drifting isnt about speed..it's all about looks..unless u're in a rally .there are no "races" that require drifting on actual solid pavement...unless u wanna go initial D style lol.

 

Okay...Watch this video....

http://www.superford.org/registry/ve...ottodrift.mpeg


Now make shure you think about where to drift....me I am going to do it in a parking lot with cones...like a big *** parking lot...when the ground is wet.

 

this is the only comment that makes any sense on this thread. the rest of it is garbage. i was able to do some "drifting" at some SCCA autocrosses i went to, but they werent terribly useful except for one section which was basically a u-turn (i didnt catch it on video). here is one video where i *kind of* started drifting.. its about a minute in.

http://www.odyss3y.net/albums/album22/round2_run3.avi

 

wtf is drifting?

 

its where u turn the wheel as hard as you can and press the gas and brake at the same time so that the car spins in figure 8s around a turn and u go really fast.. sort of.

 

Actually, I worked crowd control on the tarmac stage in the Rim of the World Rally this year, and most of them did drift on the tarmac. Not totally sideways like you see in the dirt, but they were still sliding gracefully around the turns, especially around the hairpin. The reason people don't notice it as much on tarmac is because no dirt gets kicked up.

My personal experience is that drifting is very useful in autocross, if you use it right. Look up the word oversteer, and you will find that it goes hand-in-hand with drifting. Oversteer is desired in autocross, but not too much because that will make you spin out (been there, done that )

I only know from reading that drifting is used slightly on road course racing, but once again not nearly as much as on the rallies in the dirt.

And finally, the technique for drifting depends on the car's drive train. rwd vehicles punch the gas to break the rear tires loose. On the other hand, fwd cars put the car on the edge of breaking traction, then let off the gas abruptly and then back on the gas. I have no idea how to drift in an awd car, though. Anybody here know?

 

Ok, I realized I should post my logic for the benefits of drifting. When a driver gets into a drift, he'she is making the car slide sideways, which means the car is pointed in the direction it is turning towards. This means that the car will be pointed in the final direction before it actually starts moving in that exact direction, so the driver can pull out of the drift and the car will suddenly and quickly accelerate in the desired direction. Getting a car into a drift is one thing, but being able to pull out of it at the precise moment needed to make it a quick turn as opposed to a spin or crash, that's another.

 

Just to step in a voice an opinion: Drifting is quite dangerous to those who do not know how to do it just right. I've had mulitple friends/family/aquantinces roll their vehicles trying to be a 'good driver' and drift.

 

Stock AWD's have a tendancy to drive more like a FWD than a RWD. So FWD techniques can be used to get the drift to start. Changing the sway bars can change an AWD car's tendancies and can actually make it behave like a RWD.

 

I was screwing around while driving on a road course a few weeks ago, trying to get a feel for the Evo and I found that a quick off throttle then back on at turn-in was enough to get the car to rotate and slide through the corner in a very controllable manner. (This also works in RWD cars, but you have to be more careful!) Not as extreme an angle as "true" drifting, but still fun although hard on the tires and not the quickest way around the track, and those damn Advans make a hell of a racket when sliding! Normally you never want the car to make a drift angle greater than the slip angle at which your tires make maximum grip (probably about 5-10 degrees or so on radial tires on asphalt depending on tire compound and construction). Any more and the grip will start to fall off, and if you neglect vehicle size the fastest line around a race course will always be at the friction peak of your tires or the horsepower limit of your car at all times. Older bias-ply tires peak at higher slip angles (watch 60's grand prix racing to see some "drifting")

I think the only exception is very tight turns such as autocrossing or a hairpin where you can't rotate the car fast enough by 'driving it' around, so that doing some sort of sliding turn (e.g., handbrake or pendulum) will be faster overall even though the instantaneous grip will be less.

I'm not as familiar with the physics of driving on dirt/snow and it's much harder to get good tire moment data for loose surfaces (most of the tire testing machines just use hard rollers), but the wider slip angles on dirt plus the effects of the tires "throwing" dirt when under power means that you get the most cornering grip at a much higher drift angle with four tires churning away, hence the sideways style of driving in rally.

 

Thank you. Anybody who wants to learn drifting should do it in an empty parking lot, and take an experienced drifter along. I was in a friends car a few days ago and he started to drift (he was driving fast for fun), but he tried to pull out of the drift by steering the other direction and letting off the gas. The result is the car fish-tailing back and fourth violently. That's how people roll their cars when drifting, making abrubt adjustments. Once again, thanks for that comment, Satrona.

