How to drift
Hi,
Thanks to www.goodworks-spl.com
for letting us use this guide.
TEACH YOURSELF HOW TO DRIFT
A 20 step program
STAGE ONE (SKILL UP)
THE VEHICLE
The vehicle needs to be Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) and preferable Front
Engined Rear Wheel Drive (FR). It will be better if it has a Welded Diff
or if your lucky/rich an LSD, But if not an Open diff is better than
FWD. It will need an engine with enough power to spin the rear wheels
and have manual transmission (MT). And also a good hand brake that
locks the rear wheels easily. You can drift Automatic Transmission (AT)
equiped vehciles, and do drifts of sorts in Front Wheel Drive (FWD)
cars. But, honestly why bother!
Obviously your vehicles brakes, driveline, suspension, engine etc etc
...should all be in good working order before you attempt to treat it to
the punishment of drifting!
THE LOCATION
The location needs to be a clear flat area of tarmac or concrete of
preferably 10 square meters or larger. Preferably not a public area, as
we don't want you getting thrown in jail now do we!?
Later on in stage 2~4 you will need a few more locations & help; a
race track, a drift event and some poor bastard to drift with.
THE TOOLS
The only tools you will need are 9 road cones or similer objects. If you
are really keen you can also use a spray can to mark out the course!
But only if you have permission now kiddies!
PREREQUISITS
You will need to know how to drive a MT vehicle well and be able to use
basic car control techniques such as a The bogan dance and a hand brake
turn. You can learn to drift even if you cannot do these, but you will
need more help than this article!
INSTRUCTIONS
It is very important that you do not progress onto the next drill until
you have mastered the previous drills! By this I mean you must be able
to do the drill perfectly on command. Meaning you can put the car where
you want and when you want instead of just trying to react to what the
car wants to do! If you only half ass your way to the end, you won't get
the best results! And I will be upset...
DRILL 1: CIRCLES
SETUP: Place one cone in the centre of your area.
STAGE: Stop the car about 1~2 meters away from the cone with the right
front fender facing the cone. Turn the wheels towards the cone about 30
degrees or 1 full turn in most vehicles.
INITIATION: Have the car in 1st gear with your foot fully depressing the
clutch pedal and hold the revs at about 6000rpm with the throttle (the
revs required will depend on the vehicle). Take your foot off the clutch
pedal as fast as possible and keep your foot on the throttle enough to
keep the rear wheels spinning (the amount of throttle required will
depend on the vehicle). At the same time let the wheels counter steer
pointing away from the cone. Do not let the wheels fully counter away
from the cone or you might end up sliding the rear of the car around
into the cone, instead of drifting around the cone! To stop this
happening, keep you hands on the steering wheel and just let the wheels
counter steer enough to steer the car in a drift around the cone.
CONTROL: Adjust the amount of throttle up or down and allow the wheels
to counter steer more or turn the wheel to allow less counter steer.
More throttle and more counter will give the drift more angle and make
the radius of the drift smaller. Less throttle and less counter will
make the angle of the drift less and the radius of the drift larger.
More throttle but less counter will make th radius of the drift larger
and increase the speed of the drift. Less throttle and more counter will
make the radius of the drift larger and the speed of the drift slower.
Remember to always keep the steering wheel under control!
It may take a long time to get used to how much and when to use the
throttle and steering to put the car where you want it! But these skills
are the backbone of drifting so must be mastered!
EXTRA: Now try circles counter clockwise. Then try doing the same drill
with 3 or 4 or more cones aranged in a centre circle so you can drift
large radius circles while having cones in the centre as reference
points to stay close to.
TECHNICAL CIRCLES
Use Drill 1 as a base but substitute the following initiations one at a
time.
