John
10-08-2004, 02:39 AM
This is a guide for all of those people who have always wanted to try drifting but did not know how or where to begin. This is not, by all means, a complete guide but it is a good place to start if you are a total beginner.
To begin with, drifting is not a cheap sport but it does not have to be expensive. You just have to know what to spend your money on. I know people who have spent a lot of money on preparing their car beyond their abilities which makes it much more difficult to learn on. I know people who keep their cars bone stock and do extremely well with it. When getting into drifting keep in mind that it is very rough on a car and you will more than likely break things. If you are not against spending a little money then read on.
1. The car
First you will need to find yourself a nice RWD within your budget. As to what to get that is really up to you and your personality not to mention how much you want to spend. Refer to the following thread as this subject has been discussed:
http://www.houston-imports.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118212
2. Car preparation
As a drifting beginner, you should at least know how to perform basic maintenance on your car and the more you know the better. Make sure your car is in good shape with fresh fluids and minimal leaks. When starting out I suggest keeping your car stock or as close to stock as possible. You don't need a lot of power to drift and soft suspensions are easier to learn on than full blown coilovers. The only thing you may consider doing is getting some sticky tires for your fronts. The rear tires can be anything you can find that has decent tread but minimal traction. With this setup you will start learning how the car feels when sliding the rear end around. You might want to look into extra wheels since you will go through tires fairly quickly. I also highly recommend a limited slip differential of some sort.
3. Driver preparation
Dont go into drifting thinking that you are going to slide perfectly the first time. It's really quite difficult to learn how to do properly without any prior performance driving background and even with experience you will still have difficulty learning at first. If you can, go out and do some autocrossing. It's cheap and it will give you some experience on how your car will behave. I've always said that autocrossing teaches you to drive your car at the limit. Drifting teaches you how to drive your car beyond that limit.
4. Where to go
There are several events in the Houston and surrounding areas to do both autocrossing and drifting. The SCCA (houscca.com) holds autocrossing events once a month as do the Porsche/BMW clubs (lsrpca.com/houston-bmwcca.com) usually at Gulf Greyhound Park. Drifting events are a bit more non-regular but both Daily Drifter (dailydrifter.com) and Texas Drift (texasdrift.com) have events in and around Houston and Dallas. There are also occasional drift events held at Houston Motorsports Park (houstonmotorsportspark.com) on Friday nights on their 3/8th mile oval and infield but these events are a bit sporatic at best.
Okay, you have a car, it's in good shape (hopefully) and you have a bit of enthusiast driving experience under your belt (hopefully). Now you are ready to get started.
Drills
#1 Basic Donuts
Set up a cone or some sort or marker in an open area and proceed to do pirouettes around it. It's not quite as easy as it sounds. This exercise will teach you a couple of things. Number one, it will show you what it feels like when the rear end of your car slides around. Most beginners are afraid of this sensation because it is new to them and that is perfectly normal. With more and more practice this feeling of apprehension will slowly disappear and feeling the rear end slide will become natural. Next, it will teach you how to modulate your steering and gas. You can't simply floor the gas and expect to do controlled circles around the cone. If you do that then all you will get is that whipping circle effect that you have probably seen that a lot of domestic V8 guys do (not knocking on these guys, its just most common there). You will need to control your throttle and make small adjustments in your steering.
Approach to the right of the cone making sure that it stays within view as it gets to your front left fender. From there turn the wheel to the left and give the throttle a tap or floor it. The amount of throttle will vary depending on how much power you have. As soon as you feel the rear end step out back off on the throttle and counter steer. This will get you started around the practice cone. If you feel yourself straightening out then give it more gas. If you feel the rear end of the car coming out too fast just back off on it a little but do not lift. All this time you will be making small steering corrections to keep your progress around the cone smooth and as tight as possible. Repeat in the other direction.
#2 Basic Figure 8's
Once you have gotten the hand of left and right hand donuts you are ready to move on to figure 8's. This drill will emphasize the donut more in addition to transitions between left to right and vice versa. These transitions happen very quickly and you need to make steering inputs early on to avoid spinning out. It will also introduce you to the e-brake and how to use it to initiate a slide.
Drive straight at about 10mph then put in the clutch, turn the wheel to the left and yank up on the ebrake briefly. This will take a few tries to get down at first because you will need to get used to doing all of these things at once. You will also need to learn how long to hold the e-brake for. Too little and you won't slide. Too much and you'll spin out. Once you initiate the slide countersteer right as if doing a donut. Do a few donuts just to get warmed up then quickly let off the gas for a moment. When you do this you shift the weight to the front of the car and your tires (0urned in a countersteer direction) will get more grip. When your front tires grab it will make the car turn to the right. As soon as you feel the weight shift quickly get back on the gas and countersteer left to compensate for the transition. Proceed to do a few more right handed donuts then simply repeat the throttle lift/countersteer maneuver to do a donut in the other direction once more. This drill will take more practice to master than the donuts but keep at it because it is a good way to learn how to drift without having a lot of space.
