Drifting Techniques

There are many different ways to drift a car, including:

• Braking drift - This drift is performed by trail braking into a corner so that the car can "set" or shift weight to cause the rear wheels to lose traction, then controlling the drift with proper steering and gas inputs.
• Power Over Drift - This drift performed when entering a corner at full throttle to produce heavy oversteer through the turn. It is the most typical drifting technique for 4WD cars (predominately RWD).
• Inertia (Feint) Drift - This is done by rocking the car towards the outside of a turn and then using the inertia of the car to swing it back to the desired drifting line. By going away from the corner, and turning back in hard, you are coming from a much sharper angle.
• Handbrake/ebrake Drift - This technique is pretty straight forward; pull the handbrake to induce rear traction loss and balance drift through steering and throttle play. Some people debate the fact that if using the handbrake creates an actual drift, or just a power slide, but ultimately, using the e-brake is no different than any other technique for starting drifts. This is generally the main technique to perform a controlled drift in a FWD vehicle.
• Dirt Drop Drift - This is done by dropping the rear tyres 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. Only permissible on roads without barriers and lined with dirt or other materials which to lose traction. This is commonly done in WRC rallying.
• Clutch Kick - This is done by "kicking" the clutch (pushing in, then out) to send a shock through the powertrain, upsetting the car's balance. It causes the rear wheels to slip and enables the driver to induce oversteer.
• Choku Dori - This is an advanced technique that involves using one of the previous techniques to start the drift, then using the ebrake to extend the drift into a turn.
• Manji Drift - This is used while drifting on straightaways. The driver of the car sways the car side to side while the car is in a drift, which looks impressive. It can be initiated through all the above techniques.

it should be noted that ABS (to allow the wheels to lock) and TCS (to allow the tyres to spin) should be turned off before attempting to drift. These systems are not made to take into account a driver wanting the car to slide.