Drift 101 instructor Mark Adalba provides one-on-one instruction, pointing out the mistake
Lesson 1 Taking A Break
Mastering one technique or another, pro drifters teach their most important lesson first. Even though the adrenaline is still pumping from the success or frustration and you're anxious to move on to the next step to becoming a drifting superstar, the instructors force you to stop, get out of the car and just relax. Whether making progress or just getting frustrated, taking a moment to step back and collect yourself is probably the best thing to do, because even the best drivers get sloppy after 15 minutes behind the wheel.
Lesson 2 Listening To The Throttle
My biggest difficulty came from the simple warm-up donuts. Having spent a lot of time on our standard skidpad vehicle test-getting a car around the 200-foot skidpad with minimal slip-I've built up the habit of constantly modulating the throttle to balance a car between over- and understeer. In trying to initiate and maintain a drift, that was probably the worst thing I could do. Without consistent wheelspin at a constant rpm, holding a drift is impossible.
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.
You also need to have the proper instructors-after all, a student is only as good as his teachers. Drift 101's team of Mark Adalba and J.P. Mendoza were nothing short of spectacular in terms of relaying information and providing feedback. Unlike performance driving schools where classroom theory is fundamental, learning to drift is all about practice and repetition. You drive, they watch, ride along and then critique. Drift 101 throws you into the driver seat, and you'll get more than enough practice time to master the basics.