Not able to drift...can't firegure out what i'm doing wrong

Hi i just bought a g27 and i thought drifting was easy enough. I was wrong, terribly wrong. I watch some video of people drifting with a bmw e30 on youtube but i'm not able to understand what i'm doing wrong. It should be like "you go full throttle and steer, then counter steer (i'm not sure about how much throttle here), and then...

Two things happen to me:

1. i counter steer too late and lose the back;
2. i counter steer and the car goes on the other side straight in the wall (for example i have to turn right, counter steer, lose the car and goes all the way to the left.

I don't know maybe the steering wheel is not for me. Maybe simulation games are not for me. Thinking about giving the g27 back. don't know....

 

I am no pro but I suggest practice. Dozens of hours of practice and spinning around will let you develop a feel for it.
~Bailey

 

Try the drift track, theres this oval right when you come off the pits, to me there is the easiest way to learn how a car behaves...

 

Hi there,

I bought my G27 in summer 2012 and started learning to drift about a year ago, it was in GT5 tho.
Trust me, I was terrible at first too, but that's normal. I'm not the best, but a pretty decent drifter by now I'd say.
It's definitely not the wheel, it's just you (no offence).
You just started, take your time. It's not like you are going to be a Drift King when you have zero experience.
After some time you'll get a feel for the car's behavior, you'll know if you can floor the gas or not, and how much you have to turn the wheel in order not to spin out.

Good luck

Greetings,
tombax338

 

Check this:


I was and still am like you.
Keep learning and practicing - and make sure you stop before getting really annoyed. With time, things get into place - but it does take time.

 

Watch drift videos where people explain what you need to do.

For 1. You need to catch your side early enough so you don't spin out initially

For 2. Once you're sliding, you counter steer, the car will now try to snap back the other way. What you need to do is to give it a lot of gas to shift the balance back towards sliding. As you add a lot of gas now the car will want to spin out again, so you let off the gas slightly and adjust your steering at the same time.

Repeat the above a few times and you'll be drifting through a corner!

To end a slide, max throttle to keep the rear tires spinning as you slowly straighten the steering.

 

The good news is that once you learn how to do it, you'll be able to do it in all sims AND in real life.

The bad news is that it takes quite a lot of practice. Just because it look easy on youtube does not mean it is easy, in fact youtube is full of videos with experts showing off their skillz - be it drifting, skating, bmxing, playing musical intrument... all of them look easy but are actually quite hard.

 

Watch the video muckymu posted, that's how I learned to drift as well.
But if you're having trouble with transitions, practice the manji drift

 

I finally got round to learning to drift with AC, initially with my G25, and in fact it has only taken around 10 hours of practice to be able to hold simple drifts and exit drifts as I want. I'm gradually getting more angle and longer drifts, but the first step is entering and exiting simple drifts while keeping the car under control.

A few things/tips for starting out:
- Make sure the wheel is free spinning. Try the Logitech settings from my signature, see how they feel for drifting.
- When drifting, keep your left foot far away from the pedals. You can drift the E30 (drift spec) just with the throttle. What I found myself doing wrong was when exiting the drift I'd unconciously touch the brake and that was detrimental: It just spears you off the road.
- Basic approach I use: 2nd gear, around 60-70km/h. steer briefly away from the corner, then quickly turn in (this should have unsettled the car), apply plenty of power until the rear end starts to slide, ease off the throttle and let the steering wheel go (maybe with a little push) and it will rotate by itself. Now you have to catch the wheel while balancing around 50% throttle, and "dance" between steering and throttle to keep the drift going.
When you want to exit the drift, you should just fractionally ease off the throttle and manually rotate the wheel back to be centered.

