Understeer? Deal with it.

[shmately350z]

I drive a stock 350z and have been learning to drift it over the past few months. I wrote this for anyone who can relate to my experiences. I hate understeer, and here is what I did about it.
You can only ask a car do so much(the cars limits), if you give 80% steer, you can only give 20% gas, and vice versa. So what happens over 100%? This all depends on how your car performs and what takes you over the edge. If you brake 90% you can only turn 10%, if you brake too much(lockup) some cars can oversteer(mainly older cars, better brakes in back or no abs) not mine however. If you give 20% steer and 100% gas you will most likely break the back loose. My car gets a lot of understeer, and that is a drifters nightmare. My theory(not that you care) on cars having so much understeer in this day and age, is the fact that it is much easier to control than oversteer. To get rid of this nightmare, I had to concentrate a little. The most common things I found to give my car understeer was turning to much(ex: 60%steer/60%gas) and jumping on the gas too quickly. Try turn to the opposite direction of the corner and turning in early enough to hit the apex, this helps throw the weight of your car around a bit. This I believe is called feint motion, I found it easy to start with because without side brakeing or clutch kicks, you have a smooth throttle transition into your drift. When I used to turn in without a clutch kick or feint motion, my front tires would loose grip(turning too much). Now I can turn in a little better and some solid drifts are coming together after 4 events. At my first event an intstructor explained this percentage thing to me and it really helped me out, so I hope it can help you as well. Make your actions smooth, I know the pro's move their hands very fast but were not there yet.

P.S. don't be afraid to look stupid out there, I sure did and had a blast doing it

[mranlet]

You could always take off your front sway bar and neutral-up the handling a bit...

good post BTW

-MR

[shmately350z]

Nah, I don't need that. I just have to get better. I've been doin alright, I was starting that drift in the sequence at 60+mph, tward a crash wall(the right line?) at my last event.

Irwindale infeild is the awsome. The banks are your best freind.

[SilverGhost]

i have a question for you.....how does the 350z handle when drifted compared to other Z cars? in case you dont know, the older Z's tend to snap back and are very spin happy, which makes drifting really hard. is the 350 like that or no?

[Pennyman]

I second his reference to the "snap back," hehe.

[CrazyHawaiian]

I never thought about it in percentages that were related to eachother. 100% steer and 100% throttle is the way to go!! (joke). When I had understeer problems, I increased the size of the rear swaybar, or ran a smaller one in front.

[shmately350z]

Yeah it does snap around a bit, but it's great when you need the car to turn the opposite direction. If I'm not gentle with my transitions it snaps around. It's easier for me to throttle more than steer more in my transitions. If I want to connect I will give more thottle to get the back end out a little father and very gently turn the other direction, let off the gas, and guide the snap with throttle(I hope). If I turn too much, it whips around(overcorrection). The smoother the better, I found that holding the drift with less gas helped too, then you have power if you need it.

Long live the Z,
Nissan would not be here without it. I hope they never forget that.

[Topics II]

The VQ Motorex Z has alot of understeer as well. Almost any mildly tuned Z will. What i would do with that thing is come around the bank with as much speed as possible and rip the ebrake "100%" and cut in hard, then get on the gas "100%". Unless we are drifting the whole bank, then i just come in top of 3rd and clutch kick it at the top of the bank and hold it floored all the way around. Dont think about it too much or it wont help you. Just learn how your car reacts and drive accordingly. Whenever i think to much about a run or what i should try to do, i either do worse, or i dont do anything i just thought about and just run the course. if you think to much, itll be too late.

[SilverGhost]

Originally posted by shmately350z
Long live the Z,
Nissan would not be here without it. I hope they never forget that.

i agree, Z cars are awsome...i feel that i would not be at the level i am for drifting without our family's 280zx, which was my first "slide ride". knowing how to do good techniques in a spin happy Z makes drifting in a neutral car, such as my S13, seem alot easier. Good luck, and that 350 of yours looks F#$%ing sick!

remember, the most important part of drifting: HAVING FUN!!!

[shmately350z]

Thinking too much can mess with you, instinct is the way to go. That may be the reason I didn't make it around that corner many times that day. I was trying too hard to find out how to start in 3rd, and not going fast enough to do it. I was trying to do too many new things to get it drifting in 3rd. I found that a coming to the inside of the bank just before the first cone and a cuting back out and then clutch kicking back in I felt comfortable.
When to shift is what was bugging me. I found going faster and starting earlier helped, I was shifting a little late though. I've never controled a drift that fast, it's amazing how quick the car slows itself down while sideways. I thought I was going slide off course every time I made it through.

Chris, you drove the Z at the US drift event with the sr20det, correct? I was wondering how the car feels with that weight missing from the front end?