DRILL 2: POWER OVER INITIATION: Drive the car around the cone(s) in 1st
gear about 1~2 meters away. Gradually increase the speed and then
quickly increase the throttle to full throttle so the rear wheels start
spinning then keep your foot on the throttle enough to keep the rear
wheels spinning (the amount of throttle required will depend on the
vehicle). At the same time let the wheels counter steer pointing away
from the cone. Do not let the wheels fully counter away from the cone or
you might end up sliding the rear of the car around into the cone,
instead of drifting around the cone! To stop this happening, keep you
hands on the steering wheel and just let the wheels counter steer enough
to steer the car in a drift around the cone.
Some vehicles wont have enough power for this initiation technique
unless the conditions are slippery. A good way to help your vehicle
overcome lack of power is to quickly turn away from the cone(s) slightly
(about 15~20 degrees or a half turn) and then quickly turn back in
towards the cone(s) as you apply full throttle. The right revs/speed to
do this at will depend on the vehicle. If your vehicle has excess power
then you may have to actually take your foot off the throttle completely
for a split second when your vehicle starts to go into a power slide,
otherwise with the high power you may end up just sliding the rear into
the cone(s) instead of drifting around them.
DRILL 3: CLUTCH KICK INITIATION: Drive around the cone(s) in 1st gear
about 1~2 meters away and as quickly as possible fully depress the
clutch pedel and release the clutch immediately while keeping your foot
on the throttle. Then adjust the throttle to keep the rear wheels
spinning (the amount of throttle required will depend on the vehicle).
At the same time let the wheels counter steer pointing away from the
cone. Do not let the wheels fully counter away from the cone or you
might end up sliding the rear of the car around into the cone, instead
of drifting around the cone! To stop this happening, keep you hands on
the steering wheel and just let the wheels counter steer enough to steer
the car in a drift around the cone.
This initiation technique is very rough and even with a low powered car
you may need to use the throttle off technique described in drill 2. If
your car is of low power the turn out then in technique described in
drill 2 can also help. The speed at which to use thie initiation
technique will very much depend on the car and the conditions. Another
variation of this technique is the CLUTCH HOLD INITTATION which can be
usefull for under powered cars. You do things much the same as the above
described initiation technique but you release the clutch pedal after a
second or two, so the engine builds up more revs before you release the
clutch. This can be very rough in a high powered car so I recommend
being very carefull with this technique!!!
DRILL 4: HAND BRAKE INITIATION: Reverse away from the cone 10~ meters or
more if possible and then drive in towards the cone(s) in 1st gear,
aiming as if you were about to drive around the cones with a radius of
about 1~2 meters away from the cone(s). Then as you you are about to
turn in towards the cone, fully depress the clutch pedal and pull the
hand brake up quickly and hold it until you get about 30~40 degrees of
drift angle or for about 1~2 second in most cars. then quickly release
the hand brake and clutch at the same time and get back on the throttle
enough to keep the rear wheels spinning (the amount of throttle required
will depend on the vehicle). At the same time let the wheels counter
steer pointing away from the cone. Do not let the wheels fully counter
away from the cone or you might end up sliding the rear of the car
around into the cone, instead of drifting around the cone! To stop this
happening, keep you hands on the steering wheel and just let the wheels
counter steer enough to steer the car in a drift around the cone.
This technique is the slowest and most predictable initiation technique
for drifting so you will end up using it a lot later. It can be very
tricky to get used to how long you need to hold the hand brake up for,
to little and you will end up understeering if you are nto quick to
compensate with another technique or you will end up just sliding into
the cone(s) instead of drifting around it. This is where timing becomes
very important so mastering this technique is a must!
DRILL 5: THROTTLE OFF/ON INITIATION: Drive around the cone(s) in 1st
gear about 1~2 meters away and slowely increase speed. Then quickly
increase speed then suddenly take your foot off the throttle completely
then straight away put it back onto full throttle and keep your foot on
the throttle enough to keep the rear wheels spinning (the amount of
throttle required will depend on the vehicle). At the same time let the
wheels counter steer pointing away from the cone. Do not let the wheels
fully counter away from the cone or you might end up sliding the rear of
the car around into the cone, instead of drifting around the cone! To
stop this happening, keep you hands on the steering wheel and just let
the wheels counter steer enough to steer the car in a drift around the
cone.
