ORIGINAL: c9vev

No-one with anything to add? Surely this isn't the definitive guide to it all

ORIGINAL: color0

I have a 16-page guide from start to finish written up for 1/28 cars... I sincerely doubt anyone here will appreciate it, therefore I didn't post it up.

Now, these are simply guidelines... so, dear reader, you will have to understand that different conditions call for different needs. You will have to use this article to your greatest advantage and adapt it to your situation. The driving tips mentioned in here are applicable to any scale and type of RC car, but the car's setup may differ from what is preferable in 1/28 on-road cars such as I will be focusing on.

This tutorial comes in three parts: AWD, RWD, and a small setup guide for those who don't have their own. Now it's important to note that RC drifting is not quite the same as real-car drifting. Whereas real cars use grippier tires to gain more corner speed, the 1/28 wheelbase makes the car's reflexes insanely quick, thus with soft tires, there simply is no time to react. Besides, the unproportionately light weight of these RC cars allows soft tires to grip like there's no tomorrow, reducing the potential for angle. Thus, we go with hard tires for drifting. But since we have these hard tires, as well as the short wheelbase, RWD is improbable (but not impossible... thus the part two to this tutorial); again, we would need superhuman reflexes and timing to do it successfully and consistently. Thus we usually go with AWD and hard tires to gain our slide angle. Thinking about this, however, low traction + AWD is exactly what rally racing is. Our RC drifting is basically ice racing, or tarmac rally. And thus while the techniques are similar, the car's requirements are quite different.

I will be using this corner as an example, placing the car at various points along the cornering line (dotted black) to give you an idea of when to execute the steps I have outlined. The pictures are the same for AWD and RWD; the timing is similar, if not the same for most people. (Furthermore, it's really just a white shell.)



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Part one, AWD DRIFTING:

Minimum specs:

AWD
Bearings
Hard rubber or drift tires (how hard depends on how slippery your floor is)
Plastic drift tires for learning process

Environment required:

Any surface that is smooth and preferably non-porous. (hardwood has a finish on it, it counts as non-porous in my definition)

Parts that are nice, and effective:

Strong magnets with your motor (neos, sb magnets)
Ball differentials
Precise suspension parts (Xmods: GPM bits. MA010: may leave as is)
Resistors on your servo (Xmod Gen 1 only)
Suspension option parts (springs, damping fluid, camber & toe parts, etc.)
Strut bar (Xmods Gen 1 only)
Differential grease or silicone sealant

Parts that are nice, but not that effective and probably not worth it (however, it won't hurt if you use them):

Lithium-ion/poly batteries
FET upgrades
Motors that require stacked FETs


What to do with these parts.

1. Install AWD, bearings, drift tires, and the selected motor. You can go softer (i.e. electrical tape, hard rubber) when you feel the need for faster corners and bigger challenges. or, if you're struggling to break traction you can use tape (electrical tape has more grip than scotch, fyi). But when you first start out, use plastic tires; everything slows down and you get more time to work on solidifying your technique. Since we're running AWD, there's no need to have different tires front and back, we can just keep them all the same.

1a. I like to use, and would recommend for Xmods, a ball diff in the front and an LSD-modified gear diff in the rear. This allows you to 1) bias power to the rear wheels and 2) control the looseness of the rear end. If you prefer, you can keep a gear diff up front, but if you do so, you probably should not use a ball diff in the rear; the car will tend to straighten out easily and it will be difficult to hold a slide. MA010's tend to perform better with ball diffs front and rear, but experiment as you wish.

2. If you have neodymium magnets or isotropic ferrites (Crest Spinbrush magnets) in your motor, keep 'em. if you have some outside the motor and want to install them, consult another tutorial; it's an easy install though.

3. Alloy/aftermarket parts are not a necessity, but they help Xmods a little when you're drifting around a set course (or corners). Install them if you wish. MA010's typically don't need parts for precision, they are precise enough as is.

3a. (For Xmod Gen 1 only) When using GPM tierods, you will have to file down the middle section, and shave the AWD bevel, so that you gain sufficient clearance. A die grinder or a dremel will take care of the tierod, just sand until you create a diagonal surface, maybe 1-2mm wide, in the tierod. Use your best judgment, don't take out too much aluminum if you want the tierod to stay in one piece. Now for the AWD bevel, simply take a dremel, or sandpaper, a file, whatever works, and grind away so that the edge of the gear teeth is flush with the body of the gear. basically you're shortening the roof of the house and making the roof flush with the walls.

