RE: Drifting modes are pointless: Tell Me I'm Wrong

RE: Drifting modes are pointless: Tell Me I'm Wrong

Author
Discussion

Ahbefive

11,657 posts

173 months

Tuesday 8th November 2016
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TooMany2cvs said:
Because that's what drift mode is for, right?

Oh, wait. No.
Of course it is. You think people want to drive around drifting every corner and every roundabout and destroying £800 worth of tyres by doing it constantly? Its not Tokyo drift, its just an option to use very occasionally at the right moment.

Alex_225

6,264 posts

202 months

Tuesday 8th November 2016
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TooMany2cvs said:
TBF, it's more a case of turning off the electronics that make it harder to do.
Well that's what I understood it to be initially, if I switched off all electronic controls in my CLS I'm pretty sure it would go sideways (much like the new AMG). Probably a lot more than I'd want it to.

I thought with the Focus though it directed more power to the rear and tweaked other bits and pieces to enable the drift. So not just freeing up the natural characteristic of the car but actively making it want to 'drift'.

As for the whole power slide/drift on TV conversation, I think it's cool to see a car going sideways in a plume of smoke because it's fun for fun's sake. If someone handed me the keys to a performance car that I knew I'd hand back and got to use it on an open air field with very little consequence, I'd have a go?!

Sadly, few of us have the option of free tyres and a free race track to ruin them on, so when it comes to gain sideways on the road, you end up look like a bit of a t*t.

AW111

9,674 posts

134 months

Tuesday 8th November 2016
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caine100 said:
As this thread is evident "Drift mode" if nothing else serves as a target for people to aim their envy-fuelled bile.
What a very strange post.

It's just a fast Ford, for dog's sake - I don't think many PHers are full of "envy fuelled bile" for this year's hot hatch.
I am not criticizing fast Fords, by the way wink

Relax

39 posts

95 months

Tuesday 8th November 2016
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IanJ9375 said:
Wish it was cheaper.... a car that the motoring world has decreed a "performance bargain" as it was under £29k to early orders?
The drift mode came about by accident, the Engineers found that in using the GKN twinster system and allowing them to torque vector the rear they found that they could achieve a drift, I guess that's when someone from marketing got involved, but not something that's taken any money away from development
Whatever you want to say I guarantee the drift mode would have required some development, I would prefer they had not bothered and taken £500.00 off the asking price of £29.000 sorry 30 odd thousand.

Relax

39 posts

95 months

Tuesday 8th November 2016
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caine100 said:
As this thread is evident "Drift mode" if nothing else serves as a target for people to aim their envy-fuelled bile.
Well that's one way to look at it, another is that it's just not a good decision to make for a road car.

nurseholliday

173 posts

193 months

Tuesday 8th November 2016
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RacerMike said:
Not strictly true. Track and Drift mode both leave a level of ESP enabled. Both reduce the level of interventions, but drift adds a basic side slip based control which allows a significant amount of side slip (drift) before it intervenes. To fully disable ESP, it's a 5s or so button hold of the ESP button.

Whilst Drift mode does make it a bit easier to initiate a drift by locking the rear diff clutches earlier, the default 'Normal' or 'Sport' modes are still easy enough to power oversteer in as well. The focus on Drift Mode is entirely marketing led. Think of it as an encouragement for drivers to leave some form of ESP on whilst playing around. Without it, the only option would be ESP off which is considerably more likely to result in an accident...
Interesting, I didn't know I had to totally turn off ESP in drift mode too, probably explains why we were struggling to maintain big long smoky slides in that mode compared to track.

RacerMike

4,211 posts

212 months

Tuesday 8th November 2016
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nurseholliday said:
Interesting, I didn't know I had to totally turn off ESP in drift mode too, probably explains why we were struggling to maintain big long smoky slides in that mode compared to track.
You still get interventions in track mode too. If you want big smokey drifts, best bet is to turn it off!

Ahbefive

11,657 posts

173 months

Tuesday 8th November 2016
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Relax said:
Well that's one way to look at it, another is that it's just not a good decision to make for a road car.
By that reasoning we should limit cars to 70mph and nobody needs more than 150bhp so limit that too. In fact sporty tyres could be banned too and also cheap ones. Maybe ban lowered suspension on road cars, etc etc

leccyt

5 posts

102 months

Tuesday 8th November 2016
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Agreed! This is for faux car enthusiasts if you ask me.
If you want to go drifting buy a drift car, if you want tidy and fast with sideways on demand buy an M car (or a old 320 for budget versions of same fun).
Surely we a preaching to the converted. More marketing pish even if it is a good car.

