Dear Chris Harris - Does it need to drift?
Discussion
kbird said:
Who on here drifts their car on the road intentionally?
I do.RWD, 250bhp, empty country road, good visibility, 90 right, off camber, slightly damp, heel/toe down the gears, quick lift, turn in early, back on the throttle, half a turn of oppo, revs soar, modulate, caught, held.......held.....held, straighten, third, fourth and carry on Sir.......
Who wouldn't?
cheddar said:
I do.
RWD, 250bhp, empty country road, good visibility, 90 right, off camber, slightly damp, heel/toe down the gears, quick lift, turn in early, back on the throttle, half a turn of oppo, revs soar, modulate, caught, held.......held.....held, straighten, third, fourth and carry on Sir.......
Who wouldn't?
This!!!RWD, 250bhp, empty country road, good visibility, 90 right, off camber, slightly damp, heel/toe down the gears, quick lift, turn in early, back on the throttle, half a turn of oppo, revs soar, modulate, caught, held.......held.....held, straighten, third, fourth and carry on Sir.......
Who wouldn't?
Forcing oversteer is helpful for when you experience unforced oversteer.
I remember collecting my Elise on November 16th 1999 and then, the following weekend, taking it to a very quiet, very wet, slippery roundabout to see what this oversteer lark was all about. I experimented by teasing it out with the throttle, by lifting-off sharply and by mixing the two together. None of it went well. It took me quite a few weekends before I was able to catch it - but not necessarily control it - consistently and it taught me two important things; what it feels like when it's about to let go and put me in a tree and the degree of input needed to counter its scary output.
Without actually trying it and slowly, painfully learning to interpret what the car was telling me, I'm pretty sure I'd have hedge-parked that car in no time at all. Indeed, you only need to look at any Lotus forum over the winter months to see fine examples of people who didn't take the time to learn.
So, yeah, it's good to get the tail slithering about if only to learn what you need to do on the day your car decides it wants to kill you.
I remember collecting my Elise on November 16th 1999 and then, the following weekend, taking it to a very quiet, very wet, slippery roundabout to see what this oversteer lark was all about. I experimented by teasing it out with the throttle, by lifting-off sharply and by mixing the two together. None of it went well. It took me quite a few weekends before I was able to catch it - but not necessarily control it - consistently and it taught me two important things; what it feels like when it's about to let go and put me in a tree and the degree of input needed to counter its scary output.
Without actually trying it and slowly, painfully learning to interpret what the car was telling me, I'm pretty sure I'd have hedge-parked that car in no time at all. Indeed, you only need to look at any Lotus forum over the winter months to see fine examples of people who didn't take the time to learn.
So, yeah, it's good to get the tail slithering about if only to learn what you need to do on the day your car decides it wants to kill you.
EDLT said:
Wasn't there a massive thread in General Motorsport about drifting. It is not motorsport, just a thing chavs enjoy iirc.
Apart from those drift championships where drivers compete both on their own and head to head and a winner is chosen by judges. There's competition so it's a motorsport. dvs_dave said:
Drifting is fun but does anyone here actually ever intentionally drift their car on a public road?
erm yes ! on my way to work there are 3 islands and 4 bends that are ripe for a good slide ! if i get up and look out the window and its wet i get all excited!its the deciding factor in all the cars ive owned ..will it drift ..humm yes it wil ....ill take it !
so to me it matters ...
si
I try and force some oversteer every time I go into the gym car park if no ones coming the other way and the same on the way out, it's funny as it scares me but makes me laugh (I know I'm a child)
I'm only going 15-20mph but the tarmac on this bend is nice and slippy so it has to be done.
DanDC5 said:
EDLT said:
Wasn't there a massive thread in General Motorsport about drifting. It is not motorsport, just a thing chavs enjoy iirc.
Apart from those drift championships where drivers compete both on their own and head to head and a winner is chosen by judges. There's competition so it's a motorsport. 
Wills2 said:
I try and force some oversteer every time I go into the gym car park if no ones coming the other way and the same on the way out, it's funny as it scares me but makes me laugh (I know I'm a child)
I'm only going 15-20mph but the tarmac on this bend is nice and slippy so it has to be done.
Me too.I'm only going 15-20mph but the tarmac on this bend is nice and slippy so it has to be done.
I remember one particular time the ex-gf had just finished at the gym and we'd agreed to see each other for a little bit so I headed over to meet her there. Got to the car park, noticed the damp tarmac, so decided to introduce some throttle. Back end came round, the AJP barked like an animal, corrected, then parked up like normal.
Didn't see this at the time but the ex was already walking towards me, and found it all very childish but mildly impressive. Something was muttered about how anti-social the exhaust was and that it looked quite "cool". Very simple pleasures, but sometimes those simple pleasures make you feel like Ayrton Senna, if just for a moment.
What has not been mentioned is the fact that general public and car enthusiasts in the main do not have either the experience or skills to drift a car. I'd wager that most PHers couldn't hold a relatively low speed slide at a moderate angle with all stability aids turned off. So the simple answer is most people (including the OP) aren't interested in drifting a car because they can't actually do it.
robsco said:
Wills2 said:
I try and force some oversteer every time I go into the gym car park if no ones coming the other way and the same on the way out, it's funny as it scares me but makes me laugh (I know I'm a child)
I'm only going 15-20mph but the tarmac on this bend is nice and slippy so it has to be done.
Me too.I'm only going 15-20mph but the tarmac on this bend is nice and slippy so it has to be done.
I remember one particular time the ex-gf had just finished at the gym and we'd agreed to see each other for a little bit so I headed over to meet her there. Got to the car park, noticed the damp tarmac, so decided to introduce some throttle. Back end came round, the AJP barked like an animal, corrected, then parked up like normal.