This technique may not work in most cars unless they are very well setup
for drifting with this technique at low speeds. But it is very usefull
at higher speeds which we will go through later! The techniques outlined
in drill 2 of turn out then in can also be used with this initiation
technique with good results.
DRILL 6: LEFT FOOT BRAKE INITIATION: Drive the car around the cone(s) in
1st gear about 1~2 meters away. Gradually increase the speed and then
quickly increase the throttle to full throttle so the rear wheels start
spinning then apply left foot braking so that the front of the vehicle
slows down and the rear end catches up to give more drift angle quickly
while keeping your foot on the throttle enough to keep the rear wheels
spinning (the amount of throttle required will depend on the vehicle).
At the same time let the wheels counter steer pointing away from the
cone. Do not let the wheels fully counter away from the cone or you
might end up sliding the rear of the car around into the cone, instead
of drifting around the cone! To stop this happening, keep you hands on
the steering wheel and just let the wheels counter steer enough to steer
the car in a drift around the cone.
This technique can be tricky at low speeds as the rear end tends to
catch up with the front very fast and can cause you just to slide the
rear end into the cone(s) instead of drifting around it. Again this
technique is much more usefull later on, which means if you master it
now you will have an edge later on!
DRILL 7: MAINTAINING AND ADJUSTING THE DRIFT
You can now start to use the above mentioned techniques to not only
initiate but also maintain and adjust the angle and speed of the drift!
SETUP: Arrange 4 cones in a square about 3 meters apart.
STAGE & INITIATION: Use any of the above mentioned techniques to
start a drift around the 4 cones.
CONTROL: Use the techniques outlined in drill1 combined with any of the
above mentioned techniques to drift the square! The aim here is not to
drift a huge circle around the cones, but to drift a square. This may
sound strange. And yes when you drift the square it doesn't look like
you are drifting a square. But its sure different to drifting a circle
The aim is to try and get as close to each cone as posible and whip
around it fast and tight but then keep the drift going onto the next
cone (without fish tailing or snaking/feinting in between the cones). To
do this you can apply heavy throttle and turn out then in techniques to
whip the back end around the cone, then adjust the throttle and counter
to drift to the next cone. Or use the hand brake, kick the clutch, left
foot brake.
What you will find is that you are infact still just drifting a circle
BUT! you will have learned how to adjust drift angle and speed. And most
importantly you will be hugging the cones tight, which is training for
later on when hugging those corners and hitting those apexes is what the
judges are looking for and what will allow you to drift with great
speed!
STAGE 2 (SPEED UP)
Now you can try the above Stage 1 drills 1~7 in 2nd gear and get a feel
for the increased speed and tourqe needed to really get the hang of
Stage 2's drills.
I would recommend some vehicle upgrading be done now in the way of a
good set of coil over suspension at a minimum.
DRILL 8: UP SHIFT
Shifting up maybe easy in itself, BUT! shift up drifting is a whole
other ball game! As long as you are capable of changing gear fairly fast
then half of the problems out of the way. It's really not that its hard
to change up a gear and keep the wheels spinning. It's the extreme
tourqe increase you will get from shifting up while drifting (especially
1st to 2nd then to 3rd). Its just like a Clutch hold or a high rev
clutch kick. You just need to be on your game so you can counter act the
results. The main thing you need to remember is to make sure you have
enough revs and power so when you up shift you will continue to drift.
Just be carefull here as once you shift up to 3rd you will be carrying a
fair amount of speed! Drifting actually gets easier at higher speeds as
it becomes smoother, but it also becomes more dangerous as even a small
mistake can cause a big mess!
DRILL 9: SWITCHING
Changing the direction of your drift is very important and essential to
being able to link 2 oposing corners together while maintaining a drift.
