drifting ermmm yes as kev stated is correct "skidding" but its a bit more technical than that ur skidding around the cornor keeping ur momentem up and opposite lock basically DRIFTING around the cornor the best to do is watch a drifting server spectate in car view is the best to do
Even gutless rear wheel drive econoboxes can drift with the right tires, popular in Japan. Here's a clip where the power to weight ratio is a bit higher though:
Drifting is done in rallying as its the quickest way on the gravel / snow and any other loose surfaces they are on.
Drifting as you see on LFS is the drifting in competition where the object is to have the car sideways before the corner and keep it sideways throughout the corner and if the corners are close enough keep the car sideways through the both corners.
There is a big arguement between drifters and grip racers over the other sport. But its pointless really if you want to only grip then grip, if want to drift then drift. Personally i mainly grip but i do go for the occasional drift session as i enjoy it.
Live For Speed has to have drifting since Need For Speed had it, so the players that buy Live For Speed thinking it's another version of Need For Speed won't be dissappointed.
In real life, drifting was invented for two reasons. One reason is it gives owners of worn out econoboxes that have little power and handle badly and no business being on a real race track a way to compete. Just install bad tires if the ones on your car aren't bad already, and go drifting. The other reason is to keep repair shops in business fixing the damage done to the cars when they crash.
Personally I'm waiting for drifting to be combined with demolition derby, like drifting on a classic figure eight track.
It's all a conspiracy by big busness. Motocross and BMX were invented to sell replacement parts. Ditto for modern skateboarding competitions (plus it keeps doctors employed, and helps with the supply of organ donors).
Proffesional circuit racing = Very skilled drivers
Proffesional drifting on track = Very skilled drivers (just a different skill)
Drifting on public roads = Stupid drivers (some have alot of skill still though)
The kind of drifting done by chavs is the kind in FWD cars with trays under rear wheels with handbrake on so they slide. If you check out one of the main pages for UK drifting (www.driftworks.com) alot of them hate chavs too.
Anyway, the original question was what is drifting which has been answered and now this is turning into the arguement i mentioned earlier (why its so stupid) so flame all you like.
On final note Tiff Needal tried proffesional drifting and ended up snapping the driveshafts (iirc) on his car which proves drifting does need its own skills. As gripping needs its own skills also. So both need skills so why cant people accept that both are difficult and let it lie at that.
Er no....I dont honestly think that Scawen and Co have to do ANYTHING just coz Need for Speed has it!
Need for Speed has drifting because all the wannabe F&F drivers want to be k00l like in teh films!
LIVE for Speed has 'drifting' because a REAL car under the right circumstances will slide in a corner...and as a real car will slide, so do the cars in LFS. It is a testament to the realism that the slides are 'semi-controllable' in LFS (providing that you have the skill to do it!), however, in NFS it is built in as a 'feature', so that any 5 year old can control a perfect drift at 150 mph with a joypad!! (try THAT in Live for Speed!!!)
I thought the guy doing donuts on the bicycle (apparently on an icy road) was very skilled; high style points for the drifting and the music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GNB7xT3rNE
and stronger drive shafts on the car.
Drifting exists because it's "cool"; then again, "coolness" could be a factor in just about any competition, except for curling and men's figure skating. Note that most NFS games, inlcluding the last one, Most Wanted, focuses on "exotics". However, with a large fan base of "cool" guys that "customize" Honda Civics and similar cars, with coffee can mufflers, huge decals, neon ..., NFS made two "underground" games, and hollywood made the F&F movies. Note that drifting was in only in the 3rd F&F movie, long after NFS dropped drifting from it's games.
You should watch this "alternate" NFS Underground 1 intro movie:
It's a generation thing, drifting and visual customization of econoboxes attracts a young fan base. Real racing and exotics seem to attract an older fan base.
You're apparenlty not aware of the fact that the reason for the long delays between releases of LFS is because the developers are too busy "customizing" their NFS Underground 1 cars for "cool" visual competitions, looking for that perfect combination of neon, decals, and stereo systems on their NFS Civics. They also spend a lot of time on the "developers" version of LFS.
Similar to the directors version (the George Lucas version) of Star Wars Episode 1, where Jar Jar Binx is killled in the first 5 seconds of the movie, there is a "developers" edition of LFS, with motion blur, nitrous oxide, and of course, slicks for all cars.