4. (For Xmod Gen 1 only) Tight-turns, or the 3.3k resistor servo mod, is definitely a nice add-on. it helps you generate more G's at the turn-in point so you can break traction earlier and more confidently. I suspect the tutorial for this mod is in this forum.

5a. (For Xmods) Suspension options are definitely useful after you've gotten started. For Xmods, I recommend the yellow springs for the most part, as they do not allow bottoming out, nor do they lock the suspension completely. Install yellow springs all around just to start out. Then switch in the blue springs for either front or rear if you wish, depending on which end you want to have less grip. Avoid the red springs for the most part, they are too soft to support the car unless you have reduced the Xmod's weight by at least 20-30g. I find that the spring changes don't really affect Xmods too drastically, but they come in handy when you're 'almost there'.

5b. (For MA010) MA010's typically respond much more to spring changes, so pick carefully. I would start with soft to medium springs all around and work from there, adding stiffness to the end which you want to grip less.

6. Other suspension options – camber, toe, front caster: start at 0 degrees for all these, but consult setup guide for adjusting.

7. (For Xmod Gen 1 only) The rear strut bar is a useful part, it helps keep your rear wheels at even camber off the ground. This bar connects the arms together, and reduces total rear traction but gives the driver a bit more time to react and a few more options when to countersteer. One note: when using the strut bar you can use the red springs in the rear with it. It allows slightly more rear end grip if you want it.

8. If you can't break traction due to the open gear diffs spinning one wheel, differential grease is one solution. You can choose your own weights to adjust the amount of differential resistance. Silicone sealant can work too, add a little bit in to gain a viscous diff effect, or add in a big dollop to lock the diffs. Note that if you're on a grippier surface, you should not lock the diff because you will have excessive understeer (as well as counteracting the benefits of tight-turns).

8a. However, a better solution for gear diffs (and easily adjustable) is the gear-type LSD mod. Tutorial is within this forum. Follow the same adjustment guidelines as for ball differentials.

9. If you're finding that the car turns more one way than another, go center your servo (and your potentiometer, if need be). Tutorial is on this forum. If it still goes to one way more than the other, the problem may be your wrist (not that it's your fault). Read on.

10. (For MA010) You can, if you feel inclined, use a front one-way in place of a differential. What this does is make the car react like a RWD car off-power. You can brake hard and swing the rear end out like a RWD, but at no risk of spinning out thanks to the AWD giving you front end power. This option part is mainly a preference thing, most conventional AWD drifters don’t like it, especially if they haven’t grasped the RWD technique yet.


Driving pointers:

There are many techniques involved with real car drifting, but 1/28 drifting is mainly centered around three: power over, feint, and throttle lift or braking. They are defined as follows:

Power over: 1) Approach corner, 2) turn, and stab throttle if necessary, 3) adjust steering and throttle to match cornering line, 4) exit corner.

Feint: 1) Approach corner, 2) veer away from corner, 3) turn in, 4) adjust steering and throttle to match cornering line, 5) exit corner.

Brake: 1) Approach corner, 2) brake, 3) turn in, 4) adjust steering and throttle to match cornering line, 5) exit corner.

All three techniques are commonly used, and all three will need experimentation on your technique and car setup to figure out the turn-in and adjustment points. If you're just starting out, just keep the throttle steady and turn, don’t mess with the throttle during corner entry till you're used to turning in.

When I say 'adjust steering and throttle', it may involve countersteer or it may not, but you will have increase or decrease the steering and throttle inputs to guide your car into the cornering line you want to follow (if you don't know what this is, search for it on Google). General rules for AWD and hard tires:

While sliding:
Turning farther in = tighter radius
Turning farther out/countersteering = wider radius
More throttle = car heads more towards direction you steer
Less throttle = car follows its inertial path more (generally, to the outside of the corner)

Notice that I didn’t mention drift angle in those four lines of text. Angle is mainly a function of your corner speed vs. your cornering line and the amount of grip you have. Although the goal of most drifting styles is maximum angle, I don’t believe that you should aim directly for more angle; it comes automatically when you optimize entry speed, steering angle and throttle amount. If you approach faster and turn harder, chances are you can follow the same line at a greater angle (until you hit the physical limit, of course). And of course, if you go too far, you will lose speed.

