Develop your skills to have 100% control over a car

Drifting is a technique where you intentionally slide the rear tires of a car while cornering but maintain control of the vehicle despite the unstable condition. This is typically done with front-engine rear-wheel-drive cars but can also be done with powerful 4WD cars. Being able to clear corners sideways in a car is a level of skill all drivers aspire to achieve, maintaining 100% control over their cars.

To master drifting, you must get used to sliding in a car. Stop the car in a large safe area and turn the steering wheel fully to the left or the right. While in this state, place the car in first gear, raise the engine's RPM, and connect the clutch all at once. The rear tire will spin, and the car will go into a sidespin. Once you have the car in this condition, you need to maintain the side-slip. With the steering wheel still turned, step on the accelerator and try to get the car to rotate around a point. It’s recommended that old, worn tires be used for this training!

Fig. 16-1: Image of a constant circular turn while drifting.

Once you have a feel for drifting, work on controlling the side-sliding with the accelerator and steering. If the rear is slipping too much and the car seems like it will go into a spin, accelerate slightly and turn the steering wheel in the same direction that the car started sliding out towards. This will settle down the rear end and maintain your drift. If you keep practicing, you should get a sense of this balance. This is called countersteering.

Fig. 16-2 shows a car taking a corner while drifting. The car goes into the corner over-speeding slightly, and the rear load is reduced through strong braking, initiating the sliding of the rear tires. Once the car is at the clipping point, the sideways slide is controlled with the accelerator as it heads towards the corner exit. Here, countersteer is added, and the tires are turned in a direction opposite to the direction of the corner's bend.

Fig. 16-2: An image of drift cornering. Take note that the front wheels are facing away from the corner at the clipping point. This operation is called countersteering.

Drifting looks impressive, but power is lost when side-sliding too much, causing a reduction in speed which affects lap times. If the tires slip during a race, you should try to settle down the slippage very quickly.