Drift Bible

Best Motoring: Drift Bible is an in-depth instructional drifting video that looks into six different drift techniques that Keiichi “Drift King” Tsuchiya uses while racing. Throughout the Drift Bible, Tsuchiya uses the Kei Office Nissan S14 Silvia on Ebisu Circuit’s East Course 2nd Hairpin (21R) corner to demonstrate the six basic drifting techniques: Side or E-brake drifting, Shift Lock drifting, Power Over drifting, Braking drift, Feint drift, and Lift-off drifting a form of Dynamic drifting.
Here is a brief overview of the six basic drifting techniques that Keiichi Tsuchiya demonstrates during the Drift Bible.

Side or E-brake Drifting – (Does not require weight transition) Use the car’s e-brake to lock the rear tires.

Drift Sequence:

1. Brake
2. Turn wheel
3. Step on clutch
4. Pull E-brake
5. Release E-brake
6. Countersteer
7. Then wait until car is facing corner exit, then gently give the car gas – how hard you step on the gas depends how much you are countersteering and sliding.

Shift Lock Drifting – (Does not require weight transition) – Not recommended for dry roads – use on snow and wet surfaces. Shift Lock drifting is initiated by downshifting (usually from third to second) instead of braking, without rev-matching, causing the drive wheels to lock momentarily.

Drift Sequence:

1. Gas all the way in third gear
2. Brake
3. Steer
4. Let clutch go without using heel-toe technique.
5. Rear wheels will suddenly lock
6. Then slide
7. Countersteer
8. After car is facing corner exit, gently give the car gas – how hard you step on the gas depends how much you are countersteering and sliding.

Power Over Drifting – (Does not require weight transition) - Throttle control is key and front tire grip is very important. Power Over drifting is performed when entering a corner at full throttle to produce heavy oversteer, then excess power is given to the rear wheels to induce drift. This is the most typical drifting technique for all-wheel drive cars.

Drift Sequence:

1. Brake lightly to shift weight to front tires for traction.
2. Steer into the corner even if you feel understeer.
3. At corner exit step heavy on the gas to power out of the corner.
4. Countersteer

Braking Drift – Three important factors: When to steer into the corner, when to shift down, and how long to keep braking. Braking drift is similar to Shift Lock drifting except you don’t let the rear tires lock.

Drift Sequence:

1. Heavy on the gas in third gear approaching corner
2. Brake – how much you brake is crucial – If you kill the speed too much, you will end up stopping before you drift and with understeer. You want to slow down about 70% from how fast you are driving on the straight-a-way.
3. Let go of brake
4. Steer into corner
5. Use heal-toe technique to shift down to second leaving your toe on the brake – The heal-toe technique uses the right foot to control both brake and gas while left foot operates clutch for shifts. Right foot toe is on brake while right foot heel is on the gas.
6. Countersteer
7. After car is facing corner exit, gently give the car gas – how hard you step on the gas depends how much you are countersteering and sliding.

Feint Drift – Create large weight transition by force. Sometimes it’s difficult to get the cars weight to transfer only by braking alone. That is when you shift the weight with a feint movement or quick jerk of the steering wheel away from the intended corner.

Drift Sequence:

1. Brake
2. Quickly steer away from the turn.
3. Then steer into the corner. The car will bounce back in the opposite direction like a pendulum because of the great weight transfer now.
4. Step heavy on gas, as in the Power Over Drift technique, to get the car to slide.
5. Countersteer

Lift-off Drift or Dynamic Drifting – Initiating a drift simply by maintaining momentum and releasing the gas causing the tail to slide.

Drift Sequence:

1. Charge into the corner without braking.
2. Release gas making the rear wheels loose traction.
3. Slide
4. Countersteer
5. Step heavy on the gas when exiting the corner.

