Noobs start here (BEGINNERS)

[driftinbaybay]

New Gal

Excellent post! Thanks for the info.

[mastamarek]

Hi everybody. I m new here. I found this forum via google. I have some questions that u might have the answers for. I ve finished 3day racing school and advanced car control from skipbarber racing school so I m not a complete noob. Basically I m looking for same places to practice. I live in chicago and all I can find is empty parking lots at churches during the night. Now is that illegal?? can I go to a parking lot and practice drifting or I ll get a ticket!? If so, anybody knows any good places around chicago to practice. If theres nobody from chicago, maybe someone knows any other drifting forums.
thx in advance
Marek

[Irishman91]

i've noticed their are some people here from the NW mainly Portland, where are their places to drift... preferably legal... if not then oh well i'll still drift. I'm new here and so far i'm diggin this forum, and especially the first post in this thread that will help a bunch

[Nissan-Fan]

this is too good witch this i can really do good drift

[hawaiian driftR]

lol dude

Since there have been many complaints about noobs infesting the forum and not using the infamous "search button," I took the liberty of doing it all myself for you noobs.


After reading that I think it would be a good time to read this post started by me to help choose a good car for a family member of mine.
Starter Car

So you think you found the right car for yourself, but don't know where to get one... Here's a site (also a magazine you can purchase) called AutoTrader. I personally recommend using this site due to the fact that:
A) Its easy to use.
B) You can find cars in your area.
C) Most of the cars are fairly cheap. (I bought my '91 300zx for about 4k using this site.)
There are other sites to use, but that is the best one that comes to mind.

Ok... So you bought a car (you have some left over cash) and now you want to make a couple modifications to it... No problem, but I would recommend getting used to your car in the stock form. But if you really insist on modding out your car, Yahoo has many auto part sales sites. A couple sites I have found useful are:
A) Mod-A-Car
B) 2kRacing
C) Advanced Auto
There are many, many more sites out there. So don't limit yourself to just those.

So let’s recap...
You've read up some on what drifting is.
You have a car. Maybe you slapped 15k into it maybe you didn't.
You've practiced for a couple weeks and feel you are up for new challenges. Here are some techniques (correct me if I am in anyway wrong past this point.)

I'm going to go in alphabetical order (not in order of difficulty) of what techniques I can think of. I'm also researching these as I go along so I get everything right. YES, I AM DOING RESEARCH FOR YOU!

First we have...

“Braking drifting”
To perform this, trail brake into a corner. As you do this, you will lose grip. When that happens, balance the car by steering and using throttle motions. This is normally used on medium to low speed corners.

“Clutch Kick”
To do this depress the clutch pedal while approaching or during a mild drift. Then pop the clutch to give a sudden jolt. When you do this, the jolt makes the driveline disturbed and the rear loses traction.

“Dirt Drop Drift” (If you have seen Initial D they refer to it as the “Gutter Technique.”)
This is performed by “dropping” the rear tires off the side of the road and into the dirt to keep or gain drift angle without losing power or speed and to set up for the next turn. Note that this technique is very useful for low horsepower cars. (Just like the “86.”)

"E-Brake Drift" (Described by Nissanguy_24)
This is a very basic technique. Just pull the hand break (a.k.a. the E-Break) to make the back of your car lose traction and balance the drift by steering and quick throttle motions. This can also be very useful when you need to correct errors or fine tune you angle of drift.

"Faint Drift"
To do this, rock the car towards the outside of the turn and then, using the rebound of grip, throw the car into the regular cornering direction. Quick note: This is a rally racing technique that is used to change your car’s approach during cornering, normally used on tight corners.

"FF Drift" (Front wheel drive drift)
The E-brake, steering, and braking techniques must be used to balance your car through the corner. The E-brake however is the main method used to balance out your drift.

"Jump Drift"
In this technique bounce the rear tire on the apex (this means the inside) of the turn over the curb to lose traction resulting in over steer.

"Kansei Drift"
You have to be pretty fast for this. When entering a high speed corner lift your foot off the throttle. This induces a mild over steer. Then balance the drift by steering and throttle motions. To do this however, your car should be a neutral balanced car. Therefore the over steer will induce itself. If the car plows through the turn this technique won’t work.

"Long Slide Drift"
Yet another use for the E-brake. Pull the E-brake through a strait to start a high angel drift and hold it so you set up for the turn ahead. Now remember, this can obviously only be done at high speed. Otherwise you wont slide to far.

