Driving techniques: Drifting

Every car nut has a little part of them that wants to go sideways, you know, like The Fast and the Furious…

Of course, we can’t admit this most of the time because it is a little bit socially unacceptable, in fact, some of the time you might even be called irresponsible. However, it is a lot of fun and done well it is deeply satisfying. But, there is a technique to it, so I am going to explain a couple of the techniques you might like to employ…somewhere wide, open, and safe.

Today track driving is all about precision. The quickest way to get round a track is to keep the car pointing in a straight line, especially where slicks and aerodynamics come into play, quite simply, when you are travelling sideways you are wasting energy and destroying your tyres, it’s not what you want to do if you want to win.

However, it has not always been that way, iconic images pervade the web of mighty Mercedes W125sMercedes-Benz W125Germany, 0 > present2 versions
2 photos
of the 1930’s, delicate shark nose FerrarisFerrariItaly, 1947 > present233 models
5131 photos
37 videos
of the 1960s and even brutal turbocharged Ferraris driven by such names as Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi in the 1980s. All sliding around the great circuits of the world, but at no point was the sliding part a sport, it just looked great.

Then came rallying. Going sideways in a rally car is nothing new. Especially the Lotus Cortina’sLotus CortinaUnited Kingdom, 1963 > present2 photos
and Ford Escort Mexico’sFord Escort MexicoUnited Kingdom, 1970 > present5 photos
1 video
that dominated the sport throughout the 1970s. However, just like Formula 1 with the Ferrari of Gilles Villeneuve it was the 1980s that caught people’s imaginations. The Group B monsters that spat fire and introduced new technologies like four wheel drive, huge wings and massive turbochargers charged through the forests at ever more lurid angles.

Certainly, the generation of teenagers learning to drive in the 1990s were well prepared to indulge their new pastime: drifting. Colin McRae and the Sony Playstation merely guaranteed the trend.

Colin McRae 2002 in action

© photo courtesy of: Ford

It is strange therefore that the sport of drifting actually originated in Japan, and I am sure that you will be aware that most of the accomplished drift cars are indeed of Japanese origin.

However, I am not going to spend valuable words telling you all about the development of drifting as a sport. I will however attach a couple of videos for you to see how it is done yourself. No, the point of this is to give you a couple of tips on how you might go about it yourself.

So, what do you need to go drifting? Well, it is worth explaining a little before we get into the nitty gritty of getting the car sideways. You’ll need a car with a limited slip differential for a start. This stops the power being ‘spun away’ as the unloaded driven wheel seeks to dispense with some of the power. The reason why the inside wheel wants to spin is all about weight transfer, and just like in motor racing this is absolutely vital when sustaining a drift. The car must be stiffly sprung to avoid the weight lurching between the axles and side-to side while cornering.

Of course, you aren’t going to become a drift master overnight, it will take plenty, and I mean plenty, of practice, dedication and some disposable tyres too.

You will first need to get used to the car sliding. This is quite an unnatural feeling for most people and the reality is that panic is the usual response as the car starts to slide for the first time. And when you panic there will be one of two reactions. The first will be to freeze, this is what you see plenty of the celebrities doing on Top Gear, the car snaps a little bit sideways and the brakes are jammed on and the car comes to a smoky halt. Elegant? No! The other option is for an over-reaction of a different kind, in fact an over-correction to be exact. The moral? You need to get used to the car sliding so you don’t panic.

The best way to do this is to head to a wide open space and practice handbrake turns, and some donuts for good measure. There is nothing big or clever about these two maneuvers, in fact you may have seen kids doing precisely this down at the supermarket car park which may not endear you to practicing them…but do it anyway!

Once you are used to sliding the car, ideally around cones or something else relatively soft, and being able to recover the car effectively, then it is time to start drifting.

First step: getting used to the sliding car

© photo courtesy of: Ford

Drifting is all about oversteer. This is where the rear of the car breaks traction and slides around the front end of the car. The trick is to balance the throttle inputs against the application of opposite lock as the rear end tries to overtake the front.

There are effectively three distinct ways to initiate a slide.

The first is to induce power oversteer. This is induced by settling the car into the corner and then planting your foot on the throttle to break the adhesion at the rear wheels. It is important to settle the car on the entry to the corner. Some cars may be powerful enough to simply overcome traction by power alone. But weight transfer can also be important, especially in more powerful models. A dab of the brake on the way into the corner loads the weight onto the front end of the car therefore unloading the rear end, less power is needed to break traction therefore.

Secondly it is possible to bring about oversteer by decelerating the rear wheels rapidly using the hand brake. This is a technique often used in less powerful cars, or at least ones with less torque, or cars with front wheel drive. Once the rear of the car is locked it will slide around the point of traction: the front wheels. This makes the car far easier to recover than a rear wheel drive car as all that is needed to recover the slide is some opposite lock and a dose of throttle. But we’ll get into recovery from the slide in a minute.

The third type of slide, and perhaps the trickiest, is where oversteer is induced through rapid weight transfer. The best example of this in history is the Scandinavian flick, a trick used to get rally cars to tuck into a corner when there is a danger of understeer – and there in nothing worse in a rally car where a tree might be lurking at the exit of the corner!

The car is pitched in the opposite direction to the corner as the entry approaches then a lift of the throttle and an application of the brakes allows the car to swing like a pendulum around the corner.

Second step: getting the oversteer right

© photo courtesy of: Pontiac

I will talk about left foot braking in a future article, but rest assured, when inducing a car into a drift you have all three pedals and a steering wheel at your disposal, any one of them can become the weapon that creates the perfect storm.

The final part of any of these slides, however it came about, is the recovery from them. There is no point holding the car elegantly sideways only to spin out on the recovery, this is a sport o aesthetics after all. And for this the art of opposite lock is important. As I suggested earlier, an overly aggressive application will cause the car to swing the other way violently – not what you want. So, it is important to be smooth with the steering and the throttle.

Let’s ignore front wheel drive cars for now and concentrate on rear wheel drive. The trick is to blend out of the throttle on the exit of the corner so the rear of the car starts to recover some of the grip that has been forcibly lost in the first part of the maneuver. As the grip returns to the rear of the car it is time to wind the lock off, smoothly and progressively. Like all types of driving it is the smoothness that tells the pro apart from the enthusiastic amateur.

Drifting is great fun, and the reality is that you will need plenty of practice to get any good at it but it is a lot of fun, so if you can why not give it a go?

And check these videos for some drifting inspiration:

Gilles Villeneuve Tribute, Group B Rally, Tokyo Drift, Fast And The Furious, How To Drift, World Record Drift