Also some other good points after Satrona. I guess rallies have more drifting because the tires have little grip on the dirt. Now I'm starting to leanr something.

 

I would suggest ANYONE interested in Drifting should:
1) use a beater car to learn, because you will **** up your car going sideways one way or another.
2) do it only at a track or lot where the appropriate safety precautions are taken in order to ensure your and others safety
3) contact Club 4AG and hang out with them if your serious about learning.

 

whoever said drifting can only be down with FR cars have no idea what they talking about....

any cars of any layouts can drift... only with different methods and they have different pros and cons...

some people mentioned about e-brake... and yes it works for all layouts also is easilest, safest.... and the SLOWEST....

and also.. drifting is not any slower than gripping...
if is a long and mild corner gripping is good, but if is sharp 90 degree turn or some consective corners... drifting is way faster than gripping... so smoother and longer curves, gripping is faster, but a shape and short turn like those U-shape or 90 degree hard curves in JAP or HK, drifting is always fastest.

somethings are most know for all kinds of cars to drift..
- best racing lines always give you highest speed through the corner no matter is a drift or just normal brake gripping
- unleast u know how or else don't try to do some advanced driftings like counter-drift (or whatever is called in english.. I will explain it below)
- is not important to have a high speed go through the corner, is more important to exit the corner so you can have a eariler speed up cuz u can't speed up while u drifting
- FR cars = easilest to drift and kills u fastest
- FF cars = hardest to drift but more stable
- AWD cars = best of all

and someone asked how to drift a AWD car... just to let you know... AWD cars are best to drift with no matter what kind of ground... if you know how then is possible. They are not faster than FR cars with drifts (assuming both car's driver knows what they doing and doing it right) but they are more stable and easiler to correct their traction if you mess up.

with AWD cars like Evo and STI (most common AWD cars uses to drift) speed up before the curve... down shift then step on the brake hard and cut the curve at the same time, when u line up with the exit direction of the curve (or when u feel ur car loss enough traction... for the pros.. ) counter-steel and push the gas mildy, (if u have a prefect raceline just floor the gas when u hit about 1/3 of a car space before the center point of the curve and you should be drifting along the curve and exit the curve smoothy) <-- if properly done... according to my own experience and the "OUT-IN-OUT" theory.. you should be about 3 car spaces ahead of another car who gripped that curve


and for counter-drifting or whatever is called in english... it is an advanced skills for seasoned drifters to exit the curve even faster to get a eariler straight line speed up (since u can't speed up while drifting). following the OUT-IN-OUT theory, when u perform a drift (let say is a right turn) you should be at the left lane then cut in the curve and when u exit the curve ur car should already slided to the left lane.. but for counter-drift, you keep right lane before u enter the curve, cut left and right after that, you right back right (into the curve) to allow a heavy force transfer and swings ur car into a sloper angle when u start to drift, since u entered the curve in a sloper angle, you will be able to see the point where u can do a straight line acceleration about 1 second eariler....


after all those bullsh*t I said above... let me sum it up.. all cars can drift, if u know how, gripping and drifting have their pros and cons and each of them are faster than the other depending on the curve... learning to drift is a good thing cuz is a GREAT SPORT (to me atleast), and also can get u kill very easily...
and most important.. you don't become a pro if u can drift fast, only if you drift safest but also able to go through the whole curve in shortest about of time which must have best racing line, fastest and earilest straight line acceleration. cuz if you don't have it safely... a miniual will be put in 5k-10k to fix the whole side of ur car's body and bumper, the max will be losing ur life.

my advice is learn drifting on a track with all kinds of "OLD" car...
once u knew which layout works best for you.. then foucs on it..
don't be like me... learn to drift with a STI.. cuz is a bad idea..
unleast you can afford crashing a such great car.. (is not a Evo 5/6/TME.. but is a A-Class car lol)

and yes i know my name is mis-spelled and my post also has alot of grammer problems... I know my english is bad, no need to say more

 

i drift my car all the time. on and off road. drifting can be defined as a powerslide to the ignorant, but we all know that in order to be a drift, your current slip angle must be sideways before the apex of a corner, not just after you enter the turn and mash the gas. i rarely use my sidebrake, i use trail braking and weight shift and a technique called "power over" and "shift lock". Power over is where you basically man-handle the car and stand on the gas through the turn; which is what most evo's have to do since it's 4wd, and you have to be really aggressive to drift them. Shift lock is where you downshift to the highest gear that's safe, say from low 4th to second, sending weight surging to the front. combine that with a feint turn-in, the car will step out quite nicely.

 

you know what drifting really is???

it's tons of fun till you slam into a telephone poll