I know the normal "FWD" Drifter responses....

But what if a FWD car could whip the rear out in a turn WITHOUT the e-brake? Maybe with some practice, they could hold it out in the corner.....would it still be drifting?

Charles

 

I think it would, because drifting is basically a controlled slide in it's simplest form. I don't think the definition says it has to have rwd cars excusively, though it would be optimum because of the handling charactaristics of a rwd car compared to other types.

ag04

 

Here is a Mazda 6 that was going through the desert....car started to drift "naturally"....

Sorry footage is so rough...I didn't shoot it.

http://gcubed.sytes.net/SC3/20040605/drift_0002.wmv

Charles

 

you can make anycar oversteer - all it takes is a stiff rear sway bar to make the rear end kick out. The difference is when you try to accelerate. a rwd will oversteer on throttle, so you can keep the drift going. a fwd will UNDERSTEER on throttle, so you basicly you cannot accelerate much or you'll kill the drift.

If you were to setup a fwd to have a huge tendancy to oversteer, you could control the oversteer by hitting the throttle creating understeer to do nice drifts, but the car would be impossible to drive on the street like this because the rear end would want to kick out all the time! Another problem is its impossible for the car to gain or even conseve speed while sliding like a rwd can.

having said that, if I had a fwd I would be out there trying to drift it....

-Jeff

 

As an FF Drifter, let me sound off.

It was once said on Drifting.com that FF Drift is like gay sex. Sure, you're having sex but it's still just gay.

That said, there is no REAL future in FF Drifting. The exit speeds are always lower than similar cars that FR. It's alot harder to link turns. And a high speed course like Homestead, the FF Drifter would be screwed.

That's my $.02...

-Ducky

 

MY car right now I can nail it threw a turn and when I lift off the rear end comes out. I can also go into a turn "hot" and feint it then nail the throttle to keep from spinning it is kinda like a RWD drift. (the second technique has only been tried on dirt)

Thats my experience.

 

youve got it backwards. a high speed course would benefit the ff drifter, because they rely on momentum and weight transfer to cause oversteer, a lot moreso than fr because you cant use techniques like clutch kicks or power over.

lets talk theory; consider the physics. with a rwd car, you can enter the corner and brake hard, the car leans forward and takes weight off the back wheels. combined with your turn in, where weight transfers to your outside wheels, your drift is basically leaning on the front outside tire. look at my signature, where is the car leaning? see? then, once you add throttle, boom, youre controlling oversteer, keeping a decent angle with steering, and trying not to hit stuff like people or guardrails.

in FF, you enter really hot, and i would assume that a feint would get the weight to shift the hardest, but it would be easy to just loop the car. you cant control oversteer as easily as you can with fr, at least not with the same techniques... and basically i assume that you decide the fate of your slide with your entrance. to get that car to get out, and stay out, you need a fast entry speed and a hard weight shift, then let off the throttle and let the back kick out, although you could go wider with ebrake combined with heavy throttle to maintain some speed .


it makes sense that you need a higher entry speed to induce a stronger weight shift just to initiate the slide, and to maintain a semi-decent exit speed since youll prolly ebrake the balls out of your car getting an angle that doesnt suck. on a technical track like primus, there arent enough straights to gain speed to allow for a long, wide slide that will compete anywhere near the level of an fr, not like thats the point, but it just makes it useless at said track. now homestead on the other hand...

 

agemomai. i think you have the last part backwards. on a large course like homestead an FF will lose all of its momentum. a lot of what you are talking about is off throttle over steer and/or trail braking which is a great technique for ff in even a road race for certain turns. but when you throw in huge turns like that you get a very rapid deceleration rate to the point that your rear tires will just grip and youll go straight again a little after the apex. primus is a great track for FF. im 100% positive i can tear it up 10-40mph in my prelude with out problems. theres more than just yanking the wheel and pulling the ebrake. things like having the ebrake on and tapping the brakes to initiate, get great slip angles, or even keep a slide going an extra 20ft. it all depends on the turn. i would love to show how its done in an FF at Primus, but sadly the prelude is currently out of comission and im stuck driving this piss ass slow s13 coupe. the thing is soooo slow its annoying, and i think the handling is sub par to the lude and i have more upgrades done to it. for some reason i think i like to grip more than i like to slide.

 

so if you enter slower into a slide you will exit faster? i dont mean like gripping, as a loss of traction occurs when you enter a turn too hot so slower entry speed is preferred, but typically with drift, a very fast entry helps to make a very fast exit. look at tony shultz(yellow s14) or seigou (falken s14) from homestead. if they rolled at like 40 into a turn, they would have been screwed, you cant get a good angle on a track like that without inertia, bottom line.

youre going to lose speed, its a drift. a higher (though controlled) entry speed should counter that loss of speed. a 70+mph slide is going to be longer, wider, faster, and smoother than one at 10 mph, no question. to an extent, considering the shape of the corner, a higher entry speed into a slide will make for a higher exit speed.

 

i think you misinterpreted what i said.

what i was saying is its easy to make a succesful slide on a smaller turn cause you dont have a whole lot of distance to slow down. but you go to homestead and you only have so much distance for an approach. say you get to 70mph the turn their. cause you turn is so big you will lose so much speed that youll most likely grip before you exit the turn. like you prob drop to 30-40mph which isnt anywhere fast enough to go through those turns sideways in ff. you need forward momentum for the rear wheels to complete something like that.


when you attack a turn at primus going about 40mph you can hold it a little before the turn and carry it through while dropping to about 15-20mph at the exit and youre still sideways.