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Old 02-06-2007, 04:20 AM
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A simple guide to drifting (WIP)

This article is still a work in progress, please bare with me.

A simple guide to xmod drifting.

OK, first I'll start this off by saying that, if you already drift well, you should read the "1/28 drift bible" by Color0, because that is allot more technical than this guide.
I'm writing this guide to help other people, whether they be new to the hobby altogether, or just new to drifting. This could be applied to larger scales, and mini-z awd, but I'm going to be focusing on the Xmod. Secondly, remember this, 80% is down to personal preference! I'm not going to go into RWD drifting either, AWD only here.



Chapter One - Basic Drift Set-Up

To perform a drift, the basic set-up is to have the following.

AWD - All Wheel Drive, luckily, this upgrade is available for both Generation 1, and Evolution xmods, and is relatively cheap.
Slippery Tyres - You'll need some slippy tires.

That's your base, take that, and run with it, hopefully following this guide will help you.


Chapter One -Part Two - Surface

First things first, finding the right surface to perform your drift.

In most, if not all cases, you want to drift on a smooth surface, whether it be hardwood flooring, marble floor, linoleum, asphalt, even trampolines make a great drifting surface. Experiment.
Of course, the best surface for you is one that's accessible, whether it be a small space in your home, or a large tennis court or sports hall.

Once you have found a surface that seems both smooth, and easily accessible, you can move onto setting up your car for that surface, some times of linoleum have more grip than something like a varnished wood floor, so your car needs to be set up accordingly.





Chapter Two - Setting up your car, for the intended surface

Tyre set-up.

We will start with hardwood/varnished wood and other slick surfaces.

The most important selection for setting up your car for a intended surface is tyres. For these types of slick flooring, you should aim to use tires covered with electrical tape,rather than hard plastic tires, simply because of two main reasons, the first being the noise, with something such as PVC tires, or ABS, it's extremely noisy, this can get annoying fast, especially when you spend hours practising each day! believe me. Secondly, is scratching the floor, if you have a real nice floor, you won't want to scratch it up with plastic tyres.

Tyre Taping : Take a cheap roll of electrical insulation tape, and wrap at least one wrap carefully around your tire, making sure the back edge of the tyre is flush with the tape, you shouldn't see the tire, neither tape hanging off. The other side, will have some, or allot, of tape hanging off, simply trim this away with some scissors, so that it is flush with the tyre, as mentioned before.

Now onto outdoor and other surfaces.

If it's more of a coarse surface than varnished wood and linoleum, you might want to experiment with other methods, as electrical tape wears out very fast when drifting on coarse surfaces.
Something you might like to try, is ABS, or PVC pipe, go down to your hardware store, with one of your wheels, preferably grind off the lip on the rim with a dremel before hand, and test some piping for a very snug fit, cut to size, apply some CA glue to keep them fixed, and file the lip of the pipe to a preferred fashion. These types of tyres will last almost forever, even on asphalt and other coarse surfaces, and are extremely cheap, you can get 1.5Metres of piping, for about a buck, and considering you use approx 3-5 inches of pipe, you'll set yourself up for some time to come.

Suspension set-up

Suspension set-up is down to preference in my opinion, you have to tune it yourself, experiment, and see what results you gather, make notes, and figure out the best set-up for you.

Personally, I prefer to have softer springs in the rear, if I am loosing traction very easily, but having a harder time maintaining the drift.
harder in the rear, if I'm having trouble loosing traction, which is extremely rare with the right tyre/surface set-up.

Once again, that's personal opinion.. you can experiment yourself.

Other settings.

Motors and gearing.

Most people over-estimate the amount of torque needed for drifting, infact too much torque can cause you to have problems,such as spinning out, and loosing control when trying to go straight. especially if your new to drifting. So beware, try and leave the motor-gearing, until you have the hang of drifting. When you do, you might decide to go for the stage 2, or stick with the stage 1, use the heatsinc from the Stage 2, and a mid range gearing.


Weight distribution.

Setting the weight distribution, can thankfully be done on both Generation1, and Evolution Xmods, this is a big help when setting up for drifting, but is again, something you will need to experiment, start with the stock set-up (middle) and tune your way from there.


Chapter Three - Performing A Basic Drift

Now you have your car set up, it's time for the fun part.

This can get very, very, very, very, very, very, VERY, frustrating.. so be patient, take it slow, and relax, drifting isn't so easy.

Ok, here's some basic procedures to use while practising drifting, practice and see which one fits your driving style.

First type of drift, I'll refer to this as a power over.

Drive straight, headed for the outside of the corner, as you approach the corner, begin to pull in slightly, now, your about 2 feet away from the corner,drop your throttle a little, about 5 inches from the beginning of the turn, full lock turn, now wait... a second or less, and blast the throttle, if you see your car sliding too far, counter steer, and drop the throttle. Counter steer just means steering the opposite way of the corner, or the way you are sliding.

Second, I'll refer to it as Feint

On this drift, the sliding momentum comes from weight shift.

Drive straight, directly approach the corner from the middle, as you begin to get within 1 foot of the corner, let go of the throttle completely,steer the opposite way of the turn about 20%, now quickly, full lock turn in the direction of the corner, and give it some gas. if you see your car sliding too far, counter steer, and drop the throttle. Counter steer just means steering the opposite way of the corner, or the way you are sliding.

Third, braking, this will give you a slightly sharper drift, and is good for those tight corners where it's not so easy to perform the other types of drift.

Drive straight, directly approach the corner from the middle to inside, as you begin to get into the turn, at about 6 inches, turn 10% tap the break, don't hold, just a very, very slight tap, this will make your wheels loose traction, now allot more turn (80-100%) and give it some gas! if you see your car sliding too far, counter steer, and drop the throttle. Counter steer just means steering the opposite way of the corner, or the way you are sliding.

That's all for now folks, if you need help, just ask, a video enables me,and others to help allot more, it's allot clearer to see the problem, than to read it.

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