they pass on to you and help you master. Just as important, they're down-to-earth people who genuinely love what they do, and want to see you get good at it.

CD
Conor Duggan
IDS Championship driver
DD
Danny Devine
IDS Championship driver
BR
Ben Rogers
IDS Competition driver
JM
Jake McIlveen
IDS Championship driver
Two ways in

The experience,
or the lesson.

Both options use the same car, the same track and the same seat time. The difference is in what you learn and do within a lesson.

The day out

NDA Drift Experience

Car, fuel, tyres & mentoring, all included

A proper first go at drifting, no experience needed. Get behind the wheel of a real drift car, ride shotgun with a driver who competes, and learn the basics: donuts, drifting a corner, and car control. You turn up never having done this and leave having actually drifted.

Best for a fun day out, or seeing if it's for you.
Book the Experience
Go further
Learn it properly

NDA Drift Lesson

Car, fuel, tyres & mentoring, all included

Where you actually learn to drift, tailored to your level. Total beginners welcome, it meets you where you are and takes you further than the basics, into real technique like transitions. A mentor grades you each time so you can see yourself improving and earn your way up the NDA Drift Licence. Go at your own pace, as far as you want to take it.

Best for anyone who wants more than a single corner, whether you're brand new or already handy behind the wheel.
Book a Lesson
What you do

What you actually do in a lesson.

Your first lesson is a full day at the track, not a quick go. Here is everything that is in it, from the moment you arrive to the licence card you take home.

  • Learn real car controlThrottle balance, handbrake, and holding angle through a full corner, all from the driver's seat
  • Two driving stintsWith a feedback session between them, so you fix mistakes and apply what you have learned
  • Demos and ride-alongsSee every technique done right before you try it yourself
  • A pro passenger rideTwo laps in a full-spec competition drift car
  • One-to-one mentoringFrom drivers who compete, paced entirely to you
  • Briefing and safety firstCar setup, safety, and the fundamentals before you turn a wheel
  • Your NDA Licence CardGraded proof of your level, and your way to keep progressing
  • Photos and videoUploaded to a private folder for you to keep and share
  • Everything providedHelmet, car, fuel, tyres. Just bring yourself
  • Warm HQ and refreshmentsTea, coffee, and somewhere warm all day
  • A spectator spot for you +1Watch the action all day. Extra guests are £10 on the gate

Lessons run on Sundays, alongside the Bishopscourt Diff & Drift Open Day, so there is grassroots and pro drifting going on all around you all day, with food stalls, car displays and paddock walks.

The cars

Drive custom-built BMW E46 drift cars.

Built for this and nothing else. Every car is set up exactly like the ones we compete in, so you learn in something calibrated.

  • Fibreglass body kitsLight and easily replaced
  • Steering angle kitsMore lock, more angle
  • Bucket seatsYou stay planted
  • CoiloversAdjustable suspension
  • Short shiftersQuick, positive shifts
  • Poly-bush adjustable armsGeometry dialled in
  • 220 bhp + custom exhaustBuilt, not bought
  • Lightweight modified chassisAgile and responsive

The geometry is set up by competitive drift drivers who know exactly what a good drift car should feel like.

Inside a National Drift Academy BMW E46 drift car, roll cage and bucket seatNational Drift Academy BMW E46 side profile, competition-spec wrap and wheels
Not a one-off

Claim the ranks to Pro.

Come back for more lessons to earn your way up to a Pro Vet's licence. Nobody has got there yet. Could you be the first ever?

  • £30 off every time you return
  • Graded on the day, promoted on your ability
  • A structured path into competitive drifting, as far as you want to take it
  • Or just learn the basics, no pressure
Earn my NDA licence
National Drift AcademyDriver Licence
Driver— your name —
GradePro 2
IssuedAug 2025
Next gradePro
Graded every lesson, promoted when you're ready · next up: Pro
Book

Book your lesson.

Choose your date, time and session below, and we'll see you very soon.

1 Choose your session
2 Pick a date
3 Pick a time

Don't see a date you like, or it's sold out?

