Drifting vrs. Drifting, Yo!!

[Veriest1]

I just ran across this on the Grassroots Motorsports forums and thought some people here might be interested. Hopefully this isn't a repost....

The link... http://www.grmotorsports.com/b...10869

The goods... for those who don't want to click on the link. You'll have to if you want the diagrams because I'm sick and I want to sleep and don't feel like linking them.

Quote »Drifting vrs. Drifting, Yo!!

I am not going to bore you with much of the history of drifting because there are 100s of backgrounds it came from and no one influence is the sole background of what drifting is today. There are drivers that call themselves hardcore and ‘keep it to the streets’ claiming that drifting came from the romantic dream of rebels on the streets of Japan doing it because they wanted to. It is a lot of these types that happen to have just recently gotten into the sport that are quick to tell you and the media types what drifting is and what it is about.

Sliding corners, judged on style, speed, and a vague word, “impact.” The impact is the initial wow that is put in each and every spectator and judge when the car flies by. Drifting has as much in common with car racing as Freestyle BMX has with BMX racing. This is something you all know, and some loathe thinking, ‘Yeah, I could smash the gas and do just as good as all those drift kid punks.’ The rest of this, you may not know…

The set ups of the cars for racing and cars used for drifting are very different. However, at the lower level of drifting, the set ups are similar: slightly negative camber, some caster to create a dynamic camber setting under turning, tow slightly out, etc. All to reduce understeer and increase oversteer. This, while helping you learn the basics of car control, is detrimental once you get into very high speed with very high angle. A driver can not go as fast sideways with dynamic camber keeping full tire patch of the front tire on the ground 100% of the time, a driver can also not perform some of the desired actions with the front end being the only part of the car that wants to stick on the ground.

On the high level cars, not what most would consider higher level, I am talking the 6~8 year experienced guys, the setting are more like 0 camber and MAYBE 1 or 1.5 deg of caster. Not to mention the staggered tires, some as drastic as 8.5 inches in the front and 10 in inches the rear. Spring rates are often similar in the front and rear of the car. This starts to get scary similar to a drag set up and effectively turns the car into a plow monster.

At this point some of you reading this are just about as confused as I was until I got another year of the drifting scene under my belt and numerous conversations with many people that REALLY know what they are talking about.

One phrase I have heard several times from a few people, in a few different versions, is, “Drifting is not about controlling oversteer, that is easy. Drifting is about controlling understeer.”

Watching amateurs vrs pros (and I use the term pro, lightly, as no one really drifts for a profession), even watching pros vrs pros, there are huge differences in speed and angle that can’t really be explained by just THAT much of a skill or monetary difference between the two drivers or teams. That difference is in the way the car transitions. Most drivers, when they transition, the back end of the car sways violently back and fourth, with the axis of the movement being and a point between the two front tires. This creates a pendulum motion, pulling the car from side to side as seen below. (Controlling oversteer)

A high level, very experienced, pro will transition on a central axis of the car. Making a much more concise line that is MUCH faster than any swaying line. Don’t ask me exactly how this is achieved; I can’t hardly even do it by accident much less on demand. (Controlling understeer)

You will, on occasion, see a very skilled driver use the swaying of the rear end in a showy exhibition, and much less in competition. When it is used in competition it is usually used to gain speed on a transition. Most lower level drivers know the force very well as it often causes them to spin out.

In this diagram you see a typical practice lay out. A small straight, then a long reducing radius corner that goes into a high speed corner. The red x is where most new people, that don’t spin out entering the corner, will spin out. That is the transition point at which a hard transition is required on some vehicles to get enough speed to take the last corner at the proper line and keep a decent speed. For the long reducing radius corner all the weight of the car will be kept, at a point on the rear left of the car. If that weight is released quickly in a hard, fast transition, the driver is going to be able to use centrifugal force to speed up the cars overall speed but you also change your line. For better or worse depends on the track. (In this diagram it is for better.)

When it comes to tandem competition they are doing all these things with another (hopefully) equal skilled driver glued to their hip. A lot of the baiting techniques used in wheel to wheel racing are used in tandem driving as well. Going outside to bait the person to take a closer line and cutting across their nose; brake checking, following in hard to see areas, etc. While it is frowned upon to a certain extent in many wheel to wheel racing scenarios, it is a big part of drifting. Unless a driver intentionally nudges someone into a wall or rams the other driver, it is all fair game and ultimately just makes the competition more exciting.

Because of the central axis and the way weight is transferred during central axis transfers as opposed to swaying transfers, you will see a very different lead follow dynamic between the two. In swaying drift tandem, when the lead car transitions and the following car does the same, a gap will start to form because the following car has to get out of the way of the rear of the front car when it comes around. This gap is sometimes made up quickly or during the course of the corner, or is never regained because of a constant high rear wheel bleed.

In central axis tandem, the car still must get out of the way for the rear end to come around but it is, for one, not as far, and, secondly, with the difference in weight transfer and rear wheel bleed the gap is made up in transition, almost instantly. Instead of swaying at the same time and just trying to keep up, high level drivers are actively attacking during the transfer and will nose in towards the inside.

Some of the reasons why not many older American cars are used in drifting is because of the way the steering responds. Cars with steering ‘boxes’ don’t perform well because the steering happens by itself too much, also the way the wheel moves when the steering angle is changed is often a cause for the car to slow down too much. Other cars are ‘unfit’ for drifting because they have a strange weight distribution. Because of the stresses put on a car from even drifting right, a car with a kingpin suffers from frequent wear and failure of different components in the kingpin set up. The non-linear actions of leaf springs also make it hard to maintain a squat while in long slides and transitions are very hard. Many older American, British, French or German cars do not fall in these categories which leads me to the last reason these cars are not often seen at Drift Events. The main reasons none of these cars have been used for drifting is because no one has had the “balls” to build one. The time it would take to overcome some of the obvious pitfalls of these cars like a low steering angle and weight, while keeping it within the rule book (no tube frame or partial tube frame). The common cars have been being used for quite a few years and all the ‘secrets’ are out.

Just like not all import road racers and import drag racers are not street racers, not all drifters are ‘drifters, yo!’ Many of us strive to improve in all forms of racing and some are achieved racers all around that just love drifting.[/quote]

[sil beer s13]

yup knew all of that

[Veriest1]

Quote »yup knew all of that[/quote]Eh, that's okay. I figure somebody will get something out of it even if it's just the muscle car part.

[sil beer s13]

good stuff though

[maik21]

i dont drift, but its good know this info =))

[hatebobbarker]

too tired right now to read it all