Ok, I have watched all of the videos in that Drift showoff thread, but I would like to know some of the basics involved in drifting.

I know that drifting is getting your car to 'slide' through a turn with the wheels pointed the opposite way....but how is it done?

Do you have to have a RWD car? Does anyone here compete in these? How and where did you learn?

 

RWD is the key, FWD you have to use the parking brake... and that's kinda silly.

When you approach so a right hand turn, instead of going right go tot he left towards the outside of the turn, then at the last second whip it right... now you're sliding, try to control it. Lots of practice.

 

A friend translated some of Keichi "Drift King" Tsuchiya's comments during a Hot Version vdo and he's quoted as saying: "one must know how to drive the car in control before one drives the car out of control." In another vdo he is also quoted as saying that "to drift you have to steer the car with the gas pedal and not the steering wheel."

 

Two *great* points!

ONce you can drive your car in control and control skids and such, go practice drifting in the dirt, in a field or something before taking it to pavement.

 

Or better yet, buy a cheapie go-kart and learn to drift...

Paul

 

Good point, before I ever was driving a car I could control a skid (drift) in a go cart, and before that on my big wheel.

 

If I could remember someone post a good vid of FWD drift. It's an EF hatch and basically he went every details from gas control, brakes, shiftpoint, engine, suspension set-up, and how to attack the corners by drifting with FWD. It's a pretty cool vid.

 

It was me. I dont have the video anymore though.

option2 #31 FF tuning



[Modified by scott_k, 11:40 AM 4/3/2003]

 

What if it's a gumtape death match?

Paul

 

I've been told that you are suppose to pop the clutch in order to get the tires to break loose. What exactly is this? Do you just rev and dump when entering the turn, or do the tires break loose when you disengage the clutch, and stop sending power to the wheels?

 

Yes! That vid you posted is very informative.

 

bizzump, cuz id like some info for snow drifting how do you drift without tha ebrake???
OT but WOOT WOOT for using the search and not makin a new thread

 

http://www.drifting.com

 

Race Drift
This is performed at race speeds, when entering a high speed corner a driver lifts his foot off the throttle to induce a mild over steer and then balances the drift through steering and throttle motions. (note: the car that is being used for this style of drift should be a neutral balanced car therefore the over steer will induce itself, if the car plows through any turn this technique will not work).

Braking Drift
This is performed by trail braking into a corner, then loss of grip is obtained and then balance through steering and throttle motions. (note: this is mainly for medium to low speed corners).

Faint Drift
This is performed by rocking the car towards the outside of a turn and then using the rebound of grip to throw the car into the normal cornering direction. (note this is heavy rally racing technique used to change vehicle attitudes during cornering, mainly tight mountain corners).

Clutch Kick
This is performed by depressing the clutch pedal on approach or during a mild drift to give a sudden jolt through the driveline to upset rear traction.

Shift Lock
This is performed by letting the revs drop on downshift into a corner and then releasing the clutch to put stress on the driveline to slow the rear tires inducing over steer. (this is like pulling the E-brake through a turn - note this should be performed in the wet to minimize damage to the driveline etc.)

Emergency Brake Drift
This technique is very basic, pull the E-Brake or (side brake) to induce rear traction loss and balance drift through steering and throttle play. (note: this can also be used to correct errors or fine tune drift angles).

Dirt Drop Drift
This is performed by dropping the rear tires off the road into the dirt to maintain or gain drift angle without losing power or speed and to set up for the next turn. (note this technique is very useful for low horsepower cars).

Jump Drift
In this technique the rear tire on the inside of a turn or apex is bounced over a curb to lose traction resulting in over steer.

Long Slide Drift
This is done by pulling the E-brake through a strait to start a high angel drift and to hold this to set up for the turn ahead. (note: this can only be done at high speed).

Swaying Drift
This is a slow side-to-side faint like drift where the rear end sways back and forth down a strait.

FF Drift (Front Wheel Drive Drift)
The E-brake as well as steering and braking techniques must be used to balance the car through a corner. (note: the E-brake is the main technique used to balance the drift).

Power Over
This performed when entering a corner and using full throttle to produce heavy oversteer (tail slide) through the turn. (note: needs horsepower to make this happen).

this is all from http://cardrift.com

 

I'm very fond of the clutch kick, I mainly use that when entering a turn. Its pretty easy and I mostly practice at lower speeds.
When entering a turn, press the clutch down, let the revs come up enough to break the tires loose, then release the clutch. (I try not to "pop" it cuz I don't what to be that hard on my clutch.) and rev as u need to control the rear end.
I've learned the lesson in revving too much and releasing the clutch, I ended up kissing a guardrail, not fun, but now I know.
I'm no pro, but still having fun with practice.

