FF Drifting

[Vinsanity]

I was just wondering if there was anyone out there with enough "courage" to admit drifting a FWD car.

are there any "techniques" or tips anyone would like to share about FF drifting?

I do know that the key is having much more grip in the front tires than in the rears, as well as making sure your e-brake cables are in good shape. I also know that counter-steering should be kept to a minimum to avoid ruining the drift.

in specific, I was wondering if there were any ways to keep a FWD car's momentum while sliding around a corner, seeing that powersliding isn't really an option for us and pulling on the e-brake to maintain the drift angle slows the car down alot. I've tried playing with the throttle and e-brake simultaneously a couple of times, but the front wheels seem to wanna grip a lil too easily.

anyone care to comment?
thanks

[Spy001]

what are you driving? i drove a stock 98 sentra for a while and i could take that thing really sideways and maintain easy in the rain following curves, if you are going quick enough you can throw it sideways. i perfected my feint in a FF, if you can get that down then you know you can throw it sideways in a normal drifter. just keep in mind if you make thhe segue to FR then its going to be much different, a lot of people dont realize that...

[spiritofFC3s]

i used to drive a 91 mx6, i relied heavily on the entry speed into the corners to carry the car well through the turn. right before the turn i would whip the car away from the turn and then whip it into it and pull the ebrake and hold it throughout the turn. I stayed on the throttle a bit and could keep the end sliding out by continuing to whip the steering wheel. if your back end starts to slide out to much drop the ebrake quickly. and then like my swedish friend would say you yell out "das how you do it!"

[RallyGT]

Yeah, i think FF drifting is all about the engine brake. not the emergency brake. (the engine brake is letting off of the gas).
Iyou go atleast 45 then let off the gas and turn the wheel sharp, then once you are sideways push the gas down and your are still sideways, turn the wheel back the other way and just keep repeating. Thats just one of many FF tecniques out there. Use the SEARCH button and you will find a lot

[Rooney]

lighten up the rear like crazy Take out the back seats, carpet, spare, seatbelts, the things covering the speakers. And if you really want to get hardcore, take off your trunk. Then you will be throwing that back out like nothing.

[Vinsanity]

my car is a 1999 Cougar...it's a heavy sucker, but it's got like a 65F/35R weight distribution

all the stuff you guys mentioned worked really well in the rain with my car, but otherwise in the dry, the front tires simply won't be spinning that long.

I guess all it takes is a lil more practice

[RallyGT]

yep, just practice. it took me an hour or so to learn how to on dry ground

[Drift For Food]

The ability to maintain speed while sliding with a fwd car isn't really possible stock. They're not set up like they need to be to be able to have the rear end out while still under power, under power is what you would need to maintain speed around a corner. Basically, you'd have to run a major oversteer suspension setup and/or a very slippery/light rear end. Stock or even with a good grip setup you can't really drift using the throttle. Not using the throttle is what kills your speed in corners. It's also why most people don't like fwd for drifting.

I started on fwd. It's what I had. Work on braking and feint and e-brake if you've got a hand one(I didn't but good for not learning to rely on it). The most you can do is to come in fast and bleed off a lot of speed into and through the corner. Without the ability to use the throttle with a fwd setup, you're limited to pretty much braking all the way through the corner. You'll come out of the corner pretty slow too, but if you can get the slide down well and get a good fast entry, your lap times or course times or time home from work, lol, should be minimal.

To initiate a drift with fwd, throttle is almost out of the question, gas means understeer, but you may be able to squeeze some in to pull the car a little with some major steering into the corner. Instead rely on weight shifting through feinting and some braking and steering into the corner to start the drift. Work on both till you can get the car to rotate as much as you want by the exit. If done right, no countersteering will be necessary. All the rotation can be achieved through braking and feint techniques. When the rear end grabs again, you should be pointing straight down the road at the end of the exit. Vary your braking, steering, and even some throttle inputs to modify and adjust the slide. I haven't mentioned much for the e-brake yet cause I learned without it, crappy ol' foot one for me. That is still usable for you, but you should learn to realize it's not actually needed. I see the e-brake as an adjustment tool or a last resort for when you're really in a jam(major understeer and too fast, lol). It's also good for narrow spots and tight corners cause it takes little room and gets the rear end around quickly.

[mranlet]

I wouldn't say that giving throttle is "out of the question".

With some adjustable dampers set to oversteer (front set tighter than rear) or a removed/disconnected front sway bar a FWD car should have plenty of oversteer.