#3 Advanced Donuts
This donut drill will teach you how your throttle and steering movements can be used to tighten or widen up a drift. Start with the basic donut drill and begin doing tight circles around your position cone. As you circle play with your throttle a bit. You will notice that as you give it less gas your donut will begin to drift wide away from the cone and as you give it more gas it will bring you closer to the cone, tightening your donut. I find this drill highly useful when I want to test out how much grip a tire has and how it will behave in a drift.
#4 Advanced Figure 8's
The advanced figure 8 drill will teach you how to control your drifts with your throttle and steering inputs. You will need to set up 2 cones about 20 feet or so apart but this distance will vary from car to car. Just set the cones up at a distance that you feel comfortable with to start. Procede to do the basic figure 8 drill but this time try and do your donuts around each cone consecutively. You will notice immediately that it is much more difficult to stay within the proper boundaries. Adjust the cone distances as needed but make sure that you keep them within an appropriate distance to transition smoothly around the next cone without going in a straight line.
Once you get the hang of these drills then you will have a good solid foundation to execute a proper drift. Practice, practice, practice! You can't get better by reading this post. You have to be in a car and learn how it feels to slide the car around in order to improve. In my next segment I will discuss doing an actual drift and the different methods on how to go about initiating them.
Common Mistakes
-Keeping a hand on the shifter
It's not a handle for you to hold onto. You will need both hands to make quick transitions so keep them both on the wheel until you need to shift which won't happen often with these beginner drills.
-Letting go of the steering wheel to center the steering
Something I see often from beginners is that they will simply let their steering wheel center itself by letting the wheel slide through their hands or even by completely letting go of the wheel itself. This is a big no-no as a beginner. You need to keep your hands on the wheel at all times and use them to smoothly execute your steering and countersteering. As you get better you will eventually learn that sometimes letting go of the wheel is faster for transitions but as a beginner keep both hands on the wheel.
-Countersteering too late
I cannot emphasize enough how early you have to be with your countersteering. Many beginners will wait too long before they begin to countersteer which will result in a spin. As soon as you are about to enter the transition from one direction to another you need to be already countersteering in order to catch the transition without spinning.
-Too much gas
Beginners tend to feel that if they keep their foot on the gas and just steer a little bit more they will be able to pull out of a drift. They don't understand that the more gas you give the more angle you are giving the car and there is only so much steering you can give before you run out. Learning how to modulate your throttle is key on learning how to drift.
Stay tuned for part II of my 'How to Drift' series.
To begin with, drifting is not a cheap sport but it does not have to be expensive. You just have to know what to spend your money on. I know people who have spent a lot of money on preparing their car beyond their abilities which makes it much more difficult to learn on. I know people who keep their cars bone stock and do extremely well with it. When getting into drifting keep in mind that it is very rough on a car and you will more than likely break things. If you are not against spending a little money then read on.
1. The car
First you will need to find yourself a nice RWD within your budget. As to what to get that is really up to you and your personality not to mention how much you want to spend. Refer to the following thread as this subject has been discussed:
http://www.houston-imports.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118212
2. Car preparation
As a drifting beginner, you should at least know how to perform basic maintenance on your car and the more you know the better. Make sure your car is in good shape with fresh fluids and minimal leaks. When starting out I suggest keeping your car stock or as close to stock as possible. You don't need a lot of power to drift and soft suspensions are easier to learn on than full blown coilovers. The only thing you may consider doing is getting some sticky tires for your fronts. The rear tires can be anything you can find that has decent tread but minimal traction. With this setup you will start learning how the car feels when sliding the rear end around. You might want to look into extra wheels since you will go through tires fairly quickly. I also highly recommend a limited slip differential of some sort.
3. Driver preparation
Dont go into drifting thinking that you are going to slide perfectly the first time. It's really quite difficult to learn how to do properly without any prior performance driving background and even with experience you will still have difficulty learning at first. If you can, go out and do some autocrossing. It's cheap and it will give you some experience on how your car will behave. I've always said that autocrossing teaches you to drive your car at the limit. Drifting teaches you how to drive your car beyond that limit.
4. Where to go
There are several events in the Houston and surrounding areas to do both autocrossing and drifting. The SCCA (houscca.com) holds autocrossing events once a month as do the Porsche/BMW clubs (lsrpca.com/houston-bmwcca.com) usually at Gulf Greyhound Park. Drifting events are a bit more non-regular but both Daily Drifter (dailydrifter.com) and Texas Drift (texasdrift.com) have events in and around Houston and Dallas. There are also occasional drift events held at Houston Motorsports Park (houstonmotorsportspark.com) on Friday nights on their 3/8th mile oval and infield but these events are a bit sporatic at best.
Okay, you have a car, it's in good shape (hopefully) and you have a bit of enthusiast driving experience under your belt (hopefully). Now you are ready to get started.
