ximi

which of these is the best place to go to learn to drift ?

or can someone recommend a school that can teach or specializes in drifting ?

in or as close to california as possible =)

BlackR1

There are no classes that will teach you how to drift. There is no quick and easy way to learn. It takes lots of tires, and LOTS of practice. So remember, TIME=MONEY . It may also cost you your car, your life, a few control arms, tie rods, tension rods, bushings, a fender...etc etc. Its not a matter of if you'll crash...it's a matter of when.

Go to racing school, learn the basics of how to grip. Start going into more advance techniques, like late braking, trail braking, early apex, late apex etc etc. Once you've mastered grip, then you should be familiar with the physics involved in drifting.

Take some drivers training classes, and then go to auto-x to get some practice and seat time. If you can swing it, go to some track events.

www.skipbarber.com
www.scca.org
www.speedtrialusa.com
www.turnfast.com

the learning curve is very steep. Just because you watched some Option videos and Initial D doesnt mean you know the fundamentals...it's difficult.

JonesersRX7

I see you are in CA. Check out the site: http://www.bondurant.com/ It is in AZ but... It's a little closer then CT (Skip Barber) Don't know about the others. But I took a couple of classes and it's alot of fun. Except you drive orange mustangs! But they do have F1 cars and other stuff.

Just saw the others listed and thought I would toss this up.

-- Eric

Lunar7

Drifting is the slow way around a corner.

As Black R1 said, learn the correct way to drive at speed first.
Driving schools are the best money you will ever spend on mods.

Then start attending track events and practice your driving style.
Just make sure you have plenty of clear track behind you when you drift the turns.
You don't want to get collected up by the person behind you.

Also I would not try to learn drifting on an FD.
Drifting will take you off track many times untill you master the technique.
The FD is too nice of a car to jeporadize while learning how to drift.

Also you might try ralycrossing in a beater car to help you learn the sideways style of driving.

skunks

Yup, it takes lots of time and money and a few front bumpers. You might wanna take off your front bumper when you go out at night to do this. Like Black R1 said; You just gotta accept the fact that it's not if you will crash, it's when you will crash because you will definantly will (I'm not saying your a shitty driver or anything, it's just something that will happen to even the best of us). Infact, I put my car into a dirt embankment just last week. I suggest you find a empty parking lot and practic in there. Drifting is sometimes the slowest way around a corner but still it's very fun and it's something our cars can do very well bone stock. Also, it's great to know what to do just in case your put in to that situation.

BTW: I do think it is the fastest way around a very tight hairpin turn.

Watch out for the kick back/slap which happens if you don't push enuf gas and the tire grip suddenly in a corner. From my experience, you only need about 40% throttle in either 1st or second gear to spin the tires like crazy in a hard turn. (No wonder so many people put their cars in to walls when getting on to the highway and flooring the gas to pick up a bit of speed...)

Be aware that it's not like the Initial D vids where you will be calm and slow in a turn, it gets hella scary when the curb is comming closer and closer and your sliding like crazy and you can't do anything about it. Things happen very fast and your gonna need to do things like they are automatic or your gonna eat it.

BTW: You will need lots of throttle control, you never go full throttle thru a corner, if you do, your gonna spin out. Also, once you get your car sliding by flicking your steering wheel into the turn (I use the flick/power over), your gonna wanna let go of the steering wheel or throw it in the opposite direction (yes it's hard to believe but this is the best/fastest way) and let the wheel correct itself, then when you know when the time is right (this takes lots of practic to know when this is) catch the steering wheel and modulate gas and steering.
The E-brake is not totally useless in our cars, you can use it to start a drift but note that the tires will not lock up!

As for your setup, Front suspension should be softer while the rear should be tighter. Also, you should know about camber/caster adjustments as well as brake upgrades. Blah blah blah the normal drift stuff

One of the easiest things you can do to make your car fish tail is to buy S-03's up front and put some crappy tires like Nitto 450's (what I'm running) in the rear. You should beable to power over very easily with these crappy tires, especially when its wet out!

Tie rods cost 80 bucks each for the internal and the outer tie rods cost 45-50 bucks for each and they can snap very easily in a slide/crash. FD parts cost a lot of money!

Personnaly, I would get a drift bitch to learn on like a FC or a 240sx. If you crash one of these and total it, its pretty much gonna cost you the same amount as when you scrape up your rims on your FD.




Good luck dude!

P.S. I suggest a 5 or 6pt safty harness, they really do keep you in your seat. Also, you might wanna consider getting a roll cage and a racing seat. Also, have a cell phone and the number of a local towing company handy to get you out of a ditch!

skunks

It's true that driving schools will teach you a great deal in how to control your car on a track but...

1. They cost a lot of money.
2. You only have a couple of hours of instruction and they hardly teach you anything about drifting because in the majority of the time, it is the slowest way around a corner. (but is also the most fun way to get around a corner)

skunks

opps, forgot to mention that you might wanna get an aftermarket steering wheel and/or remove that airbag!

martini

better yet, go to a rally racing school.

ximi

thanx guys
from what i'm reading i'll probably head to racing or performance driving school first

redrotorR1

NEVER, and I mean, NEVER let go of the steering wheel. You are playing with fire if you do that. When you let go, the wheel can spin any amount and you have no control of where the car will be pointed next. It's called the "wheel of death" when you do this. Unless you just absolutely want to wreck your car ....

