Yesterday we published the below video of a Toyota Camry driving recklessly at Main and Hastings, doing what we called "donuts".
The video was the subject of threads on driving message boards and it sparked a conversation in our newsroom about what donuts even are.
Many (most?!) of the people who commented on the post on on our Facebook Page thought that either we got it totally wrong and the person wasn't doing donuts, or that the person was doing really bad donuts which their grandmothers would be able to outdo.
Photo Facebook
Ashraf Siddiqui, a driving instructor at Vancouver Driving School, has seen the video.
As he tells me, donuts are "normally done at high speed" but yes, he believes those are technically donuts being performed in the video.
Horribly bad donuts, but donuts nonetheless.
Youtuber Angel Cruz explains that doing donuts is "very simple as long as you have the proper vehicle" (maybe not a Toyota Camry). He notes that you'll need a rear-wheel-drive vehicle with a standard transmission if you want to do them well.
Cruz sees donuts as involving drifting.
His method requires "dropping the clutch" and "counter steering", two things the driver of the Toyota Camry in the video we shared is clearly not doing. But he's still doing donuts.
I stand by our classification of the maneuver. I am doubling down, as it were! We will admit errors and bad judgement but in times like this, when the stakes are exceptionally high, I will dig my heels in.
These were donuts.
The person who was driving the car and was later arrested (allegedly Harpreet Gill, 37, of Surrey) is doing their best to lay down some rubber on the road.
These might be some of the best donuts you can perform in a front-wheel-drive Toyota Camry, in a tight intersection, while (allegedly) intoxicated. Hopefully we'll never know, as while we may disagree on whether these were donuts or simply "driving in circles", we can probably all agree that it was a bonehead decision to even attempt whatever the driver was going for.
Email me if you'd like us to publish an opposing opinion to mine. I'm at [email protected].