Our lessons and events tend to book out, so grab a voucher for early access to the next dates. It covers your session when you book.

Grab a voucher
From the seat

Don't take our word for it.

★★★★★ 4.9 from real drivers
Bartlomiej Blosinski2 Jun
★★★★★

"This was my second time last weekend and must say, excellent. As someone looking into beginning the journey of competitive drifting, this is a great place to start. Team and instructors are calm and very friendly. They help to build confidence and skills. No limits, instead they push you forward. Overall 10/10. Will be back."

Edgars Grundmanis1 Jun
★★★★★

"Awesome experience! Guys definitely know what they're doing and explain it all very clearly. 100% recommend to everyone. I will definitely do it again."

Richard Vass1 Jun
★★★★★

"Absolutely brilliant, I love it and will be going back for stage 2 then 3."

Helen Nolan27 Oct 2025
★★★★★

"Just want to say my 13 year old son had the best day Saturday. You guys were fantastic and he loved every minute. Thank you so much, he will be back."

Ross Hendy25 Oct 2025
★★★★★

"Did a couple of hours this morning drifting, really enjoyed it with some great coaching. Sound lads, thanks again."

Barry McKeown22 Aug 2025
★★★★★

"Went for a drift session on the opening day and it was great craic. Good mentorship and plenty of time driving the car. A few laps of the track beside a pro is also fun."

The honest maths

Teach yourself, or learn it properly.

You can learn to drift on your own. People do. It costs more than you think, takes years longer than it needs to, and every mistake comes out of your own pocket.

On your own
Buy the car first. A rear-wheel-drive shell, then the angle kit, coilovers, bushes and seat to make it slide. You're building before you're driving.
Run it every session. Track fees, a tank of fuel, and a set of tyres gone every time you go out. Then the next set.
Fix what you break. Driveshafts, knuckles, clutches. Drift cars break, and yours breaks on your bill. A bad day can be a written-off shell and nothing to show for it.
Learn by guessing. Nobody in the seat telling you why the car snapped. Roughly ten times longer to reach the same point.
With NDA
The car is built and waiting. A real BMW E46, set up by drivers who compete, angle kit and coilovers already dialled. You just drive it.
One price, everything in it. Car, fuel, tyres and mentoring, all included. Burn through a set of tyres and it's already paid for.
Break it and keep driving. It's our car. If something lets go, we swap to the spare and you carry on. None of it lands on you.
A competition driver in the seat. Someone who raced last month, telling you exactly why the car moved. You get there about ten times faster.

The car costs you nothing to crash. The mistakes cost you nothing to make. The only thing you take home is knowing how to do it.

Book a session
Why this exists

Fifteen, an empty credit union, and a Subaru to flip.

At fifteen I drained the credit union and sold the one car I had, a Subaru. Every penny of it, plus my wages from the car wash I was working in, went towards one thing: my first drift car. Back then the only way into the sport was to build and run your own, and even as cheap as it was, it was still pretty inaccessible. I had no choice but to figure it all out myself.

Nobody handed me a mentor or a ready-built drift car. I learned the slow, expensive way. Breaking my own parts, fixing them on my own bill, working out why the car snapped with nobody in the seat to tell me. It took years longer than it needed to.

Fast forward to now, many breakages and timeouts later: I'm in the championship fight, and I built this academy so you don't have to start the way I did. The car, the mentor, the head start I never had, that's what you get on day one.

Start my drift journey
Not just for petrolheads

Make it a proper day out.

You don't need to know a thing about cars to enjoy the day. Half the people trackside are plus-ones, and they get plenty out of it: watching the lessons up close, and the BDD open drift day running right alongside, all day long. If one of them fancies a go, they can add a ride-along of their own. The rest is tea in hand under the gazebo, smoke drifting across the airfield, a proper day out for everyone.

Drivers and plus-ones gathered around the car between runs
The whole group celebrating together at the end of a drift day
A mentor talking a driver through it at the car window
A driver and his mentor after a session
Book the day outGift it instead
Where the line goes

Everyone on that grid started on their first donut.

