probly not the best forum to ask about fwd drifting but anyway. im curious about the benefits of LFB or indeed heel-toe in fwd. obviously u can induce oversteer. i wld imagine tho that a car with the correct camber adjustments wld be balanced for oversteer anyway. any fwd wheel slingers out there??
Fwd =/= Drift There isn't a thing such as drifting in a front wheel drive car. Heel-toe isnt a technique for inducing oversteer, its a technique for going into a lower gear at a speed normally too high for that gear. The only ways you will get sideways in a front wheel drive car is to pull the handbrake, or to come into a corner too hot, hard on the brakes while turning, neither being all that effective because as soon as the back gets traction, it will kick back into where you are counter-steering. Handbrake turns are fun, but it's hardly drifting. In front-wheel drive cars, you generally get understeer as opposed to oversteer.
You can drift a FWD car if you know what you are doing. You can actually take lessons at calder park here in melb on drifting fwd, rwd and awd cars.
Back in the day, use to drift Meatywhore. 1987 Fwd Ford Meteor Wagon Back when the engine was in good condition. ( before i got to it). She now has the name Meatywhore as everyone has had a ride and she's pretty much F&*K3d, (PLS DON'T FLAME ME FOR DOING ANYTHING ILLEGAL - I use to do it with a friend watching on and in back of industrial areas where nobody else could be put in danger.) Best way i found was to use as much speed as possible, approx 80km or so. You really need a fair bit of speed with Fwd cars. The way i use to drift was to first steer sharply away from the corner, keeping foot on the accelorator, i'd tap the brake and steer into the corner nice and tight. This causes the rear end to break traction and begin your drift. FWD are alot easier than rwd to control in my opinion due to they grab traction easily. Once you have done this it's just a matter of controlling your steering out of the corner. Least with fwd cars you don't tend to fishy out of the corner uncontrollably due to the car being pulled and not pushed. Biggest problems i found was that when the front wheels lost traction you'd find they would slide a bit too far into the corner. I learnt by trial and error. And wet roads. Make sure that when your first beginning to use BIG CORNERS with a safe backup plan in case the car slides too far. Eg. If there are gutters make sure they are the rounded ones and not the square type. If possible do it somewhere that has a grass paddock for you to slide onto if something does go wrong. As method suggested, there are actual courses that can teach you the correct methods. But mine is just 1 of them that i know of. Good old Ebrake is another technique but also requires alot of speed. Good luck and safe drifting. See ya Sideways. Fate
Spose there are differences in opinion in what is considered drifting. I assume the techniques they teach you about are -Brake -E-brake -Weight transfer -Dynamic Don't see shift lock or power drifitng being of much use do you? As a side note I drive a 88' CRX Si. Don't really consider getting that sideways being called drifting, but whatever.
Re: Back in the day. ... back in MY day .... We called it power sliding - used to do it in our Mums' 'state-of-the-art' Mini Minors, 1100's, even 1300's The term drifting hadn't been invented back then - mind you, neither had colour TV, phones ... Oh, we had telephones... big black things, but you had to go thru an operator for out-of-town calls. Some things never change just get re-named!
my definition of a drift is that you are sideways BEFORE you enter the turn and still sideways when you exit the turn. Not just being sideways during the turn.
Re: my definition of a drift is that you are sideways BEFORE you enter the turn yes, you have to be sideways into the turn, i wouldnt say you have to be sideways out aswell. sideways only out of the corner is simply power-over (a powerslide)and despite not being true drift it is still a commonly used technique... i used to drive a pulsar hatch before the zed. i never used to put much faith in grabbing the handbrake mid-turn so i found that the better way to do it was simply to go in hot, then just as you are about to turn, lift off the go button (mash the brake if you are so inclined). the back end would step out nicely and from there it was only a matter of counter-steer and creative use of the go button to get it back going forwards...
ok so drift isnt the term... i was just interested in how other ppl handle their fwd 4 bangers. does anyone use left foot braking, or heel toe for that matter when they powerslide or whatever? and what if any handling upgrades have you made to your car?
ummmm ok... I disagree FWD Drifting is often referred to as "lock drifting". It is possible. I kind of agree with you on the fact that the heel-toe technique has nothing to do with drifting. Its not for "going into a lower gear at a speed normally too high for that gear" but for car stability and mechanical sympathy. You also forgot to mention lift off oversteer as another way to get it sideways.
ebrake? I didn't know QLD was in the USA? I wonder why they call it the emergency brake - I certainly never go for it when I need to brake in an emergency!
I agree ...difference between a powerslide and a drift is if you're sideways before the apex of the corner!
I left foot brake and heel-toe... ...but not necessarily when power sliding (because lets face it, I can't drift). More in general driving conditions. In my Lancer, general mid corner lift off will get the back end out (although you've got to be going pretty damn quick), Using the handbrake I can almost do a lap of a roundabout too. Heel-toeing I use all the time regardless of how I'm driving. Left foot braking I use normally only on the track on high speed corners where the back end needs to be settled every now and then.
Re: ummmm ok... I disagree Lift off oversteer = dynamic drifting. Me saying "going into a lower gear at a speed normally too high for it" is analagous to your term "mechanical sympathy". Your car stability term comes right in under trying to move into a lower gear by not using heel toe, and locking up the wheels. I also use heel-toe in everyday driving. Using the handbrake (e-brake - does it make a difference?) i can do a lap of a roundabout but only in the wet, due to "mechanical sympathy" for my car. As for left foot braking, someone is gonna have to teach me.
Re: my definition of a drift is >> What you have described here, is what we called in rallying. "The Scandanavian Flick" Used by all good Rally Drivers to set a car up before entering a corner, thus allowing you to keep the power on as you entered a corner, through the corner & out the other side, without lifting off the gas. Old hat stuff, nothing new about it, as K-zed has indicated, just re-named. Cheers Kerry
