Tafheet

Tafheet (Arabic: تفحيط), or popularly hajwalah (هجولة),^[a] (colloquially known as Arab drifting or Saudi drifting), is a type of street racing-like subculture believed to have started in the late 1970s in Saudi Arabia, that involves driving cars that are generally non-modified or factory-setup (sometimes stolen or rented cars) at very high speeds, around 160–260 km/h (100–160 mph), across wide highways throwing the car left and right to mimic the appearance of drifting. In the process, drivers often drive dangerously close to traffic, barriers, and spectators watching from the roadsides without any protection.^[1][2][3][4]

Tafheet driver practice and events are generally seen on the wide sectioned highways of Riyadh, Al-Qassim Province and, less notably, in other parts of Saudi Arabia.^[5] In the United Arab Emirates, tafheet are commonly seen on the highways of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, which also feature long straightaways.

Apart from the risk involved for the drivers, the spectators are also at a high risk of injury or possible death. Unfortunately, sometimes the drivers would lose control of their vehicle and drive into other road users or the spectators.^[6]

The technique differs from high-speed cornering on tracks as cars drift sideways at high speed and recover with opposite lock. Tafheet practice and events occur with little or no concern for vehicle occupants, other drivers, or spectator safety, and as a result there often are fatal accidents.^[1]

Culture

Some of the more popular tafheet maneuvers include:

• Akheyat: turning the car 180 degrees from side to another completing a full 360 by starting from the right to the left or opposite
• Harakat Al-Mawt (Death movements): power slides where one must keep the car going on forward in a straight line until the car stops by itself without fixing the steer or going off track
• Sefty: spinning the car a full 360 degrees starting from any side and then spinning the opposite side of the first 360 with a short power slide between
• Ta'geed: spinning the car a full 360 degrees while driving either straight or sideways more than once
• Tanteel: repeatedly creating a power slide and steering it back with opposite lock at high speed 160–260 km/h (100–160 mph), starting with 4 or more power slides and usually concluded with Ta'geed, Sefty, or Axeyat. It is also considered the main maneuver.
• Tatweef: passing another vehicle, truck, or more going sideways at very high speed up to 160 km/h (100 mph) on a public highway no matter how busy the traffic is

The cars are generally stock mid-size or entry-level luxury sedans, such as the Toyota Camry, Kia Optima, Chevrolet Cruze, Kia Cadenza, Honda Accord, etc., minimizing personal cost and repair liability.^[4] While there have been instances involving high-end vehicles such as Ferraris and Nissan GT-Rs, these are relatively less common compared to joyriders stealing sedans or compact cars for the purpose of drifting, abandoning them after an event.^[3]

SUVs and pickup trucks, most notably the Toyota Land Cruiser family (both the modern and classic variants), are sometimes used for this purpose.

Sociologists and criminologists in the region cite what is locally known as "tufush", roughly translating to idleness or desperation, indicating "the lack of recreational activities that might interest them", hence why many young Saudis turn to the extreme underground sport despite both safety risks and law enforcement reprisals.^[7]

Response

Often, reports about high-speed drifting from concerned citizens demanding arrest are submitted because of the risk to public safety. Drifters are rarely caught as tafheet events are organised using illegal spotters; if they were, investigations often prove fruitless. Occasionally, police attempt to intercept them but are chased away by both them and spectators. When drifting activities were at its peak, Saudi Arabia had one of the highest traffic accident death tolls in the world.^[8]

In March 2014, Ahmad Shtewi Al-Ruwaili (born 1992), nicknamed "King Al-Nazeem", was sentenced to ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes for a series of drifting and firearms offenses in Riyadh and Al-Qassim Province.^[9] He died on 23 September 2016, aged 23, when his car spun off and flipped over while drifting on a highway.^[10]

To combat this, academies and leagues have since been established by professional racers in the region in an effort to mitigate illegal street drifting incidents and to educate youths against the dangers of such activities, encouraging them instead to participate in officially sanctioned events.^[7]

With the Saudi government eager to end this life-endangering activity, the police needed to come up with a prompt solution. Speed limit cameras and GPS tracking systems began to roll out nationwide to ease apprehending the street drifters and enforcing stricter sanctions on reckless driving, among several measures taken by Saudi Arabia.^[11]

See also

• Street racing
• Boy racer
• Hoon
• Mat Rempit
• Ah Beng
• Touge

Notes

1. Also spelled Hagwalah or Hagwallah.