Braking Drift Technique

Time for some serious drifting: Enter the braking drift technique! So far for the basics, playtime is now officially over!

This technique requires some great handling skills, involves you to really have learned controlling the car in a sliding state, and that you got familiar with the weight transitions during drifting.

Probably the most used technique in drifting, this technique is actually the same as the shift-lock drifting technique. The big difference is that you upset the balance only with steering and braking, without locking the gears.

The important factors of this drifting technique are when to steer in, when to shift down, and how hard and how long you keep braking.

Braking Drift Technique
How To:

• Coming from the straight towards a corner


• Start to brake in a straight line


• When you’ve done about 70% of the braking on the straight line release most of the force on the brakes, but keep your foot on the pedal. The amount of the braking here really is crucial. If you brake too much you’ll kill the speed, and come to a halt spun around halfway when attempting to drift.


• When you’ve reduced force on the brakes, steer into the corner. Right now you’re a little bit overspeeding, but if you would still apply full braking pressure throughout the corner you would end up with understeer.


• Turn into the corner, downshift using heel toe, and again leave your foot on the brake pedal. If you don’t feel the car sliding already, briefly increase the pressure on the brakes just a tad to get the rear out.


• Feel the back end lose traction and start to countersteer with the wheels along the corner’s path.


• Wait until you see that the car is facing the direction of the corner exit. Then gently give it a little power to pick up the drift. Control the throttle throughout the drift towards the exit.

When shifting down the RPM increases and engine-braking becomes stronger. This causes for even more weight to shift forward. Combined with the cornering forces this can already get the car into oversteer. If it doesn’t, you can increase the braking pressure by just a little bit to still get the car into oversteer. It’s important to focus on the front and rear braking balance. If only the front brakes are working you cannot control the rear.

The key for the braking drift technique is to get the correct timing of releasing the clutch. You need to shift down smoothly, rather than locking the gears as you do with the shift lock technique. Since you’re on such a thin line of control any disruptions in the balance may have negative consequences.