Drills
#1 Basic Donuts
Set up a cone or some sort or marker in an open area and proceed to do pirouettes around it. It's not quite as easy as it sounds. This exercise will teach you a couple of things. Number one, it will show you what it feels like when the rear end of your car slides around. Most beginners are afraid of this sensation because it is new to them and that is perfectly normal. With more and more practice this feeling of apprehension will slowly disappear and feeling the rear end slide will become natural. Next, it will teach you how to modulate your steering and gas. You can't simply floor the gas and expect to do controlled circles around the cone. If you do that then all you will get is that whipping circle effect that you have probably seen that a lot of domestic V8 guys do (not knocking on these guys, its just most common there). You will need to control your throttle and make small adjustments in your steering.
Approach to the right of the cone making sure that it stays within view as it gets to your front left fender. From there turn the wheel to the left and give the throttle a tap or floor it. The amount of throttle will vary depending on how much power you have. As soon as you feel the rear end step out back off on the throttle and counter steer. This will get you started around the practice cone. If you feel yourself straightening out then give it more gas. If you feel the rear end of the car coming out too fast just back off on it a little but do not lift. All this time you will be making small steering corrections to keep your progress around the cone smooth and as tight as possible. Repeat in the other direction.
#2 Basic Figure 8's
Once you have gotten the hand of left and right hand donuts you are ready to move on to figure 8's. This drill will emphasize the donut more in addition to transitions between left to right and vice versa. These transitions happen very quickly and you need to make steering inputs early on to avoid spinning out. It will also introduce you to the e-brake and how to use it to initiate a slide.
Drive straight at about 10mph then put in the clutch, turn the wheel to the left and yank up on the ebrake briefly. This will take a few tries to get down at first because you will need to get used to doing all of these things at once. You will also need to learn how long to hold the e-brake for. Too little and you won't slide. Too much and you'll spin out. Once you initiate the slide countersteer right as if doing a donut. Do a few donuts just to get warmed up then quickly let off the gas for a moment. When you do this you shift the weight to the front of the car and your tires (0urned in a countersteer direction) will get more grip. When your front tires grab it will make the car turn to the right. As soon as you feel the weight shift quickly get back on the gas and countersteer left to compensate for the transition. Proceed to do a few more right handed donuts then simply repeat the throttle lift/countersteer maneuver to do a donut in the other direction once more. This drill will take more practice to master than the donuts but keep at it because it is a good way to learn how to drift without having a lot of space.
#3 Advanced Donuts
This donut drill will teach you how your throttle and steering movements can be used to tighten or widen up a drift. Start with the basic donut drill and begin doing tight circles around your position cone. As you circle play with your throttle a bit. You will notice that as you give it less gas your donut will begin to drift wide away from the cone and as you give it more gas it will bring you closer to the cone, tightening your donut. I find this drill highly useful when I want to test out how much grip a tire has and how it will behave in a drift.
#4 Advanced Figure 8's
The advanced figure 8 drill will teach you how to control your drifts with your throttle and steering inputs. You will need to set up 2 cones about 20 feet or so apart but this distance will vary from car to car. Just set the cones up at a distance that you feel comfortable with to start. Procede to do the basic figure 8 drill but this time try and do your donuts around each cone consecutively. You will notice immediately that it is much more difficult to stay within the proper boundaries. Adjust the cone distances as needed but make sure that you keep them within an appropriate distance to transition smoothly around the next cone without going in a straight line.
Once you get the hang of these drills then you will have a good solid foundation to execute a proper drift. Practice, practice, practice! You can't get better by reading this post. You have to be in a car and learn how it feels to slide the car around in order to improve. In my next segment I will discuss doing an actual drift and the different methods on how to go about initiating them.
Common Mistakes
-Keeping a hand on the shifter
It's not a handle for you to hold onto. You will need both hands to make quick transitions so keep them both on the wheel until you need to shift which won't happen often with these beginner drills.
-Letting go of the steering wheel to center the steering
Something I see often from beginners is that they will simply let their steering wheel center itself by letting the wheel slide through their hands or even by completely letting go of the wheel itself. This is a big no-no as a beginner. You need to keep your hands on the wheel at all times and use them to smoothly execute your steering and countersteering. As you get better you will eventually learn that sometimes letting go of the wheel is faster for transitions but as a beginner keep both hands on the wheel.
-Countersteering too late
I cannot emphasize enough how early you have to be with your countersteering. Many beginners will wait too long before they begin to countersteer which will result in a spin. As soon as you are about to enter the transition from one direction to another you need to be already countersteering in order to catch the transition without spinning.
-Too much gas
Beginners tend to feel that if they keep their foot on the gas and just steer a little bit more they will be able to pull out of a drift. They don't understand that the more gas you give the more angle you are giving the car and there is only so much steering you can give before you run out. Learning how to modulate your throttle is key on learning how to drift.
Stay tuned for part II of my 'How to Drift' series.