 

i was drifting for years on joystick in Live For Speed. drifted a bunch in real life when i finally got my license a little after i started LFS. finally got a wheel for sim racing/drifting last month and it's the hardest experience i've had yet with driving, but i'm finally getting a hang of it and it's really rewarding when you do. stick to it man. using a wheel in sim is hard in its own right, but just like everything else, it takes a good bit of practice. and remember that all those videos you've seen, those guys probably went through just as much trouble learning.
also, i highly recommend taking the BMW 1m around Vallelunga Club a few times. it's feeling like a pretty good drift combo for me right now. i seem to be able to drift half decent in LFS, but i'm still adjusting for Assetto and that 1 series slides like butter when you flick the rear properly :')

 

this is true, re the adaption to other sims and real life part.

I still don't attempt to drift in real life, but when I catch a slide or the rear goes out I find myself semi automatically correcting as if I would in sims. Seems safe.. thus far, hah.

 

Before you loose interest and want to send it back try with a little Stability Control and you will drift like a god. You have a wheel so it should be possible for you but to me with a crappy gamepad i have to have a little SC or the car wont respond to counter steering. No matter how fast or much i counter i keep spinning the way i started to spin. So when i drift i put SC on to 20-40% depending on car.

When i race/hotlap i just cant get into a spin as i dont use any assists which is really scary as i know i cant save a coming skid.

I need (money for) a wheel...

 

Except for iracing...

 

The latest patch made drifting a bit easier. High slip angles provide better gradual grip loss, so now i can drift cars i couldn't before, they don't suddenly go into spin - saving the oversteer is easier.

Start with E30 drift version and play on the center oval of the drift course. Find out which direction you get better at and just drift around those corners. It's all about predicting and pointing the car where you want it. If you're just reacting to what it's doing, you'll always be too late. Drive in second gear and be easy on the throttle, but quick with the steering. You must counter steer before you visually see the car snapping back. You learn this by experience.

Giving up on drifting would be a shame, because it provides many hours of additional fun. Just don't give up on it.

 

Sounds like you're not getting enough steering lock on quickly enough.

You should have Logitech Profiler installed with the drivers, open it up and go to menu "Options>Global Device Settings" and in the "Degree Of Rotation" box reduce it to something really low like 270 degrees. (Only for drifting, set it back at 900 degrees for normal racing)

Have another go at drifting and you'll hopefully be able to get enough opposite lock on quickly enough to be able to start some drifts and get a feel for what you should be doing. You can then gradually increase the Degree of Rotation setting as you get better until you can do it at the full 900 degrees.

 

This is why i love it. I'm not good at hotlapping, but drifting always keeps a smile on my face. Sure there are plenty of spins and fails, but once you nail it...

 

Sorry to go off topic, but if you've ever driven the lotus 79 in it I think you'll find it very fun and controllable in slides.

 

Most important bit of advice you have heard here is practice. I know it sounds like a cop out but it is the only real "trick".
You need to be ahead of your car, know what the car is going to do. The only way to get that is to do it wrong a lot first.
Trying to just drive the car fast, this will get you used to it's behavior (the way it accelerates, brakes and weight shifting)

Wheel setup.
I would suggest removing any centering spring you may have still enabled (In the logithech profiler) and taking a 540-720 degree setting to begin with, much lower and you are not really learning much. You don't want your wheel to be to heavy either, it will make it that much harder to counter quickly.
There are a lot of drift fans who would give there right nut for that g27 don't waste it

Apart from that. Have fun. Drifting and frustration are mutually exclusive things

 

Man, id suggest staying with 900 degrees if you want to drift, I know its hard, and itll take time to get use to, but the rewards are great when you nail a drift like that.
I have my centering spring at 89% though, I couldn't drift without that.. It does increase the fight of the wheel though.. Ive been trying to find a good balance between in-game Gain, and Profiler centering spring. I love the feel of being able to throw and catch the car, and it's a hard thing to get just right.

 

I i agree with the 900 degrees, because it gives the accurate measure of the angle. Ideally you should be keeping the wheel around one rotation throughout the slide, which gives a great looking angle. Half less is too little and half more you're already at full lock, which should be used only for saving the slide when you see the back end slipping too much. Just don't forget about which way to turn the steer to end the slide, lol.