Drift Articles, Teach Yourself How to Drift
Teach Yourself How to Drift


Lesson 1


Practice Techniques

Safety is a priority at all times.
You owe a duty of care to others around you
that you shall not injure or damage them, or their property.

Track and Open days, and Private Car Parks with Permission
are the best places to practice your drifting skills.

Remember you are representing the drifting culture.


(1) Acceleration Turn

In order to start drifting you first must learn to get your car to slide out. If you start from a stand still and turn the wheel to full lock, increase the revs and drop the clutch, the car will spin in the direction you turned it. The important part of this is dropping the clutch. If you let the clutch out too slow, the rear wheels will not spin up, and your front tyres will slide. This will put a considerable amount of stress on the transmission so it may be better to practice on a wet day when the road is slippery.
Another way to lighten the stress on the transmission is rather than dropping the clutch, start off slowly and then put the foot to the floor and slide the car out.
To do this practice technique you need an LSD. A factory viscous LSD will do, but it will become insufficient when you move on to more advanced drift techniques.

(2) Ovals

This technique is excellent for getting a feel for under steer and over steer. Using the acceleration turn technique, try to keep a circle going by counter steering. You will gradually be able to control it well. Once you’ve got the hang of it, place a cone down and drift around the cone, making the circle smaller and bigger, maintaining control of the car at all times.
You may have trouble at first, and there are 2 main causes for this:
1. Spin out – You may be spinning out because you are counter steering too late. Smooth acceleration also helps to keep more control so try not to accelerate roughly
2. Under steer – Under steer is worsened if the rear tyres have more grip than the front, so at this stage you should have higher grip tires on the front. Again, smooth acceleration helps to prevent under steer. It just takes time to get the feel of it.

(3) Handbrake Turn

Set up a cone for you to practice with. Try this in first gear. As you head towards the cone, turn the wheel. At this point put your foot on the clutch and pull up the handbrake, and once the car starts to slide out, take your foot off the clutch, and let off the handbrake. After this you can use the techniques used in (1) and (2) to keep the car in a controlled spin. Light braking will help control the drift, but you must find a good balance. Braking too strong will bring on under steer. Also, to help with your handbrake turn technique, some good brake pads will help. (Drift or Gymkhana specialist type are recommended).

(4) Power slide

This is also a technique to help you get used to sliding your car out. This is quite hard to do without good LSD. Firstly, grip it into the corner until the apex and then at the exit of the corner put your foot to the floor and slide the rear out. Once you get the wheels spinning, maintain it with your steering and acceleration techniques from (2). By the time you have finished counter steering, you should be at full throttle. This will help to return counter steer smoothly.




(5) Handbrake Drift

This is a basic technique where you can begin to drift from the approach of the corner. When you come to the approach of the corner spin the wheel, and at the same time pull up the handbrake. Pulling up the handbrake will lock up the rear tyres, so don’t forget to put in the clutch too. As you gradually get better you can increase your speed and pull up the handbrake further from the corner, and lengthen the distance that the rear slides. Better pads will help with this technique too.

(6) Clutch Kick

This is the simplest technique. With your foot still on the acce