FF Drifting (Front-engine, Front-wheel drive)

FF Drifting

Drifting a FF (Front-engine, Front-wheel drive) car is known as “ass dragging” by drifting purists, but drifting is possible by definition and fun. Since the rear wheels on a FF car freely turn without a transmission, they are easy to lock up when you pull the e-brake, given your rear brake pads are in good shape.
In Japan, there are front-wheel drive cars competing in the D1 Street Legal series and Keisuke Hatakeyama has competed in the Falken sponsored Honda Civic EF hatch in Formula Drift. They don’t win, but they are out there competing and having fun. Don’t let people discourage you from having fun in your FF car, just pop your collar and shake them drift haters off!
The technique I’ve outlined for FF drifting is very close to the basic E-brake drift. One thing to consider when driving a FF car is that under high speed they tend to understeer – or experience a loss of traction in the FRONT tires (opposite of oversteer). With this in mind, you need to stay close to the corner entrance or you might find yourself leaving the road when exiting the corner.

Front-Wheel Drive Drifting Sequence:

1. Brake for upcoming corner – This transfers vehicle weight to the front wheels for traction while lightening the rear end - enabling the rear wheels to lock up more freely once the e-brake is pulled.
2. Create further weight transfer by steering away from the corner momentarily in a feinting motion (Feint Drift)
3. Turn the steering wheel to enter corner – You got to tell the car what direction it’s going.
4. Pull the e-brake and hold for 1 second – This will lock the rear wheels causing the rear end to slide (oversteer). Now you are drifting! Most likely you will have to use the e-brake throughout the corner to keep the car sliding, otherwise the rear end will simply fall in line with the front wheels – neutralizing any drift angle.
5. Release the e-brake.
6. Countersteer - Countersteering is turning the steering wheel in the opposite direction that you first turned the steering wheel in - to initiate the turn. For example: Say you are about to drift a right hand turn. When entering the corner you turn the steering wheel to the RIGHT to get the car going in that direction. Once the car starts sliding, you would then turn the steering wheel to the LEFT to counter the skid.
7. Now wait until the car is facing the corner exit and floor it. Smoke those front tires! How hard you step on the gas depends how much you are countersteering and sliding. Good thing about FF cars is that the car will follow the front wheels – hence the “ass dragging.”

If this front-wheel drive drift sequence seems complicated, just find a patch of dirt or other low grip surface away from other people, cut the wheel at about 20 mph, and pull the e-brake. This will give you a good idea of what it feels like when the rear end of a car starts to slide.
Some people may interpret a front-wheel drive drift as a powerslide, but the definition of powerslide in reference to motorsports refers to a Power Over Drift – or excess use of throttle to induce oversteer when exiting a corner.
By definition drifting is initiating oversteer and controlling it, so it doesn’t matter if a car is FWD, AWD, or RWD it’s all drifting. Furthermore, Drift King says, “You can drift anything with 4 wheels!” No one is going to mistake you for Drift King and you’re not going to be able to hold a long continuous sideways drift like a rear-wheel drive car, but you can have some fun. You can also perform 180 u-turn slides using this technique at lower speeds.