drift techniques

Drifting Techniques


Heel Toe Shifting
Learn proper race shifting to get your car into the right gear for drifting. Section also includes double clutch shifting so you can downshift before drifting without blowing out your transmission too quickly.

Power Over Drift
A throttle induced drift, this is performed when entering a corner and using the accelerator to slip the rear wheels, producing heavy oversteer through the turn. You will often need lots of horsepower to make this happen.

E-Brake Drift
This drifting technique is very basic, pull the E-Brake or side brake to induce rear traction loss and balance drift through steering and throttle play. This can also be used to correct errors or fine tune drift angles. Main drift technique used in FWD vehicles, however since it does decrease speeds, e-brake drifting is looked down upon during solo (tansou) type drifting competition.

Clutch Kick Drift
This drifting technique is performed by depressing the clutch pedal on approach or during turn in to a corner. The clutch is "popped" to give a sudden jolt through the driveline to upset rear traction, causing the power wheels to slip. Drifting is maintained by balancing the throttle.

Shift Lock Drift
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, but this should be performed on wet ground to minimize damage to the driveline. Similar drifting technique to Clutch Kicking.

Dirt Drop Drift
This is performed by dropping the rear tires off the road into the dirt to maintain or gain drift angle without losing power or speed and to set up for the next turn. This technique is very useful for low horsepower cars. Do not attempt this technique at the Drift Session.

Feint Drift
This is performed by rocking the car towards the outside of a turn and then using the rebound of the vehicle's suspension to throw the car into the normal cornering direction. This is heavy rally racing technique used to change vehicle attitudes during cornering.

Jump Drift
In this technique the rear tire on the inside of a turn or apex is bounced over a curb to lose traction resulting in over steer. Do not attempt this technique at the Drift Session.

Braking Drift
This is performed by trail braking into a corner. Loss of grip is obtained and then balanced through steering and throttle motions. This is mainly for medium to low speed corners.

Kansei Drift (Inertia 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 oversteer and then balances the drift through steering and throttle motions. The car that is being used for this style of drift should be a neutral balanced car therefore the oversteer will induce itself. If the car plows through any turn this technique will not work.

Long Slide Drift
This is done by pulling the E-brake through a strait to start a high angel drift and to hold this to set up for the turn ahead. This technique can only be done at high speed.

Swaying Drift (Manji Drift)
This is a slow side-to-side faint like drift where the rear end sways back and forth down a strait.

How to Drift: Angle explained

Hey drift fans, it's been a long long time since I updates my blog here at Drift In Japan. But I found some cool illustrations showing drift angles of different types of cars.

Let's have a look shall we...

FR - Rear wheel drive drifting angle

You'll notice with the angle for FR drifting, it starts early and ends later - meaning you're drifting for a longer period of time. If you are thinking you're going to straighten up and need more angle, you can just give your car more gas and you can swing the back out. That's why FR drifting is the most popular because it's the easiest and lasts longest.

FF - Front wheel drive drifting angle

With FF cars, the front wheels are doing the driving. The drifting is initialted with the hand brake (e-brake) and starts early but finishes early too. You need to be straightened up and heading straight in the direction you want to go. You can't power the car to get more angle like an FR car.

AWD - All wheel drive drifting angle

AWD drifting line is similar to the FF line as the main pulling wheels are the front ones. The angle starts a lot later and finishes early. I've never actually drifted an AWD car, even though I drive a WRX on the street, but from what I hear, they're the most difficult of all types of cars to drift.

NOTE: Tale a look at the line of drift. This line can be applied to all types of corners. You go wide at first and when you hit the apex, you need to be heading in the direction you want to go.

Drift hard, live safe!

Stu from DriftInJapan.com