IanJ9375

1,468 posts

217 months

Tuesday 8th November 2016
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Relax said:
Whatever you want to say I guarantee the drift mode would have required some development, I would prefer they had not bothered and taken £500.00 off the asking price of £29.000 sorry 30 odd thousand.
£28940 to be precise.

Yes I imagine it cost some software programming to add in another mode option on the button once it was fully tested but the point I was making is they didn't set out to create a drift mode or indeed a "drift car", they threw away the Haldex system that they had tested, picked up a GKN system from the Evoque and blew it apart redesigning it so that it could take the abuse they needed it to.
The rear wheels are oversped by 1.8% so the car is by nature ready to push from the rear when a bend is presented.
New AWD mini has a variation on this system, unsure if it decouples as the Evoque system does or not and apparently the next generation Insignia VXR is going to be running GKN which is great news for what is British Engineering and know how

If anyone's interested in understanding how it works -
http://www.just-auto.com/interview/gkn-vp-discusse...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZOXbzwSuUg

TheLuke

2,218 posts

142 months

Tuesday 8th November 2016
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The fact this is even being debated is quite funny.


Those in the drift community dont even take the button seriously. for a start its in a 4wd car, which is a big no-no.

Its merely a gimmick for the normies who arent into drifting to be tricked into thinking that they could. Its like a huge blow job for the driver that button, just helmet polishing by ford.


TartanPaint

2,989 posts

140 months

Wednesday 9th November 2016
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If it was called the "rear torque bias" button, PH would be in love with it. Could we maybe agree that the marketing team have named it something stupid to appeal to a buyer we can't relate to, but overall it's quite a good thing to have?

anonymous-user

55 months

Wednesday 9th November 2016
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nickwilcock said:
Agreed - stupid rubbish which simply increases the car's price.

I'm amazed that AMG have stooped to such childish nonsense.
I wouldn't be - AMG are a bunch of council tards now.
Merc -
have gone to making endless niches, awful interiors, awful styling, blatant copies, misleading model designations, overpriced chav rubbish and AMG is no different


What happened to the old classy Merc frown

Relax

39 posts

95 months

Thursday 10th November 2016
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Ahbefive said:
By that reasoning we should limit cars to 70mph and nobody needs more than 150bhp so limit that too. In fact sporty tyres could be banned too and also cheap ones. Maybe ban lowered suspension on road cars, etc etc
Just ditch the drift button that's all as it's silly nonsense on a 4wd car, I mean come on now.




Ahbefive

11,657 posts

173 months

Thursday 10th November 2016
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Relax said:
Just ditch the drift button that's all as it's silly nonsense on a 4wd car, I mean come on now.
Being able to send more power to the rears is silly nonsense? So the same with Subarus dccd that the most sporty of Subarus are equipped with? If you don't like it don't use it but surely the more adjustability you have the better?

I don't remember Subaru ever getting slated for this, probably because they gave it a different name.

Might as well just ditch rwd as its "silly nonsense" rolleyes

anonymous-user

55 months

Thursday 10th November 2016
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Probably because Subaru were in the business of going faster with 4wd, not using it as a gimmick to sell a car, sideways wink

tomjol

532 posts

118 months

Thursday 10th November 2016
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Ahbefive said:
Being able to send more power to the rears is silly nonsense? So the same with Subarus dccd that the most sporty of Subarus are equipped with? If you don't like it don't use it but surely the more adjustability you have the better?

I don't remember Subaru ever getting slated for this, probably because they gave it a different name.

Might as well just ditch rwd as its "silly nonsense" rolleyes
Except drift mode doesn't just send more power to the rear, it intentionally overdrives the outside rear wheel to destabilise the car.

DCCD is useful in "real world" scenarios; drift mode isn't.

Ahbefive

11,657 posts

173 months

Thursday 10th November 2016
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So you want to outlaw having a bit of fun just for the sake of having a bit of fun?

Its not a drift car but its just another string to its bow that means it can do something fun. I think Ford should be congratulated for making a car with an option that is just there for a laugh.

tomjol

532 posts

118 months

Thursday 10th November 2016
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Nope smile

justinspain

5 posts

95 months

Thursday 10th November 2016
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I've done a couple of videos about the RS drift mode and it is great fun to use...on a track.

The RS will, nevertheless, drift when not in drift mode which is immensely satisfying on any roundabout smile

Who doesn't like even a little bit of drifting on the way to work?