Drifting !

Drifting

Its the art of sleeping while attending a boring lecture. You require a thick pair of glasses and loads of wrist strength. The central idea is to hold up your head in the “interested” posture while sleeping behind your thick spectacles !

If you did not understand the above, do not drift away. Instead consider these very delectable definitions of drifting from the Modern Racer website

1) Kansei Drift- this is performed at race speeds, when entering a high speed corner a driver lifts his foot off the throttle to induce a mild over steer and then balances the drift through steering and throttle motions. Note that the car that is being used for this style of drift should be a neutral balanced car therefore the over steer will induce itself. If the car plows through any turn this technique will not work.

2) Braking drift- this is performed by trail braking into a corner, then loss of grip is obtained and then balance through steering and throttle motions. Note that this is mainly for medium to low speed corners.

3) Faint Drift- this is performed by rocking the car towards the outside of a turn and then using the rebound of grip to throw the car into the normal cornering direction. Note that this is heavy rally racing technique used to change vehicle attitudes during cornering, mainly tight mountain corners.

4) Clutch Kick- this is performed by depressing the clutch pedal on approach or during a mild drift, then pop the clutch to give a sudden jolt through the driveline to upset rear traction.

5) Shift Lock- this is performed by letting the revs drop on downshift into a corner and then releasing the clutch to put stress on the driveline to slow the rear tires inducing over steer. This is like pulling the E-brake through a turn – note that this should be performed in the wet to minimize damage to the driveline, etc.

6) E-Brake Drift- this technique is very basic, pull the E-Brake or (side brake) to induce rear traction loss and balance drift through steering and throttle play. Note that this can also be used to correct errors or fine tune drift angles.

7) Dirt Drop Drift- this is performed by dropping the rear tires off the road into the dirt to maintain or gain drift angle without losing power or speed and to set up for the next turn. Note that this technique is very useful for low horsepower cars.

Jump Drift- in this technique the rear tire on the inside of a turn or apex is bounced over a curb to lose traction resulting in oversteer.

9) Long Slide Drift- this is done by pulling the E-brake through a strait to start a high angel drift and to hold this to set up for the turn ahead. Note that this can only be done at high speed.

10) Swaying Drift- this is a slow side-to-side faint like drift where the rear end sways back and forth down a strait.

11) FF Drift- or front wheel drive drift. The E-brake as well as steering and braking techniques must be used to balance the car through a corner. Note that the E-brake is the main technique used to balance the drift.

12) Power Over- this performed when entering a corner and using full throttle to produce heavy oversteer (tail slide) through the turn. Note that you need horsepower to make this happen.

The seasoned racer will probably take home a lot from the above list. As an Indian I think this list is incomplete. It does not have the most important type of drifting available for use in India ! It comes it at number 13, but that number kind of symbolizes the implications of this drift.

13) Indian Drift- this is performed when trying to overtake a vehicle in front of you from the wrong side. As you approach the slowest vehicle on the slowest lane at high speed you suddenly steer towards the faster lane (in front of the vehicle you are overtaking). The only requirements for this is shear b***s and a government may care attitude !

Indian Drift

This drift is used as often as the communal toilet. Almost everybody on the road has used this for a variety of reasons. They range from the plane old “I can drive faster” to the very esoteric “I needed to take a head shot at the driver ahead”. The reason for many roadkill cases can be traced to the implementation of this drift in difficult and crowded environments by claustrophobic and under-trained village lads posing as experienced drivers.