When attempting a drift, my car understeers so bad I shoot off the road into the grass. I have been practicing in a local factory's parking lot. Using the ebrake it is controllable at low speeds but with a feint or overpower I go straight into the grass. When I try to do circles and figure eights it pitches a bitch and heads towards the grass. I have an 85 celica that I have no problems with.

Suggestions appreciated.

Kane

 

are you pushing the go pedal all the way.

 

are you running on stock suspension?

 

Basically if your sliding off your tires fail.

 

Also, I doubt your car has an LSD. I've heard this helps conciderably to get you some oversteer. I've watched that drifters bible video, and "the drift king" says an old worn down/non existant LSD will cause the car to push through the turns, and not be able to do doughnuts/figure 8s well.

 

You need to get into higher rpm's when you start your drift....when you get into higher rpm's your back end will swing out more and get rid of the under steer. When you begin to understeer try this: push in the clutch and let it rev up to about 6500 and drop the cluth...your backend should swing out and get rid of your understeer. Atleast thats what happends to me when i drift and thats how i fix it...

btw i have stock suspension and an open diff!! So if i can get rid of understeer im sure you can haha

 

and another thing....drifting is all about throttle control!! you gotta stay up in those rpm's and kick out your backend when neccesary. Unfortunately we cant just floor it!!

 

it doesn't sound like he has a problem initiating the drift, but holding it, to me it sounds like his suspension is too soft and the weight is shifting off his front tires, he also said it was hard to ebrake drift at anything other than slow speeds. i'm gonna assume it's his suspension, or possibly tires, maybe he isn't feinting hard enough also,

 

if he was gripping with his front tires more he'd be spinning out inward rather than sliding off into the grass

 

true...im just saying i have stock suspension and shitty tires along with an open diff. But i can still hold drifts using the technique i stated above...

it takes a lot of practice and learning from your mistakes!!

 

and no drifting isn't all throttle , you can start a drift by braking too hard at high speeds and come out of it by tapping the throttle and braking alittle, but during that drift your not on the throttle at all

 

also maybe the *** of your car is still too heavy,

 

well i dont think he's talkin about doing high speed drifts yet...but to hold a drift, besides high speed braking drifts, you dont use throttle control?? cause thats how i get around round-abouts a good 6 or 7 times. I dunno i guess everyone has a different technique and i just tried to help him out by stating mine. I havnt tried any highspeed things yet...like i said i have stock suspension and all that

 

hahaha my *** or his?

 

no your totally correct about that. i was just saying that drifting isn't all throttle control. for low speed drifting is almost totally throttle control especially for figure8s or roundabouts

 

i must discover a parking lot secluded and decently close,

 

if your car is well balanced, it should oversteer naturally when you use braking techniques. works for me...
apply some heavy breaking to transfer the weight onto your front tires while steering. for a car that understeers, it needs to have enough contact patch on the front tires for optimum grip.
if you get the timing correct, the tail should start to slide into the corner.
that's when i toggle the accelerator, or use power over...
do you use heel-toe?

 

no my feet are too big heeh god damn size 13 adidas

 

hahah, i drive best when i'm bare-footed. alot of those racing shoes are skin tight...

 

I wear 13-14 shoes and can heel toe - it's more like side of the foot-toe though. It works fine for me.

 

no matter what car i've driven it's almost impossible for me to get my right foot sideways enough to reliably hit both pedals, i think i'm gonna take a rally school that teachs 2 footed braking, that could help me

 

haha i drift bare foot all the time!! well actually just one shoe off for my clutch. i know im weird!! but i cant heel-toe either...feet are way to big and my legs are too long. but like Mad Man i do side foot-toe hahaha...i put my foot in between both pedals and kinda roll my ancle a little!!

 

when my cars shocks were really worn out my car understeered like a bitch. after new tires it still did but not quite as bad. then i got new shocks and springs (adjustable) and got rid of the understeer. shocks and springs are your best friend if you want to drift or even drive spirited

 

hmm ill have to get those some day lol (broke college student)

 

17x8 with 235,45,zr17 contisportcontact tires. I wouldn't think tires are the issue. Suspension is stock but still solid. I have noticed the DTSS is worn since it toes hard on bumps. No lsd doing 45 and jamming it into 1st then feint, clutch, and power at the same time. Works great on the old celica and even better on the Starion before the engine gave out.

As the rear begins to come out further the front understeers harder. I'm gonna get some more seat time in this evening and try some different techniques/timing.

Thanks for the input,
Kane