Generally, an efficient drift involves less angle exiting the corner than entering it; increasing your angle slows you down before the apex and decreasing it allows you to speed up more afterwards. To do this, all the rotation of the car must already be done by the apex, such that after the apex you straighten the car and accelerate out of the corner. This rotation is done during the entry and mid-corner phase: when you enter the corner you can throw the rear end out more such that your angle is greatest during entry and is decreased by the time you reach the corner exit. Of course, until you have the general techniques for entry and maintaining a drift, adapting to a certain line is near impossible.

What’s the optimal entry speed? The fastest speed you can enter the corner, such that you can throw the tail out as much as possible and maintain the cornering line. When drifting, the tires have very little grip; if you enter too fast for your car’s setup, no matter how much rotation you have, you will go too far to the outside. If you enter too slowly, you won’t have the necessary momentum to keep the tail out. Of course, the more grip your front tires have, the faster your optimal entry speed must be to keep the front tires out of their grip range (and thus allow you to achieve more angle; see, it all fits together).

What’s the optimal steering angle? For AWD cars, this is the amount of steering you give the car such as to throw the rear end out the furthest without over-rotating and losing speed mid-corner. During corner entry, if you’re going in very fast with very hard tires, the angle could go past 90 degrees, that’s not a problem; but make sure that during the mid-corner you are losing angle and gaining speed, or else you’re losing too much speed from recovering your line, and your corner exit will be thrown off as well.

What’s the optimal throttle amount? To be honest, AWD cars are so forgiving that there is no optimal amount; it varies along with car setup and driver preference. During the entry, for a car with equal weight, tire and power balance, it is possible to stay on the throttle and do small adjustments to bring the car through the cornering line. It is also possible to leave the throttle off during the first part of entry and come back on before the apex. Both ways work equally well for harder tires, but as softer tires are used, applying less throttle may allow the tires to gain traction, and then the drift is lost. As car setups change, the answer becomes rather complicated. If more power is given to the front, you need to be more aggressive with the throttle to keep the rear tires spinning. If more power is given to the rear, you need to be less aggressive and keep the rear end from going too far (like driving a RWD, but not as extreme). If the front and rear tires are different, you need to either be gentler or very aggressive with the throttle, but it is hard to tell when because the softer tires could regain traction at any moment. This reason is why I recommend keeping all four tires the same for AWD cars; significantly different ones for front and rear tend to cause instability and unpredictability.



Practice your technique and set up your car (practice technique first if you’re starting out) till you feel confident controlling your car and putting it in the position you want it to be; I have a setup guide in the last section of this tutorial, but establishing your technique is up to experimentation. Here, however, are some things that may help you get an idea of what to look for.

Approach: at this point, manipulate the throttle and steering to break rear traction.



Throttle:
1. If speed is high enough, a feint or brake approach is usually most effective. Turning should follow within a few hundredths of a second after braking. It's important not to brake too hard either: if you lock the wheels you may lose speed, all the more so if you use rubber rear tires. You simply want the weight to shift forward, turn to bring the rear end out and then start following the cornering line.
2. If speed is low, use the power over approach. Turn and stab the throttle simultaneously, and then relax the throttle.

Steering:
In most AWD cases, you turn-in, straighten out the steering and let the car's inertia do the work. To make that effective, you should find a rhythm of sorts: when to turn-in, how much later to straighten out or countersteer, and how to match those up to throttle movements. Stickier front tires will necessitate a faster rhythm.


Mid-corner: once rear traction has been broken and the weight shifted, the car needs to carry speed through the corner.



Throttle:
Do not floor the trigger after letting off the throttle-stab, or the brakes. Smooth power delivery is key. Unfortunately, Xmods have poor throttle steps, so the best way is to blip the throttle very quickly to accurately control the car’s motion. For MA010's, blipping works well too, but slowly and gently moving the throttle is definitely logical and has the potential to net extremely smooth drifts.

Steering:
With the exception of adjustments, there isn't much steering to do here. Just make sure your car is still following the line.


Exit: from the apex, get the car out of the corner as fast as possible.



