what is considered "drifting"?

Ive been arguing with my friends about what determines that youy are drifting. Couple of my friends think there drifting if they jsut take one corner and slide it. personaly i think they are wrong. I think your actually drifintg if you link more than one corner. what do u guys consider drifintg?

same as you, man.

here's my definition of drifting:

Basic definition is when your car skids or the tire has exceeded it's tires lateral grip. There are two types... understeer *loose of front tire grip* and oversteer *loose of rear tire grip*

When talking about drifting as a motorsport such as D1, there are several factors that would consider your drift:

1. Speed of entering the drift and during a drift, and how much you can maintain that speed while drifting

2. Angle of your drift, how much you can get the ass out and if your following the racing line while drifting.

3. Connecting the corners while drifting... which means you swing your car and drifting it until you reach the next corner then swing it back the other way. This involves the weight transfer and basically sliding your car through-out the course. A show of true car control!

In the most basic form, yes a J-turn slide can still be considered a drift, but its not the most spectacular one... and i think if you really want to be a true or competetive drifter then you need to be able to do all of the above i listed. I would be embarassed to call myself a drifter without knowing and being able to do those things. Anyone can pull their ebrake and go sideways on a corner, but if you can control it, keep it sliding and let your car drift where you want it... then your a drifter.

A drift in my simplified opinion is "an oversteering lateral slide" so as to keep things wide and open to interpretation.
However, as to drifting, a drift around one corner is not drifting. Drifting would be to drift through two or more corners in a sort of fluid movement.

to me, the key thing about whether someones drifting a corner or not... is at what point the car starts to slide...

when your learning to drift, often the first thing people do is to powerslide out of the corner... but the trap for some people, is to think that that is drifting... to me, as long as the car is clearly sideways before the corner, then thats drifting...

I really don't think it matters how many turns/corners whatever you link, drifting is a controlled slide... to a certian extent anyways

I think you guys summed it up, whether you wanted a definition of the word, or what it takes to participate in drifting as an opportunity.

Read Leyla's Keeper's bit in the "understeer/oversteer" Thread. I think Tazio Nuvolari was the founder of drifting an automobile to maintain momentum.

There really are two types of racecars. Momentum cars, and torque machines. Torque machines take a certain amount of skill just to control the power and violent movements of the beast (viper,porsche 911, Ferraris, Corvette).

The line blurs somewhat with cars like the Porsche Boxter, which can't really decide which type it wants to be (the boxter S helped it make up its mind). Momentum cars would be your Haichi Roku's, BMW 2002's, Toyota MR2's, front wheel drive cars, Datsun 510's, NA rotaries; pretty much anything with four cylinders and not much weight.

Both of these types of cars are on the road, and each of them spawn different types of beginner drivers. Kids who run around in Camaros and 5.0 Mustangs will be the fastest things in the neighborhood, but they won't necissarily be the fastest drivers. When you drive your favorite back road in your lil' honda, you are running a completely different race than the kid with the 5.0 'stang. You will eventually learn how to squeeze every ounce of speed from your car (which will be considerable) and the guy in the muscle car will be spending his time behind the wheel trying to keep things under control. While you are adding power little by little, and learning little lessons every day, the dude in the mustang is trying to come down from his power high (and still adding more power). The 5.0 driver can modify his suspension, but from what I've seen Mustang drivers know little about the handling department, and this usually never happens. Now, I'm not berating the 5.0 mustang, it can actually be made to handle better than anything on the road...

One day, the guy in the isuzu carries a little too much speed into a corner and gets killed by chronic understeer. I learned the hard way about trailing throttle oversteer and polar moments of inertia in my first 2002. It wasn't the zig, it was the ZAG. I went off the road sideways because I WAY over-corrected and lifted off the throttle drasticly. After I shed my last tear (I killed a very rare set of wheels and put a dent in my rear fender) and the shock wore off a few weeks later, I realized something. That manuver that my car pulled off was amazing. It made me think that if somebody could put that sort of action to use, they'd be unstoppable on a tight road. The evil grin returned to my face.

I just like to stress how important I feel it is to start from a good begining. This is what I think the Toyota Corrola GTS was made for. Dont mess with it, it IS modified by the best in the buisness: Toyota! When you upgrade swaybars/springs/rear end and add things like adjustable camber plates, you are on your own, and chances are your car will be WAY beyond you. God, I feel so uncool telling people not to mod their cars, but I really feel that in your beginning years, spend your money on gas, good tires and your girlfriend. Later you can upgrade with a greater understanding of suspension geometry (yes, math), and do it right the first time. You gotta learn to crawl before you can run. AND GET THOSE FUCKING HANDS AT THREE AND NINE SOLDIER!

NOTE: Initial D is not a instructional piece, it's a comic book (a damn good one). If you feel you have learned much from it's content, fine. Just remember that Bunta said Tak was an awful driver when he first started. I recommend the book How To Make Your Car Handle by Fred Puhn for suspension modifying of any kind (physics is physics).

Definition of Drifting:
Exceeding the limits of grip racing and controling the slip until you exit the apex.

Describing a Drift:
As long as the Wheels are spinning while executing a lateral-G turn. That's considered Drifting. That's why FWD are only called "PowerSliding" because the drivetrain cannot maintain the speed while on a drift.
There's alot techniques on Drifting.
See www.Driftsession.com (this is a Drift school in Hawaii)
Go to "Technique" and see all of the technique that's avaliable.


Two categories of Drifting:
Show Drifting:
Gracefully clearing corners and turns with longer drift.

Racing Drift:
Clearing a corner or turns at a faster entrance and exiting with almost the same speed (this only applies on certain corners or turn).
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

CHECK MY MOTO :D

drifting is entering and exiting a turn sideways and "out of control" or atleast apear that way, and your rear wheels have to be spinning the whole time...

and just to point it out, I said rear wheels spinning, so no e-braking a FWD car is not drifting, it is e-braking, nothing further

To add to this definition, i say that its the use of throttle to induce the desired oversteer angle by laying the power from the rear wheels while using the steering wheel to counter steer and remain balanced

Hello people, first off let me begin by saying im new here, actually this would be my first time posting on the internet, so please bear with me.
I know there is a HUGE debate over what is considered drifting, and viewing a couple of threads related to FF and FR this got a little heated. So please try not to flame me on this one.
When people consider definitions for drifting the first thing that comes to mind (mine included) is a FR going sideways at the limits of control through a series of turns. The key to this is the drifter follows a line, even though the angle of the car in relation to the line is skewed. I have noticed that one common factor in those definitions is "the rear wheels spinning", notice that these are the drive wheels and also provide the forward motion to allow the drift to proceed forward and sideways.
Now for the controversal part. On a FF, obviously the front wheels are the drive wheels, it would stand to reason that if they are spinning and providing the "drifter" with the forward motion and the locked back wheels providing the initial traction break from the weight transfer, this would constitute a drift. This would take a lot of e-brake minipulation, but is feasible and with practice could be done and also linked together.
But who knows I could be taking out of my @ss on this one. Think its time to think outside the box. constructive critisicm is more that welcome, like I said I'm just another n00b. :)

With newbies like you, who needs moderators? You are correct. There were many people who rejected front wheel drive from the day it was born. Now it is most prevalent in the car market. And now, the kids have a reason to go back to rear wheel drive, so they want to make all the kids stuck with front wheel drive feel stupid. I'd rather be stupid, than be an asshole.