To Drift, or Not to Drift, That is the Question

[KeiichiTsuchiya]

Personally I think it is useful. Ever since I gave drifting a try (not that I'm very good at it), I noticed it really gives you another level of car control. Since learning the basics to drift even if it is a little, it really helps when racing. Being lot more responsive in keeping the car on track when your rear end slips out. It is just plain fun to throw your car around as well when you're not in the mood to do any serious racing or driving.

 

[Rastas]

Ebisu in rFactor2,sooon,only need help to make the pudlles map

 

[Robin_NL]

I learned how to 'drift' in GPL, LFS, RBR and AC (and AMS) and made me a better rl driver

Cheers
Robin

 

[Haiden773]

I don't care for drifting, but have no problems with it being in sims as long as it doesn't distract developers of traditional racing sims from their core work. If you're developing a drift-specific title, then obviously that's the focus. But if you're developing a traditional racing sim, including and perfect drift simulations should after the traditional race experience is sorted and polished.

 

[Leonardo Ratafiá]

Drifting a car must be as natural as irl. That's why Assetto Corsa took the lead on drifting, its tire model really behaves natural along with the physics.
Drifting communities emerge from the underground, Facebook groups, discord channels but also there a virtual drifting championship and even with the games limitations people pulled out ways to implement these kind of events.
Thanks to theirs devs who run fuel on this veins Aris and also Luca (who is a drifting instructor now a days) they brought some special cars for drifting since the beginning.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

I don't care for drifting, but have no problems with it being in sims as long as it doesn't distract developers of traditional racing sims from their core work. If you're developing a drift-specific title, then obviously that's the focus. But if you're developing a traditional racing sim, including and perfect drift simulations should after the traditional race experience is sorted and polished.

It's just making a car slip more than it does in a more normal situation - a good sim's tyre model should be able to handle that 100% regardless of the game focus, because going fast is about slipping a little anyway, and sometimes even when you're not trying you get very sideways.

On the other hand setting up the framework for a drift *contest* would take time away from setting up a racing framework.

 

[Ghoults]

I'm not really into drifting but I don't have negative attitude about it. I've seen some sim racers view drifting as something inferior or wrong. I think that is a shame. Learning little bit of drifting (pulling accidental slide is not drifting) is good skill and helps with car control. Knowing how to get the car back straight quickly from a slide and in controlled fashion is useful skill for every sim racer. Knowing how the tires react past the limit, how the suspension suspension behaves and how the car yaws and rolls is not just good car control but valuable information for setup work as well. Learning little bit of drifting also helps being able to drive cars that tend to move around and slide a lot. It makes you able to handle sliding without being afraid of losing the car.

Drift cars also make great race cars. Lots of power, great sound and grippy tires can be really fun to drive around. And you can go f rom drift car to race car pretty easily. If a sim developer makes drift cars they can make them into race cars or trackday cars with very little changes. Essentially no 3d work and texturing is needed and very few physics changes. Different skins is probably the only real difference. But basically the drift car already has everything to be a race car. Adjustable suspension, dampers, springs, good tires, good engine. Some setup work obviously is needed but I remember back in rf1 when niels released some drift car. I think it was the drift supra. It did not take lots of work to make it go around corners gripping.

All you really need is two versions. Same 3d model, different skins and slightly different physics. Tires, suspension, aero and other bits can be exactly the same (drift cars don't need special tires). Just little different steering geometry and bigger fuel tank for the race version. It is the easiest way to add two versions of a car.

Why two versions? I think separate trackday version and drift version is needed to help the servers get the right audience. In assetto sometimes I raced on servers with the m3 e30 drift version and while it was a race server you still had people join and drift simply because they assumed it was a drift server because a drift car was used (name of the car was something like E30_drift). If there had been 2 identical versions of the m3 drift car (E30_drift and E30_trackday version) that problem would have been solved. I hope any future sim that adds a drift car does this because it is so obvious.

 

[shadow118]

I think drifting is a good gauge of the physics engine. Usually, if a game can pull off drifting (without some artificial drift modes, just take a car on a track and drift), it has pretty good physics overall. And it's a useful skill to have

 

[TrumpetReich]

Is it useful? Well I think drifting is pretty lame, but if people have fun with it then of course it's useful.