I think that’s enough for now... There are many more techniques, but the best one is up to you. To look for more techniques and what not, visit the DRIFTING Technique forum. Its always good to read, but don't forget to practice. Anyways, by the time you learn half the techniques up there you are probably very good, or very lucky.

I hope this helped you all out. And I hope this clears up some of the useless threadage. I'm not trying to frighten anyone away, but due to a recent coalition of people not liking the forum being stormed by new comers and attacking them to use the "search button." Here is the work done for you, and I not only used the site's search button but Google as well.

I don't feel this is the best lesson in drifting, but it should give you a start and something to learn from. I'm, however, hoping this will become a sticky, but that is up to the administration.

u spelled brake wrong its spelled b-r-a-k-e not break lol nub go back to school

[Drift_Magazine]

thanks

This was a great read, thanks for the quick overview!

[gijoey]

hi, i'm new to this site but not new to the forum rules...search is my friend. the wife picked up a solstice gxp and i figured it wouldn't hurt for me to learn a bit more about drifting since i'll be using her ride to pick up milk . i've watched it on the speed channel and really enjoy the sport and i'm also looking into drift101, just waiting on some answers from them. either way, just going to spend some time reading the threads now.

[mmm moosed]

this is a really good thread... two thumbs up

[willman1080]

this helped me out ALOT thanks.Even though im 14 i love drifting,I don't know what car i want to get....or if i should start out in parking lots,country roads,ect. and i dont want to drift because its popular(trust me,its not that popular where i live) i want to do it because i love it. ive been watching it forever and if annybody can help me out,thanks. oh yeah...im new to this site

[cheesy586]

nice this will really help but I already know all the info about drifting, But I need to if I cant drift certain cars, like SUVs, and I mean drifting them on dry pavement

[neuspeed]

nice

nice reading there,, but it will more useful if u can devide to basic technique and advance technique.. so for newbie,, they can practice the basic technique of drifting which are power over, clutch kick and E-brake.. juz my 2 cent

[Ageara]

WOW this helped alot thanks

[CaptainCanuck]

Why does everyone here call it a feint drift? Until reading this description had no idea what was being talked about. Now, if you are talking about turning the car the opposite direction of the turn, then the direction of the turn, and finally catching it with opposite lock. (Then of course leting the back slide out as far as you dare, and hard on the throttle to brig it back straight). Are you not talking about the old Scandinavian flick?

[CaptainCanuck]

As far as I know, that is the reality of the situation. The question i, will my claim be accepted, or am I going to have to fight for this one?

[eyehate]

So now that you all know the different drift techniques, how do you set your car up to drift?

Here is some info to help out low horsepower drifters (cross platform). This helped me learn very quickly and took out a ton of the frustration my friends were having.

Get a grip. If your front tires are old, or are no good you won't be able to drift very well. Spend some coin on a good set of fronts. This will be the difference between a fun day at the track and hitting a tire wall. Grippy front tires will allow you to initiate harder, corner faster and hold more angle than those take offs you snagged from the local tire shop.

Don't be a baller. If you have 94 horsepower, then why are you trying to drift 18x10's? They make look the part, but they will only make you frustrated. Besides, 18's are expensive. Bite the trend bullet and get yourself a few sets of 15 or 16" rims. You are not only saving a ton of rotating weight by doing this, but a smaller diameter wheel accelerates quicker.

Size matters. Wide tires are great for grip driving. You are trying to drift with little power, so don't go out and source a 235 series tire because its fits the 18's mentioned above. Take the 15's or 16's you just got and fit them with a skinny little 205 series or less. Again less rotational weight, and more important, less rear contact patch.

Pump it up. 65psi in your rear tires nuff said. Just watch out, because when those suckers blow, they blow.

Disconnect. If you are having problems initiating or holding a drift, try to disconnect one of the endlinks on your front sway bar. You don't have to take the whole sway off, just the one link. This will make the front end a bit softer than the rear and make initiating and holding a drift much easier.

Make the investment. Buy a good set of coils. You may already know this will help, but you have no idea how much it actually does. Run a few degrees of - camber up front, and some out back if you are having problems with too much rear grip (only if 70psi is not working for you).

At this point you should have the basis to take your car to the track and have a ton of fun.

hope this helped!