Drifting

Drifting is when you are turning, but sliding with much wheelspin, causing your car to move fowards, but also somewhat to the inside of the turn. The front end keeps traction. This lets you take turns at higher speeds. There are different methods for drifting, so feel free to add your own or rephrase another one.

Tuning the Car

Tuning the car is one of the more important factors in how your car can drift. The best way to tune the suspension is to make the rear sway bars hard, but the front sway bars loose. Also, turning the anti-roll on the rear axle down will help you drift better. Next, focus on the tires. The rear tires should be overinflated. It can sometimes also help to underinflate the front tires. Lastly, move to adjusting the gear ratios. Raising the final gear ratio will give the car more torque, making it easier to get wheelspin and to drift.

as well as having a stiff sway bar, you may also have tight springs, and high negative camber in the front tires. depending on your style you may also want your brakes either toward the front, or central. if you set them toward the front, you can induce oversteer by braking easier, and catch a spin by locking the front wheels. if you set it central then you can use the brakes to lock the rear wheels, and many other tricks to save a drift (too complicated to say here, but it involves locking all four wheels). for what differential you use, i recomend a clutch LSD. i use a high percentage for on-power, and low setting for off-power, to help catch spins. locked diff's are unforgiving, but very easy to start a drift. do what works for you, and if you need help dont hesitate to search on lfsforum.net and ask for some help.

Technique

There are different ways to drift. This is how I drift. As you are coming up to a turn, turn somewhat to the outside of the turn. Then turn back to the inside of the turn. This will make the car lose some traction and it will start sliding. At this point, you should be pointed to the inside of the turn. Now, give the car full throttle (or at least more). This will help to lose rear traction and force the car to the inside of the turn. Now, the car won't be moving in the direction it's pointing, but somewhat to the outside of the turn. It can help to start tapping the clutch. This generally seems to make the drift easier, but all in all give the car a bit more traction, somewhat slowing you down. If, during the drift, your car begins to turn too far towards the inside of the turn, turn the wheel to the outside and let off the gas a bit. Of course, learning to drift can take a while, so try testing your own techniques and use whatever works for you. (If you want to add a way to drift, don't delete other ones that could work for some people).

If this technique is not working very well for you, be patient. find your own technique, and style of drifting by experimenting with your clutch, accelerator, and even brakes. doing what is called a "clutch kick" is when you depress the clutch pedal and let the RPM's drop down, then release the clutch and turn to the side you wish to drift. if you use the brakes, in a way that they will not lock but push the weight toward the front of the car, then you can also drift very easily. if you have a very loose setup, that drifts easily, you can use the throttle agressively to start power oversteer, then just use what you know to keep a decent angle, and not spin. if you still are not drifting how you want to, then be sure to check out "drift bible" on youtube.com.

if you still are not satisfied then go to lfsforum.net and use the search function to find drift help threads. but please, do not make a new thread, we have plenty.

Making Drift Courses

If you want to make your own course to drift in, go to an open course, such as Autocross (Autocross section). Press Shift-U. This should open up a menu that allows you to place objects, such as barriers, cones, and tires. Also, there is some way to set up a system to award points for drifting. I don't know how, so if anyone knows how, please edit this article and tell how to.(EDIT: i believe you need experience in the coding engine C++)