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GPL drifts - how do I do them?

8 posts by 6 people · 11 Apr 1998 - 15 Apr 1998

Joe McGinn 11 Apr 1998#404017
I keep seeing all this talk of drifting through the corners in GPL, but I can't seem to get the hang of it. Every time my back end slips at all it almost instantly spins out. Can someone please explain in detail the braking/gas/steering technique to get these rear-end drifts? Joe
Racer23 11 Apr 1998#404018
A four wheel drift is when all four tires are about ten precent past their proper slip angles. You will go faster then if all four tires were glued to pavement. What you all seem to be talking about is oversteer, where the rear end of the car starts to slip and the front end still has traction. Techincally this is not always the fast way around any corner. Gernerally a little bit of oversteer will make a car faster due to driver not having to fight car thru any given turn and being able to get on the throttle faster. A four wheel drift will let driver balance car and go faster trhu any given corner. On a Simulation I feel this would be hard to do consistantly due to needing to feel what the car is doing thru the wheel and your bottom. Many drivers never get this right. If you wnat to see Some Classic four wheel drifts look at some old Formula One pics on Fangio, Nuvulari, Moss and Hill. These guys could make a dishwasher go thru a corner fast. Racer 23 Ep
> I keep seeing all this talk of drifting through the corners in GPL, > but I can't seem to get the hang of it. Every time my back end slips > at all it almost instantly spins out. Can someone please explain in > detail the braking/gas/steering technique to get these rear-end > drifts? I couldn't feel the car at all when I was driving slowly and too carefully. Drive a bit faster, with more throttle/ accleration to keep weight back there then you have a chance that the back end will give up traction a bit slower than flicking into terminal oversteer. If you throttle back when you feel it going, you will reduce the rear traction and (I at least) spin it immediately. So, try going faster! (Seriously, hehe) More throttle (carefully ;) coming out of the corners. Run the more forgiving G3 car until you know what to look for. This oversteer thing is unstable. It can feel like a cliff, with no warning. You have to get to a condition where you can actually balance it. I can only feel a hint of that so far in my pitiful 1:30 lap times ;), but it's there. - Matt
Joe..... "Explain in detail?" No, not really, because like a lot of aspects of driving it comes from both seat-of-the-pants input and also lots of practise. Basically, 4-wheel drifting is accomplished by balancing the attitude of the car by using a combination of throttle and steering and whilst theorists can lay day thousands of words about how it is done and how to do it, only practise will ever allow you to accomplish it. That's in real life, anyway! :-)
Quoted text (7 lines)> I keep seeing all this talk of drifting through the corners in GPL, > but I can't seem to get the hang of it. Every time my back end slips > at all it almost instantly spins out. Can someone please explain in > detail the braking/gas/steering technique to get these rear-end > drifts? > Joe
-- Bruce. (At home)
Quoted text (7 lines)> I keep seeing all this talk of drifting through the corners in GPL, > but I can't seem to get the hang of it. Every time my back end slips > at all it almost instantly spins out. Can someone please explain in > detail the braking/gas/steering technique to get these rear-end > drifts? > Joe
GPL is unique since the cars have no wings. This means that the car will easily spin if you either jump off the gas while cornering or get on the gas too much. It sounds like you are either keeping your foot down when you should be easing back a little or you are easing off to much. Also, spinning while braking is very easy to do. It's simply a matter of getting you braking points sorted out. NEVER be on the brakes even a little when you begin to turn in to a corner. In fact, you nedd to be on the gas a little just before you turn in.
Racer23 12 Apr 1998#404248
Try setting up car to understeer when under full throttle. Just a slight bit of understeer. When you lift slightly to get car to turn the car should rotate to corner then you will be able to get back to flat out and the car will pointed the right direct and will shoot thru turn. This set up has gotten me some very fast laps in CPR where chssis seems very setup sensititve. Dave
I have to chime in here and agree, GPL is the first sim so far where my normal trail braking techniques do not work at all. I guess the way to sort of describe how to drift is, this sim really requires scrubbing all your speed off by braking in a straight line approaching the corner, then match the throttle speed to the corner speed, it is ok to be a bit fast entering the corner *as long as* you are not on the brakes, just use the throttle and careful wheel inputs to control the car sliding entering the corner, but what ever you do, don't hit the brakes, these cars are extremely rear-heavy and the back end really has a tendency to come around if the wheel is turned. Again use the throttle and wheel to control the attitude of the car through the turn, not the brakes. I'm hoping that with the full version we will be able to sort this out a bit by adjusting the brake bias a bit to the rear. Overall I love the handling in GPL, once you get used to the handling you really get a nice feel when balancing the cars at the limit, no more of the normal sim technique of full braking then full acceleration, this sim really rewards smoothness and careful car control. Way to go Papy on the driving model, previously that was one of the shortcomings of Papy sims was in the in weak modeling of brake lockups, GPL really feels good, you can especially tell when you have the brakes at very near lockup and then crest over the hill and the wheels going light will cause momentary lockup. Detail like this is what makes GPL such a great step forward in driving simulation. Cheers. --John -- *kludger AT zipcon DOT com* | ICQ #7522564 contact me at: Seattle, Washington USA. | http://wwp.mirabilis.com/7522564
Joe McGinn 15 Apr 1998#404862
That, and the 3D***pit - I think it's much better at providing subtle visual feedback than static 2d***pits. Joe

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