Nexen N5000 tires proved to be very worthy for drifting.
It took quite a while to break my old grip-driving mindset, but Taka, Yoshie and Hiro-who were also road racers in the past-managed to help me work through those habits. Instead of looking at the tach when my eyes should be on the road, using the ears was the best way to ensure you're at the same rpm even when the car bogs after a launch or spikes as the wheels break free. Keeping the engine speed constant means that the rear wheels are spinning at the same rate and the car behaves consistently.
Lesson 3 The Car Goes Where You Look
I quickly realized that drifting glory wasn't quite as close as I thought. Apparently, being a very right-handed person made drifting the other direction much more difficult. The key was vision. Just like in road racing, the car goes where you look, the key is how far to lead. Look too far ahead and you'll spin for sure. Look too close and you'll never catch the car in time for the next transition. Drifting one direction will always be easier, so looking where you want to go will make all the difference for drifting as if you're ambidextrous.
Lesson 4 Let The Car Do The Drifting
As speeds increase and drift radii increase, things get a lot harder. Everything is happening faster and increasing the rate of your hand-eye coordination is all about practice and muscle memory. But as the car slides at faster and faster speeds, it's important to let go of the steering wheel and not fight the car and what the laws of physics are telling it to do. Inevitably, letting the car find its happy place is the smoothest way to maintain and transition between drifts. This was perhaps my biggest issue because track instinct is to always to grab the wheel and fight the slide. Time and time again, we would be mid-drift and my hand would just briskly and unconsciously brush the wheel to control how the steering unwound. This always upsets the balance and gets everything all thrown off in the middle of a drift. Sometimes keeping your hands off the wheel during the entire drift required the most concentration.
Final Lesson
The day passed quickly as I vacillated between frustration and elation. Even as the instructors pushed me to more and more advanced techniques and combinations, I noticed that the basics had become muscle memory. But as techniques get harder, diminishing returns set in. Making the same progress as I did in the morning wasn't happening. Just getting used to the high-speed drifts and juggling all the motions like grabbing the e-brake, kicking the clutch, flicking the wheel and initiating with weight transfer resulted in spin after spin. And while the instruction and support was there, only practice and seat time would make the difference.
Being within the safe confines of the track and under controlled and supervised conditions was one less thing for me to worry about, but the sun was setting and I was still a long way from being a drifting superstar. This was Drift 102's final lesson: practice and persistence. Just like in racing, there's no such thing as a natural born driver. Some might be more gifted and learn faster at first, but in the end it's all about seat time.
By the end of the day, Drift 102 had given me many of the tools to start this new drifting hobby. I now had an appreciation of how far a simple modified car could go for some drifting fun. The seat time under professional instruction had also made me comfortable getting sideways and given a better idea of what can be done with a car in a limited space. The most important lesson of all was learning how to critique my own driving and understanding enough to figure out my own mistakes.
Aching for more, I asked if there would be a Drift 103 curriculum, but Naoki assured me that with what Drift 102 offered, there would be no need for a 103 course aimed to train budding pros. By the time a student graduates from Drift 102, they're probably bitten by the drift bug and will continue to go to the track afterward. I'm still spinning more often than succeeding, but I'm comfortable doing smokie donuts and figure-8s all day long, and I'm already changing my Silvia to be more drift ready. -Jay Chen