You Screwed Up!

Okay guys, fess up. What's your most common error when attempting a drift. I'm sure we all have that one little thing that seems to always screw us up.

For me, it's downshifting from fourth to third. I've got a really REALLY weak synchro in third so besides having to match revs on downshifts (straight cut gears instead of helical cut) I have to wait about two seconds in neutral before easing it into third. Sometimes, though, I'll forget to do that when rushing a corner and I'll just jam it in there as if I was driving my teammates S13...

(1989 240SX, still with KA24, receiving RB20DET because he can get it cheaper than a SR20DET and he thinks 20's are getting too well known, anyways).

... what ends up happening is Layla will just spit out of gear and I'll end up having to roll through the corner. Lame.

So, what about you guys. Where do you screw up?

I sometimes get really crossed up coming out of a drift, unless I pay attention not to. I'll end up really getting my hands real tangled. Another mistake I sometimes make is not letting the wheel feed far enough through my hands when I'm staightening out of the drift. I don't let the car get straight enough, not enough to cause me to crash, but enough to startle me because I expected the car to go somewhere else.

how fast are you going when you jam from 4th to 3rd?

I'm a dumbass and always let off on the throttle too much. Resulting in me spinning like a fool instead of holding the drift.

Usually, if I'm in fourth, I'm doing about 50 to 70. It's a pretty close ratio gearbox. But I don't downshift until I'm well under braking and the revs have dropped below 4000. Over-revving the MG 1800cc four is a pretty easy task (no limiter).

The problem is just in the synchro not being able to keep up with a modern shift rate. This is what I get for learning manual in a 1985 Dodge Omni GLH.

i've only ever really drifted once or twice in my friend's 240SX, and they weren't much of a drift either. the closest thing i've done is e-brakes in my Tempest (which ISN'T drifting), and i find that i sometimes simply get too sideways so that i can't correct or i don't get sideways enough, so i just end up driving through the corner fast instead of sideways.

Okay guys, fess up. What's your most common error when attempting a drift. I'm sure we all have that one little thing that seems to always screw us up.

For me, it's downshifting from fourth to third. I've got a really REALLY weak synchro in third so besides having to match revs on downshifts (straight cut gears instead of helical cut) I have to wait about two seconds in neutral before easing it into third. Sometimes, though, I'll forget to do that when rushing a corner and I'll just jam it in there as if I was driving my teammates S13...

(1989 240SX, still with KA24, receiving RB20DET because he can get it cheaper than a SR20DET and he thinks 20's are getting too well known, anyways).

... what ends up happening is Layla will just spit out of gear and I'll end up having to roll through the corner. Lame.

So, what about you guys. Where do you screw up?

You should be rev matching while downshifting anyway.. preferably heel-toe downshifting. It's a lot easier on your transmission and clutch, plus it makes your driving much smoother which is neccessary when driving close to the limits of traction.

As the son of a former SCCA Showroom Stock (Class 5) competitor and a driver who cut his teeth on 1/4 Midgets and Formula 440's, plus learned driving "full size cars" on Dad's Omni GLH, I've got a pretty good understanding of heel-toe and rev matching.

As I said before, the problem is once you're out of gear and blipping at the throttle to keep the engine turning at the same speed you have to shift between the gears SLOWLY.

The soundtrack is something like this....

vrrrrraaacckkk..kachunk...VrVrVrVr......kachunk... ..vrrrraaaccccckkkkk.

It's the downside of weak synchros and square cut gears.

My biggest screw up is when i was drifting around a corner and i was starting to come out of the drift and i had the wheel cranked too far to the right and overcorrected and ended up down a hill. cost me $1700 dollars in repairs just to the suspension :banghead:

hey faze. check the dates on a thread before you post, cause you brought up 2 threads that are a couple of months old...and posted nearly the exact same thing in both.

As the son of a former SCCA Showroom Stock (Class 5) competitor and a driver who cut his teeth on 1/4 Midgets and Formula 440's, plus learned driving "full size cars" on Dad's Omni GLH, I've got a pretty good understanding of heel-toe and rev matching.

As I said before, the problem is once you're out of gear and blipping at the throttle to keep the engine turning at the same speed you have to shift between the gears SLOWLY.

The soundtrack is something like this....

vrrrrraaacckkk..kachunk...VrVrVrVr......kachunk... ..vrrrraaaccccckkkkk.

It's the downside of weak synchros and square cut gears.

If your synchro is that bad that normal rev matching doesn't help any then you should be double clutching. For years transmissions didn't have any sychros and this was a common practice, I'm surprised your dad didn't tell you about it.

Yes he did (and I have to double clutch to get the B into reverse because reverse doesn't have a synchro).

It'll get better once the trans goes in for a rebuild. That's priority #4, right after (in order) welding in new floorpans and rocker panels, new doorskins, and a Spax fluid shock conversion kit.