Those not familiar with the word drift might relate this to the act of floating along with the current of water flow. The drift that I claim is crazy is not some nuts who is floating on water, rather it is applicable for a weird lateral movement of a car.
Allow me to explain. A car is designed to assist human in getting from point A to point B. Most of the time, point A to point B does not lie in a straight line. One turns the steering wheels to steer the car wherever one intend the car to go. According to Newton’s First Law, a body in motion tends to stay in motion IN A STRAIGHT LINE. To make a body (in this case, the car) turn, an external force is applied to it. The act of turning a car involves force exerting on the car.
So how does this drifting come into picture? Well, believe it or not, drifting actually consumes the least amount of energy in proportion to the speed attained. When a car moves so fast, it is mechanically inefficient to turn the vehicle the way a pedestrian turns his vehicle, i.e., slow down the vehicle, disengage the clutch (for a manual car), wait for the car to roll out of the bend, and then reengage a lower gear ratio. Way too much energy is wasted to slow down the vehicle and to gather momentum again.
The proper and efficient way to turn is to keep the engine’s rpm as constant as possible (possibly in the power band), while keeping the car focused on the apex of the turn, thus minimizing body roll, and enabling higher speed. Easier said than done. In a manual car, it involves a lot of feet movement juggling the clutch, brake and accelerator at the same time!
You may think of it as steering your front wheels in the opposite direction of the turn. Sounds counter-intuitive at first, but if you have watched the Disney cartoon Cars, you’ll know what I mean. But then again, the car must lost contact with the ground (and drifting) for this to be possible.
I have personally experienced drifting before. No, not your average “approach-the-bend-at-80-kph-and-hold-on-tight” kind of thing. I was in a souped-up Nissan March turbo doing the bends with all the tyre squeals, the insurmountable G-force and the mind-boggling lateral movement! An old car-crazy friend of mine was driving it at that time. He even did a reverse flip; reverse the car at full speed, then quick hand brake action, and his car was driving in the right direction. And at that time, we were pursued by the cops! No kidding!
I learnt a lot about cars from him. He was the one who said “you must be one with the car, feel the car, then you will be able to master the car” when I first got my car. He was the reason why my first car suffered so much under my hands! Hehehehe 😛
Anyway, back to drifting. I have always preferred to go sideways rather than to go fast. Take for example car simulation video games. I have always liked Sega Rally Championship and Colin McRae Rally over the silly American muscle-car type of Need For Speed. Except for NFS Underground, in which I dig the drifting championship very very much! Also, the japanese seems to love drifting all that much compared to the western people. You can see it in the car magazines of Japan. The crazy wheel camber tells a lot!
That said, not all American and European cars are incapable of going sideways. The Porsche has got one of the highest G-Force tolerant car shells around. Enough said, I just wanna show you some of my favourite drift videos on Youtube:
The music of Coldplay – Clocks seems so appropriate in this video clip. Watch out too for the drifting exotics, like a Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, and Lambor.
The ultimate rally machine, the Subaru WRX. Makes me think of Dennis the Menace. He goes jumping into his neighbour’s house and starts to terrorize everything, and then jumps back out again as quickly as he appeared. Nice one!
Do tell me if you have anymore incredible drifting movies that you like.
dun understand.. too deep