 

[tomdella]

The reward of linking a track is just priceless. The other guy that said the community of drifting is small, probably never searched a server in assetto corsa... I mean, at least 30% of the lobbys are dedicated do drifting, and the mod community is really big, some facebook groups are huge.
For those that are into it, you should really try out Automobilista, it feels like the real thing and it makes AC look like a simcade.

 

[RobertGracie]

If its done well its good I find it less helpful since it slows the car down I do find it useful for 4 wheel drifting I do use that to get around specific corners but I am just a circuit driver and I like to keep all 4 wheels turning in the correct manner and besides I like my tyres to last the distance!

 

[Cohen]

When isn't drifting fun
I find learning to control an out of control car through drift practice is key to learning good recovery technique, which helps when you have moment in racing, can mean the difference between a spin or a save, it also helps to be able show off when you're in the lead of a race with time to spare.

 

[DKGORACE]

Is it useful in Sim racing? Sure it is, for the drifting community. Does it make you a better driver? Well that depends on the definition and its place. After practice, sure you can become better at anything of skill level with practice. Set up and tyres are completely different for drift than traditional racing. So I'm not sure about a comparison of the two. Some steering wheels have preset formats just for drifting, as well in game tyre choice are specifically "drift" tyres that would be useless in other formats...........Slowly I digress and get in a 1966 F2 car and practice my vintage Dunlop tyre driving. Cheers!

 

[Landro]

Even for hardcore simRacer, drifting can bring them a new approach and new ability in extreme racing situations.
Personally I use assetto corsa for drifting, and racing.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

If its done well its good I find it less helpful since it slows the car down I do find it useful for 4 wheel drifting I do use that to get around specific corners but I am just a circuit driver and I like to keep all 4 wheels turning in the correct manner and besides I like my tyres to last the distance!

Four-wheel drift is a very very different thing & needs the car to understeer slightly - you're also not using opposite lock. I think a properly done 4w-drift is one of the best things ever, but it's not something you do to the extent it's particularily visually noticeable on modern slicks.

Driving vintage cars is certainly good for car control, you don't need to deliberately get them going sideways, they'll do it down a straight...

 

[Shigeno427]

I wouldn't say that I'm 'in' to drifting as a sport as such, but then again the reason I spent so long playing Gran Turismo 1 as a kid was I'd just browse the used car section for RWD cars I hadn't tried, give them lots of power and street tyres and spend hours blasting around Special Stage R5 and R11.

Personally I really love a car that moves around a lot under power, I've always enjoyed that and although chasing lap time is fun, it doesn't put the same smile on my face as wrestling an overpowered RWD car down the road.

I never fully 'got' proper drifting until I got my Oculus Rift. It is the most natural feeling thing keeping your eyes pointed in the direction of travel as the car rotates around you to ridiculous angles and it's hilariously good fun.

As others have echoed, I think if you look at the sims where drifting is most popular (Live For Speed, Assetto Corsa I think have the biggest communities?) they're sims known specifically for the quality of their tyre model, which perhaps says something

 

[RobertGracie]

Four-wheel drift is a very very different thing & needs the car to understeer slightly - you're also not using opposite lock. I think a properly done 4w-drift is one of the best things ever, but it's not something you do to the extent it's particularily visually noticeable on modern slicks.

Driving vintage cars is certainly good for car control, you don't need to deliberately get them going sideways, they'll do it down a straight...

Yeah I mean for me IRL I tend to drive smoothly to conserve the tyres, but I have drifted my Volvo once, I got the back end all out of shape and I felt it going and I instantly knew to step into the slide and apply full throttle to pull the nose out of it, that took me what felt like about 10 seconds to figure out but it was like about less than a fraction of a second for me

As for gaming yeah I agree 4 wheel drifting the classics around the bends feels so perfect

 

[Phoenix77]

Is Drifting useful for Sim Racing? Is it a useful skill to have for racing in general?
I think this photo of a true legend answers that pretty categorically

 

[RobertGracie]

Is Drifting useful for Sim Racing? Is it a useful skill to have for racing in general?
I think this photo of a true legend answers that pretty categorically
View attachment 256717

All Hail Senna....

 

[N'Gear]

Yes, it does! Although my primary focus is road racing, I spend quite a few hours just having some fun. It's a valuable skill which requires practice, that is fun and looks cool but also helps you with racing, in the sense that teaches you car control. Drifting helped to make corrections like catching snaps of oversteer kind of second nature (something I struggled when I started) and made me have a somewhat deeper insight of the physics and the behavior of cars, like what should I expect when making a certain input