I just finished watching a round of the Australian drift championship where a fairly well known (here in Australia) race driver, Rick Bates, entered for his first drift event in a 2005 STI. The 2005 STI we get here is a 2L (2006 is 2.5) and it was prepared for drifting. The guys in the championship are supposed to be the best in Australia, but from what I have seen they aren't up to the standard of the top Japanese drifters.

Anyway Rick Bates finished 2nd which I think is very good for his first event. The STI also seemed to have noticably less power than the others.

I don't know much about how drifting is scored but I actually thought Rick Bates should have won the final race (or whatever it is called in drifting), he managed to keep a smooth controlled slide going through most of the circuit and actually matched the attitude of the winner through a lot of it while he was following and when he was leading the eventual winner understeered twice, once causing him to leave the track on the final corner.

Anyway There have been a few debates about what is better, who would make the best driver and could a race driver make a good drifter so I thought this was interesting. Also interesting for this forum because while it was not an Evo it was a similar car and the Evo's competitor.

Aston

 

AWD drift cars are ultimately better than 2WD cars. It does take a good amount of HP but if you have the power to spin all 4 wheels it third gear (lets say) you can drift at a speed and angle that no RWD car or driver can match. RWD cars can do about 60 degrees of angle, an AWD car can go beyond 90 degrees and still recover .

In D1 and Formula D AWD is banned because it's such an advantage...

 

Heh, wasn't one of the Japanese drifting drivers quoted as saying that drifting in an Evo 8 would "be like cheating" ...

l8r)

 

Jun evo in a big drift...

http://www.exvitermini.com/movies/junevo0.mpg

 

http://www.exvitermini.com/movies/junevo2.mpg

 

Great example, that's at the German Tuner Shootout a few years ago. You could see how he could just turn in to get more angle while staying on the throttle

 

Well they need a seperate AWD class. Maybe we could team up with the Scooby forums and influence that?

 

u know i think that would be a good idea. i love to watch drifting, and if they had evo and sti's doing it i would actually follow drifting. that would be awesome.

 

Yeah I know with big power or low grip surfaces AWD can get some dig drifts (the rally drivers do on some corners) but from what I could see this STI was not too far above standard power. He got a chirp off the line but then it looked like he had to get the car unsettled (it looked like with the handbrake) before it would wheelspin and then it would regain grip fairly quickly and try to pull itself straight. With big HP in an AWD the good drivers can unsettle the car into the corner (handbrake probably) and then get on the power and keep the wheels spinning and slide going for a long time.

I wasn't meaning the AWD was bad or even ultimately any worse than RWD, just that an STI (and the Evo) with close to standard power is known to be hard to drift at big angles for long periods, from everything I have heard and read anyway, mostly because they have too much grip vs power.

Aston

 

Don't need the handbrake, just the Scandinavian flick...

 

The power just helps the driver drift in all situations, you can drift them stock but it take a good amount of momentum to keep it going and finish it cleanly. The problem the Sti may have had is that the 2wd cars drifted slower so if he had to do tandems with the 2wd cars he would be forced to drive at a speed that was to slow to maintain the drift (make sense?).

I have talked with the people about running an EVO vs. STi Demo at the Formula D events, it still may happen

 

AWD Drift Class would PWN all. Formula D should do it!

 

AWD class would be cool ... but IMO the biggest problem with Formula D right now is that the races are waaaaay too short. I watched them when they came to Chicago, and I was like WTF?!? 20-30 seconds per run??? That's it??? They need to setup longer runs (maybe a couple of laps around a figure 8 track, or something. The demo that Tarzan did was waay better than all the races combined.

l8r)

 

I have to admit that I don't have much experience with drifting AWD cars but I have driven (raced actually) a standard Evo on dirt and even on the dirt, which has a lot less grip than bitumen, getting on the power when it was sideways would pull it straight, instead of continuing the slide like it would in a RWD, because the front wheels woud grip. It would take more power even on the dirt to keep the wheels spining and the slide going. I realise that an AWD car can get into a slide using momentum but eventually the momentum will run out and then you need to be back on the power, and that's when it is difficult for a lower power AWD. The momentum will also usually be across the corner, which is fine up to the apex but once you get there you need to change the direction a bit and start to travel slightly forward to exit the corner and that is when the driver has to get back on the power to give a little bit of forward momentum.

It was more difficult for the guy I was talking about when he was behind just like you said, but he was also in front and even then it looked like it was harder for him to hold the slides for as long as the RWD cars because the STI looked like it wanted to straighten up, even when he had no opposite lock on (4 wheel drift ).

He did use the Scandinavian flick but mostly in combination with the handbrake because there is a lot of grip for an AWD on bitumen and it looked like the flick itself didn't unsettle the car enough to get the angle that he needed into the corner.

 

Sorry guys that car is RWD. I've read about it and i have vids of it. If i knew how to post vids i would...