Drifting Techniques

Heel Toe Shifting
Learn proper race shifting to get your car into the right gear for drifting. Section also includes double clutch shifting so you can downshift before drifting without blowing out your transmission too quickly.

Power Over Drift
A throttle induced drift, this is performed when entering a corner and using the accelerator to slip the rear wheels, producing heavy oversteer through the turn. You will often need lots of horsepower to make this happen.

E-Brake Drift
This drifting technique is very basic, pull the E-Brake or side brake to induce rear traction loss and balance drift through steering and throttle play. This can also be used to correct errors or fine tune drift angles. Main drift technique used in FWD vehicles, however since it does decrease speeds, e-brake drifting is looked down upon during solo (tansou) type drifting competition.

Clutch Kick Drift
This drifting technique is performed by depressing the clutch pedal on approach or during turn in to a corner. The clutch is "popped" to give a sudden jolt through the driveline to upset rear traction, causing the power wheels to slip. Drifting is maintained by balancing the throttle.

Shift Lock Drift
This is performed by letting the revs drop on downshift into a corner and then releasing the clutch to put stress on the driveline to slow the rear tires inducing over steer. This is like pulling the E-brake through a turn, but this should be performed on wet ground to minimize damage to the driveline. Similar drifting technique to Clutch Kicking.

Dirt Drop Drift
This is performed by dropping the rear tires off the road into the dirt to maintain or gain drift angle without losing power or speed and to set up for the next turn. This technique is very useful for low horsepower cars. Do not attempt this technique at the Drift Session.

Feint Drift
This is performed by rocking the car towards the outside of a turn and then using the rebound of the vehicle's suspension to throw the car into the normal cornering direction. This is heavy rally racing technique used to change vehicle attitudes during cornering.

Jump Drift
In this technique the rear tire on the inside of a turn or apex is bounced over a curb to lose traction resulting in over steer. Do not attempt this technique at the Drift Session.

Braking Drift
This is performed by trail braking into a corner. Loss of grip is obtained and then balanced through steering and throttle motions. This is mainly for medium to low speed corners.

Kansei Drift (Inertia Drift)
This is performed at race speeds. When entering a high speed corner a driver lifts his foot off the throttle to induce a mild oversteer and then balances the drift through steering and throttle motions. The car that is being used for this style of drift should be a neutral balanced car therefore the oversteer will induce itself. If the car plows through any turn this technique will not work.

Long Slide Drift
This is done by pulling the E-brake through a strait to start a high angel drift and to hold this to set up for the turn ahead. This technique can only be done at high speed.

Swaying Drift (Manji Drift)
This is a slow side-to-side faint like drift where the rear end sways back and forth down a strait.

Basics

Noobs start here

So you think you found the right car for yourself, but don't know where to get one... Here's a site (also a magazine you can purchase) called AutoTrader. I personally recommend using this site due to the fact that:
A) Its easy to use.
B) You can find cars in your area.
C) Most of the cars are fairly cheap. (I bought my '91 300zx for about 4k using this site.)
There are other sites to use, but that is the best one that comes to mind.

Ok... So you bought a car (you have some left over cash) and now you want to make a couple modifications to it... No problem, but I would recommend getting used to your car in the stock form. But if you really insist on modding out your car, Yahoo has many auto part sales sites. A couple sites I have found useful are:
A) Mod-A-Car
B) 2kRacing
C) Advanced Auto
There are many, many more sites out there. So don't limit yourself to just those.

So let’s recap...
You've read up some on what drifting is.
You have a car. Maybe you slapped 15k into it maybe you didn't.
You've practiced for a couple weeks and feel you are up for new challenges. Here are some techniques (correct me if I am in anyway wrong past this point.)

I'm going to go in alphabetical order (not in order of difficulty) of what techniques I can think of. I'm also researching these as I go along so I get everything right. YES, I AM DOING RESEARCH FOR YOU!

First we have...

“Braking drifting”
To perform this, trail brake into a corner. As you do this, you will lose grip. When that happens, balance the car by steering and using throttle motions. This is normally used on medium to low speed corners.

“Clutch Kick”
To do this depress the clutch pedal while approaching or during a mild drift. Then pop the clutch to give a sudden jolt. When you do this, the jolt makes the driveline disturbed and the rear loses traction.

“Dirt Drop Drift” (If you have seen Initial D they refer to it as the “Gutter Technique.”)
This is performed by “dropping” the rear tires off the side of the road and into the dirt to keep or gain drift angle without losing power or speed and to set up for the next turn. Note that this technique is very useful for low horsepower cars. (Just like the “86.”)

"E-Brake Drift" (Described by Nissanguy_24)
This is a very basic technique. Just pull the hand break (a.k.a. the E-Break) to make the back of your car lose traction and balance the drift by steering and quick throttle motions. This can also be very useful when you need to correct errors or fine tune you angle of drift.

"Faint Drift"
To do this, rock the car towards the outside of the turn and then, using the rebound of grip, throw the car into the regular cornering direction. Quick note: This is a rally racing technique that is used to change your car’s approach during cornering, normally used on tight corners.

"FF Drift" (Front wheel drive drift)
The E-brake, steering, and braking techniques must be used to balance your car through the corner. The E-brake however is the main method used to balance out your drift.

"Jump Drift"
In this technique bounce the rear tire on the apex (this means the inside) of the turn over the curb to lose traction resulting in over steer.

"Kansei Drift"
You have to be pretty fast for this. When entering a high speed corner lift your foot off the throttle. This induces a mild over steer. Then balance the drift by steering and throttle motions. To do this however, your car should be a neutral balanced car. Therefore the over steer will induce itself. If the car plows through the turn this technique won’t work.

"Long Slide Drift"
Yet another use for the E-brake. Pull the E-brake through a strait to start a high angel drift and hold it so you set up for the turn ahead. Now remember, this can obviously only be done at high speed. Otherwise you wont slide to far.

I think that’s enough for now... There are many more techniques, but the best one is up to you. To look for more techniques and what not, visit the DRIFTING Technique forum. Its always good to read, but don't forget to practice. Anyways, by the time you learn half the techniques up there you are probably very good, or very lucky.

I hope this helped you all out. And I hope this clears up some of the useless threadage. I'm not trying to frighten anyone away, but due to a recent coalition of people not liking the forum being stormed by new comers and attacking them to use the "search button." Here is the work done for you, and I not only used the site's search button but Google as well.

I don't feel this is the best lesson in drifting, but it should give you a start and something to learn from. I'm, however, hoping this will become a sticky, but that is up to the administration.