Throttle:
You can just start pulling the throttle from the moment you clip the apex of the corner; the AWD will carry you right through the exit.

Steering:
Whether countersteering or not, ideally (and especially if a straight follows the corner) you should be straightening the car out. If you haven't begun to straighten out by the apex, just flick the wheel a bit more to the outside of the corner to get rid of excess angle, and appropriately add throttle as outlined above. To exit onto a straight, your car should be more or less facing it from the time of the apex onward. (Bad picture; I apologize.)




Linking drifts:
When linking drifts, ignore the straight rule; you can allow the rear to stay loose a bit further. Just before you reach the turn-in point to the next corner, let off the throttle or tap the brakes to slow the rear wheels down and give you a moment more traction. Use this with moderate to full countersteer to swing the car the other way. It will swing more quickly than your initial turn-in, so be prepared to countersteer earlier and faster.



Extra tips:

1. If you have rubber tires, you need speed. Enough so that when you turn, the wheels will either break traction, or you can feel the car is on the limit of traction. If you have plastic or taped tires, don't worry.

2. You need to get the feel of your car. You need to be able to observe and discern every single twitch your car makes while moving straight or turning or sliding, and remember how fast your tail end slides out, under what conditions, under how much steering angle, how much throttle... the list goes on. To know all this, just drive and experiment with all factors (steering, throttle, timing, etc.) for as much time as you can afford.

3. Keep a lookout on your trigger finger, especially for Xmods. Throttle control is a necessary skill and is only taught by observing your own practice and habits. Also, it's a good idea not to have the throttle full-on all the time, you can use throttle lifts or throttle stabs to help the rear end break loose. If you find that you need the throttle on all the time, you may need to gear the motor higher, or find a faster motor. With Xmods you may find yourself blipping the throttle a lot since the throttle steps are not smooth.

Also, unless your hands are very small, try to keep your knuckle on the trigger finger instead of the tip of the finger. One less joint and muscle means one more degree of consistency.

4. Keep a lookout on the steering hand too. The way human wrists are built, they can turn one way more precisely and faster than the other way. As a result, you might be nailing great drifts in one direction, but doing lousy ones on the other side. Watch your wrist and try to find a position on the steering wheel where you can turn the wheel at the same speed and same accuracy in both directions.

5. Practice practice practice. When you can accurately time and adjust the throttle and steering (mid-drift) to your likes, you will be able to control the car's trajectory through a slide -- meaning you can drift along a track, not just randomly on the floor. Then that's good drifting right there.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Part 2, RWD DRIFTING:

Like real car drifting, 1/28 RWD drifting involves lots and lots of throttle and wheelspin control. Therefore, it is even more important than in AWD drifting that your technique be solid and established. However, the technique is a little bit different, because to gain significant angles, it is necessary to rely on the rear wheels more than the fronts to get the car around the corner. So it is a slight deviation from traditional AWD drifting theory, and this section of the tutorial will reflect that.

You should learn AWD drifting, or at least read over the AWD drifting section, before attempting RWD. And as a general disclaimer, I hold no liabilities if you get frustrated; I know I did, and it's all because humans are imperfect and are not likely to have the reflexes required of trying to drift a RWD xmod. It is much easier, and infinitely more consistent, to drift a RWD Mini-Z, either the MR01, 015, or 02. (Note: Iwaver 01 and 02 and related chassis, including Pro-Z's, count within the Mini-Z category, so for simplicity’s sake I will mention the group as RWD Z's).

Minimum specs:

RWD
Bearings
Hard or drift tires (most likely, the front tires will be drift tires)
Plastic drift tires during the learning process

Environment required:

Any smooth surface; any noticeable imperfections will make things very difficult.

Parts that are nice, and effective:

Strong magnets with your motor (neos, sb magnets)
Ball differential
Precise suspension parts (Xmods: GPM bits. RWD Z’s: may leave as is)
Resistors on your servo (Xmod Gen 1 only)
Suspension option parts (springs, damping fluid, camber & toe parts, etc.)
Strut bar (Xmods Gen 1 only)
Differential grease or silicone sealant

Parts that are nice, but not that effective and probably not worth it (however, it won't hurt if you use them):

Lithium-ion/poly batteries
FET upgrades
Motors that require stacked FETs



What to do with the parts:

1. Install bearings and drift tires only. The drift tires are necessary for practice reasons – they slow everything down. If you learn to control a slide with these plastic tires, it will be much easier to control a slide with rubber tires and faster corner speeds.

