So I've seen all these wondrous maneuvers, mostly in the Art Morrison fugly, flicking one way then the other and holding impressively sideways angles around every corner there is. Time for me to have a crack, so I grab an M3, stock standard, and head out to Eiger North. I'm not expecting to be able to match the pros, but I can't even keep the car on the track. Starting the drift is easy, just wander up to a corner in second, off the throttle, turn in, jab the throttle and then...well drift implies there is some semblance of control, not just a sad impression of a spinning top. But I work at it, slowly but surely, and stick with the S tyres as they're stock. See, my objective with drifting is to use the car control skills learned to improve my abilities as a grip racer, and I also believe out there in the real world.
More and more laps follow, and then I start losing control less often, which is great as then I spend less time reversing out of fences and more time refining my nascent skills. Soon I'm rarely spinning out at all, but I'm still not really drifting, I'm blipping the throttle to break the back end, then coming off the throttle and countersteering to recover. That's not maintaining a drift, which is kind of scary, there's a psychological block for me. But more work and I start to do two of these blips together around the top and bottom corners at Eiger, which is better than nothing. And then I realise I don't need to get the back end out as far as I have been, as then I have to countersteer too quickly and too much. Instead, I learn to modulate the throttle better so the car rotates enough to drift but not enough to really slow down, I need less countersteer and can more easily use the throttle to control the angle. Eureka! And then I'm able to drift the entire length of the both Eiger corners -- or more accurately, keep some semblance of sideways motion throughout.
The turn just after the tunnel is relatively easy, although high speed. I take it in third, around 130, and a little feint then throttle blip is enough to see the M3 nicely sideways. Rare for me to be able to link into the right-hander, but first things first, I'm happy to be able to watch the replay and see the Bimmer pointing one way and travelling the other. I also learn that when the back end starts to swing back in line you need to be lighting fast on the unwinding of the lock, and that coming right off the throttle as you do so will worsen things. What seems to work is reducing the throttle, not jumping off it. All to do with car stabilisation. What helps is my steering technique, which is the same one this guy uses:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjngx1NqCRI&feature=player_embedded
the grab-opposite-spokes approach.
I then start to wonder how I'd go on the Arcade drift trial, so I fire that up and lo and behold there be these signs. So I do what I normally do, except that I fit the Bimmer with N1s, and the result is 3000. Miserable, the record is six times that. Once I'm used to the new rubber it's easier to control the car on N1s, and now I'm up to o over 8000, but I'm not a fan of the scoring. I can crash after I get through the finish flags and it makes no difference...I know scoring something subjective like drifting is difficult but it looks like a pretty simplistic algorithim. Nevertheless, it's something to aim at.
For a change I grab a 350z and give that a shot. It's easier than the Bimmer I think, and I score around 8000 as well. Another change and I take my WRX out for a spin. Much harder to initiate, really needs a good strong Scandi, but once in it's easier to control. However, if I let the drift stop halfway I can't restart it, unlike the Bimmer where another dose of throttle will being another drift if I let the first one die through lack of throttle. I don't spend a lot of time with the Rex and score 6000. I'll come back to 4WD drifting later, it's a lot of fun.
By this time I'm considering it a failure when I don't hold a drift around Eiger's top and bottom corners for which I use second gear. I'm not flicking sideways like the pros, but I am doing a small feint to get the car unsettled and rotated, which I find more effective and easier to control than just breaking traction by excess throttle movement as then it's easy to over-rotate the car and that tends to end in tears.
The turn after the tunnel I score poorly on as my technique there is to let the car drift with little throttle, and clearly the scoring system rewards a heavy right foot. I fix this by entering slower and feinting less so I have to use more throttle. The tight turns are also difficult; starting is easy, but it's difficult to be precise with the throttle to maintain the drift all the way around. But I am improving, and this is not only fun, it's a great way to learn the art and science of car control. My immediate objective is to score 10000 at Eiger, and after that maybe I can aspire to a top 100. But what I really want to do is improve my car control skills and have fun -- and it definitely looks like drifting is the way to go on both counts.
[ I just thought I'd post something that wasn't asking for help ;-) ]
More and more laps follow, and then I start losing control less often, which is great as then I spend less time reversing out of fences and more time refining my nascent skills. Soon I'm rarely spinning out at all, but I'm still not really drifting, I'm blipping the throttle to break the back end, then coming off the throttle and countersteering to recover. That's not maintaining a drift, which is kind of scary, there's a psychological block for me. But more work and I start to do two of these blips together around the top and bottom corners at Eiger, which is better than nothing. And then I realise I don't need to get the back end out as far as I have been, as then I have to countersteer too quickly and too much. Instead, I learn to modulate the throttle better so the car rotates enough to drift but not enough to really slow down, I need less countersteer and can more easily use the throttle to control the angle. Eureka! And then I'm able to drift the entire length of the both Eiger corners -- or more accurately, keep some semblance of sideways motion throughout.
The turn just after the tunnel is relatively easy, although high speed. I take it in third, around 130, and a little feint then throttle blip is enough to see the M3 nicely sideways. Rare for me to be able to link into the right-hander, but first things first, I'm happy to be able to watch the replay and see the Bimmer pointing one way and travelling the other. I also learn that when the back end starts to swing back in line you need to be lighting fast on the unwinding of the lock, and that coming right off the throttle as you do so will worsen things. What seems to work is reducing the throttle, not jumping off it. All to do with car stabilisation. What helps is my steering technique, which is the same one this guy uses:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjngx1NqCRI&feature=player_embedded
the grab-opposite-spokes approach.
I then start to wonder how I'd go on the Arcade drift trial, so I fire that up and lo and behold there be these signs. So I do what I normally do, except that I fit the Bimmer with N1s, and the result is 3000. Miserable, the record is six times that. Once I'm used to the new rubber it's easier to control the car on N1s, and now I'm up to o over 8000, but I'm not a fan of the scoring. I can crash after I get through the finish flags and it makes no difference...I know scoring something subjective like drifting is difficult but it looks like a pretty simplistic algorithim. Nevertheless, it's something to aim at.
For a change I grab a 350z and give that a shot. It's easier than the Bimmer I think, and I score around 8000 as well. Another change and I take my WRX out for a spin. Much harder to initiate, really needs a good strong Scandi, but once in it's easier to control. However, if I let the drift stop halfway I can't restart it, unlike the Bimmer where another dose of throttle will being another drift if I let the first one die through lack of throttle. I don't spend a lot of time with the Rex and score 6000. I'll come back to 4WD drifting later, it's a lot of fun.
By this time I'm considering it a failure when I don't hold a drift around Eiger's top and bottom corners for which I use second gear. I'm not flicking sideways like the pros, but I am doing a small feint to get the car unsettled and rotated, which I find more effective and easier to control than just breaking traction by excess throttle movement as then it's easy to over-rotate the car and that tends to end in tears.
The turn after the tunnel I score poorly on as my technique there is to let the car drift with little throttle, and clearly the scoring system rewards a heavy right foot. I fix this by entering slower and feinting less so I have to use more throttle. The tight turns are also difficult; starting is easy, but it's difficult to be precise with the throttle to maintain the drift all the way around. But I am improving, and this is not only fun, it's a great way to learn the art and science of car control. My immediate objective is to score 10000 at Eiger, and after that maybe I can aspire to a top 100. But what I really want to do is improve my car control skills and have fun -- and it definitely looks like drifting is the way to go on both counts.
[ I just thought I'd post something that wasn't asking for help ;-) ]
