So you've decided to kick off the old nitro shoes and stick on some drift tires. Good for you! Drifting is the next big thing in remote control cars, but what to get? Can you use your old chassis and modify it to D-Spec? This page deals with the in's and out's of Drifting, from selecting a chassis to adding the bling to getting sideways and keeping it there. There is a treasure trove of information on Drifting on this site you won't be disapointed

What is RC Drifting

Apart from the size of the cars, RC drifting is identical to real car drifting. Everything from car setup to techniques are the same in both arena, a lot of drift expositions will include a local RC drift team doing demonstrations and generally showing off between main events.

The crux of drifting is to get your car sideways when going around a corner, then hold the car at an angle until it's time to straighten out, or transition into another drift. Going straight is bad and you wan to be sideways all the time, to successfully win a drift event you need to drift the entire track in one motion, while this is not always possible it's what you need to aim for it you are competing

How Do I Drift Remote Control Cars

The principle of rc drifting is the same as the principle for real car drifting, you need to loose traction on the rear tires and then use real wheel drive to push the car around corners steering with your throttle, the car should never be going in a straight line (This is called straight-lining, and is a good way to loose points during a competition). Once you have the car sideways you need to keep control of the drift. The difference between a drift and a power slide is that you need to link drifts together, while a power slide will be a once off and generally only while you exit the corner. Drifting requires that you be sideways during the approach, the apex and the exit, then keep it going and do the same for the next corner.

The bare minimum setup change you need to make is to your tires, you need drift tires. It's possible to drift on rubbers or foam nitro shoes, but you need an incredibly powerful RC car to be able to do that. RC drift tires have two main advantages:

1. Very Low Traction

   Using the correct tires is key to getting traction to break at the right time, too much and you can't drift at low speeds, too little and you will only be able to perform small drifts.

2. Very Hard Material

   If you were to try drifting on rubbers or foamies ,you wouldn't last very long, the tires would be destroyed in a couple of laps, using the right drift tire will prolong you drifting, from experience it's possible to have drift tires last last over a year. My current set at the time writing this are completely destroyed, but I have been using them for almost two years now, with at least seven or eight competitions in that time, with countless practice sessions in between

   Now if you just want to give drifting a go and not make too many changes to your priced racer you can use insulation tape, just wrap up the tired, making sure that you do it in the right direction or else the tape will just unravel once you start. A good trick it to lay down a strip of electrical insulation tape and roll your RC car over it by going forward, this will show you the right direction to wrap the tape. Tape won't last long, maybe two or three battery packs if you lucky, but it's a great starting point to get some immediate experience with remote control drifting. Most people started out like this.

Which Chassis to Buy

This really boils down to personal preference, but a couple of points to consider.

1. Any RC car can drift, some just better than others
2. You really need a four wheel drive chassis, most RC cars are four wheel drive
3. The weight distribution is critical, it's best to have the most of the weight in the front, or middle of your chassis
4. Drifting means that you will be sideways 99% of the time, it's easy for little stones and other road hazards to be kicked up into your chassis, try select one that doesn't have a lot of open components where stones can cause problems
5. A lot of manufactorer are now release RTR drift kits, there are a good place to start if you can't modify an existing car
6. Once you have the basics it's time to start getting your car setup just the way you like it. Please take some time to go over the site and you'll find we have a wealth of information available, if you need to know something but can't find it please contact us from the "contact us" Page

Bring the Bling

Im my opinion the best thing about drifting remote control cars is that a lot more attention is given to things which don't make you go faster or make your car better on the track. The bling factor is huge and customisation is king. Light kits, under glow, smoke kits, exhaust pipes, side mirrors and expressive graphics are the norm. Having a blinged up car is *almost* as good as having the championship winning car, but I think you'll find that the winning car is often also one of the most awesome looking machines.

What Next?

So now your drifting and have a very basic setup that you can get sideways, the next step is to fine tune your machine to match your drifting style, a lot of people will setup the car the way they think it should be and then adjust their style to match this "Perfect Setup" as with racing it doesn't work like that. first get your RC car stable, then you can start to fine tune the handling.

As with everything RC there is no right or wrong was to do something, take all the advice you can get, but at the end of the day you need to make your own opinions about what's the best way to do things.

Please see our RC Drifting section to get more information about radio controlled drifting and drift competitions.

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