How To Drift A Car 6 Different Ways

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

In this blog post you’re going to discover how to drift a car 6 different ways.

Drifting is one of the most popular forms of motorsports in the world today. It’s not judged based on lap times. Instead, drifting is an art form judged on line, speed, angle and tire smoke or “wow factor”. It is a purely subjective sport, so if you want to rise to the top you need to be the subject everyone is talking about!

Handbrake / E-Brake Drift

The e-brake / handbrake drift is one of the most fun ways to drift. It’s also the way most overenthusiastic youth learn to drift – usually ripping the handbrake up in supermarket parkinglots or pulling it on an unsuspecting friend as they round a corner. The handbrake can be used to flick a quick 180 degree turn, initiate a larger drift, or extend a drift if you’re not going to slide far enough under power.

Drift Sequence:

1. Brake
2. Turn wheel
3. Step on clutch
4. Pull E-brake
5. Release E-brake
6. Countersteer
7. Then wait until car is facing corner exit, then gently give the car gas – how hard you step on the gas depends how much you are countersteering and sliding.

Shift-Lock Drift

Shift-lock drifting is not recommended to do on a dry road. This technique is best used on wet or snowy surfaces. You initiate the shift lock drift by downshifting (most often from 3rd to 2nd) instead of using the brakes and rev-matching, forcing the rear wheels to momentarily lock up.

Drift Sequence:

1. Gas all the way in third gear
2. Brake
3. Steer
4. Let clutch go without using heel-toe technique.
5. Rear wheels will suddenly lock
6. Then slide
7. Countersteer
8. After car is facing corner exit, gently give the car gas – how hard you step on the gas depends how much you are countersteering and sliding.

Power Over Drift

The trick to power over drifting is throttle control. Front tire grip is super important, too. You perform power over drifting by entering a corner at full throttle to create heavy oversteer, then feed excess power to the rear wheels to induce drift.

Drift Sequence:

1. Brake lightly to shift weight to front tires for traction.
2. Steer into the corner even if you feel understeer.
3. At corner exit step heavy on the gas to power out of the corner.
4. Countersteer

Braking Drift

To successfully complete a braking drift you must pay attention to three critical factors: When to turn into the corner, when to downshift, and for how long to stay on the brakes. Brake drifting is a lot like shift lock drifting except for the fact you don’t let the rear tires lock.

Drift Sequence:

1. Heavy on the gas in third gear approaching corner
2. Brake – how much you brake is crucial – If you kill the speed too much, you will end up stopping before you drift and with understeer. You want to slow down about 70% from how fast you are driving on the straight-a-way.
3. Let go of brake
4. Steer into corner
5. Use heal-toe technique to shift down to second leaving your toe on the brake – The heal-toe technique uses the right foot to control both brake and gas while left foot operates clutch for shifts. Right foot toe is on brake while right foot heel is on the gas.
6. Countersteer
7. After car is facing corner exit, gently give the car gas – how hard you step on the gas depends how much you are countersteering and sliding.

Feint Drift

Feint drifting is all about momentum. You use the weight of the car to create a force that overcomes the grip of the tires, inducing a drift. It’s not always easy to get the car’s weight to transfer by braking alone. If that is the case then you want to shift the weight with a feint or quick flick of the steering wheel away from the corner.

Drift Sequence:

1. Brake
2. Quickly steer away from the turn.
3. Then steer into the corner. The car will bounce back in the opposite direction like a pendulum because of the great weight transfer now.
4. Step heavy on gas, as in the Power Over Drift technique, to get the car to slide.
5. Countersteer

Lift-off Drift

The lift off drift, or dynamic drift, is initiated simply by holding momentum into the corner and releasing the gas causing the tail to slide.

Drift Sequence:

1. Charge into the corner without braking.
2. Release gas making the rear wheels loose traction.
3. Slide
4. Countersteer
5. Step heavy on the gas when exiting the corner.

If you are serious about learning how to drift, by far the best instructional video you can get for yourself is the Drift Bible by Keiichi “Drift King” Tsuchiya. Best Motoring does an amazing job of capturing the proper camera angles, the voice-over work is very easy to understand, and Keiichi puts everything into perspective for you to understand. This video is easy to watch over and over and over again!