Luxstang´s drifting experience

Ok, guys, I still owe you some feedback on this topic.

As some of you may remember my wife gave me a day of drifting lessons as a Christmas gift.

A few weeks ago, I finally got to go and it was both fun and frustrating at the same time.

Everything went pretty fine until it came to the art of drifting in a circle. That was when I started to fail. An instructor then rode with me to find out was was wrong and he could not find anything. So he asked if I would allow him to drive the Mustang himself because he had a suspicion.

Bottom line is even two instructors failed to drift my car in a complete circle.

The problem was:

At a certain point, the car will start to go from a drift to a spin on itself.

You need to get of the throttle a little to hold it back. The momentum will keep the back end of the car going sideways and then you "steer" with the throttle.

Now, instead of staying sideways because of the momentum my car will immediately get 100% of traction on the rear wheels. It feels as if you slide sideways into the sidewalk. Drift over!

Then of course, the car will respond to acceleration by under steering and any chance of getting into a drift again is gone.

It is probably related to the superb traction of the Toyo Proxes tires. (And the differential lock releases when you get off the throttle which doesn´t help either).

Getting it to go sideways in the first place is no problem at all. The torque is enough to spin the rear tires and it breaks loose immediately, it just cannot be steered with the throttle.

Both instructors agreed that they have never had a car there that was as hard to drift as mine.

So I quit doing that particular routine and watched while the others had fun.

Then it came to going on an "M"- shaped circuit, meaning left turn, immediate right turn and left turn again.

That went pretty well as there was no need to steer with the throttle, just get it sideways, go around the corner and swing the rear over to the other side to tackle the next corner.

Problem was I was missing about 40 minutes of experience and "feel" for it because I had to skip the other routine and thus my success was pretty limited. Unless of course you count success by the number of cones I wiped out.

By the way, later the sun came out and I put the top down. I may not have been the best contestant but I was definitely the most cool looking one until I wiped out and came to a stop just beside the sprinkler that kept the track wet. Top down, windows down and a sprinkler do not go well together. Until I could put the car in reverse and back out of the mess the sprinkler had squirted 4 or 5 times all over the interior.... and over me of course.

So after several more attempts I quit two hours early because I was getting frustrated.

It was fun nonetheless and I succeeded in making a few very nice passes. At least I had an "official" instruction on how to do it and I have enjoyed pushing the old gal to the limit and beyond.

The other guys that were in my class had fun too (sprinkler!) and were wondering if I was nuts to participate with that car.

"Man, you got balls to do that with a car like yours. Aren´t you afraid to break something?"

"Well, I guess then I´ll just have to fix it, won´t I?"

Bottom line is, I should have put the Magnums on with the white letter tires and it probably would have worked like a charm.

I´m not that mad because I got just as far as the two instructors who do that for a living, so I guess it wasn´t all my fault. If those guys can´t pull it off in my car, how could I?

I have made a little GIF for fun as I don´t have a Youtube account or similar. Enjoy.

Well Lux... a bad day at the track is better than our day watching TV!!!!

Sorry you didnt get to enjoy the full event.

Funny: When I was a kid, I tried my best to "drift" at every chance I got...but we didn't call it a "drift" back then, it was a "fishtail". The old geezers in the group will know exactly what I am talking about.

When I lived in Corpus Christi, there was a pretty large industrial park that had begun construction and then stalled for about a year. The only thing they had completed was all the streets were paved along with the driveway entrances...lots of fairly long gently-curving sweepers in several places. But that was it: No structures of any kind, no tall curbs, no traffic signs, nothing: Just a perfect little road course for a punk-ass kid like me who thought he was stunt driver.

On the way to the office each morning, I would usually cut into the park, and let it rip. No other cars to hit and no structures to smash into either. The worst thast could happen was spinning off the paved road into the grass/ mud of the unfinished land.

On a street that was probably about a 35-MPH section, I would get up to about 75-80 and just let the tail hang out, smoking the tires around the entire bend.