2. With regards to the motor: with the drift tires, any motor faster than a stock one is just too much. Keep the stocker for now; you can change out to a faster motor when the stock motor is not enough to break traction on rubber tires.

2a. But, when you do change out for a motor (stage 2, Xspeed and faster) start with the smallest pinion; again, this has to do with having too much wheelspin. and if you have neo/isotropic ferrite magnets in the motor, keep them; if you have them on hand, install them.

3. (For Xmods) GPM parts and the precision they bring are very nice to have, so install them. (For Xmod Gen 1) With RWD, the tierod is not a problem because there's no AWD cone gear to deal with.

4. (Xmod Gen 1 only) Tight-turns, or the 3.3k resistor servo mod, is very important to RWD drifting. Since the front wheels get no power, you want them to go as far left or right as possible to allow the rear end to swing out more. If you have the resistors on hand, I strongly recommend you do the mod. That tutorial is within this forum.

5a. (For Xmods) Suspension options are definitely useful after you've gotten started. For Xmods, I recommend the yellow springs for the most part, as they do not allow bottoming out, nor do they lock the suspension completely. Install yellow springs all around just to start out. Then switch in the blue springs for either front or rear if you wish, depending on which end you want to have less grip. Avoid the red springs for the most part, they are too soft to support the car unless you have reduced the Xmod's weight by at least 20-30g. I find that the spring changes don't really affect Xmods too drastically, but they come in handy when you're 'almost there'.

5b. (For RWD Z's) Like the MA010, RWD Z's respond well to spring/h-plate changes. You should probably start with medium-stiffness front springs and soft h-plate, and tune from there. A disk damper will slow down the action of the rear end, if you need it to; it also stabilizes the amount of rear traction you have. An oil damper does not damp the side to side motion of the suspension, therefore will not slow down the action of rear end breaking loose when you're turning into the corner. Both are adjustable but have the aforementioned differences, so pick carefully.

6. Other suspension options – camber, toe, front caster: start at 0 degrees for all these, but consult setup guide for adjusting.

7. (For Xmod Gen 1 only) A strut bar is a useful option; since the rear wheels serve a huge duty in RWD drifting, you want them to be as consistent as possible. The strut bar allows you to set the wheel camber right where you want it. 0 degrees is probably the best setting to start out with. When using the strut bar, note that you can use red springs in the rear for a little bit more traction and a smoother ride.

8. If you can't break traction due to the open gear diffs spinning one wheel, differential grease is one solution. You can choose your own weights to adjust the amount of differential resistance. Silicone sealant can work too, add a little bit in to gain a viscous diff effect, or add in a big dollop to lock the diffs. Note that if you're on a grippier surface, you should not lock the diff because you will have excessive understeer (as well as counteracting the benefits of tight-turns).

8a. However, a better solution for gear diffs (and easily adjustable) is the gear-type LSD mod. Tutorial is within this forum. Follow the same adjustment guidelines as for ball differentials.

9. If you're finding that the car turns more one way than another, go center your servo (and your potentiometer, if need be). Tutorial is on this forum. If it still goes to one way more than the other, the problem may be your wrist (not that it's your fault). Read the section in AWD drifting, Extra tips #4 regarding wrist positioning.

10. (For RWD Z’s) RM or MM? That depends solely on preference. An RM car tends to have more rear traction/more understeer and is more stable than an MM; however, it doesn't react as quickly as an MM car, especially in transition between states of weight transfer. However, RWD drifting usually means plastic or taped front tires, and under such circumstances the RM layout doesn't provide as much steering as needed to get the rear out. The MM layout puts enough weight over the slippery front tires to turn quickly. I suppose either RM or MM would work for drifting, but they will require different setups and driving styles. An RM car, compared to an MM car, would need (slightly) stickier front tires and (slightly) harder rear tires, or at least a change in suspension setup.



Driving pointers:

1. It's easier to use plastic tires up front and hard rubber in the rear.
2. After that, tuning up the front and rear ends will net you the feel you want.
3. With plastic tires, stiff springs will not quicken the steering response... they will only decrease grip. Keep that in mind if you're getting too much turn-in.

