Woohoo - My first 'proper' Drift session on Saturday !!!

[Ian.G]

cars present.

3x s14 200sx
2x Hachi
1x MX5 turbo
1x Lotus Esprit Turbo

So few cars and so much space means that everyone had loads of time - which is something the other guys say never really happens - typically practice days in the uk have 20-40 cars - but not the hundreds they get in Japan.



We had the bottom part of the bruntingthorpe runway (which is the top of the photograph) which includes a massive 180 corner - double apex'd - 3rd/4th gear drift for the experienced. This fed back into a big coned roundabout (prob about 25m diameter) the black hachi was going real good here with several tyre smoking laps Dry grippy surface

The other area was laid out with a slalom - cones placed maybe 10m apart. damp but quite grippy.

The other area was laid out in a series of 4 smalled coned roundabouts . This is where I spent most of my time as the surface was quite slidy so everything happened a much lower speeds.

The first thing I had to get used to was not steering too much towards the corner - car started to understeer if more than 1/3 of a lock was wound on. Then onto the gas to break the car free at the rear. I was then freeing my grip on the wheel until what seemed like the correct amount of opposite lock was found. Modulate the slide with small inputs to the steering and throttle until it was time for getting straight again. Then pull the opposite lock back off with the opposite hand.

The hard bit was linking the transition form being sideways one way to being sideways the other. As you swing from one slide into the next the weight transfer makes this happen quite quick. After a few spins I started to get the hang of this and managed to link a few of the roundabouts together. Its a great feeling when it comes together.

Its weird - to begin with I was very frantic on the steering but when I stopped this and got more relaxed it got much better. It got better each time I was out in the car - a good feeling and made for big smiles