Drifting is slow. Powersliding is slow. Most people don't realize that you lose time by waiting for the tires to regain traction as the car is sliding sideways. You ever wonder why F1 racers look slow coming into a hard corner? They're braking early and waiting for the apex to get on the throttle ... that's the fast way around a corner.

But if you insist on drifting, there are better ways to go about it. Easiest thing to do is raise the rear tire pressures. If you effectively reduce the contact patch, the slip angle will be less, and the rear will be prone to step out. Coming into a corner, just brake REAL late, snap the wheel over towards the direction you're heading, and quickly get back on the throttle. You'll need to get the front tires pointed straight very quickly as well. The trick from there is modulating the throttle to keep the tires spinning while maintaining enough traction to keep the car on the same line.

But, if you must to do this, do try and do this on a track where there are no obstacles for you to hit if you lose it. Chances are, you will lose it everytime you try it. Also, on a track, there will hopefully be trained professionals to treat you immediately, should you wreck or something horrible like that.

grampa

All the tracks I am aware of will black flag you for such foolishness. Rally or dirt track is the only venue where drifting has any practical use and is taught. Anywhere else it is just showing off.

Is that your intent?

Turbo23

iTrader: (4)

lol u could always find parking lots or maybe a track around u, that way u can avoid crashes and what not, making it safer and fun

BlackR1

drifting, aka tail-out jackassery

it takes a lot of skill...i can apreciate it for that... but a lot of people just dont realize how much it takes.

RX7Elmo

if you want to learn how to drift DO NOT go to driving schools and do not go to track days. They will kick you off for doing such a thing. You can also not intentionally drift an an auto-x. No one likes to clean up 30 cones after some guy went crazy.

i would go to www.club4ag.com The AE86 guys alway setup "drift track days" at thunderhill or button willow. They even have people that can teach you.

Drifting is a skill that i do appreciate. I personally think the FC is better at drifiting than the FD is.

Danny

skunks

Hmmm are you sure about this, what is your technique for turning your steering wheel? (Note: I'm not being sarcastic here, I'm trying to learn how your able to spin your steering wheel that fast; I have tried shuffle stearing and hand over hand and they are much too slow for drifting and the easiest way I have found is to let her rip.)

In anycase, everyone has their own way of doing it.

BTW: I recently learned that you are driving an auto which will make it a bit harder to learn how to do these things. I suggest you get a manual car, it's much easier to learn on that.

TobiasRX

drifting is easy, especially with an FD Just be careful where you do it cause even if you feel like u have control, one little mistake can make u lose control.

But dont ever slide unless you have over half the tank full!!
If you do the fuel gets to the otherside and stays there and the fuelpump doesnt pump any fuel and you could blow your engine. I've also heard that it's most sensitive to this when u turn left and i can say that thats probably true.

cabaynes

iTrader: (4)

if you were to pick a racing school, i would suggest Panoz, look it up at www.panozracingschool.com -- i took a one day about a month ago at Road Atlanta and it was the time of my life... you get to drive race ready panoz GT-R cars, and the instructors are great...

Wuppy

If you are new to racing do NOT start with an FD!
Do it like all the great F1 racers do and start with a go cart without shifter first and work your way up.
For what you pay for a driving school you can buy your own race cart. Drifting in those is total fun and does not cost an arm and a leg.
Watch that tire barrier coming closer.....

BlackR1

you're crazy if you think the FD is easy to drift in. The FD is almost too balanced and has too much grip to drift on a stock setup.

Wuppy is on the money. You can't just buy a sports car and expect to be a Schummy right off the bat. Racing is 80% driver 20% car

skunks

I would think the FD is super easy to drift with, you can easily power over into a corner (you don't even need to clutch kick to get the rear to start spinning).

scratchjunkie

do figure 8 dognuts in an empty parking lot =D

jpandes

Kris(ximi),

I thought you were selling the FD.
~ J

redrotorR1

You can do the cross-over technique. Keep your hands at 9 and 3 o'clock on the steering wheel. When your top hand has to cross over the 12 o'clock position, just let your arms crossover so that your hands are now in opposite position (i.e. the left hand that was at 9 o'clock is now at 3 o'clock, albeit upside-down; and vice versa). And when you have to right the car, you turn in opposite direction and your hands return to the original position without ever having left the wheel. If this doesn't make sense now, just try it when you get in your car next. Keep turning the wheel and let you arms cross ... you'll see what I'm talking about. I don't personally use this method, I prefer the shifty-hands technique ... but it works for F1 racers.

skunks

I saw this technique in a autocross book I have but I think that this technique is a bit too slow, also I think F1 racers use it because they hardly ever have to turn more then 180 degrees hence they don't need to take there hands off the wheel. The shifty hands/shuffle technique is what I use also but its still a bit slow I think for drifting. Anyways, I learned the let go (throw)/catch technique from a friend of mines that drifts a camaro (one of the best in Hawaii, he was featured in a recent car and driver infact). Also, I have seen this done on lots of Option vids and it does seem to work, at least for me.

TobiasRX

i learned my driving in my wintercar. A Volvo 240 wich only cost 300 dollars. Man i just love drifting with it on the slippery snowroads. i even have went off a few times but thats how you learn