How to Drift Using the E-brake

Brakes are an important part of any drift car. In most cars, the parking brake, hand brake, side brake, emergency brake or e-brake as it may be known, only affects the rear wheels. Since you will be using the e-brake to initiate the drift and to correct drift angle once the car is sliding sideways, you need to make sure the rear brake pads are in good condition. Otherwise, you will have a hard time getting the rear wheels to lock up when you pull the e-brake.
Here is an outline of a basic drifting technique that makes use of the e-brake and why it works. This drift technique has many names like Side Brake Drifting, Hand Brake Drifting, Emergency Brake Drifting or just E-brake Drifting but they all do the same thing to get the car sideways and drifting:

1. Brake for upcoming corner – This transfers the vehicle weight to the front wheels for traction while lightening the rear end and enabling the rear wheels to lock up more freely once the e-brake is pulled.
2. Turn the steering wheel to enter corner – You got to tell the car what direction it’s going.
3. Depress the clutch – This disengages the transmission from the engine and enables the rear wheels to lock up when the e-brake is pulled.
4. Pull e-brake momentarily (like 1 second) – This will suddenly lock the rear wheels causing the rear end to slide. Now you are drifting! If you do this correctly, it will be hard for spectators to even know you pulled the e-brake.
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 gently give the car gas – how hard you step on the gas depends how much you are countersteering and sliding.

A common mistake is to floor the car as soon as you see the corner exit but this can make you spinout. Drifting is NOT about horsepower. Drifting is about weight transfer and maintaining the car’s momentum through a corner. However, there is a drifting technique called the Power Over Drift where you DO floor the car while exiting the corner but that is another subject.

Oversteer

Oversteer occurs during a turn when the REAR wheels of a car do not track behind the front wheels but instead slide (drift) toward the outside of the turn in a more straight-line trajectory. Drifting is the art of controlled oversteer. To drift is to maintain a car in an oversteered position using countersteering, e-brake, throttle and drivetrain inputs.
Since oversteering is encouraged in drifting, worn or used tires are shifted to the back wheels since they offer less traction while tires made with softer compounds that offer more grip are used in front to promote better handling.

Understeer

Understeer is the opposite of Oversteer. Understeer is a loss of traction in a vehicle’s FRONT tires, caused by excessive speed in relation to cornering angle.

Drift Angle

Drift angle is the degree of oversteer a car maintains during a drift. Drift angle is important in competition and is often judged as part of a driver’s style - the more extreme the drift angle, the better.

Heel-Toe Shifting

Heel-and-Toe shifting is a driving technique used when downshifting. It involves operating the gas and brake pedals simultaneously with the right foot, while the left foot operates the clutch as normal. The right foot toe presses the brake while the heel, or side of the foot, covers the gas.
Heel-toe shifting allows for smooth downshifts and consistent throttle response by matching the engine rotational speed (rpm) to the wheels rotational speed. In addition, the rev-matching characteristic of heel-toe shifting places less stress on the entire drive train since the engine and transmission are operating at similar rpm. If the rotational speeds differ, the drive wheels will momentarily lock with a sudden jolt of the transmission – this can make a car unstable especially when cornering.

advantage of this sudden wheel lock to get the car sliding sideways. Shift Lock Drifting is the complete opposite of heel-toe shifting since it’s initiated by downshifting without rev-matching, causing the drive wheels to lock. Shift Lock Drifting is not recommended for dry roads because of the drive train abuse – use this drifting technique on snow and wet surfaces.

Advantages of Heel-Toe Shifting

• Smooth downshifting
• Consistent throttle response
• Less drive train stress

Sports cars are usually modified so that the heights of the brake and accelerator pedals are closely matched and the pedals are not too far apart, to permit easy use of heel-toe shifts.

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.

Cars of Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift

The line-up of cool drift cars in Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift is what made the movie as memorable as it is. With nothing less than the best Japanese drift cars making the cut for the movie, its drifting fans heaven.

Lets have a closer look at some of the cars of Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift....

By far the star car of the Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift has to be the FD Mazda Rx7 with the black and orange duco over the Veliside bodykit. I actually know the guy who sold them that FD and I saw the original while it was still a junker :)

The Mafia's bad guy's black Nissan 350Z which everyone gasped as they watched it drift up the spiral driveway in the car park. That stunt was done by NZ/USA drifter Rhys Millen without any CG, he did it all with just the car!



The red Lancer Evo was a head turner too as Evos are generally known as all wheel drive cars that don't really drift. This is the car he practiced and learned to drift in.

