Teach me to drift?
 

The goal for me is to drift my 1998 240. The girls I met from Drifting Pretty said it's possible to drift in an automatic using a LSD but I want to go all out and convert her to stick shift then learn to drift.

Funny thing is I'm scared to all out drift her. I've had a few people show me how to faint drift her and even that left me weak. I guess the fuel behind the desire to learn is two fold. I want to get over my fear - i'm all about conquering my fears (i'm scared of sport bikes but I'm going to take lessons soon to get my M class license.) The second being that I absolutely love the challenge and beauty of drifting.

So, fellow 240s, got any tips on 1) how to get over my fear and 2) any tips on how to learn to drift?

THANKS!!!

imo drifting automatic seems really dangerous but drifting overall is dangerous until u get good:) Just get out there and start is the best way to learn, also taking tips from others and doing ride alongs help too. The drift bible won't help but once you start learning a bit thats when it does help. Practice in the rain to start learning how ur 240 reacts going trhough corners with over steer and under, in wet conditions it helps break the rear end loose to start drifting. Hope that helped:)

1) Practice in small amounts where you feel mostly in control but slightly pushing it in a safe environment.

2) i highly highly highly recommend buying the movie The Drift Bible. It's a great video with awesome video angles to compare how your hands and feet move in time with the drift.

Edit: My post came right after the first response so I didn't get a chance to read it. I humbly disagree with his comment about the drift bible. It's a given that you have to be used to your car before you can really start to push it. And your right in the sense that she won't be able to emulate either his speed or control in the beginning. However it still is in my opinion the best movie because of it's multiple camera angles and use of different cars on the same course.

1.) Get an LSD.

2.) Practice tons of practice i.e drift days,Just drift,Vegas Drift,Land Ho Drift Events and safe enviorment is the best enviorment.

3.) Anticipation is the key, know how the car is going to react before it happens.

4.) Spinning out doesnt mean you suck it means you are actually are trying. Dont let it get you down. Even Monkeys fall from trees.

5.) Remember to have fun who cares about competing having fun is the key.

When's the next Land Ho Drift event? Do you have to drift at them?

***:werd: ***

We are planning to have another one in a few months.

Well drifting is preferable. Even our open diff drivers kicked ass drifting.

If you try to grip I will just beat you up for messing up my drift.

No one has drift events in Ohio *sniffle-sniffle* i have to stick to abandoned parking lots, oh well its probably best.

its because ohio is for lovers, and cali is for drift kings =D

i would recommend learning to use the weight of the car to drift ( faint )instead of killing ur ebrake. i have learned through talking to people like jr that u dont want to live on the ebrake . i actually started drffting with out the ebrake befor i talked to jr, The ebrake is great for making correction to the angle of ur drift

e.i : u use faint to start ur drift and u feel that u are understeering, pull the ebrake and its corrected. also i took my ebrake safty off becasue i was spinning out alot when the botton got stuck sometimes ( guy i bought it from spilled something on it lol ) . Im not recommending u do that but since u have a auto it would not hurt u.

p.s make sure ur ebrake is tight, on two clicks my ebrake was fully locked

I recommend that you start with the e brake a feint drift messed up can be very dangerous.

At least ebrake the car will stop if you mess up.

This far in the beginning i dont think that she will need to worry about correcting her drift line.

nice point i didnt think of that. drifting kinda came easy to me because i practice grip driving alot befor i got into drift so. i had the knowleadge of car control.