An important part of breaking the rear loose is to do manuvers while there is lateral G force on the car rather than right before the turn. When the car is under lateral force, a sharp engine brake could be enough to slow down the front just enough to have the rear rotate out and around. Alternatively, threshold braking before the turn to create false oversteer could swing out the rear just after a sharp turn-in, or pulling the E to lockup while in mid-corner will also cause the rear to kick out.

Once the rear is out, you can just give it all the gas you've got to keep that oversteer going and it will "pull" through the turn. A FWD car with plenty of power and oversteer dialed in (or at least crappy rear tires) shouldn't loose THAT much speed through the turn. There are some FF drivers that can keep up with most FR drivers through the turns - just as CH.

-MR

[RallyGT]

i got myself into some touge sh!t...check this out
http://www.slcstreetracing.com/forum...?TID=7647&PN=1

[truenoking8six]

Yeah i have one word for FF drifters......RICE. You're beter of griping in a FF car its defianetly alot faster. Oh in case ur wondering i do have a trueno

[mranlet]

Originally posted by truenoking8six
Yeah i have one word for FF drifters......RICE. You're beter of griping in a FF car its defianetly alot faster. Oh in case ur wondering i do have a trueno

This was NOT a good way to make an entrance.

-MR

[RallyGT]

yeah, you come in here acting like a know it all. try doin the sh!t frist, then come talk

[Vinsanity]

hey thanks...rallygt, drift for food, mranlet...good info guys

[Parry]

Originally posted by truenoking8six
Yeah i have one word for FF drifters......RICE. You're beter of griping in a FF car its defianetly alot faster. Oh in case ur wondering i do have a trueno

Hrm.

I drive an FF car. Please explain to me how this is rice.

I'm excited, I think this is going to be good...


Rallye, It apears you're touge battling some guy in your Escort after making your name on that forum Initial_D and accusing everyone in sight of being a ricer. Good job, or something...

[pita bread]

agree

Originally posted by mranlet
This was NOT a good way to make an entrance.

-MR

[Drift For Food]

Yep with a fwd car set with some oversteer, you have a little extra grip to use for throttle. However a neutral balanced or underbalanced car like most road cars(what I started with), you don't have that extra grip to work with for throttle. In those cases, you can't use throttle. Otherwise, you would increase front side slip and understeer. Continuous brakings is about the only thing you can do besides e-brake and heavy feint before and to add a lot of extra rotation and rear end momentum to counter any loss from throttle.

Otherwise, I totally agree, if you've got the front grip, you can pull the car around with throttle and still keep the rear end out. It's just a matter of setting up the car to allow you to do that. No cars come stock like that.

For a stock car, as mranlet said, remove the front swaybar and put some good tires on front/crappy tires on the rear can get you as close as possilbe. You may even want to play with tire pressures, high rear/low front. Maybe even think about wieght removal in the rear or get as much weight forward as possible. Beyond that, you'd need suspension upgrades to get more front grip.

[Cbr6k]

Yo wats up guys, I have an 97 Prelude and its tremendously difficult to drift. but the most successful drift performed with the car was during heavy rain in a spacous parking lot. The only thing i did a little different was the amount of pressure i put on the brakes (of course the rain helped alot too). One of meh buddies also have an FWD vechile (95 Integra) but he was able to drift great with the help of his e brake.


Later

[Thai Juku]

Originally posted by Cbr6k
Yo wats up guys, I have an 97 Prelude and its tremendously difficult to drift. but the most successful drift performed with the car was during heavy rain in a spacous parking lot. The only thing i did a little different was the amount of pressure i put on the brakes (of course the rain helped alot too). One of meh buddies also have an FWD vechile (95 Integra) but he was able to drift great with the help of his e brake.


Later

Integra in the rain?...I've done that...

[Craftsman]

It's all about weight transfer mastery with FWD. That's the only real way to do it unless you want the Rear wheel lockup...

Anyways...

Matt.

[K-Man_kristof]

I own a 2001 V6 Camry Vienta Wagon now which I drift/@ss drag and this is how I do it!


I drift it around the nieghbourhood and have got to a few local tracks. When drifting, I drift around 75-80kph on streets and 90-100 on track, you need this for the momentum through corners, having a 6 pulling me through the corners is also good cause it holds the front down with weight and has enough power to pull me through and out of corner nicely. My technique to drifting is thus.