 

if you decide to try it just becareful and go to a empy parking lot, and bring an extra set of underoos

 

To any of you up north, you can always practice in neighborhoods after it snows....the banks on the side make it like bumper bowling

 

my friend recorded me trying to "power slide" but i lost control and did a small tail whip (?) and almost hit an astrovan, do it in a EMPTY LOT!!!!!!!!! and buy some blackies cuz you will wear out ur good tires like nothing.

but what i did was, i approached a corner going about 20-25 and stayed in 2nd gear and NEVER used the brake. when you get to the corner (left turn), stay in the left lane and try to keep your speed and turn, pull ebrake till you hear teh tires skid, once you start to turn, let teh brake go or else you will lose control.....

thats waht i did in a neighborhood street at 10pm, we had it on video, but my friend recordered over it... GL

 

i didnt read everything else because i just want to reply... if you want to 'learn' how to drift, i think most people would agree you should learn to do it properly at first so that you wont have to re-learn it later. there is not need to whip the car into the turn, thats a lackluster, and pointless way to drift - purely for show, and it doesnt even look that good.

learn grip driving first. learn how to take the correct line through the corner and keep going faster and faster until you are pushing the limits of your tires throughout the entire turn. once you exceed the threshold of grip for the tires, you will do what it known as four wheel drifting - all four wheels will have lost traction and the car is moving from momentum in whatever direction it was before traction was lost. now, this is not drifting per say, its basically just what happens when you take a corner too fast. in itself, this would be a pointless manuever which would just result in loss of speed during the turn and **** up your line. if used in the proper manner though, you can effectively enter the turn at a higher speed than normal and still exit at the same speed you would if grip driving, thus passing through the corner in a shorter period of time.

enter the corner eariler than normal, and faster than normal to get it into the four wheel drift. make sure you aim the momentum of the car on the line you wish to take towards the apex. obviouslty, its common knowledge that if you are sliding (drifting), you are gong to lose speed. well, common sense also tells us that when you are sliding down the road you are losing speed, so eventually the tires are going to start to grip again and thrust you into whatever direction they are pointing. this is where you must learn to control your car with the accelerator. since you entered the corner without traction, it will be fairly easy to keep the loss of traction with the drive wheels as long as throttle application is increased. they key to doing this the right way is to keep the drive wheels spinning once the front tires have started to grip again. if you did not do this then all four tires will grip and you will get thrown off the ideal line. this is what most people would call drifting - loss of traction in the rear wheels, counter steer in the front, and precise throttle control.

how can this be used to get through the corner faster? you should time your intial four wheel drift so that you will be at the right speed for your front tires to begin to grip again so that you can control the drift with the throttle at about the apex point of the turn. this way, you will have cleared the first half of the corner at a faster speed than grip driving would allow. at the apex you will either be at 1) the same speed you would be if grip driving (if done correctly) 2) a higher speed then what would be ideal, or 3) too slow of a speed to exit effeciently.

---1) this situation is what would be text book perfect, enter the corner at a high speed, slide through the first half, catch the front wheels at the apex, control the slide until the exit of the turn, and have full grip at the point when your weight is fully stabilized (the exit/straightway). this way, you will have cleared the first half of the corner faster than grip driving, and the second half at the same speed.

---2) this situation is not as bad as it sounds. you can use the brakes in conjunction with the accelerator to effectively reduce your speed and regain traction in the front but keep loss of it in the rear still. you just need to learn how to brake just enough to catch the grip in the front and still apply enough throttle to keep the rear loose. if done correctly, you can fix your speed in the middle of the turn and still have a nice exit.

---3) this is the shittiest of situations. going too slow means that your tires are going to grip too early, and you wont have enough momentum to slide the car all the way through. you will catch grip at the wrong point, bog down, and **** up the whole turn.

basically, if you learn how to drift this way, you will understand your car and how it responds more accuratly than if you just start throwing it into turns. that kind of drift is only for show and wont help you in any sort of 'racing' situation but i can see how it is still fun. i just think that if you learn the proper, more fluid way in the begining, you will be able to control those other drifts more accuratly. i dont know if any of this made any sense, but i do know im hungry as **** therefore i cannot elaborate or proofread until my stomach is satisfied...