Drifting question?

Question

When E-brake drifting in an automatic car, do you pull the e-brake first, or turn the wheel first? Also, do you pull the e-brake up all the way, or just partially? Is it the same for manual?

When brake drifting in an automatic car, how many times do you have to brake, and at what points in the turn? Does the brake that initiates the drift have to be at the turn's clipping point?

When power drifting, do you let off the accelleration before or after you have turned at the turn's clipping point?

Answer 1

Oh, I really don't want to answer this as I am afraid you'll hurt yourself. I guess you'll find out another way....please find an open...OPEN...place to practive this......instead of starting off E-drifting, try doing "handbrake turns" the principles are the same, but unlike E-brake drifting, you can't f uck it up.

Find a nice open space, accelerate to 50 km/h, turn your wheel halway hard, a split second after turning the wheel, yank your handbrake all the way. Your backend of the car will catch, and you'll do a quick turn.

A E-drift is similar to this, but you're accelerating a little faster. The wheel, and handbrakes aren't pulled as hard. Practice with the "Handbrake" turn before doing E-braking drift, it's easier.

Answer 2

Frankly speaking drifting with an automatic transmission is a nonstarter as you can't control the RPM. The engine will want to upshift / downshift at the wrong moment, killing your drift, not to mention it puts a lot of stress on the transmission / torque converter.

Assuming you have a proper RWD car for drifting, just shackled with automatic transmission, let's talk theoretical.

To e-brake drift, you turn first, then lock up the rear wheels to break it loose, to "swing" the tail out. You pull the handbrake enough to loosen up the tail. In most cars, that's all the way. FYI though, real drift drivers NEVER touch the hand brake except in dire emergencies. It's known as the "Hail Mary lever".

Brake drifting is exploiting the weight transfer, and is quite dangerous as you're right on the edge of traction. Basically, you're shifting the "weight" of the vehicle forward onto the front wheels, so the rear wheels lose traction, causing a drift. Some cars are so sensitive that if you let go of the throttle (so the weight shift forward) is enough to cause the rear to break loose. However, most "normal" cars don't go fast enough or have this kind of knife's edge in traction to ever *do* brake drifting. I don't recommend you try it either.

Power drift, the form mostly seen on TV, is exploiting the power of the engine. Basically, you use the power of the engine to break the rear wheels loose. While the rear wheels are loose, they are still generating some thrust. That, combined with your momentum, is enough to keep the vehicle moving. Basically, keep the speed about 35, RPM low. When ready, shift into 2nd, and stab the throttle so the RPM shoots almost to the red line. If the tires don't spin and smoke, you don't have enough horsepower to try it. So don't.

Remember, drift cars you see on those shows may look stock, they usually have MASSIVE turbos hiding in the engine bay that produce up to 1000 HP (yes, I'm NOT KIDDING, up to 1000 HP were seen on some Supras). You can't spin your wheels with only 200 HP. Most also have massive front-end mods that changed steering to greatly increase the steering angle. Something to think about before you try to emulate any of them.