Like AWD drifting, RWD drifting is centered around 3 main techniques:

Power over: 1) Approach corner, 2) turn and stab throttle, 3) adjust steering and throttle to match cornering line, 4) exit corner.

Feint: 1) Approach corner, 2) veer away from corner, 3) turn in, 4) adjust steering and throttle to match cornering line, 5) exit corner.

Brake: 1) Approach corner, 2) brake, 3) turn in, 4) adjust steering and throttle to match cornering line, 5) exit corner.

Again, increasing and decreasing the steering and throttle inputs is the key to maintaining your line, but now throttle modulation is more important than ever. So it takes extra practice to figure out how much throttle to give the car when it’s sliding. The rules of thumb for 1/28 RWD drifting are as follows:

Turning farther in = tighter radius
Turning farther out/countersteering = wider radius
More throttle = tighter radius/car heads in direction of rear wheels (amount of each depends on car setup)
Less throttle = wider radius/car heads toward inertial path (depends on car setup)
Too much throttle = gone. Spin out.

Again, I didn’t mention drift angle. Like AWD drifting, angle is mainly a function of your corner speed vs. your cornering line and the amount of grip you have. Especially for RWD cars, blindly aiming for maximum angle is useless; only by getting the optimal entry speed, steering angle and throttle amount does maximum angle come about. There are physical limits to everything, but if you approach faster and turn harder, chances are you can follow the same line at a greater angle (until you hit the physical limit, of course). And of course, if you go too far, you will lose speed and spin out.

Remember that there are only two wheels driving a RWD car. To keep up corner speed the car cannot have too much angle when exiting the corner; in terms of driving, this means that all the rotation of the car must already be done, and all that is left to do is the straighten the car and accelerate out of the corner. This rotation is done during the entry and mid-corner phase: when you enter the corner you can throw the rear end out even more such that your angle is greatest during entry and is decreased by the time you reach the corner exit. This effect is quite significant if the rear tires are softer than the fronts, and is one way in which RWD cars can match the angle of AWD cars.

What’s the optimal entry speed? The fastest speed you can enter the corner, such that you can throw the tail out as much as possible and maintain the cornering line. When drifting, the front tires have very little grip; if you enter too fast for your car’s setup, no matter how much rotation you have, you will go too far to the outside. If you enter too slowly, you won’t have the necessary momentum to keep the tail out. Of course, the more grip your front tires have, the faster your optimal entry speed must be to keep the front tires out of their grip range (and thus allow you to achieve more angle; see, it all fits together).

What’s the optimal steering angle? Generally, the harder you can turn in, the farther your tail will come out. Depending on setup, however, you may have the car capable of turning in way too hard, thus you need to compensate by finding the angle where you can turn in as hard as you can respond with immediate countersteer. That’s pretty intuitive.

What’s the optimal throttle amount? I mentioned earlier that in RWD drifting,

More throttle = tighter radius/car heads in direction of rear wheels (amount of each depends on car setup)
Less throttle = wider radius/car heads toward inertial path (depends on car setup)

depending on setup. How much front grip your tires have will determine which effect predominates. If you have [relatively] sticky front tires, more throttle will give a tighter radius, and vice versa. If the front tires are very hard, the rear tire grip will predominate and giving more throttle will push the car in the direction the rear wheels are facing. When turning into the corner, staying off the throttle too long will obviously pull you out of the drift. Come back on the throttle too soon and you’ll likely spin out or take a tighter radius than you planned for (unless your car’s underpowered, which means you’re probably not getting to the optimal position during the mid-corner). Finding the balance usually involves knowing how long to stay off the throttle after corner entry to keep the rear out at a safe, but reasonably maximized angle. During the mid-corner and exit, the throttle is applied to keep the car accelerating forward. Countersteer or not, maximum speed and angle during mid-corner and exit is only achieved if the car continues to move forward. So don’t worry about angle when you drift RWD, it will come when you match steering to throttle and get your car to come through and out of corners as fast as it will allow.

However, remember that the optimum steering angle and throttle amount change throughout the corner, usually going towards less steering and more throttle towards the end of the corner. This is an ideal, of course, and often is not done when linking drifts. Even in the video clip at the end of this I couldn’t achieve it, I had to keep the steering at full lock all the way through, which would have been a good setup for linking drifts (read on).



