Drifting for Dummies

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I can’t drift for toffee. Seriously, in all my years of playing these type of games I have never mastered drifting. It’s never really bothered me until now, maybe because of that one acheivement I’m never gonna get. I have the Formula Drift DLC pack and have installed various tunes but I still just can’t do such a simple thing as sliding and it’s annoying me. Anyway, getting to the point, basically I need a “Drifting for Dummies” guide. Nothing too technical, you’re talking to a total drift beginner

Cheers!

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I used a variety of cars to complete the drift zones - Alfa 4C, Subaru 22B barn find, BMW M6 FE, Hoonigan Focus RS - find something you find easy to control. upgrade as you would for most cars - reduce weight, add power, improve handling. In a move that will likely upset most in the drift lounge I found AWD much easier to use to begin with, though RWD has the potential to do better if I could just learn to control it more. For a beginner, go AWD so you aren’t spinning out so much.

I do have the Drift pack cars, but maybe because my first attempt was using a 1000+HP RWD in the snow with traction control off I spent my time going round in circles or off into trees. Hence opting for a more normal car, AWD conversion and something in the region of 500-800HP. Not enough power and you struggle to break traction for long enough. Too much and you are prone to spinning out or burnouts. With practice you can advance to more powerful cars or learn to control RWD instead of AWD. I can now get much greater angle on drifts in a RWD, but find it harder to produce that consistently without losing the back end.

Simplest drifts are e-brake. Build up speed down a straight, turn + e-brake to lock the back end, then power through to turn it into a slide. It takes practice to learn how early to start the turn in based on your speed and how to control the throttle. Steer into the drift to keep the car headed where you want it, while feathering the throttle (and some normal brake) to control the angle of the back end. If it is slipping too far round ease off the throttle or apply a little brake. Not enough angle try more throttle and adjust steering.

Drifting can also be induced by shifting the weight balance in the car. Applying the regular brakes shifts the balance of weight forward, giving more grip to the front wheels assisting with turn in, while reducing downforce on the rear wheels making it easier to break traction by applying throttle.

Some cars have such great balance you can initiate drifts just by turning on a straight road. The Hoonigan Focus is AWD but is incredibly responsive to turns and has plenty of power to break traction at will. You can have that drifting S bends down a straight road at will by timing your turns and throttle.

Traction Control actively fights your ability to drift. It detects wheelspin as a bad thing so reduces power to the wheels until you regain traction. This ends drifts earlier, reduces your speed and limits what scores you can achieve. Learn to drift with traction control disabled and you will be able to get much better scores. You will then control the traction of your car through a mixture of throttle control and angle of the car through the corners.

I probably did drift events in the wrong order - I managed to 3* all drift zones before I even went to the Drift Club series. With hindsight I would do them in the opposite order - Drift Club challenges first, then the drift zones. Drift club is much more forgiving and gives you more guidance as well as opportunities to practice that don’t result in failed attempts. Those cars have had a lot more tweaking done in settings, but as a beginner I wouldn’t advise messing around with that until you know your camber from your toe in.

Lastly for drift zones know that the scoring zone starts at the first set of flags - you can already be drifting through the start gates to be scoring immediately, rather than waiting until you are inside. Also some events are much easier in one direction, while others are perfectly achievable in either direction.

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Thanks! A fair bit to take in there but it’s a start. So as I can spin (and spin and spin) without even trying I’m obviously putting far too much power in, yes? As for Drift Club, I just about managed to one star all of those and at the end I literally felt like I had just ran the entire course myself on foot! Is it supposed to be actually exhausting?

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few things i do when trying out a new car or something is try to do donuts around a pole or something. and try going in easy, like try E-brake drifting first, go like 90 to 150 mph and press hand brake, swing it sideways a bit and try to hold that until you can do it right 80% of the time then try linking corners. i hope it helps. add me if you need help in game or someone to drift with :slight_smile:

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The algorithms Forza uses to smooth and direct steering inputs while grip racing basically lose it when you get sideways. It becomes a constant battle to be smooth. If you watch any given YT vid of someone drifting in a Forza game with wheel, sawing back and forth constantly in drift, you’ll see what I mean. GT5 did it better (still not perfect), CarX does it better (also not perfect and needs super low tire pressures to function at all with ackerman correction). The fact Forza toe tuning ranges from +5 to -5 degrees is a meme in and of itself. The series will never innovate–it’s a corporate-driven, corporate-bound, tale of mediocrity. Look, they couldn’t even do “wheel offset” correctly.

I digress.

Use AWD, it’s less buggy than RWD if you just want to have fun. Move the drive bias towards the back, between 70 and 85% should do. 1000+ horsepower is a good mark, especially with sport or gripper tires.

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I’m a drifting noob too. I’m more of a track racer where loosing traction slows you down.

I can get 2 Stars at mos of the drifting areas. But three or completing the drift story events seem to be impossible.

What is the key to get high scores ? There are story events where you need 90k points for 3 starts but I can’t get more than 70k or run out of time. There was one where I had time left and thought I drive back a bit and slide some more. But it stopped counting then…

Bonus question: How do these setup sliders work ?

front back
o
Does this mean the front gets more because the distance under front is longer or does it mean back gets more because is slider is more towards back ?

Edit: Forum software messing with my “drawing”. So now it’s at the start of the line. Does it mean all back because there is nothing under front left oder does this mean all front because the slider is completely towards front ?

