Driving Doughnuts

Start out in first gear driving around a 100ft. circle at about 10-12mph. Have your rpm set, get your eyes locked on where you’re going and slowly bring up the revs until the rear slips out. Then counter-steer and start to control the slide, effectively steering the car with the throttle. Find the balance in first gear at low speed in a controlled environment to become familiar with the torque and drivability of the engine and your grip. The goal is to do multiple circles in either direction.

Figure Eights

The next exercise is doing figure eights. What you’re going to experience is momentum, how momentum plays into drifting and using it to manipulate the vehicle’s characteristics from sliding one side to another. Effectively understanding when to lift off and when to apply steering input as the momentum transfers weight from one side to another is key. Once you’ve got these two basics down, you’re ready to attack a course. Remember, just build up to it.

Clutch Kick

Approaching an increasing radius corner or an increasing speed corner entry, you’re going to need to use what’s referred to as the clutch kick. Accelerate in to the corner, knowing that the radius is going to stay the same or increase in speed and curvature. At the point when you’re about to slip the car sideways, you’re typically running around 5/8ths to 3/4ths of revs in whatever gear you’re in. At this point, pop the clutch. Now you’re going to override the traction and allow the engine to freely rev 1500-2500 rpm higher than vehicle speed with your tires effectively spinning 20 percent faster than the car actually is going.


Hand Brake

A hand brake is typically used on a decreasing speed or a tightening radius corner. Accelerating down a long straightaway and coming into a 90 degrees left or a 90 degrees right, you’re going to initiate with the handbrake. It’s done by a slight turn in, input from the throttle and the steering wheel. At the same time, push the clutch in and as weight transfers, break traction by decreasing the speed of your tires by pulling the handbrake. Now counter-steer with continuous pulses of the handbrake. You’re trying to decrease the speed of the car, but you don’t want to do just one pull, because you’ll get a flat spot in the tire.


Linking Drifts

Linking drifts is probably one of the hardest things about the sport. When it comes to doing a weight-transfer drift, that’s when you need to be on your toes. You need to anticipate the amount of weight that is compressed and the amount of grip that you’re about to lose as it transfers from one side to the other. It’s really learned best by practice. You have to know how much to adapt on steering input and when to pull out of the throttle so you don’t wind the car up like a spinning top.
Tandem

As a driver, you need to understand how to set your car up—understand what its strengths and weaknesses are, and how you can manipulate those to your advantage against a slower or faster car. You need to tune and set your car up to be well-balanced, more than just to qualify. Tandem is definitely one of the art-forms of the sport where a driver and a team can excel by just studying other competitors and spending time testing. Your car must be able to run against everything from short wheelbase cars to long wheelbase cars, fast cars to slow cars.
     
Learn more at www.hyundai.com

Warning:
All driving was performed on a closed course by trained professionals. Drifting can be dangerous and is illegal to do on public roads. Only attempt drifting on closed course circuits with professional supervision, safety equipment and permission. Attempt at your own risk. 0-60, Hyundai, Rhys Millen, RMR and all of their subsidiaries shall not be liable for any and all actions, injuries, claims, judgments, personal or property damage arising out of, or in any way connected to any use or misuse of the information provided.