andrew, what?

that, my friend, is sidewall deflection, not drifting.

 

Sorry, you are incorrect. That IS drifting. What you describe in your post is sliding.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by andrewewing
[B]None of you have got this quite right. Here's what drifting is:

Imagine if you wiil that your tire is made of numerous different sections of rubber as you go around the tread's circumference. As you drive in a straight line each section in turn contacts the road as the tire rotates. Now you enter a hard corner, lets say a right hand turn. As each section hits the road, it bends or deforms slightly to the RIGHT of the tire's centerline (the car moving slightly to the LEFT) so that the next section of the tire contacts the road slightly to the LEFT of where the previous section did. And so on and so on.

 

I agree. In the few weeks I've owned this car I've found it to be very predictable with a moderate oversteer bias (as long as you don't do something stupid). It appears to be easy to throttle steer. However, I've yet to take it to the track and try some high speed sweepers (i.e. Turns 8 & 9 at Willow Springs). Slow (2nd and 3rd gear) corners seem fine. I've also found the S-02's to be very quiet at the limit.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by andrewewing
[B]None of you have got this quite right. Here's what drifting is:

Imagine if you wiil that your tire is made of numerous different sections of rubber as you go around the tread's circumference. As you drive in a straight line each section in turn contacts the road as the tire rotates. Now you enter a hard corner, lets say a right hand turn. As each section hits the road, it bends or deforms slightly to the RIGHT of the tire's centerline (the car moving slightly to the LEFT) so that the next section of the tire contacts the road slightly to the LEFT of where the previous section did. And so on and so on.

 

alexf20c...thanks for the info i think i'm beginning to see how drifting is accomplished. But what about those japanese street videos? they seem to use the break frequently and whole lot of throttle. But the timing is the part that confuses me. Is your way the way they're doing it?
TonyJ

 

Drifting is referring to the movement of the entire car in a sideways motion with a slight loss of grip at all tires. It's a very controlled "slide" as you carry a lot of speed into a turn and pitch the car at a balanced angle and this causes the car to slide/drift evenly out of the turn.

Fishtailing, aka, oversteer is when the back end is sliding faster than the front and the tail comes out.

Understeer/Push is when you carry too much speed into a turn and the front end loses traction while the rears grip and you plow into a turn.

In drifting, both things are happening at the same time.

If anything, drifting is a bit more controlled than just totally sliding off the road.

 

I wouldn't suggest using the parking brake. While it will break the rear wheels loose, it isn't designed for that on a street car. I highly doubt it anyway. Rally cars have an e-brake designed to do this repeatedly and take a beating. The s2000s is designed to hold the car and keep it from rolling away when you park on a hill. They get on the gas too control oversteer by shifting weight back over the rear wheels. That way you won't lose it.

 

OK - I'll admit than I used "drift" when I really meant "oversteer". But "fishtailing" is NOT "oversteer", it refers to the back and forth oscillation of the rear end of RWD cars that sometimes occurs at launch or during a smokey burnout. Fish's tails do not move to one side and stay there, they move back and forth to propel the fish through the water. See the metaphor?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by BDMonk
[B]

OK - I'll admit than I used "drift" when I really meant "oversteer".