First off you must learn how to switch directions softly and slowely.
So that once you are used to what you need to do, you can increase speed
and agression to be able to switch hard an fast so you can maintain
speed and high angles.
SETUP: Two cones spaced about 4 or more meters apart or 2 sets of 3~4
cones.
STAGE & INITIATION: Use any of the above mentioned techniques to
start a drift around the 4 cones. Then as you come around the 1st
cone(s), look at the other cone with your front left corner pointing at
it (if your drifting clock wise). Drift towards the cone keeping your
left front corner pointing at the cone then when you are just past the
1st cone and about half way between the two, lift off the throttle and
let the wheels counter the opposite way naturally. Then with the skills
you have already mastered you should be able to get back on the throttle
and drift counter clockwise around the next cone.
CONTROL: Use any of the above mentioned techniques to control the drift
then when you come around the 2nd cone, just do the opposite and
continue back through to the 1st cone again.
It's a suprisingly natutal technique with the only thing you may find
hard to get used to being how quick and harsh to let off and re apply
the throttle so that you don't just end up spinning into the cone. This
technique may take as long to master as it did to master your first
technique of just drifting round one cone! ...if not, good on ya mate! A
small note here is that if your vehicle has very little power, you
might have to clutch kick on the switch, but beware this is very rough
indeed! ...and can take a fair bit of skill to use with good results.
DRILL 9: FEINTING
SETUP: Place 3 or more cones in a straight line about 4 or so meters
apart.
STAGE: Stop the car about 10 or so meters before the 1st cone.
INITIATION: Start off and get as much speed up in 1st as possible then
turn to either side of the 1st cone and shift up to 2nd gear drift.
CONTROL: Use the techniques you have already learned to steer your way
through the cones in a continuous drift.
Try and hug the front end in to the cones as tight as possible, then try
doing some wider drifts also. Another good drill is to just place 4 or
so cones out with some quite close together and some further apart. then
just link them up as big drifts and then swing round some to make
switches and tighter drifts. Endless fun!!!!
DRILL 10: DRIFTING THE COURSE
This is the last step before you have all the skills so you can start
drifting in the real world with nothing to hold you back except
experience!
SETUP: Not much of a setup here, pretty much up to your imagination! Set
up cones to make a sort of random mock environment in a shape rou can
continuosly drift (ie a funny shape circle) A simple idea is 3 cones in
the centre in 3 meters by 2 meters by 6 meters and then cones further
out parallel to each side of the centre triangle (this basically gives
you 3 centre apex clipping points and 3 outside mock corner entrences or
exits).
The idea here is to get you cumfortable with hanging your ass real close
to objects and cutting the nose in real close to objects without being
worried you are going to hit anything, as you know you wont because you
know the size of your car! So what you do is get into a drift then try
and get the nose as close to the centre cones as posible and the let the
ass out as close to the outside cones as possible. This is a lot of fun
and will build up confidence in your drifting pretty fast! And also
allow you to hit those apexes hard when you get to a real corner and
also add the adrenalin rush of hanging your ass out in a risky place
with the little bit in the back of your mind wondering how much closer
you can go before you will hit
STAGE 3 (THE REAL WORLD)
Now its time to break out of your flat tarmac and coned shell and try
some real world drifting! I suggest going to your local race track, as
again jail isn't that much fun!
Now is about time to invest in a decent clutch, a nice mechanical LSD if
you haven't got one already and a good bucket seat to keep your ass in
place.
DRILL 11: KNOWING THE LINE
The key to drifting a set of corners is not that different from just
driving through them! You will by now be pretty comfortable controling
your car in a drift so the next step shouldnt be to hard. There are
several things you need to be able to identify in a set of corners to be
able to drift them at the highest speed possible.
Corner Entrence: This is the point on the outside of the corner where
the corner begins (ie the road starts to curve or change direction of
the curve). You need to recognise where the corner begins and the speed
at which you need to carry in to drift the corner. This will allow you
to work out where to start the drift.