Drift Masters. Formula Drift. The grids you watch on a screen, smoke off both rears, the grandstand on its feet. It looks like another planet. It isn't. Every driver out there once got the back to step out for the first time in their life. That is exactly where you start here.

Your first session is small donuts. Your mentor grades you, and the day you're ready, you move up. Drivers who took their first NDA lesson are already out on Irish Drift Series grids. Same island, same circuit, same first donut you'll do. The distance between your first slide and that grandstand is closer than it looks from the outside.

BeginnerRookieAmateurPro 2ProPro Vet→Drift Masters · Formula Drift
Take the first step
Beginner to Pro Vet · graded every lesson
Where it leads

From first lesson to first win.

Drivers who started on our small track, on slow donuts, with a mentor in the seat, now compete in the Irish Drift Series. Same beginning as anyone reading this. They'd never driven a car sideways either. Some won battles at their very first event.

01
Walked in a beginner
First session, first donuts, never been sideways.
02
Climbed the grades
Graded by a competition driver every step. Donuts to a full layout.
03
Won a battle in the IDS
On the grid in the Irish Drift Series, and took a win at their first event.
"Thank you to NDA. I had a few lessons with them and ended up winning my first ever competition drift battle."
NDA student
Book the session they started with
Gift vouchers · from £20

The gift they'll still be talking about.

Instant email delivery, redeemable against any session. Valid six months, with new dates released monthly. If the amount doesn't cover a full session, the balance stays on the card.

  • Delivered to the buyer's inbox in seconds
  • Personal message and the recipient's name on the card
  • Works on the Experience, the Lesson, or BYOC private mentoring
  • Six months to redeem from the day of purchase
  • From age 13. No licence needed.
Send as a gift
0/200
Email it now and it lands in their inbox the moment you order. Schedule a date times it for the day itself. Keep it a secret drops it in your cart to hand over yourself.
Gift
Voucher
£250
Valid 6 months
Any session
Before you book

The usual questions.

Do I need a driving licence?
No. From age 13, no licence, no experience needed. Under 18s just need a parent or guardian to sign them off. If you can sit in a seat and reach the pedals, you can drive.
I've never driven a car sideways in my life.
That's most people who book. You start on slow donuts and build from there, one step at a time, with a mentor in the car. By the end of the day you've drifted a corner. That gap is the whole point.
What will I actually be driving?
A real BMW E46 drift car, rear-wheel drive, set up by drivers who compete. Angle kit, coilovers, the lot. The same kind of car the mentors build for themselves, calibrated so it does what you ask.
How much actual seat time do I get?
You get two full driving stints behind the wheel, plus passenger ride-alongs so you feel it done right, all inside a two-hour slot with a competition driver mentoring you every run. Full-commitment drifting is intense, most people come off their first stint buzzing and ready to take more in before the next. It is more seat time than the runtime suggests.
What happens if it rains?
We run in the wet. The car moves around more, which most people enjoy more, and it's gentler on the tyres. Northern Irish weather doesn't stop a drift day.
Can I move my booking if something comes up?
Yes. You can reschedule for free up to 5 days before your date. Just message us before then and we'll move you to another date.
Where is it?
Bishopscourt Racing Circuit, Downpatrick, County Down. Northern Ireland's home of drifting. We run on the airfield right beside the circuit, with full pit and spectator facilities.
Is it safe?

Yes, it's safe. Here's why.

Drifting looks wild from the outside. Everything about how we run it is set up so a first-timer is never out of their depth: a car built for this, full safety gear, and a competition driver in the passenger seat for every run. We start easy and only step the speed up when you're ready. Every session since we opened has been incident-free.

  • Helmet and safety gearProvided for every driver
  • Cars built for itRoll bars, bucket seats, harnesses
  • A pro in the carA competition driver beside you, every run
  • We build up slowlySpeed rises only when you're ready
  • A closed circuitBishopscourt, never public roads
  • 100% incident-freeEvery session since we opened
What you'll actually learn

Drive the line.

Ten steps, from your first donut to a full competition layout. Scroll, and drive the car through every one.

Scroll to drive
Your seat£—