How to Drift a RC Car

By now, everyone who’s a fan of motor sport has heard of 'drifting' – the driving style that has exploded across the petrol head scene to capture the imagination of car nuts everywhere and fascinate fans around the world! HPI Racing makes it easy to copy the amazing drift technique and style of the top 'drift kings' with a selection of tips, videos and a massive range of body shells, wheels, tyres and much more!

What is Drifting?

Full-size drifting competitions consist of drivers controlling their car around a racing circuit to gain style points from judges and spectators. The more style, drift angle, tyre smoke and noise you can maintain around a fixed course, the more points you get! Drifting isn’t about crossing the finish line first, it’s about showing off to the crowd and getting more cheers than the other guy!

To get a car to physically drift around a corner, the driver puts power to the rear tyres to break traction and swing around the rear end of the car, whilst still accelerating the car forward through the turn. Using the throttle, precise steering and subtle braking, the driver maintains the drift around the turn and guides the car to the next turn. To learn more about how to drift an RC car,

Of course, drifting isn’t just about getting around the track – the look, the style and upgrading the drift car is half the fun of being involved with the drifting lifestyle! Fabulous graphics, deep-dish wheels, loads of chrome, fat exhausts and wild, unique styling are all part of the show.

For some car fans, the driving and skill is what's important to them, and showing off extreme angles while burning up a set of tyres around the corners is what gets a big grin on their face. For others, the clean and polish of a finely crafted machine is how they get their kicks, and checking out the detail and extent of customization on their own car or someone else's is what really gets them going! The beauty of the drifting and import racing scene is that it can easily accomodate both extremes of car nut: the driver or the detail geek! 

Step-by-Step Tutorial
Okay, now you've seen the videos and seen how it works at real speed - let's go step by step and show you how to get started drifting!


Step One: Practice Initiating a Drift
Or this step, you don't need to change your differential or suspension settings. Keep everything as you would keep it for 'grip' or normal racing. The only things you'll need to get started is a set of drift tyres - start with hard compound tyres like the T-Drift tyre or Stage-D 04S-26 tyre to begin with. The HPI treaded drift tyres are made from a different compound for advanced drift maneuvers.

Start by approaching the corner at a quick speed. The more you accelerate, the more stable the car will be. As you get to the apex, accelerate faster than normal to break rear traction. The rear end should start sliding, giving you a 'tailslide'. When this happens, countersteer back to neutral and accelerate away. You've just completed the first step in drifting! When you're able to do this consistently, you can move on to trying to drift completely around a corner. Keep practicing this first step to perform the tail slide smoothly. 

 

Step Two: Drifting Around a Corner

Again, keep the same diff and tyre settings as for grip racing.

Drive into the same corner you were practicing with in step one, but instead of braking and then turning like you would in grip racing, turn the steer and brake hard at the same time to break the back end loose. This starts your 'drift swing'. Counter-steer to keep the nose of the car pointed towards the apex until the car gets past the apex, then steer back to neutral as you exit the turn, and accelerate away.

To link up a sequence of curves use the drift swing technique to get you smoothly through the curves. Between the turns, release the throttle for a moment to increase how much the counter-steer affects the car, then accelerate again as the car starts turning into the following curve.

Remember that the more of an angle you can keep through the corner and the more graceful the car is, the more points you'll earn from any judges, whether you're at an organized competition or just thrashing about with your mates.

Step Three: High Performance Drifting
As you make the move into high performance drifting, you'll need to start adjusting your car settings. If you want to maximize the amount of counter-steer you use, keep the front diff as standard but use a tighter rear diff setting, either by tightening the diff screw or using heavier grease. To focus more on extreme drift angle, use a front one-way diff while tightening the rear diff as described for more counter-steer action. For both types of drifting, use a much softer suspension setting than for the earlier steps, by using a spring that is a couple of steps softer than standard and slightly thinner shock oil. You can adjust the suspension links but keep it simple for now and just adjust the shocks by themselves.

To create a big drift angle, brake before entering the corner and control the throttle to pass the apex with a large angle. For an EP (electric-powered) car, use a front one-way for rear braking to quickly change the direction and accelerate. Try to keep the car from spinning. Be gentle on the throttle when using a front differential or exiting the corner 

 You can make further adjustments to correct spins or bad angles by adjusting the toe or camber settings of your car.

Step Four: Driving with Other Cars - Twin Drift

The ultimate challenge for drift masters is driving with other cars in what is called the 'twin drift'. Both cars are sliding through the corner, just inches from one another, as the drivers delicately balance brake and throttle inputs to either pull away from the car behind, or catch up to the car ahead. It's even tougher when the drivers have wildly different drifting styles - it takes a lot of nerve and a lot of skill to do it right!

 

Motor & Engine: You've Got the Power!

Alright, now you’re fully kitted out! You’ve got the ‘show’ with body shell, decals, wheels and tyres - now you need the ‘go’! What do you need to do after you get your car looking and driving like the ultimate drift bandit? You need to make sure it’s got the power to give it the proper street cred – in most cases this is a very simple matter.

Nitro cars
Just about any Nitro car will have plenty of power to spare for drifting. Because you are using low-grip tyres to slide the car through corners, you don’t need loads of power and you definitely don’t need top speed! Even full-size drift cars don’t need loads of horsepower. Keep the two speed installed, but lock it out by tightening the shifter clutch adjustment all the way down. Use the standard gearing, or if you can, use a clutch bell that is one or two teeth smaller than standard. This will give you a little extra acceleration as you go from turn to turn.

Electric cars
Like Nitro drift cars, you don’t need high-horsepower motors for drifting. In many cases the standard motor that comes with an RTR electric kit is fine, although as you gain experience try a mild modified motor like a 17-turn or 15-turn. Make sure you use the right gearing for the motor you use (check your car’s manual), and if you can change your pinion gear for one that is two to four teeth smaller than standard, you will be able to get a little extra acceleration as you go from corner to corner in 'chase' drift mode.