Didn't see this at the time but the ex was already walking towards me, and found it all very childish but mildly impressive. Something was muttered about how anti-social the exhaust was and that it looked quite "cool". Very simple pleasures, but sometimes those simple pleasures make you feel like Ayrton Senna, if just for a moment.
(I'm totally ham fisted at it mind)
EDLT said:
DanDC5 said:
EDLT said:
Wasn't there a massive thread in General Motorsport about drifting. It is not motorsport, just a thing chavs enjoy iirc.
Apart from those drift championships where drivers compete both on their own and head to head and a winner is chosen by judges. There's competition so it's a motorsport. 
I learned more in one morning on a twisty, wet track (Abbeville) about the way my Elise handles than in the first 6 months of owning it. It's common knowledge that Elises are pretty snappy in the wet, and as Rawwr says above, it's about learning when its going to happen and what to do about it. Actually, in the Elise it's mostly about learning what not to do...
When I see car magazines discussing a car's on the limit handling and saying how well it transitions from grip to slide etc, I find it useful. That's not because I assume I will want to (or indeed could) exploit it myself, but because I know it's less likely to bite my face off if I overdo it on a wet roundabout exit.
Oh, and it's fun.
When I see car magazines discussing a car's on the limit handling and saying how well it transitions from grip to slide etc, I find it useful. That's not because I assume I will want to (or indeed could) exploit it myself, but because I know it's less likely to bite my face off if I overdo it on a wet roundabout exit.
Oh, and it's fun.
kbird said:
...drifting is a visual entertainment that we all enjoy viewing but mostly irrelevant to the ownership experience
I think that, as someone has already stated, it is a fairly good handling metric for defining the 'friendliness' of a chassis.If a car won't readily stay in a consistent powerslide it probably has a propensity to spin or be overcorrected.
Obviously one should not be drifting on the road, but track experience of how a car reacts may be useful in some emergency situations on the road, such as exiting a bend and suddenly hitting some wet leaves for example.
Rawwr said:
Forcing oversteer is helpful for when you experience unforced oversteer.
I remember collecting my Elise on November 16th 1999 and then, the following weekend, taking it to a very quiet, very wet, slippery roundabout to see what this oversteer lark was all about. I experimented by teasing it out with the throttle, by lifting-off sharply and by mixing the two together. None of it went well. It took me quite a few weekends before I was able to catch it - but not necessarily control it - consistently and it taught me two important things; what it feels like when it's about to let go and put me in a tree and the degree of input needed to counter its scary output.
Without actually trying it and slowly, painfully learning to interpret what the car was telling me, I'm pretty sure I'd have hedge-parked that car in no time at all. Indeed, you only need to look at any Lotus forum over the winter months to see fine examples of people who didn't take the time to learn.
So, yeah, it's good to get the tail slithering about if only to learn what you need to do on the day your car decides it wants to kill you.
Exactly. Whilst hanging the tail out is mostly about selling magazines, it's also good to try (Where conditions allow of course) to find out how your car behaves when things don't go according to plan. My first rear wheel driver was a Capri and as an 19 year old with only two years motoring under my belt I once entered a roundabout travelling in one direction and exited it facing in the other without having any idea quite how it had occurred at what seemed like a fairly sedate speed. Did a skidpan car driving/handling course after that and learned to love rear drivers. A car that's easy to control on the limit when you provoke it is likely to be on your side should the brown stuff hit the fan.I remember collecting my Elise on November 16th 1999 and then, the following weekend, taking it to a very quiet, very wet, slippery roundabout to see what this oversteer lark was all about. I experimented by teasing it out with the throttle, by lifting-off sharply and by mixing the two together. None of it went well. It took me quite a few weekends before I was able to catch it - but not necessarily control it - consistently and it taught me two important things; what it feels like when it's about to let go and put me in a tree and the degree of input needed to counter its scary output.
Without actually trying it and slowly, painfully learning to interpret what the car was telling me, I'm pretty sure I'd have hedge-parked that car in no time at all. Indeed, you only need to look at any Lotus forum over the winter months to see fine examples of people who didn't take the time to learn.
So, yeah, it's good to get the tail slithering about if only to learn what you need to do on the day your car decides it wants to kill you.
Olivera said:
What has not been mentioned is the fact that general public and car enthusiasts in the main do not have either the experience or skills to drift a car. I'd wager that most PHers couldn't hold a relatively low speed slide at a moderate angle with all stability aids turned off. So the simple answer is most people (including the OP) aren't interested in drifting a car because they can't actually do it.
^ ThisI've had 2 types of rear wheel drive cars, done trackdays in them both, done Autosolos (racing round cones in a carpark) and done a Caterham and a Westfield drift day experience (won a prize at the Westfield one
). And I still don't think I could safely manage a planned drift on the road. A couple of degrees slip maybe, but a drift?To be fair neither of my rear drivers are blessed with much torque, but are all you heroes really getting it fully sideways? On the road?
In all my miles of hooning the only cars I've ever seen sideways outside of carparks are Caterhams.
ETA: Have to say I fancy a V8 ZT to replace my RX8. If drifting is as easy as this looks maybe I'll change my mind on the subject: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLQ8fbf09MM
Edited by moribund on Monday 23 January 00:53
marmite monster said:
dvs_dave said:
Drifting is fun but does anyone here actually ever intentionally drift their car on a public road?
erm yes ! on my way to work there are 3 islands and 4 bends that are ripe for a good slide ! if i get up and look out the window and its wet i get all excited!its the deciding factor in all the cars ive owned ..will it drift ..humm yes it wil ....ill take it !
so to me it matters ...
si
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