Perfect drift??? Sounds like some people are suffering from Big Wheel Envy

My son had a Big Wheel when he was growing up and used to do perfect drifts trasitioning from our driveway onto the sidewalk. They didn't make Big Wheels when I was a kid and I was always envious.

If my S drifts, it's because I went in a little deep on a corner I'm not familliar with. At that point it's drift it or lose it. Stay on the gas, a little opposite lock and hope there's enough road to get out of the turn

 

Not always true. It really depends on the car, the surface, and, especially, the tires. Rally drivers wouldn't be sideways all the time if it weren't faster. The old F1 cars (basically up through the early 80s) also necessitated drifting to get maximum speed. Gilles Villeneuve was (in)famous for getting his Ferrari completely sideways lap after lap.

What it comes down to is exit speed. If, by drifting, you can brake less through a turn, thus maintaining a higher speed at the exit, and still have the car positioned correctly coming out, then drifting is faster.

Of course, tire wear is the big concern. Getting completely sideways may be fast for *one lap*, but if it destroys the tires then it's clearly not the thing to do in a race. So, qualifying setups may differ substantially in how much the car can drift (relative to race-day setups).

From my track experiences, our cars respond well to occasional mild drifting. Get into a long, full-blown power slide, however, and you'll smoke the S02s to the point that they're essentially useless for the remainder of the session (not to mention doing a few K miles of wear).

Cheers,
John

 

Correct, it does really depend on the car, the surface, and the tires. Rally drivers drift through every turn because they are on such a slippery surface (i.e. dirt). For them, braking to a speed where they could negotiate a turn without sliding would make them too slow. So it makes sense for them to drift (which in effect also scrubs speed through friction) and keep the car pointed towards the exit of the turn.

As for F1 cars, they handle much better now than they ever did. Tire technology is much more advanced than it was in the 80s. Driving techniques have had to change to keep up with the higher limits of the car. I think driven properly, a modern race car will be faster around a track by not drifting through turns.

However, I have to admit that it looks really cool to see a car drift through a turn. Also, it's not a bad thing to know how to control a drift. It may just save your car, or your life, someday if you enter a turn too fast.

 

try getting crappier tires.

 

S2000 has a bit low torque to induce the drift with gas pedal only. Therefore, you can use other techniques to bring the tail out. If your car's rearend feels snappy, try higher speed entry. In high speed curves, as long as your front tires are ok, no matter the rear tires, the s2000 will always oversteer in a progressive manner. But I agree that on the street, S2000 is not very easy to drift. On the track, it is. My 2 cents...

 

Well I'm not sure if I can claim perfection, that is a rather tall order, but drifting and in control, yes, I have done that, especially in Turn 9.

 

Here are my three movies, unfortunately very bad quality, a ppc version:
first
second
third

Some are nice braking/feinting drifts, once I spun, but none of them is perfect.

 

No prob with the Kumho Supra's. I can drift the car in 95F weather!

Mothers tire shine works nice 2

P

 

If you were to pull the perfect drift at a given corner, will that be faster than a grip cornering?

In other words, is drifting (done properly) is faster than grip driving?

 

no