Hollywood movies have been made about it, most of us have heard of it, and those attending recent race meetings at Barbagallo Raceway such as the V8 Supercars would have seen demonstrations of it, but what exactly is drifting?
Simply put, drifting is the art of driving as sideways as possible around a set course whilst maintaining the speed and control of the car.
This new and street savvy form of motor sport is the fastest growing form of competitive motorsport in the world.
Whilst many feel that this new motoring craze is nothing more than a mob of 'hoons' blasting around and acting crazy, drifting is in fact a fully recognised and endorsed form of competitive motorsport that requires immense focus, skill and dedication.
All competition battles are run under the guidance of the Confederation of Australian Motorsport (CAMS) with the drivers behaviour closely monitored at all times. Actions such as performing burnouts during competition are strictly prohibited and general unsporting behaviour is also penalised.
Drift battle winners are not determined by speed or time as is the case with other forms of motor sport. Instead, competitors put their skills on display in front of a panel of judges who determine the best from the rest.
Competitors demonstrate their skills in a solo qualifying performance before pitting their talents against others in a series of one-on-one elimination battles until just one car remains.
In general terms, the more sideways the car is the better, but competitors must also be able to keep the car under control. Speed, whilst an important aspect of the judging criteria, is not an essential element to drifting as more emphasis is placed on car control than time.
Points are deducted for under steer and overthrow, when too much speed is lost when correcting or if the angle is too severe and awarded for outstanding control, flair and general touch.
In a sense, drifting is not so much about getting out of control as it about getting as close to the ragged edge as possible without going over. Drifting as a sport requires a lot of skill, focus and determination to be successful.
A drift event consists of two distinct sections, a qualifying session and the battles or elimination rounds. Both the qualifying session and battles are judged but using different sets of criteria and scoring.
For qualifying, each competitor is given two laps, in front of the judging panel to display their skills. The judging process is similar to that used in sports such as diving and gymnastics where points are given for technical aspects including speed and line but marks are also awarded for personal style and touch.
The most important aspect though is the angle on which the car is driven otherwise known as 'yaw' .
Yaw is term commonly used in sailing which literally means to deviate from a straight course, or to move unsteadily on a zigzag course. When you think about it, there really couldnt be a better word to describe what drifting is all about!
After each competitor has completed their two qualifying runs, each judge awards a score out of ten which are averaged. The scores are then ranked from highest to lowest and the top 16 (or 32) competitors advance to the battle stage.
Drift battles on the other hand consist of two cars going head to head on the circuit and attempt to 'out drift' each other.
Each battle consists of two laps, and competitors take turns being the leader and the chaser. During a battle, the leader takes the front position and will drift as hard as possible whilst the chase car attempts to copy or out do their performance. At the end of the first lap, the competitors swap places so the leader becomes the chaser and vice versa.
The judges will award three points for each drift battle, one based on speed, one for line and one for angle or yaw. Each judge allocates a point from each criteria to either the leader or the chaser according to who they believe performed the best.
At the end of a battle, the panel of three judges compare scores and a winner is chosen to move onto the next round. The loser is eliminated. In the case of a draw, the battle is re-run until a clear winner is decided.
Alternatively, a chaser may also win a battle by overtaking the leader, but this can only be done whilst both cars are displaying a significant amount of yaw or angle. Such a move immediately awards the win to the chase car and the leader is eliminated.
These techniques don't use weight transition, so are typically the first thing the novice drifter learns. However they are still used by the most experienced drifters, and require skill to execute properly. These techniques aim to induce a loss of traction on the rear wheels, either by locking the wheel (e-brake drift), or using enough power from the engine to break the traction force (power-oversteer and clutch kick).
* Hand-brake or Emergency brake drift - While the clutch is depressed, the hand-brake is pulled to induce rear traction loss. As soon as traction is lost, the driver releases the clutch, depresses the accelerator, and countersteers. This technique is used heavily in drift competitions to drift large corners, or to trim the car's line mid-drift.
* Power oversteer or Powerslide - This drift is performed when entering a corner at full throttle to produce heavy oversteer through the turn. The excess power causes the drive wheels to lose traction in a RWD or AWD car. This is the most typical drifting technique for all-wheel drive cars.
* Shift lock (compression slide) - Initiated by downshifting (usually from third to second or fourth to third, and using a very fast shift) instead of braking, without rev-matching, causing the drive wheels to lock momentarily. Helpful for very tight corners, allowing the driver to approach the corner at a slower speed and lower revs, while allowing quick acceleration when exiting the corner. This technique can be very damaging to the engine if mis-used as the ECU is unable to rev limit when the engine is oversped by the rear wheels. Premature downshifters are called "Rod Stretchers".
* Clutch kick - This is done by "kicking" the clutch (pushing in, then out, usually more than one time in a drift for adjustment in a very fast manner) to send a shock through the powertrain, upsetting the car's balance. This causes the rear wheels to slip. The foot should be at an angle so the brake and gas may be pressed as well, this being needed to control speed and stop from spinning out in the drift.
These techniques employ a further concept of weight transition. When a vehicle has the load towards the front, the back wheels have less grip than the front, causing an oversteer condition that can initiate a drift.
* Braking Drift - This drift is performed by braking into a corner, so that the car can transfer weight to the front. This is immediately followed by throttle in a RWD car causes the rear wheels to lose traction. FWD cars can also use this technique as it does not depend on the rear wheels being driven.[9]
* Inertia (Feint) drift, or Scandinavian flick[10] - This is done by transferring the weight of car towards the outside of a turn by first turning away from the turn and then quickly turning back using the inertia of the rear of the car to swing into the desired drifting line. Sometimes the hand-brake will be applied while transferring the weight of the car towards the outside to lock the rear wheels and help the rear swing outwards. This type of drifting causes the car to accelerate faster afterwards, because of momentum built up
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