Drifting Techniques

can anybody explain drfting techniques, as in what to do to make a good drift, like stepping off-throttle to make the back swing around etc...

Copied this from my post in the other thread.

E Brake - This is simply using the E-brake to lock up the rear wheels. It scrubs speed quickly, and isn't that good a technique to use. Of course, nearly all cars have a parking/emergency brake, and it's right there, making this one of the easiest techniques.

Braking Drift - This technique is more advanced, and relies on weight transfer. You continue braking for a short time after you turn into the corner, which loads up the front wheels with lots of weight, causing the rear tires to exceed their traction threshhold through inertia. This drift can be continued by overpowering the rear tires, or by skillful management of the cars inertia through left foot braking. This is most useful in medium and high speed corners, where you have lots of inertia to work with.

Power Oversteer - Pretty simple, using the power of a rear wheel drive, or heavy rear biased all wheel drive car to overpower the rear tires, exceeding their longitudinal traction, which makes their lateral traction threshhold very low. This is useful in low speed corners, where you can't rely on inertia alone to drift the car.

Clutch Kick - This is a technique very similar to power oversteer, it involves disengaging the clutch, building higher RPMs, and dropping the clutch to send an extra jolt of power to the rear tires. This actually has a twofold effect, not only does it overpower the rear tires, but the sudden lifting of the throttle results in less weight transfer to the rear wheels.

Throttle Off - Also known as Kansei drifting in Japan, this is an age old technique for cars with a fairly neutral suspension balance. Lifting the throttle mostly or completely during cornering causes the weight that was on the rear wheels from acceleration to transfer to the front wheels, resulting in a high speed drift of a slight angle, making higher cornering speed possible in some corners. This is very effective when combined with heavy braking to transfer weight to the front wheels. If you watch Rally racing on pavement, this form of drifting is fairly common. This is also the form of drifting used in the anime series Initial D

There is also a technique called "Shift Lock", but I'm not too familiar on it, so I can't comment.

Here's a great video which shows these techniques... That old Japanese guy is Keiichi Tsuchiya, the Drift King :biggrin:

I can't believe I forgot feinting! The idea behind feinting is you steer away from the corner, just before turning in. This loads weight onto the inside pair of wheels, and when turning sharply into the corner, the spring unload much of that energy to the outside pair of wheels, giving them a little more traction, and a fair bit more inertia to overcome that traction.

http://members.rennlist.com/sbcspeed/super%20drift%20techniques.mpeg

yes that is a very useful manuver.

if you know your going to slide through a corner I always do that right before I give it some power and get some oversteer... god I love that feeling lol.


Cbass from other areas of AF I hear your quite a knowledgable guy, nice meeting you and hopefully you stick around the drift forum!

:cool:

Shift lock is a technique that involves letting the engines RPM fall in between a downshift, then quickly releasing the clutch. The engines inertia will rapidly slow, or completely lock up the tires, inducing a drift.

damn, CBass, ya beat me to it.

jk man, good to see you around again. haven't talked to ya in a while. :icon16:

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).

another good site i found

http://www.driftclub.com/driftdiagrams.htm

Originally posted by SR20DETpower

Cbass from other areas of AF I hear your quite a knowledgable guy, nice meeting you and hopefully you stick around the drift forum!

:cool:

Thanks, that's the rumour :sunglasse

It's good to be back, and even better to be Canadian, eh Iketani? :lol:

http://members.rennlist.com/sbcspeed/Caw-leaf.gif

It is indeed, good to be Canadian.

Originally posted by Cbass


Thanks, that's the rumour :sunglasse

It's good to be back, and even better to be Canadian, eh Iketani? :lol:

http://members.rennlist.com/sbcspeed/Caw-leaf.gif

damn straight, homie.

should make this thread a stickie:wink:

Originally posted by BLU CIVIC
should make this thread a stickie:wink:

No...you cant learn drifting from the Internet

You know...I didn't read ALL of this and all...buuuuttttt....did you guys leave out Chokudori?.....If you did, I will e-slap you......And you..AND YOU....:biggrin2:

I dont know but before you try to perform all these drifting techniques... look first at the way you drive. Master Heel-toe shift... its a must when entering/exiting a corner. Make sure your suspension is set up for handling and also make sure your wallet is ok with the extra set of tires and clutches your going to be burning trying to get better at doing this:biggrin:
After that... practing somewhere where the road is wet, per se a parking lot after its rained. This will let you get an idea of how drifting works and also how to control the car when drifting/sliding. :smile:

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).

This is the technique that I use, albeit for a rear engined, rwd car (IOW, not a neutral balanced car). Only problem is, one has to take the inside line while approaching the corner, swerve to the outside and steer in again so as to effectivley start the corner "sooner" (because with this technique the drift tends to set in late, at least with my car).