I know many people look down on drifting, but I have been looking for a simulation racing game that has realistic physics to allow for drifting. I just downloaded the demo to this game, but I still can't figure out how to initial the drift. How is this done? Do you need a specially tuned car? Keep in mind I am a noob. Thanks.

I'm not an expert drifter, so I don't know how good my advice is. I start drifts with a small scandanavian flick, if I'm coming into a lefthander, I steer right, then quickly steer back left again while lifting off the throttle, then I immediately floor it. The default setups work fine for drifting, too. That's about all I can give you, if you want more, ask a real drifter. VTCommodore springs to mind.
Have fun and enjoy LFS

Quote from SuperSmitt :

I know many people look down on drifting, but I have been looking for a simulation racing game that has realistic physics to allow for drifting. I just downloaded the demo to this game, but I still can't figure out how to initial the drift. How is this done? Do you need a specially tuned car? Keep in mind I am a noob. Thanks.

practice on the car park set brakes so they are more set to the rear of car (30% should do)when entering a corner faint into it brake then u shuold start to slide then the car will hold the drift itself with u only havin to correct it at end of corner .

that should make it clearer check out some of my drifting when i make my drift vid l8r if you wonna play on onlinme send me pm

The only thing I can suggest for sure is: Practice
There are many ways to start a drift that come in my mind (like using e-brake, using weight shift (ie. first go the wrong direction of the turn and then suddenly switch to the way you want to go), setting the brakes more to the rear of the car, using the dirt to lose the grip of the rear wheels, shifting down, just letting the acceleration go and turn in, etc.)
But everything just listed is a matter of practice and trying stuff out.
It as well can be of help just to spectate other players that are doing alright.
So, just keep on trying and don't be disappointed if you're not able to achieve a good way of starting a drift very soon

may god have mercy on his soul when the anti-drifting association members find this, so i'd suggest you have a look at this site www.lfs-torque.net

forget the ADA.. people are unique, posting against drifting like there was in RSC was just dumb.. it was such segregation it made anyone that talked against either racers ( "grippers" ) or drifters sound retarded or something and how its 'dumb' or 'bad' or 'not really a sport' i highly doubt we will have a problem here, but if we do its kinda dumb.. thats like .. fascism in a since.. if hes not like us.. kill him or .. whatever; obviously everyone is different.. and everyone is entitled to their own oppinions.. you can say that you dont like drifting.. and why.. but you cant say you cant drift and anything that would ruin the reputation of drifting much less that person

anyways back on topic.. i dont drift much; i did a good amount back in S1, but it began to bore me as S2 came and preferred racing and its thrill.. of course i drift every so often, im just not intrigued by it as much as many people are (nothing bad about it, im just not to interested in it all to much) but yes; practice practice practice.. and always pay attention to your tire temps and wearing of the tire and make/get a good setup and thats most certainly always helpful
and speaking of setups, if the differential is locked.. your tires will NOT last very long; vice versa, if its open .. although the inside wheels will lift and lose alot of traction and you will rev your engine, you wont eat up tires

sorry for the long post lol

Quote from XCNuse :

forget the ADA..

Not to be confused with ADA-Apex Drift Association.

If you honestly wanan learn drifting...then go onto a drift server and watch everybody and compare all their techniques. Drifting isn't quite something you teach, since everybody has a different style.

But in reality the sequence would be

Turn towards apex,
Lift off throttle
countersteer
hit throttle
Slowly bring wheel back until car is facing forward.

Turn, counter steer, throttle. In a nutshell

.. thats why i always see ADA guys drifting on servers... lol about to say.. that always confuses me

Never thought about that, and it was never brought to my attention


But I think It's Anti Drift Faction
AD=F

not Anti drift association
lol


Oh and get your ass back on the track xcn. I miss you <3 hah

Actually I think many people aren't necessarily against drifting itself, but the attitudes many drifters display, and the inevitable association with the following:

1: People who parrot everything they see and hear in Initial D, but don't actually know anything about cars.
2: People who wish LFS was more like NFS:U
3: People who barge into a race server, cause a wreck, and then whine.

Not that all drifters necessarily fit into one or more of these categories--but the ones who do tend to be very vocal and over-defensive, and are very, very annoying. I'm all for intelligent, civil discussion like this thread is, though I don't really consider myself a drifter.

Thanks for the replies. I just think drifting is very interesting and the fact that a car can lose traction for as long as it does, while the driver is still in control is also quite intriguing. I don't get how the driver can have the wheel turned AGAINST the skid (i.e. if the car is skidding around a left hand turn, the driver turns the wheel to the right) without the car straightening itself out. In the LFS demo, I have tried to replicate this but am still having little success, even after reading the instructions people gave here.

