Drifting

Drifting is the driving technique that consists in pass the corners sideways tending to oversteer. Drifting is not the fastest way to pass throught the corners, but sure that is the funniest and more spectacular way. Here, in Spain drifting isn't very popular, but in countries like Japan and USA is very famous and there are drifting championships. The most important drift competition is called D1 or Drift 1, like the Formula 1, the difference is that drifting is usually more spectacular than the long Formula 1 races. Drifting was started to be popular in Japan, because there are many mountains and it was a quick way to pass the corners. In Japan there is a drifting manga called Initial D, and this manga is famous in many countries. There is also a very famous drifting movie, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo race.



Everybody can drift with his car, you only have to practice and practice to dominate the basic drifting techniques. The basic drifting techniques are:

Power Over- this is the most easy drifting technique. When you arrive at the corner you have to use full throttle to produce heavy oversteer throught the turn.

Kansei 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 that 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 that 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 that 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, then pop the clutch 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 that this should be performed in the wet to minimize damage to the driveline, etc.

E-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 that this can also be used to correct errors or fine tune drift angles.