Anyone who has seen the stunts and set pieces that pepper Tokyo Drift, the third instalment of the Fast and Furious film franchise, will understand the excitement of drifting. Drifting has a much longer history than its cinematic debut in 2006 and fans of drifting competitions can attest that the thrills and spills of drifting are even larger than life when seen from the side of the track than on the big screen.
Professional drift cars have been tweaked and modified to fine tune their performance and safety: the choice of specialist tyres, modifications to suspension and brakes and the use of a limited slip differential are the main areas of focus. However anyone can get the drift. With a private road, an understanding of drift technique and an unmodified car fresh off even a Hyundai car dealerships forecourt anyone can drift. This masterclass should give you the basics of drifting that you need: once you’ve got the drift you can go on to master the art.
Defining drift
Whilst you are getting belted up and ready to begin here is a textbook definition of drifting. Drifting is a way of driving in which the driver deliberately oversteers the car to cause a loss of traction in the rear wheels which he controls to gracefully take a corner. A drift results in a greater rear slip angle to the car’s front slip angle to such an extent that the front wheels are often left pointing in the opposite direction to the way the car is actually turning.
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What you will need
You don’t need much to practice drifting but at a minimum you will need a private road or track, a rear wheel drive car (or a four-wheel drive with a rear bias will do) and the ability to switch off any electronic stability control systems that operate in your car. Your car should have plenty of power and you should pick up plenty of cheap rear tyres because you are going to need them. Finally a limited slip differential will help you to keep both those real wheels spinning and keep the show on the road.
How to master a basic drift
If you are sitting comfortably and strapped in tight let’s begin drifting.
Pick a corner, any tight corner will do, and head towards it at about 30mph (50kph). Speed is not of the essence here, it is skill and technique we are after. You should be in second gear and achieving around 3000rpm. You need this amount of torque to keep those rear wheels spinning when you finally hit oversteer.
You should aim to oversteer at about half way through the turn. There are plenty of advanced techniques that allow you to experiment controlling early or late drifts through the throttle but we are going to learn to walk before we risk the car running away from us.
The two most basic ways to induce oversteer are the power slide and the clutch kick. You can look into other ways to oversteer later but practice and master these first.
The power slide is a burst of acceleration that will break your car’s traction. There is a fine line between giving your car too little thrust – and doing nothing - and giving it too much thrust - and ending up in an uncontrolled spin. The amount of actual thrust you need can be affected by your tyres, the weight of your car, its speed and the road surface you are driving on.
If your car lacks a little power you are better off attempting the clutch kick. As you take the corner you need to dip your clutch so that the engine revs are raised just above that red line on the gauge. Suddenly releasing the clutch now will deliver a rush of torque that should break the traction and give you the oversteer you are looking for.
However you choose to achieve the oversteer once you have it the real trick is to control and sustain it. As you feel the back of the car start to come round you need to focus: keep the power supplied to your car as you sharply turn the steering wheel into where you want to be going. You can gently use the throttle to coax your car: in most conditions you will need about 80% but if you find the back coming round too far simply ease off a bit and steer harder.
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All good things come to an end but bringing a drift to a close is not easy. You run a strong risk of fishtailing if it all goes wrong so take care when easing gently off the power smoothly and turn the steering decisively back to the straight road ahead. Don’t let the steering wheel nonchalantly glide through your hands because you still need to be firmly in control. Relax slightly and smile: you have performed a drift.
And there you have it a basic drift mastered. Practice makes perfect so enjoy the rides!
About the author:
WLMG is passionate about cars, driving cars, selling cars and everything to do with cars. It owns a chain of used and new car dealers London motorists swear by and rely on for value deals, integrity and great advice.