After seeing all the great drifting videos I have the desire to learn how to drift the car. I've had the rear step out on me but never to that degree and definitely not with that kind of control. If some one has a basic idea on how to do this under control please respond. I will learn with my buddies beater {old cop issue Caprice Classic} at our local mall parking lot. If all goes well with the beater I will tear up the S02 on the S2000. damn drifting looks like fun.

 

How do you drift? Practice practice practice. Also, if you seriously want to have fun drifting, the S02s are nowhere near the best tires for that. They're way way too sticky. Having said that, the S2000 as a car even with the S02s is easy to drift because of its balance. All you do is apply full throttle through a corner in the lowest gear possible and at the turn in point "jerk" the steering wheel in the direction you want to turn. This will break the back end loose, stay full throttle and just control the car. Don't be too quick to countersteer with the honda, especially with the s02s, because you will almost immediately just obtain grip and the car will come out of the drift. You honestly might as well just start practicing on the stook, this car was made for drifting. Just remember, once you break the back end loose STAY FULL THROTTLE and you won't loose control. If you let off the gas or tap the brake the car will spin around in the direction of the turn, but if you stay on the gas and countersteer the car will simply go where you want it to. One main thing to remember is vision. Always keep your eyes focused on a particular point where you want the car to go and you won't hit anything else

 

Cool description xpander4. You are correct about staying full throttle. There's a deserted road near my house with a big ol' bend perfect for this when it rains. When I get my back end out there, I have a tendency to get off the throttle (those darn safty instincts), and the car snaps back the other way.

Some driving schools also teach you car control on skid pads at the track. Skip Barber has an entire course on car control. It's expensive, but it's also one of the top driving schools, and they go to a number of tracks around the country. SCCA classes are much cheaper, but I'm not sure how much they do with this subject.

 

practice at a skid pad please, we don't want to see pics of your car after smashing into a curb/wall/debris/people/etc.

s02s are not too sticky, I can drift just fine on my RA1s and they're quite a bit stickier. It takes a good bit of practice to do it perfect. Remember though it is fun, and knowing how to control a drift can be good in the unexpected times you lose traction, it's not the fastest way to move.

Another thing that helps drifting is to have your diff in PERFECT working order, with very good fluid in there.

I would say staying at full throttle is not always the best move, you want to keep a balance on the throttle so you can both keep the car sliding and moving. Once I saw a guy who was staying on the throttle do a complete spin, the car stops forward motion and he stood still while spinning his tires b/c there wasn't a chance for the tires to get ANY grip.

After practice your instincts will start kicking in and doing things for you.

 

So let me get this straight. As you are entering a turn say 40 mph in second or third. enter the turn and turn the steering wheel in the direction you want to go. at the same time allow the car to decelerate a little while keeping you engine speed up. once the car is turning let off of the clutch and the rear tires will break loose. Keep even but high rpm and allow the car to come around. When you want to stop your drift counter steer out and let the rear end come back to normal driving.

 

I did not see any comments about touching the clutch in this situation. Yoiu have no control over the rear of the car with the clutch in and you're likely to miss the whole turn if you're messing witht the clutch or shifter. I've always thought that using the clutch thru the turns or shifting gears mid-turn gets the car out of shape and usually means you were too hot coming into a turn and lack of experience gets the best of a driver and they try to slow it down too late...

 

nEVERCLEAR
True - Often if you are going into a turn and find that your are too hot braking and lifting off the accelerator can induce a spin or at least cause the read end of the car to become light. I may be misinterpreting the information above but it seems that the idea is to unload the rear to bring it out and next and get back on the gas to control the rear end. Even throttle pressure with the proper steering input should keep everything going in the intended path. All the while scaring the crap out of your girlfriend, wife, significant other and strangers in the opposing lane.

I could be very wrong seeing as I have never attempted this maneuver. If I am please let me know.

 

I only use the gas to do this. Approach about 25mph is second, with plenty of room to the outside, punch it and pull the wheel hard once then back a bit as the end moves out. And I've only done it in the rain. I'd probably need hella more power to do this on dry pavement. Need a very even throttle here (much better description than WOT). Let off at all and the rear end bites and you get a good jolt. Too much gas or too long a slide and I hit the rev limiter. I've only done this a couple times so I'm not sure I'm exactly correct. But I grew up sliding my A$$ end around nearly every corner in the icy Wisconsin winters. Lots more fun in the snow; nice, easy, loooong, controlled drifts with just the slightest bit of throttle. Can be sideways for a looong time like that.

 

I hear that teh NSX is one of the easiest cars to drift in, it's just so easy to control it.

I have tried to explain the thing about staying on the throttle to my friend, but he freaks out and instinct is to let off the gas. He popped a tire on the curb in his GT.

 

Like the Unabageler said, practice on a skid pad first.

Are you talking about a 4 wheel drift? I don't know how to do that yet but I will after I take the Skip Barber Car Control Clinic .

You can rotate the rear end easily without jerking the car around. You need to carry more speed coming into a corner and trail brake until about the midpoint of the turn. As you start releasing the brake pedal before the midpoint (do it very slowly) the front tires pick up more traction and the rear end will become lighter and slide out. Your car will start pointing in the direction you want to go, then slowly transition onto the throttle after the midpoint of the turn and when you are pointed in the right direction, go to full throttle. It's a great feeling when you get it right