Japanese drifting and racing legend Keiichi Tsuchiya made an appearance as a fisherman when the red Evo was practicing at the wharf.

I remember he says "kountaa wa osoi ne" which means "He's too late with his counter steer."

The 'girl' car, sky blue Mazda RX8 appeared an was driven by Australian actress Nathalie Kelley. I love RX8's but not this one. The color and body kit weren't the best suit for it. I guess they were trying to make it girly.


The 1967 Mustang Fastback was thrown in the plot to mix up the cars a bit. We see new Mustangs drift but hardly ever old school classics like this one drift! But this one was a little different. It had a Nissan RB26 powering it instead of the old ford V8 engine.

At the time of the movie's release, I asked Kumakubo san (Pro D1 Driver) about the cars of Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift (he was a stunt driver in the movie) and he said the Mustang was the worst car to drift out of all of them. He mentioned the Evo was the best drift car...and that's probably the reason he built his Evo 9 drift car for the Japanese D1 competition.

The Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift is a movie you can switch on and watch anytime. You don't need to follow the story, just watch the cars, girls and drifting. That's more important anyway!

Keiichi Tsuchiya

Keiichi Tsuchiya or the “Drift King,” as he is more widely known, is a living legend within the drifting community. Keiichi Tsuchiya is credited with developing several drifting techniques widely used by professional drivers today. Unlike most professional drivers that come from wealthy families or have previous racing experience in other motorsports, Keiichi Tsuchiya earned his reputation and honed his drift skills from illegal underground street races. In fact, Drift King Keiichi Tsuchiya had his license suspended for illegal street racing not long after he began his professional racing career in the amateur Fuji Freshman racing series.
Keiichi Tsuchiya was born January 30, 1956 in Nagano, Japan and started his professional racing career in 1977. Beginning with the amateur Fuji Freshman Racing Series, Tsuchiya would continue his racing career in the Japanese Formula 3 Series, Japanese Touring Car Championship, and Super Touring car championship class. Throughout the Drift King’s racing career, Tsuchiya made a name for himself driving, and drifting of course, a Nissan Skyline GT-R, Nissan Silvia, Honda Civic, Honda NSX, Toyota GT-One, and perhaps his favorite car the Toyota AE86 Sprinter Trueno or “Hachi-Roku” in Japanese, which translates literally to “eight six.”

Keiichi Tsuchiya’s most notable wins and races:

• Class win and a top ten finish at the 1995, 24 hours of Le Mans in a Honda NSX.
• Second place at the 1999, 24 hours of Le Mans, with co-driver Ukyo Katayama in a Toyota GT-One.
• Tsuchiya holds the record at his home course of Usui with his Honda NSX-R.
• NASCAR-sanctioned exhibition races at Suzuka Circuit (Suzuka Thunder 100) and at Twin Ring Motegi Super Speedway for the 1998 NASCAR-sanctioned exhibition and 1999 NASCAR Grand National Division, AutoZone West Series races at the circuit, both named the Coca-Cola 500k.
• Tsuchiya’s last race was round eight at Suzuka for the Japanese GT Championship race.

At age 47, Keiichi Tsuchiya announced his retirement from professional racing. After retirement, Keiichi Tsuchiya became Team Director for the GT500 Class ARTA All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship (JGTC) team for a year and GT300 Class of JGTC Team until the team disbanded the GT300 operation at the end of the 2005 season. Later in 2005 Tsuchiya sold his aftermarket suspension company Kei Office to Ogura Racing Clutch.

Drift King continues to judge the D1 Grand Prix drift championship and also hosts the Japanese video magazine “Best Motoring,” now “Best Motoring International,” which features road-tests of new Japanese cars, including a special section called “Hot Version,” which focuses on performance modified cars. Tsuchiya can also be seen guest staring in Video Option’s monthly video magazine “Drift Tengoku,” which covers D1 Grand Prix and other drift related events and the Super GT video magazine also in Japan. Tsuchiya is also an editorial supervisor on the drifting anime Initial D and appeared in episode 23 as a special guest. He can also be seen in the semi biographical film Shuto Kousoku Trial 2, 3, 4, and Max. In 2006, Keiichi made a cameo appearance as a fisherman in the movie The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.