Apex: This point is harder to explain and is basically the racing line
clipping point of the corner. On most corners this point can be worked
out by when you are at the entrence to the corner it will be the further
most point on the inside of the corner within sight. This is a very
rough guide as corners are all very different and many have more than
one apex point. This skill will take a lot of on road practice to get
used to. By this I mean you need to recognise the apex(s) of the corner.
This will allow you to aim where to drift so you can get the maximum
possible drift speed through the corner(s).
Corner exit: You need to recognise where the corner ends. This will
allow you to aim where to drift out of the corner and work out how much
speed you can carry out of the corner. This is the point on the outside
of the corner where the corner striaghtens out or changes direction.
Switching point: By this I mean you need to recognise the point at which
you need to switch the drift direction to be able to drift into and
through the next corner(s). This point varys a lot from corner to
corner. But as a general rule, when you are exiting the first corner you
will drift the ass of the car towards the corner exit. But keep the
drift angle on instead of winding the angle off for an exit, you will
aim the car for the next corner entrence. Then once the ass of the car
has just passed the 1st corner exit point you look at the inside of the
next corner and the apex if you can see it already and then perform a
switch and aim the ass of the car for the next corners entrence point
and drift the corner.
What you need to be able to do is visualise all these points at once and
make them into a “Drift Line” (a course thats seperate from the actual
corners). That enables you to aim your way through the course in a
drift. Don't take these points 100% litteraly though! ...the only way
you can get used to drifting through a full set of corners is practice,
practice and more practice!!!
A good trick to learning how to hit the apex's hard and fast and be able
to visualise a drift line through the course is to use cones to mark
out your entry, apex and exit points.
DRILL 12: DOWN SHIFT & SHIFT LOCKING
Downshifting during drifting can be done in several ways to either
increase drift angle and lower drift speed or to enter a corner and
initiate a drift. Down shifting during a drift can be done slow or fast
depending how quickly and how much angle you wish to gain. Obviously you
will want to make sure you are not going to over rev the engine as soon
as you downshift. You can down shift to initatie a drift (SHIFT LOCK),
this can be done at even quite low revs with no throttle applied at all
until the car begins to slide. This basically sends a shock through the
drive train and locks the rear wheels for a second and upsets the cars
balance to put it into a drift. This can be very usefull in down hill
courses.
DRILL 13: THROTTLE OFF
This technique is much the same as the throttle off/on initiation
technique discribed in stage 1. Except you use it at fairly high speeds
with some turn out then in if needed so that this alone is enough to
upset the cars balance and send it into a drift without getting on the
throttle straight away.
This can be very usefull at the top of gears in situations where you
need the high speed but upshifting to the next gear is going to be to
rough, to fast or you don't have another gear left!
DRILL 14: WEIGHT SHIFTING (FEINT)
All the above discribed thechniques actually do shift the weight of your
car. But, weight shifting or feinting as an initiation technique is
normally used to discrbie fairly harsh turn out then in techniques, some
times so harsh that the car is actually drifting away from the corner
then switching back in to drift through the corner(s). This technique
can be used in conjunction with other techniques very effectively.
DRILL 15: USING YOUR SUROUNDINGS
This technique is usually used by drivers of lower powered vehicles, but
I think it can be useful in a higher powered car as well. the idea is
to use bumpy and slippery objects or conditions to upset the balance of
you vehicle and send it into a drift. This is most useful when you car
lacks the power or setup to use another drift technique alone. Examples
are “Dirt Dropping” the rear wheels of the car into dirt or other
slippery objects or conditions to initiate the drift, or using bumps or
rises and dips in the course for the same effect. The options are really
limitless, but can be very dangerous if you are not used to sudden
changes in the cars balance!
DRILL 16: BRAKING
This is another high speed technique similer to the left foot braking
initiation technique introduced in stage 1, except done at mcuh higher
speeds. Its almost impossible to explain how to perform this technique
on paper, as all cars behave very differently under braking at high
speed. so my advice is to just experiment! This Technique can work well
in conjunction with the throttle off technique described in drill 13.
