Racelogic Ltd
Drifting
Drifting
DriftBox is the first performance meter to measure Drift Angle. A car is said to be drifting
when the rear wheels have a lateral (sideways) motion in relation to the road as well as a
longitudinal (fore-aft) motion. In fact, the moment a car starts to turn a corner, the rear
wheels need a certain amount of side-slip to go around the corner, even if you are going
very slowly.
DriftBox will measure the angle between the
direction the car is pointing, and the direction the car
is going.
Because the rear wheels need to slide a small
amount to turn a corner, DriftBox will show a small
angle (usually <5 degrees) when cornering normally,
but round very tight bends this can sometimes be up
to 10 degrees.
When using DriftBox, a drift is defined as anything over 5 degrees and 25kmh, but in most
cases you are not really drifting unless you are showing 10 degrees or more. The very top
drifters have recorded angles (using DriftBox of course!) of 65 degrees, at over 100km/h,
but this requires a lot of power, sticky tyres, a modified steering rack and a large amount of
skill.
NOTE: Drifting should only be carried out in a controlled environment, and under no
circumstances on the public highway. Please make sure you are in a large open
area, and you are wearing a suitable helmet. Drifting can be immensely rewarding
when you have mastered the technique, but you run a high risk of spinning out of
control every time you lose traction of the rear wheels.
Drifting techniques
There are many ways of making a car drift, here is a brief explanation of some of the more
popular methods. Techniques vary depending on whether your car is Front engined Rear
wheel drive (FR) or Front engined Front wheel drive (FF).
Hand Brake (FR & FF)
This is the simplest way of breaking traction on the rear wheels. Pulling on the handbrake
will lock up the rear wheels, and this will cause the amount of grip at the rear end to drop
very suddenly and the car will slide from the rear. The downside is the car will slow down
during application of the handbrake. This technique is normally used to initiate the drift, but
you cannot use this for sustained drifting.
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