Drifting science (drifting, drifting or drifting/slipping): How does car drift work?

Since the dawn of civilization, humans have been obsessed with adventure and entertainment (in most cases, these two concepts cannot be distinguished). For example, at first, hunting animals was about food, survival and threat elimination, but after a few thousand years, it became a hobby.

What can motivate a person to kill an animal that simply cares about its own affairs? Suspense, entertainment, and maybe a number of other obnoxious things...

Human nature seems to be able to improvise different ways in order to obtain some kind of excitement from completely unexpected objects or activities. Apart from hunting, there are a number of other activities that humans have transformed from a mere necessity into a form of entertainment unheard of; however, in this article, we will talk about an individual act that involves traveling and moving, unusually, on a four-wheeled set.

Yes, and while we're not going to discuss Fast and Furious, we're going to talk about drifting (or drifting).

What is drift (or drip)?

Drift (related to motorsports) is a special type of driving technology.

The term "gliding" refers to what this technology entails: the driver deliberately "oversteers", causing the rear tyres (or in some cases all of the tires) to lose traction, but in a way that allows the driver to maintain control of the vehicle from entering to exiting the corner.

In more technical terms, when the angle of rear slip (the angle between the actual direction of the wheel and the direction it is pointing) of a car is greater than the front angle of slip, the car is said to be drifting (or slipping).

Taking a regular turn

How can you perform a turn maneuver while driving a car?

It's actually very basic. Simply turn the steering wheel in the desired direction and... That's actually the sum of it, because physics will take over the task at that point, leaving you with a limited amount of control. It's so smooth that you may not even realize what physical procedure goes on between the tires and the ground.

Friction: Stand-alone full force

To do a turn, you need friction. Without friction, the tires will get confused so your car will look like a dance on the road. To understand what driving on a less frictional road looks like, try to imagine driving on a sheet of glass.

In the case of a curved (or aspiration) turn, the frictional force acts centrally, which means that it pulls the car in a circular motion, which is exactly the movement required to maneuver in a turn.

Before you drove to the left, for example, it was going in a straight line. This she wanted to continue to do, according to Newton's first law of motion (which states that an object will remain stationary or in uniform motion in a straight line unless exerted by an external force). However, once you follow the turn, it grabs static friction and controls the front tires, preventing the car from swerving or skidding along the straight track and ensuring that the car takes a turn.

How to achieve drift (or driving) a car?

Mechanical mobility changes slightly when you drift (or drip), as it's all about dealing with how much traction you lose in the rear wheels. You want to lose traction, but not completely, in that you want to control how much traction is lost. And you may ask how do you control the traction of the rear wheels? By controlling the wheel speed.

Loss of traction on the rear wheels

While drifting (or drifting), you turn too fast, causing the rear tyres to lose grip on the road. As a result, the rear tires rotate excessively in the direction of turning, making them spin and last. To compensate for this over-spin and spinning of the rear tires, you have to rotate the front tires in the opposite direction to the rotation you were originally doing.

Simply put, all you have to do is balance the amount of traction you lose on the rear wheels by balancing wheel speed with constant slippage, which is what drifting means.

Drifting is not easy!

The above explanation may seem simple, but don't let that give you any misconceptions about the actual art of drifting. Needless to say, this is a very difficult maneuver. Moreover, if it is not controlled and the car goes into uncontrolled rotation, it can lead to horrific accidents. Therefore, it takes a thorough understanding of the entire process of drifting (or drifting) and a great deal of exercise to master it. That is why all drift (or drifting) events are carried out by trained professionals under strictly controlled conditions.

Drifting may give drivers an exciting advantage during race events, but it's certainly not something you should experience in real-life conditions. It's certainly not as easy as it seems in movies, and it's definitely not great to lose control of your car!