Just like Lux says...the understeer is massive, even more so on a big block. No way does this car want to easily allow you to get into a oversteer/drift/fishtail situation.

I had to do what I have since learned is called the "Scandanavian Flick": For a right-hand sweeper, you steer a little left, just enough to build up some side momentum and then rapidly flick the wheel to the right while stabbing the gas pretty hard.

The extreme instant side momentum will break the rear tires loose, and as long as you have your foot planted pretty deeply into the gas it will keep the rear tires spinning providing just enough forward motion to prevent you from coming all the way around.

a little "oppy" (opposite lock) steering and feathering the gas just right keeps it slightly sideways the whole way around.

The trick is to keep the car enough sideways so you are scrubbing off the speed a little. Not enough sideways angle alows too much grip on the rear tires and you quickly get too fast for the bend.

We called that the "Corpus Christi 500", and several guys in my office loved to go there and do that. At the time I also had a '72 Hurst/Olds convertible, and that car was a dream to drift around like that...very good at it.

My business partner had a 280ZX Turbo, and once he mastered to turbo lag, he could do it pretty well also.

Warehouse girl had a '84 Monte Carlo SS, and none of us could get it to drift for more than about 10-15 feet or so...it was woefully underpowered. 305 4-barrel, probably about 6 horsepower, 0 torque. It handled pretty good for what it was, but as soon as you did the "flick", it would get sideways, start to settle in..and then BOOM: the rear tires would gain traction and shoot you forward towards the side of the road. Nowhere near enough torque to keep the tires spinning.

Some of the guys liked to do it on wet streets, said it was easier at lower speeds. I didn't like wet streets because the front tires would also not have the best traction, which you surely need.

Of course, I NEVER drive like that now!

Yeah, that "Scandanavian Flick" happens all by itself when you do the "M" shaped thing and it worked pretty well.

Mine doesn´t under steer that much because it´s only a 351 and I have lots of positive camber on the front suspension. There is no way you could get mine into a drift on a dry road because of those tires. With the 15 inch Cooper Cobras it´s easy but these high performance tires are meant for modern supercars. The Ferraris, Porsches and the like. They provide traction that is almost scary even on wet roads. I can easily push the car up to 85 mph on our small winding road that leads to our town, going 60 mph in the turns and I don´t even worry.

With the Coopers I start to sweat when I do 40 in the same curves, so that makes the difference.

The difference between fishtailing and drifting is that in a fishtail you send the rear outwards after the turn an in a drift you point the car into the direction the car has to exit the curve before you even enter it.

In my GIF you can clearly see that, although I did succeed in going into the turn sideways, the real action comes too late. That ws pretty much in the beginning of the course.

I must say it didn´t get that much better later on, though...


Oh, by the way, what I should have done is keep the front wheels for traction and swap the rears for the 15 inch ones.

The more seasoned guys who have taken those lessons before all swapped the rears of their Beemers, Nissans and whatnots for different tires before class started.

You live and learn.

Very Cool Mike. Sounds like you still had a blast

Well win, lose, or draw you look damn cool in that beauty

All in all, it sounds like you had a great time! I think it's way cool that you took the vert. That's EXACTLY what you've got it for!

Well win, lose, or draw you look damn cool in that beauty

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+10!

Looks like a awesome time Mike, in a awesome car !! {thumbs up}

Figures..a long-haired hippie just drifting along... *G*

I've always wanted to learn how to use a line-lock and maneuver a car into a tight parallel parking spot by drifting.

Figures..a long-haired hippie just drifting along... *G*

I've always wanted to learn how to use a line-lock and maneuver a car into a tight parallel parking spot by drifting.

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LOL...Mike is going to end up blocking us one day. :angel:

Figures..a long-haired hippie just drifting along... *G*

I've always wanted to learn how to use a line-lock and maneuver a car into a tight parallel parking spot by drifting.

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LOL...Mike is going to end up blocking us one day. :angel:

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Nope, but I might show up on your doorstep and steel your Telecasters.