Heavy braking can also be used to send the vehicle into a four wheel
drift to extend the drift into the next corner if you find that you may
not make it to the next corner while maintaining a drift with any other
technique. This can be pretty disasterous if not exicuted perfectly! So
be careful!!!
DRILL 17: HAND BRAKE EXTENSION
This is a very usefull technique that can help you rectify a miss-judged
drift line or extend the drift onto the next corner where it would not
other wise be possible due to conditions or speed factors. You have
already learned how to use the hand brake to adjust and maintain the
drift stage 1, but you may not have realised it can be used to extend a
drift where otherwise thought impossible! Give it a try!
STAGE 4 (BATTLE MODE)
Now you are armed with some pretty serious drift weaponry! Its time to
do battle! Get in contact with your local drift event organiser and get
into competition mode! ...again some people might take you trying to
battle them on the motorway on ramp as just plain rude!
Now I would recommend some basic safety upgrades such as a roll cage and
a harness as well as a power upgrade.
MATCHING LINES
The essential element to a good chasing drift in battle is the ability
to modify your drift line and the natural drift line of your vehicle to
mimic the drift line of your oponent. This will enable you to get as
close as possible to their vehicle and stick with them through the
course. There is a very simple drill that can be done in a large open
space to practice this before you start to attack some poor
un-suspecting drifter on the course. If you try this with no idea what
to expect and have an accident it may not encourage other people to
battle with you. And battle is the most fun part of drifting!!!
DRILL 18: TANDEM CIRCLES
SETUP: Place one or more cones in the centre of your area.
STAGE: Setup the cars as in previous drills but with two cars on
opposite sides of the cone.
INITIATION: Use the techniques you have learned to initiate the drift.
CONTROL: Use the techniques you have learned to control the drift and
both chase each other around the cone(s).
“Tandem Tag” is also another drill that is very usefull in learning the
ability to mimic other drifters lines. This involves a very large open
space where one driver will obviously lead and the other will chase and
then swap. The lead car will make its own random course around the open
area and the chase car will try and chase and mimic the drift lines of
the lead driver and the lead driver will try and escape. This is heaps
of fun and will also teach you how to avoid a collision fast! As no
doubt there will be some near missis or hits...so I suggest you practice
this drill with someone you know pretty well!
DRILL 19: CRABING
The hand brake again can be used in a technique called “Crabing” to keep
you in a drift while getting up nice and close to your battle oponent
whitout drifting into them. The idea here is to drift up behind and next
to your battle oponent then use the hand brake to adjust your angle and
speed to match theirs. This is used in conjunction with many other
techniques and is very advanced and not advised to be used unless you
are very confident in your drift control ability!
DRILL 20: THE CHASE DOWN & ESCAPE
These are very impressive more tactical techniques used in drift battle.
The “Chase Down” is executed by hanging back from your battle oponent
at the beginning of the battle and then very quickly through faster
entry speed carried through the course catch up to your oponent to a
point where you can get up very close and personal with your battle
oponent and stay with them through the course without letting them
escape. The “Escape” is executed by not carrying your maximum speed
through some of the course then applying techniques to gain more
traction and speed from the drift and pull away from your oponent. These
are both very strategical techniques that will require you to be
familier with your opponents vehicle and driving style. There is one
other technique I will mention but I think is a cowards technique! This
is where the lead battle opponent will slow down during the battle to
cause the chasing battle opponent to spin while trying to chase the lead
vehicle. This takes no skill at all and is just bullshit in my
opinion!!!
Cheers
Matt
If you have made it this far then well done! Thats a long read, but i
think you will find it helpful!
Now your ready to find somewhere to practice! And remember Lamp posts can
end your cars life, AND YOUR OWN! Be Careful!
Originally posted by Jeek.