1. Enter corner with speed, its what get you through the drift, usually 3rd gear
2. Brake later than usual, put clutch in
3. Just before Apex I turn into corner a bit then flick e-brake (key is not to hold to long if you have speed, when back end is out let down e-brake, 1 second MAX).
4. Downshift gear make sure revs are up or too much speed is lost and release clutch and floor the gas.
5. With downshifted gear engaged correct front pointing position, ie point wheels in the direction you want to go and hold, and correct as you straightnen up

I try keep the back end of my car light, and on the occasion take out spare and back seats, I have found also that a FF car with a longer wheel base for the size of the car is better for weight shifting and sliding. My previous cars were a 89 ae86 corrola sedan and FF Mitsubishi Colt sedan (long wheel base) with cordia turbo motor in it and I learnt to FF @ss drag/drift with this.

Problems I encountered was to much playing around correcting led to the car doing what I call a snap fient where the car would snap suddenly towards the other direction and or if I pointed wheels towards the inside of corner the car would "over slide" and i'd stop facing the other direction, if this occurs while sliding I usually clutched and spun sttering wheel in opposite direction I was trying to go and wala 270 degree turn. Make sure you adjust your e-brake cable often and make it a short grip and stroke rather than pulling and trying to touch you shoulder with your e-brake lever. This helps alot and allows you focus on the task at hand rather than wasting valuable seconds trying to get the back end out. Start on dirt/grass ovals at slower speeds and build up from there.

When Linking 2 corners in FF car I use above for first corner then when straight before turning into corner whilst reving in second gear at about 4000-4500rpm. Apply e-brake hard and turn in until back slips out with the gas on then when sliding I clutch in, correct steering then gas down and clutch out.

If on track and got speed up in excess of 95 I usually flick back out with steering and braking (left foot brake for wieght shift, turn in sharp and correct BEFORE I think back will go out and it usually does and I can hold it and control using throtle, and downshfit).

Only real "mod" I have done to stock in my cars is told my mechanic mate what I'm doing and asked him to "reduce rear end roll on the car when im'm cornering hard and sliding with e-brake on" and he managed to do something?? Also better flowing exhaust system has helped with my gas happy foot habits, and increased power RESPONSE. I also have second hand century michies on the back and slightly grippier new century michies on the front, Going to extreme in front and back tyre selection has led to lots of spin outs and curb slapping which is not good!

I do get understeer with the amount of throttle I give but I learn to control it by feathering/pulsing the gas pedal till I feel grip then to the floor with the gas when she straigthens up. I admit FF is not as "clean" and "quick" as FR drifting but it has a similar effect/feeling when your inside the car at least.

My technique is what I learnt on my own on grass ovals and around where I could get empty space to practice with my car at night. I used and abused cars and thats how I got my technique to work for me.

To get a feeling for feint drifting in FF when starting out, I suggest get some old rear tyres, grippy front, then find a straight road, lock on the e-brake and put your foot down till you start dragging the back end and then go side to side working on the rythem required to hold your speed and prctice controlling the back end.

Enjoy FF drifting if thats all you got and keep the back end out!!!

[sr20]

I've been tryin to drift my moms 00 galant es and my sister 00 altima, havent had much success with it. my moms e brake on the galant is shitty so u got any tips i could use?

[Thai Juku]

Don't break it...

[Ghost of Duluth]

Yea dude. Don't drift your moms car or your sisters. You get's no respect doing that crap in here. If you are going to tear something up, do it to your own stuff, not the persons who gave you life, supported your rear end through school, paid and gave up all her free time and life to make a life for your family. Comon man. What are you thinking?

What happens if you wreck it? Your mom is out of a ride, upset, crying and then you'll feel real slick. We are all about Drifting and the slide in here but only in your car. Plus you are 15, how are you trying to Drift her car? Bad move Solo.

[sr20]

Originally posted by Ghost of Duluth
Yea dude. Don't drift your moms car or your sisters. You get's no respect doing that crap in here. If you are going to tear something up, do it to your own stuff, not the persons who gave you life, supported your rear end through school, paid and gave up all her free time and life to make a life for your family. Comon man. What are you thinking?

What happens if you wreck it? Your mom is out of a ride, upset, crying and then you'll feel real slick. We are all about Drifting and the slide in here but only in your car. Plus you are 15, how are you trying to Drift her car? Bad move Solo.

apprichiate ur concern, but its not that serious even IF I wreck it.