Now the difficult part about RWD drifting is really just the timing and the magnitude of adjustments you make. These you have to learn from experimentation, but there are certain things that you should know beforehand.

Approach: at this point, manipulate the throttle and steering to break rear traction.



Throttle:
1. If speed is high enough, a feint or brake approach is usually most effective. Turning should follow within a few hundredths of a second after braking. It's important not to brake too hard either: if you lock the wheels you may lose speed, all the more so if you use rubber rear tires. You simply want the weight to shift forward, turn to bring the rear end out and then start following the cornering line.
2. If speed is low, use the power over approach. Turn and stab the throttle simultaneously, and then relax the throttle.

Steering:
There is no time for your reflexes to prompt countersteer: you must know exactly what the car will do next and countersteer in advance. Therefore, you must set up the car (that completely depends on you) such that you know, and can deal with the speed that the tail comes out. Note that the stickier your front tires, the faster you must countersteer to avoid spinning out. Again, building a rhythm is the key, knowing when to turn-in and countersteer, and how to match those actions with throttle movements.

For me, I use sanded plastic front tires (grip is between 55 degree rubber and smooth plastic), and the sequence is brake-turn-off-countersteer-throttle: say that in exactly 0.4 seconds. That matches my personal preference: it’s fast but not too fast for consistency. Once your car matches your rhythm your drifts will become more consistent; alternatively, if you can alter your rhythm to suit the car’s setup, that will work just as well if not better.


Mid-corner: once rear traction has been broken and the weight shifted, the car needs to carry speed through the corner.



Throttle:
Do not floor the trigger after letting off the throttle-stab, or the brakes. Smooth power delivery is key. Unfortunately, Xmods have poor throttle steps, so the best way is to blip the throttle very quickly to accurately control the car’s motion. For RWD Z’s, blipping works well too, but slowly and gently moving the throttle is definitely logical and has the potential to net extremely smooth drifts.

Steering:
With the exception of adjustments, there isn't much steering to do here. Just keep countersteering, making sure your car is still following the line.


Exit: from the apex, get the car out of the corner as fast as possible.



Throttle:
Right before you hit the apex you should be giving the car less than full throttle; you could even let up on the throttle a bit, to let the rear to settle in and consequently allow you to give more throttle exiting the corner. But when you first start out, hitting the apex itself is hard enough, so don't worry.

Steering:
While you remain countersteering at the apex and all through the exit, ideally (and especially if a straight follows the corner) you should be straightening the car out. If you haven't begun to straighten out by the apex, just flick the wheel a bit more to the outside of the corner to get rid of excess angle, and appropriately add throttle as outlined above. To exit onto a straight, your car should be more or less facing the straight from the time of the apex onward. (Bad picture, I apologize.)




Linking drifts:
When linking drifts, ignore the straight rule; you can allow the rear to stay loose a bit further. Just before you reach the turn-in point to the next corner, let off the throttle or tap the brakes to slow the rear wheels down and give you a moment more traction. Use this with moderate to full countersteer to swing the car the other way. It will swing more quickly than your initial turn-in, so be prepared to countersteer earlier and faster.



Extra tips:

1. (For Xmods) When you first start, take your controller and put the throttle setting to 'low'; remember that we're using the drift kit, so it takes less power to initiate a slide.

2. Unless your hands are very small, try to keep your knuckle on the trigger finger instead of the tip of the finger. One less joint and muscle means one more degree of consistency.

3. When you do decide to go with rubber tires, a stronger motor and the 'high' throttle setting, just use the same techniques but countersteer even earlier and try to move the throttle as smoothly as possible.

4. As usual, practice practice practice. Even more important since RWD drifting is many times harder than AWD drifting.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Part three, setup guide, arranged in alphabetical order:

Ball diff: Installing a ball diff will generally increase traction to whichever end of the car you install it in. If you put it in the rear, you also have the option of locking it to increase rear traction by a lot. This is especially helpful in RWD drifting, when you first start out and need some more rear traction to work with. (Note: I do not lock my Mini-Z's ball differential, it hampers off-power steering.) Adjustable gear-type LSD’s work the same way, but will not lose power if set more loosely.