Here is what I do if I want the car to drift left: I accelerate to second or third gear. Then I steer to the right, then sharply back to the left, sometimes adding E-brake, and finally back to the right where I hold the wheel. I always keep the throttle at full. The car skids facing to the left of the direction it is heading but after a few seconds it straightens back out. What am I doing wrong in not being able to hold the drift? I have tried using more/less throttle, using the brake and/or ebrake, or adjusting countersteer (I think that is what it's called). Like I said, I'm a noob

Try not to keep the wheel at FULL countersteer. Maybe you could use a setup. What car are you using?

i reccomend buying the "drift bible" dvd. To get used to slide control, i'd reccomend doing some 180°/360 turns, using the skidpad and trying stay the same distance away from the center while still drifting, and of course practice on a track.

Feinting (scandinavian flick) is a pretty easy way to ge the tail out. once you get good you can make the feint barely noticable or extremely exagerated depending on how you feel. Also, biasing the breaks more towards the rear will make break drifting easier.

after u get decent at drifting you can begin tweaking a setup to your own tastes. or if your already good at controling a car do it as you go.

And.... a lot of fast drivers have started out drifting in their early stages of LFS too. Learning to drift whether you are a beginner or amateur... it has its benefits. Learning to slide the car period and be in control is what makes a good drifter. Anyone that can control the car sliding for a long amount of time... especially in S2 (S2 is harder, S1 was way easier), you show you have some skill to driving well.

I used to do a fair bit of drifting for fun way back in S1... and I have to say it does help when I am in slides or doing rallycross. Last night I was lapping the LX6 with knobbly tires at FE Rallycross REV, and I drifted all the way from the first turn all the way to where you come onto the dirt and kept sliding into that left-hand dirt turn. I saved a replay of it... the skid marks are through the entire right-hand turn sections .

Drifting is fun, stylish and a different kind of driving... I have no problem with drifters or doing it myself .

Some setup tips:

• Use ultra-low tire pressure (Using high tire pressure just makes the car very hard to understand while using power in a slide... plus it overheats the tires faster and you have less controllable grip when needed)
  
• Make sure your brakes are at least 55% in the front to about 80% in the front. How your brakes are setup is your own preference really. If you are going wide in a turn, you'd want to have more rear wheel brake to step out the rear more and give more power to make it into the inside. But this can be tricky. If you are going in too deep to the corner, you want a lot more front brake to 'slide' the front wheels and give you more room for entering the corner... hard to explain this one.
  
• Use full steering lock settings
  
• Use high rear wheel toe IN (using toe OUT will make the rear step out more but also make it very hard to recover a slide... it will want to whip you around too much)
  
• Use high front wheel toe OUT (using this will make it so when you are countersteering the outside wheel has a much higher angle to bring the car back where you point it
  -Make sure you have gearing that doesn't rev too high or rev too low for some corners
  
• Don't try drifting with the race cars that have slicks, it doesn't slide so 'freely'. Use the road cars, way more fun to drift in.
  
• Don't use an open diff or a differential setting that 'winds up then regains traction'... have a diff that is locked at least 50-90% of the time.
  

Again, some great replies. Thanks for taking the time.

Currently, I am using either just my mouse/keyboard or my thrustmaster joystick. I am liking the mouse better, since it gives me a larger range of movement relative to wheel turn. I have a very, very old wheel but it is not USB and my computer doesn't have the required port to connect it. Is just using the mouse OK, or will it make drifting near impossible? Also, if I were to buy a brand new wheel, what do you all recommend in terms of quality and realism?

Yes, I was using the GTi car solo to try and drift. Is it really impossible with this car? I used the GT turbo in online mode, and could feel an immediate difference in how the car handled. The GT turbo was much easier to get into a skid, but I couldn't get out of it! I kept spinning out, which never ever happened in the GTi. Lastly, I don't think I can make any car tune ups in the demo version, but someone please correct me if I am wrong. I intend to purchase the S2 eventually, and when I do the tips given here will certainly help me with my drifting goals.

Edit: Also wanted to add yet another noob question: What is full steering lock? Is that a setting only for users of an actual wheel?

Quote from SuperSmitt :

Again, some great replies. Thanks for taking the time.

