ok no offense to the drifters out there but if I was on a road course wouldn't that just slow you down? My friend argued with me that drifting corners is faster than biting into it taking it nicely not sliding.

 

drifting is just for show. its not faster, nor is that the point of drifting.

no offense to you, but i really hope this doesnt open up another flame war against drifting

 

no no I drift at times its fun but not on like autocross or nothing, he was saying.....well he drives a honda and is all into that stuff. He doesn't autoX. I don't want a flame war against drifting

 

Depends on what style of drift you use. High speed drift, which is what Keiichi Tsuchiya used to use in the JGTC and at LeMans, is effective at maintaining speed through corners. What a lot of people don't understand is the difference between high speed drift and show drift.

 

i really dont see how drifting is going to cut seconds off a lap time unless you are rally racing.

 

A four-wheel dirft is the fastest way through a turn in a well-balanced, RWD car, because torque from the rear tires provides additional traction. I've never seen a drifting event, but if it's about cornering sideways on asphalt, then you're right, it's not the fastest way through a turn, and it's not a drift in the original sense of the word.

 

yeah, lets just keep it at that because we all know what can happen with these threads.

 

Drift, in the original sense of the term, fully applies to four wheel drift. In the 1960s racing was dominated by small European cars, the American drivers, in order to keep up, had to develop a better form of driving. Rather than the standard line tracing that had classically been used, and put the heavy Mako Shark Corvettes and Scarabs at a disadvantage, they developed a technique of sliding the car around the corner to maintain speed. Even before that, in the 20s and 30s, cars had little in the way of power, to get an edge some drivers would slide on the corners. The basic idea is that you pitch the car sideways at a minimal angle, not the wide show drift popularized by Japanese drifters, allowing all four tires to slide around a corner. My favorite anecdote to the value of drifting in racing is a story my grandfather told me. He was at a race at Riverside, four Jags were in the lead. The reason: they used four wheel drift to maintain the lead. By the end they were so far ahead of the nearest competetor, a Birdcage Masarati, that they all four show drifted the final corner onto the straights.

 

If you really want to see what makes drifting faster, try and get ahold of some 2003 and earlier JGTC videos and watch the Arta NSX.

 

I'm sorry for giving this thread a bump. The first thing I thought upon reading the first few posts was "Not agaaaiiiinn!" I just wanted to say that I reeeaaalllly wish we had two DIFFERENT, standardized words to describe the two different major types of the "D" word. I.E, the arta nsx type and the "go buy a s13 240 cuz it's the cheapest platform fer the best performance" type. Hi all, i don't post much.

"but officer, what I was doing is actually the SLOW way around a corner, honest!"

 

Oh god, i just realized what I did. Okay, upon reading my last post, NOBODY is allowed in this thread to use the phrases "240", "180", "silvia", "S13". Yay. one more for the thread count, and all in the name of justice.
anybody got movies of drifting 1st gens?

 

yea.... "me"

 

no videos, but heres me from a USDrift event 15 minutes down the street from me. its fun, but in no means faster.

and with the nsx, i think yea, it would be going faster than me around a turn, but take that same car, and set it up for less oversteer, and im sure it would go alot faster through a turn. your loosing traction, how can it be faster. you come to a point where you no longer worry about taking to right race line (kinda), to keeping your car sideways.

 

The difference with a speed drift is that you don't pitch it so far. The drift that most people think of is a rally drift, wide angle back end kicked out drift, the high speed drift is low angle and really doesn't look like much. Its actually more effective with cars that understeer as a compensating method. Think of it this way: FF cars use a technique where they brake with their left foot as they apply the gas to reduce understeer. In theory hitting the brake makes the car slower, but in the overall scheme of the line, it makes it faster.
Interesting side note: professional drift drivers, D1 drivers, are required to follow a precise racing line when they drift. Failure to do so means almost no points.

 

I was at a track once and watched a bunch of older mini's go around. They were keeping up with the rest of the pack, which consised of cars with WAY more power. It also looked like they were doing a low angle drift, such as a high speed drift.

 

nice picts =)


nb: if you do show drift is slower, but if you master the high speed drifting is tooo fasttt toooo furious rotfl

 

in theroy, you can only take a turn as fast as your tires traction(meaning loss of traction = loss of speed). but if you go fast enough into the turn, and perform a high speed drift correctly and effenciatly(sp?), you can take that turn at higher speeds than your traction limit. and thats how takumi in intial D beats his opponets(J\K). buy a copy of the Drift Bible by Drift King. he does a whole segment on high speed drifting called "Drift Attack!"

~Steve

 

I am terrible soory but if you call the picture of the SA drifting I think I sell have too sell my car...
It looks like if the car have bloody parked on the biggest parking lot in space, in the country where I come from drifting cars leave a little smoke from the rear tires... So please leave your Yeanke cars in the garages, they stink!

SWEDEN RULES!

 

I'm pretty sure alot of you will agree with me that the above statement was uncalled for.

I forsee an intercontinental flaming.

 

Arvika, WTF was that for. It is totally uncalled for. If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything.

 

BTW: Sweden does not rule, as with Switzerland and Finland they take a neutral stance in everything.

What, so I gave him a literal definition for an abstract concept!