Drifting
What is drifting?
Basically, drifting is intentionally oversteering your car sideways down a road. It sounds a lot like power sliding (for all those who aren’t familiar with this term I had explained in this post) huh? Well it isn’t. It’s much more complex. Instead of a drifter initiating a drift and then correcting it to straighten out, he will over correct so that the car goes into another drift. That is why most drifters prefer mountains, because there are many sharp turns strung together. So in short, a good drifter has the ability to take five or six opposing turns without having traction at any point in time.
In technical terms, drifting counts to the difference in slip angle between the front and rear tires of a car. The car is said to be drifting or oversteering when the rear wheels are slipping at a greater angle than the front wheels. It seems like, the rear end of the car chase the front end around a turn, the driver uses both front tires and the rear tyres to control the actual direction of the car. Throttling induces more rear wheel slip angle and the rear of the car tries to overtake the front. The goal is, for the driver to use steering lock to control the direction and use the throttle to fine tune the car’s angle and direction.
Drifting is said to be a distinguished oversteering and that too completely through the corners . Drifting is usually done with FWD(front wheel drive) vehicles, as the weight distribution characteristics and power of these cars are ideal for drifting. Drifting may be done informally for fun. But in a formal setting the goal is a mix of fun and building skills for improved car control, or in competitive motorsports. In competitive motor sports, drifting is rated on style, rather than speed around a track or position in a group of cars. Overall performance of a drift is judged on four factors:
- Line
- Cornering angle
- Speed
- Excitement/style.
Drifting is never to drive the fastest way around a racetrack. Drifting is useful in rallying, but drifting slower than conventional techniques in circuit racing.