faint can be dangerous because of the weight shifting envolved. all that physics stuff that we went the sleep on in school aplies here

how to get over your fear is to just find an open parking lot and PLAY! There's a lot of huge parking lots in sf and around the bay so just go out at night and skid around. Meet up with a few people that can teach you some pointers. Have fun with it.
In getting your M1 license.....you rock:thumb: I, too, have an M1 license- 4yrs now- but sad to say that I sold my bike (2000 honda cbr600 f4). But it's ok cuz I used the money to buy a 240:D

i could live with that trade off lol

like he said the parking lot is great, i started in a open lot with no light polls, as i got better i went to lots with medians and light polls so i could have some kinda turning ( apexing ) point. latley i have gotten so good that i come about 1 to 2 feet away from polls and even closer to curbs now,

p.s yea i hit a few curbs but if ur not trying hard u will not get good. when u get a little advance try and find steets with out bumbs and dips ( can break ur axel if at the wrong angle) and practice doing 90 degree turns by pulling ur ebrake and steering hard into the direction that u wanna go. countersteer as need. U can do it ( a 240 drifts in its sleep )

p.s 2 ) drift alone or with one other person do not show off for friends ( people who dont know how to drift or cant assist u )cause ur concentration goes down. At least untill u practice about a month by ur self

I have taken out auto cars at events with the owners in the car. I have found that an auto 240sx left in lower gears will not shift to higher ones when romped on. It will sit and bouce off the rev limiter.

With that you know you will not bog down in the middle of a turn because your auto tranny has decided to go to a higher gear.

I am stuck with an auto 92 coupe right now. I am waiting on the 5 speed swap but I might have to drive it at our first event as is.

Now if you have a good deal of speed (momentum) you will get away with having an auto. If you have the entry speed you will not have to clutch kick at all and fix your angle with your ebrake.

Hey my first coupe had a horrible 1 to 2nd synchro. I left the gate in 2nd and drove most of the course in 2nd. I just dogged the first turn to gain more speed for the rest of the course.

Get to an event and try it out with an instructor. Also get feedback from drivers that are there.

I don't totally agree with this one. If you have people there you will get feedback on what you are doing. A passenger is good.

I have ridden with people and they will know when I am "on" or "off".

wow! Thank you so much for the feedback guys! I really appreciate the advice. I wanted to practice grip driving first then graduate to straight drifting. Think that is a better step?

By the way, i talked to over with my mechanic, and he is willing to swap my car to a manual for a great price. Granted the price doesn't matter but the quality of the work done, but I've used him for a while and he hasn't let me down. Sooo, in that light, how much more technical is to drift in a manny? (can you tell i'm a total novice to this?!) Any pointers you guys can give me?

Thanks again everyone! I really do appreciate it!

Take care!

Ok to come clean here I've never driven a car besides my moms Mini Van or my Dad's Jeep that was a automatic. And obviously I wasn't attempting to drift either one of those vechicles.

However I always always personally feel like I have a much better control of the car if it's a manual transmission. Even beyond the clutch kicking factor, For me it's all about the knowledge that I control the rpms not some computer which determines what rpms the car should be running at. This enables me to match gears while shifting (forget the tech. term), and it also allows me to maintain a high rpm if I don't want to shift up into the next higher gear.

Another problem that I have found in my parents cars is that when floored they seem to get "stuck" in the lower gears if your full on the throttle. In the van I actually have to disengage the throttle or I could probably destroy the auto tranny. So I would be worried that when the time came to change gears that the car wouldn't change over. This basically would disable the throttle control and in the middle of the drift I could only imagine that it would lead to a eventual loss of control.

And personally I would learn grip driving before drifting. I'm not trying to proclaim myself champion or anything here but when your good at grip driving you should always experence a small slip angle (3 to 5 degrees is optimum if I remember correctly) whenever your in the turns. So by becoming a excellent grip driver you can have the "feel" of the car and when is the correct time to give it that extra throttle to get the rear end to come out. From there it's a different ballgame but its a start.

And to wind up this long winded speech remember that every moment that your in your car you are becoming "closer" so practice every chance you get. "Perfect Practice, makes Perfect Runs." Not an exact quote from Skip Barbers School but the idea is that practice (if in a suitable and safe environment of course) the same exact way as if you were there on the course. That way when your on the course there is no adjustments to be made. You've already trained how your going to run, all that's left is to go out there and do it. :thumb:

Wow.... that was long....