What is Drifting?
Drifting is a competitive driving technique that over time has emerged as a sport in its own right. Requiring a high level of skill on the part of the driver, drifting is often employed in high speed competitions around the world, including the D1 Grand Prix in Japan. The basic result of drifting is to maneuver the vehicle so that the front slip angle of the car is less than the rear slip angle. This requires that the front wheels of the car will be intentionally pointed in the opposite direction of the turn of the vehicle. Drifting has been part of the professional racing sport for a number of years, commonly employed in such motorsport competitions as rally racing, dirt track racing, and national competitions such as the Grand Prix. Drifting is a procedure that can be advantageous in many situations. A competent professional driver may use drifting to gain an advantage on a turn, as well as turn the car sideways in a manner that can prevent another vehicle from being able to make a d
In simple terms, drifting is the art of throwing a car into a slide and controlling it through throttle and steering inputs to maintain/adjust the slide. In Detail: Drivers begin a drift as they approach a corner by first initiating the drift (breaking rear-wheel traction and sending the car sideways), then giving the steering wheel opposite lock (counter steering) and gas. The car is then said to be ‘in drift’ and will continue to go in the direction that the front wheels are pointed while gas is given. Drivers can then ‘transition’ the car through steering inputs to change the direction the car is traveling. Drift courses usually require the driver to transition once or more. In Competition: In solo competition, drivers compete on closed courses to see who is the most sideways (angle), who holds the highest speed while drifting and entering the drift (speed), who can follow a proper racing line the closest (line), and who has the most overall impact (style/excitement). At higher leve
Basically, drifting is getting your car sideways down a road. It doesn’t sound very hard does it? Sounds a lot like power sliding huh? Well it isn’t. It is much more complex, but it is not hard to learn it. Instead of a drifter causing a drift and then counter-steer to straighten out, he will instead over-counter so his car goes into another drift. That is the reason many drifters do it in the mountains, because there are many sharp turns put together in sequences. So in essence a good drifter has the ability to take five or six opposing turns without having traction at any point in time. Sometimes the coolest drifts (in my opinion) happens at long U-turns, when the car will completely go sideways throughout the turn and straighten-out at the end. HOW IS IT DONE? There are two ways to start a drift. The first is the clutching technique. When approaching a turn the driver will push in the clutch and shift his car into second gear. Then rev the engine up to around 4000-5000 rpm (it all d
Drifting would be described by most people as going through a corner with your car sideways while keeping the throttle floored. The sideways part is correct, but it takes a little more to explain what drifting really is all about. Its not just flooring the throttle; it takes a delicate balance to keep the car sideways…… Racers use the term oversteer to refer to going sideways. This basically means steering too much. Or rather, even without the drivers steering input, the car steers more than you would like to. Usually if the car has a natural tendency to oversteer, when you steer the car either too hard or too fast into the corner the rear starts coming out and and in no time you’ll lose the back tires from gripping to the surface. But there is a way to still be in control when you’re sliding… The solution to this oversteer is to keep the front tires into the direction of where you want to go (countersteer or opposite lock) and throttle your way out of the corner. Of course this