Currently, I am using either just my mouse/keyboard or my thrustmaster joystick. I am liking the mouse better, since it gives me a larger range of movement relative to wheel turn. I have a very, very old wheel but it is not USB and my computer doesn't have the required port to connect it. Is just using the mouse OK, or will it make drifting near impossible? Also, if I were to buy a brand new wheel, what do you all recommend in terms of quality and realism?

Yes, I was using the GTi car solo to try and drift. Is it really impossible with this car? I used the GT turbo in online mode, and could feel an immediate difference in how the car handled. The GT turbo was much easier to get into a skid, but I couldn't get out of it! I kept spinning out, which never ever happened in the GTi. Lastly, I don't think I can make any car tune ups in the demo version, but someone please correct me if I am wrong. I intend to purchase the S2 eventually, and when I do the tips given here will certainly help me with my drifting goals.

Edit: Also wanted to add yet another noob question: What is full steering lock? Is that a setting only for users of an actual wheel?

the gti is fwd(front wheel drive) cant drift it

You can get the tail out on the GTi, but since it's FWD, you can't really hold it as well. I'd reccommend the XR GT nonturbo to learn drifting in. As for wheels, a Logi Driving Force pro is a great value for the money. I have one and love it, the 900 degree rotation is addicting

like what GTR Racer and 96 GTS had said, do not try and drift a fwd vehicle, it's pointless.

the rwds are there, if you're really interested in drifting, then learn your basics in a rwd, not a fwd.

and bear in mind, EVERY tip that's given in this thread applies to rwd, best to stay away from fwd if you're really into drifting.

Yeah, you can't really drift a FWD car... it's more like assdragging. And it requires much LESS skill than drifting a RWD car.

But if you really like this game you should seriously consider getting a FF wheel. Not only will you be flattened by the sudden awsomeness of this game, drifting will become easier too

As an explanation of why you can't use a FWD car to drift, it's all to do with how they react to increased throttle. Hitting the gas in a FWD causes understeer, because you are decreasing the traction of the tires that are making you turn in the first place. You can use the e-brake to get the tail out, but going on the throttle will ALWAYS stop any oversteer you have, and turn it into understeer.

In RWD, hitting the throttle decreases the traction of the rear tires, which causes oversteer and is what you need to do to maintain a drift over a long period. The trick is to use exactly the right amount of throttle--too little, and the tires regain grip and the drift ends. Too much, and you just spin all the way around, as you have noticed. Drifting is more about throttle control than steering control.

(incidentally, AWD can also be drifted, although the technique changes a bit. It's generally considered faster and easier to drift AWD, but purists will often argue that RWD is the "higher art")

It gets complicated though... accelerating in a RWD also shifts the weight to the rear tires, which gives them more traction, so if you get on the gas too early, then the drift won't initiate properly, and if you accelerate forward too hard, the car starts understeering, which breaks the drift. You have to shift the weight forward to break traction in the back, then get on the gas fast and hard to get the wheels spinning due to being over-powered, and keep the gas high enough to keep them spinning--it's like doing a burnout that's not a straight line.

Another good method to break rear traction is the "clutch kick"--basically, you pop the clutch in and out without releasing the gas pedal. This causes a sudden loss of acceleration, which shifts the weight forward, followed by a sudden burst of power as the high-revving engine slams back into gear, which breaks the tires free. Just bear in mind duration is important--if the clutch is in for the wrong length of time, too long or too short, it won't really work right.

Just couple of tips:
When coming into corner, apply throttle after you have turned in and the rear has come out some much. The throttle is not to be used to to initiate (spelling...) drift but to control it The best way is to drive around the car park and try to make long drifts and short ones with different speeds...

And when people are talking about setups they mean changing the camber, tire pressures and gear ratios. In LFS you can't tune (change parts nor buy turbos and stuff) the cars.

One of the hardest parts about drifting for me, is figuring out when the rear wheels are about to start gripping again. If you wait too long, the rear tires will all of the sudden "hook up" and you will violently spin the other direction. What I do is probably wrong, so if any real drifters want to correct me, please do. When I feel the drift is starting to end, or when I'm coming to the end of the corner, I start lifting off the throttle, not all the way, just lifting my foot a little, I found this gradually reduces the drift angle until I'm pointed back in a straight line again, presto, no crash

^ this all comes from experience. you cant actually feel the g forces.. but you get clues...; the way the car slightly settles down to the inside tires again or from force feedback. The things you cant feel or see you have to just learn from experience to anticipate.


you should feel in control at all times when drifting. the car should be going where you want it to from entry to exit.

Once you get the hang of initiating, maintainin and ending a drift, try decreasing steer lock gradually to learn more finesse in throttle control and balance without the need to steer so much.