Camber: Generally, more camber increases cornering traction and decreases forward traction to those tires adjusted. (The range of useful camber adjustments is about between 0 and 4 degrees.) If you run plastic tires on a hard surface, this doesn’t really matter to you. On soft surfaces like RCP, a little negative camber is useful to prevent the outside edges of the tires to hook into the surface material and cause handling inconsistencies. On hard surfaces, how much camber depends on how much your chassis rolls. Typically 1 or 2 degrees will be enough, since we’re drifting and it’s not that fast. But adjust front and rear camber to change your front/rear traction balance to your likings.

Caster: For 1/28 cars, caster generally just gives the front tires a bit more useful camber in the corners; increasing front caster aids mostly in high-speed corners, providing a bit more steering without taking a big toll on rear traction. I haven’t worked much with caster, however, and I encourage readers of this tutorial to try adjusting it (if they can) and see what happens.

Damping: Damping provides stability, or consistency, at the cost of responsiveness. Increasing the damping at one end of the car slows down its reactions and stabilizes the amount of traction at that end of the car. Use it to adjust responsiveness: if you want the front end to turn in quickly but the rear end to come out slowly, for example, use more damping in the rear. However, spring rate must be matched with the damping rate to maintain a positive handling balance. If you alter the damping rate significantly, you must alter the spring rate in the same direction to compensate and keep the handling consistent.

Downtravel: Allows for more body roll. On soft surfaces, it can increase traction to the end of the car with more downtravel, but using too much is bad for consistency. Personally, I feel this should not be one of the main adjustments as RC drifting does not have as much weight transfer as RC racing, and downtravel works mainly when weight is being transferred.

Drivetrain: A lighter drivetrain gives you faster response to throttle input, but may give you a hard time controlling the car, especially in the case of RWD. A heavier drivetrain smoothes out the power delivery to an extent, but it becomes harder to save a drift with your reflexes; you need to anticipate the car’s movements even more.

Springs: Stiffer springs will decrease traction a bit, but will quicken steering response; softer ones will increase traction but slow down steering response. Adjust your tire setup along with suspension setup to net the amount of responsiveness and total traction that you want.

Strut bar/Monoshock (for Xmod Gen 1 only): A strut bar or monoshock will decrease rear grip, but it will cause the rear end to come out at a slower rate, thus giving you more time to control the car, and thus helping with the consistency and control of your drifts. It is more helpful in AWD drifting when less rear traction is needed. I suppose it could work in RWD drifting too, but you would have to be using softer rear tires in the first place.

Tire materials: Plastic/PVC/hard materials for tires will decrease grip by a lot. For AWD cars, usually you use such tires for all four corners, or use rubber on all four corners, but RWD cars can reap benefits from using plastic tires in the front and rubber ones in the rear.

Tire tape: Scotch tape is commonly used, and is quite slippery; it has barely more grip than smooth plastic tires. Electrical tape has less grip than rubber tires at first, but as the tape wears it will gain grip, till it has slightly less grip than the Xmod hard treads or 55 degree Mini-Z tires. Tape can be used on the front or rear tires; it's great for adjusting your front/rear traction balance.

Toe: Front toe-in will increase stability, but from experience you can't turn as well, and response will be decreased. Front toe-out is the exact opposite, more steering but less stability. No toe is a good starting point for anyone, and you can adjust to your own liking. Don't add more than 2 degrees of toe either way, however, you will cause the front tires to scrub (more so with stickier tires), and this extra friction will adversely affect the car.

Weight distribution: Adding more weight in the front will generally increase front grip. In general, adding weight up front can ease drift entry at high speeds, and increase steering by a lot at low speeds. For AWD this is not an issue, but for RWD you may want to change your suspension or tire setup to compensate for the extra steering.



Note: If your rubber tires have worn down a bit, and generate more grip than they did originally, they probably will make an AWD car's reactions faster. And in the case of RWD, grippier rear tires may disrupt the balance of the car, and heavy understeer often results. If the tire wear gives you too much grip, it's time to change the suspension setup or switch to a new set (AWD) or pair (RWD) of tires.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



The following clip showcases the technique I developed while trying to drift an RWD. This is an analysis of what I did in one particularly smooth drift; it may help you guys. Car is a lightly modified MR02 with plastic front tires and 55 degree rubber rear tires.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU9RMHTyBEg