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I agree with avenger Awd is totally easier to learn on but not nearly as satisfying and not true drifting but mostly power sliding. The most important part of drifting is the car/build. If you have the formula drift pack (I am in love with most of those cars) I would recommend the Stang or the blue 240sx and keep them stock. They are designed to mimic the actual cars which are already built for tournaments so they are just fine “stock” and are great to learn how drift cars should more or less preform. After you understand how the cars behave you can more easily start building your own. These cars are well overpowered so instead of driving up to the turn and ebrake to slide like you would in Awd, just over power the gas to initiate the drift (more gas equals more angle, untill you hit the point of no return and spin out) at this point you are angled in and this is where most people lose their drift by spinning out or exiting early. If you watch real drift videos the drivers never ever hold the gas through the drift but rather feathers it like crazy and this is where the skill comes in knowing when to keep on then letting off then back on. As you watch your car turning too far in let off the gas a little adjust your angle and get back on the gas (feathering on and off not just letting of then back on). If you are starting to slip out of the drift TAP the brake adjust your angle and get on the gas hard and then start feathering it to keep it in drift. a realy good place to practice is the horizon festival or the city (top right corner of map). There are a good amount of turns to practice chaining one drift into the next into the next, but best place to get the feel for a car imo is the inner circle of the drift ring at the festival site. when ever I get a new car I whip it around a little, but to see what it really has I try to see how many times I can go around this circle non-stop. This is a tough circle because it is medium in size. the large roundabout circles are easy and forgiving and the tiny ones you just need to give it 100% gas to whip. the medium one realy requires GOOD gas control however. These are just my tips hope they help

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I used the Formula Drift BMW (the small one) and downloaded a tune that was “easy drifting” or basically a drifting for dummies tune. Seriously, the car has trouble going slow or in a straight line. The tires squeal something awful. But, if you get to a drift zone, put shifting on manual, and stay in 3rd or 4th gear or so, the car basically drifts itself. I absolutely stink at drifting and I have three started a couple. I need to do the rest, but haven’t been prioritizing it.

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My only tip - PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. There is no perfect tune for drifting, you have to learn whats right for you. I used to be dog poo at drifting at the start of FH3 (got it April 2017) and i couldn’t 3 star a drift zone to save my life. In fact when i started i just came in 200 kp/h with my huracan and just turned, hoping i would rack up enough points without failing the drift zone. Now, in FH4 i wouldn’t consider myself the best drifter out there, in fact im still pretty average, but in saying that i have 3 starred every drift zone in the game, even the offroad ones. As Avenger said, start with AWD, get used to counter-steering and find what works for you. Then once you feel confident, you can start tuning RWD cars and improving your scores.

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I am still bad at drifting but getting better. I started with the mini and increased it’s power and AWD. Swapped to Manual without clutch and kept it in 1st gear just to get a rough idea on corners. next stage stared in 2nd gear and left it in that gear. Hope the helps, probably not everyone will agree but it helped me start and I have a few 3 star zones now.

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The best and easiest result, for “drift points”, will always come from AWD cars, because both Normal and Sim steering, at least on gamepads, compromise front slip angle for the sake of player control, which to this date no game developer has successfully coded a gamepad steering management algorithm capable of efficient countersteer tracking without inhibiting driver freedom, “dumbing down” the physics, introducing “phantom stabilizing forces” or other such heresy…

Don’t blame yourself, entirely. The game is bad at drifting too.

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All of these are great advise, but I don’t really like AWD Powersliding. I say this because most of the time, they have front wheel force to even 1% which means the front end will still pull you into a direction to help the slide. But I do absolutely love RWD Drifting. I tune both sides, can drift both sides, just prefer RWD. With that being said…

Drifting can take focus and is as much about the tune as is the vehicle. Whether it’s a mini cooper or the Iron Knight (Yes, it drifts) the key is to watch how the vehicle handles. Some cars will turn in tighter than others. Some even fill more stiff and rigid than others. I learned drifting way way back in the days and found that learning to drift on a RWD isn’t all that hard. You most likely already have a low powered car than has drift capabilities stock. I am not saying stock is the best way to go, but it can get you started on drifting. Next, you can either go to an actual drift zone, like S-Bends just North of the festival which offers different kinds of turns, or to the old airstrip just to practice. I prefer the S-Bends zones because you can see how you actually improve on the turns themselves rather than gauging performance.

First, I would just drive up and down the drift zone so you can see how the turns are, the elevation changes are, and get a feel for the car and the section. Then I would go a bit faster and notice how the car wants to handle going from turn to turn. Next, I would try to either E-Brake or Naturally drift the corners. You don’t need to go fast, just be steady and try to drift the entire corner. Once you get use to the corners, try to chain, or link your drifts from turn to turn. Once you can do that, it’s just practice on improving.

As far as cars, there is a wide selection of cars that you can use. Starting out, the 240SX and Silvia’s are great, cheap choices. So are some muscle cars like the Mustang and the Camaro. The drift pack has a lot of excellent cars, but they are mostly way overpowered and will cause a lot of people headaches on trying to drift them if they have never drifted before.

Looking for beginner tunes is helpful as well. Some are really easy to drift, like my tunes are, and don’t require a lot of effort because they are built in a way that the car WANTS to drift the corner instead of feeling like you are forcing the car into a turn. Try to link up with some of us that drift, or watch out for streams on people drifting. For instance I just got off of my stream in which I did about 11 drift builds and tunes in where the car and the parts were $50,000 or less. They all drift well, some are powerful and some are not (less than 500 torque) which can be easy for beginners to learn on, or need a cheap drift car.

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I just put parts on my cars never tune and I’m in top 1%