Realistic Drifting

I was talking with my friends about how race cars slow down and try to exit a corner the fastest without losing grip and but someone suggested that a drifter can get around a hairpin turn faster than a racer (in the same car or class).

I was thinking that if a drifter slowed down less, got sideways and through the corner, they'd have to have more grip than the racer's car to exit the turn faster than the racer. Then again, I don't know enough about racing.

Could a drifter get through the tight corner faster than a racer? If so how and if not, why not?

In some rare cases a driver who's drifting can take a tight turn faster than a drive who's gripping.

You don't see much drifting in competitive racing, unless it's by accident, because it causes huge tire wear. And endurance is the name of the game to racing.

You can look cool as hell sliding around and making tire smoke, but if you can't finish the race cause of spent tires, you're worthless. So slowing down that extra bit goes along way finishing the race.

To be honest I see in most cases the person that is hooked up the entire time is going to usually get around faster. The drifter may be able to come into the corner faster but as the tires are breaking loose he is going to be gradually slowing down the entire way around that turn. Someone who is hooked up to the pavement the entire time will quick slow down, and then soon after will be accelerating out of the turn while the person drifiting is stuck with spinning tires and is just strating to be able to accelerate after they are almost completely out of the turn giving them a much later time to start acceleration. And as Red said, you would either end up crashing or burning up your tires to quick to keep that up for a whole entire race.

What advantage would a drifter need to get around the corner faster over a race car driver?

A car not set up for drifting.

Drifting, 99% of the time, results in a slower lap time.

That 1% of the time it's faster is when you come up to a extreme hairpin, it's possible to go faster sliding a bit (a bit) than to grip it.

The fastest way through a corner is by using 100% of the tires traction. Using any more than that will cause the tires to slide, and that loss of traction leads to loss of speed, or worse. That is why you will never see professional race car drivers drifting even in a short sprint race where tire wear is not as much of a factor. The only time I have seen drifting on tarmac outside of drifting competitions is in rally racing. On a very sharp hairpin turn the driver will have the car's back end slide out, just a bit to get the car pointed in the right direction.

"I drift not because it is a quicker way around a corner, but it is the most exciting way" - Keiichi Tsuchiya

The fastest way through a corner is by using 100% of the tires traction. Using any more than that will cause the tires to slide, and that loss of traction leads to loss of speed, or worse. That is why you will never see professional race car drivers drifting even in a short sprint race where tire wear is not as much of a factor. The only time I have seen drifting on tarmac outside of drifting competitions is in rally racing. On a very sharp hairpin turn the driver will have the car's back end slide out, just a bit to get the car pointed in the right direction.

"I drift not because it is a quicker way around a corner, but it is the most exciting way" - Keiichi Tsuchiya


:lol: Didn't I just say that?

Drifting, 99% of the time, results in a slower lap time.

That 1% of the time it's faster is when you come up to a extreme hairpin, it's possible to go faster sliding a bit (a bit) than to grip it.

:lol: Didn't I just say that?

I know, I was just refering to what I've seen done in rally racing, just being specific.

I just noticed redneck changed his name.

Go watch a late model in action or sprint car to go the FASTEST in a dirt track you drift but you try to keep it as minimal as possible and gettin th car hicked up to 3 wheel is even faster yet. if you have never seen a car 3 wheel go to youtube.com and just type in dirt late model and start watching great action.

In oval racing drifting is not a good way to drive. However I remember that a proper four wheel drift use to be the prefered method of going through a turn in formula one racing.

I'm not talking about those silly car sliding all over the place drifts but a tightly controled drift that lets you keep your F1 car in a higher gear so you can come out of a turn without even having to shift back up. But theses types of drifts are totally controlled in which you keep the car on the edge of losing traction but not breaking away so you don't lose speed because you quite often can get around a curve using a good drift without changing gears.

This might have changed as of late because I admit I am a few years out of date not being up on racing for at least 10 years.