When learning a new skill, you start slow
and in drifting this means progressing from figure eights
to parking lot courses and finally
to drifting real tracks at real speeds. The beginner stage of drifting
is about building the confidence to use enough throttle
to keep the car sideways. But as you develop car control,
you begin to enter corners
faster and carry more speed through them. It's only a matter of time until you reach a point where you're going
too fast for the next turn and need to slow down mid drift
to keep from flying off the track. After spending so much time focused on adding speed,
this usually catches beginners off guard. So to keep you from accidentally
taking an offroad adventure in your lowered drift car, I'll show you five techniques,
including left foot braking, to bleed off speed and control your line
through corners. Your car has four tools
you can use to slow down angle and engine braking, the handbrake,
and finally, the foot brake. Wait, that's only three... Oh, yeah, there's also-- Yeah, I don't recommend that one. Want to
know a universal rule of drift physics? The more angle your car has, the more
it slows down when you're off throttle. If you've ever heard someone
talk about using angle to slow the car, it means sliding out more sideways
than needed for a turn on purpose to let the car lose speed off throttle
and set you up to enter a slower turn. Engine braking goes hand in hand with this:
when you're in gear, but off throttle the engine produces drag,
trying to pull the car back to idle speed. The higher
your RPM, the more engine braking slows you down.
Even though this deceleration is small, if you've ever seen the Drift King
Keiichi Tsuchiya’s Drift Bible, Drag from engine braking
is a big part of the weight transfer that make up his accel off
and lift off drift techniques. For similar corners using angle and engine
braking for a few moments may be all you need to stop the car
from floating too far outside and dipping a tire off track. Whether it's the stock cable
or a hydraulic motor sports unit, the handbrake activates just the rear brakes
and is strong enough to lock the tires. Though if you're using a stock unit,
it may need tightening on older cars. Beginners often ask, Do you need to invest
in a hydraulic handbrake to drift? Well, My personal drift
car is classic Japan style, relying on just the original cable handbrake
for the past 17 seasons of drifting. So that should tell you something. Hydros specifically dual caliper setups
with a dedicated line that's separate from your foot brake lines are better, but with the right
traction balance and good weight transfer technique, you can absolutely learn on a cable
handbrake--even for tandem drifting. handbrake is useful for initiating drifts
and modulating your line Mid-Corner. It slows the car
more than coasting at angle, and when the rear tires lock,
you can control your line with steering if you aren't at enough angle or need to
pitch the car in toward the apex more, you can reduce counter steer to quickly
rotate toward the inside of the turn and then get back on throttle
to continue on a tighter line. Hand braking with counter steer lets you float the car away
from the inside of the apex. Kind of like strafing. Use this technique
to extend your drift farther into a corner when you need to keep from driving up
the inside curb or to link an awkwardly long straight. One that's too short for a manji
but hard to link without one. As you float the car with ebrake,
you lose speed. So remember, you can only use it
for a short distance before you've slowed down so much
that your only options are to grip up and re-initiate or do a burnout
to try to say that you're “still in drift.” Handbrake gives you the room
to make small corrections when your line or speed is a little off,
but you should always strive for perfect timing and corner entries
so you barely need to use it during solo runs, if at all. All braking techniques slow the car,
but foot brake is the strongest. Have you ever experienced Maximum effort
braking in a straight line? The G-forces are surprisingly powerful,
throwing you forward in your seat. Most people have no idea
how quickly their car can stop, but of course, most people are drifting. Anyone who's studied
motorsports driving has heard that a sliding car has way
less traction than a car in grip. So does that mean that pressing the foot
brake won't do much when you're drifting? Actually, no. In drift, only the rear tires are sliding. The front tires are rolling freely. And because the foot brake is biased
to the front, you actually retain a decent amount of braking capability
even while drifting. There are two foot brake techniques
we'll discuss. Normal braking and left foot braking. And keep in mind,
I'm not talking about initiations here. We're talking about using the brakes
when you're already sideways, normal foot brake
is taking your right foot off the throttle and pressing the brake pedal. It slows the car quickly and strengthens
the G-forces trying to pull the car sideways into a spin. Be prepared for the car to gain angle the harder you foot brake. You should be ready to feed in more
counter steer to balance the car in drift and be careful about heavy braking
when you're already at max steering lock. This reduced speed and increased angle
pulls the car in toward the inside of the corner and you'll be driving a tighter line
when you get back on throttle. A great time to use foot brake
is when going through a decreasing radius turn or transitioning
from a medium corner into a hairpin. Another key
time is on entry to the first turn. If there's much run up at all,
my favorite technique is a feint or flick entry where I can dive in far too fast
and then foot break down to the right entry speed
as the car transitions back into the turn. But this approach carries some risk:
If you use too much weight transfer in transition, the car might spin
or angle stall, and if you don't use enough, the car may stick at low
angle and grip up while you foot brake. If it does, the front tires will almost certainly understeer,
which at best will look lame. And at worst you might face plant into the wall
or get hit by the chase car in tandem. You can guard against this mistake
by combining foot brake and handbrake together. Use the foot brake to control your actual
entry speed and the handbrake to hold your angle or correct it
if you didn't use enough weight shift during the flick. This will give your entries
more confidence and control, letting you dive into tight corners
even faster. Now let's move on to one of the most
requested and least understood techniques in drifting. Left foot braking is a technique
where the driver uses their left foot to modulate the brake pedal, leaving their
right foot free for throttle inputs. You'll see other variations of this
technique used in grip racing and rally. But for drifting, you'll frequently
be on throttle with your right foot while using the brakes with your left. What's the point of braking
and accelerating at the same time? Well, we already know that near-constant
throttle is required to maintain a drift. And we know that when you push the brake
pedal, it slows down all four wheels. However, when you apply left foot
brake over top of throttle engine power cancels out
the braking at the rear tires. In effect, left foot braking allows you to slow down
just the front tires while the rear tires continue to spin
or even accelerate. There are two key ways to use left foot
braking, each with a different impact on handling. Pressing the left foot brake gently while in drift applies only a small amount
of braking to the front tires. It doesn’t transfer enough weight to
overcome the G-forces pulling the car sideways so this technique can slow the car down
without causing major changes in your line through the corner. It might even be better to say
that you aren't slowing the car down. You're just letting it accelerate less. As long as you only apply
light pressure to the brake pedal, you shouldn't have to alter your
countersteer much. So, why would you use this technique? The main reason is to make minor
adjustments to your proximity in drift
runs. For solo or lead laps, This technique is one way to run walls. The driver accelerates out to the wall
using throttle steer, then holds their position
with light left foot braking, which prevents the car
from floating farther out and starting to tag their bumper
against the wall. In tandem chase runs,
light left foot braking lets you control proximity to the lead car
just like you would for running a wall. Power out to the lead car and then use left foot brake
to keep from driving into them. This technique is also used to keep from
hitting the lead car during transitions, but we'll talk about this
in detail a bit later in the video. The more heavily you left foot brake,
the more weight transfers forward. Once you apply enough braking force,
the rear tires lose traction and the car begins to gain angle
pivoting around its front tires. This point and anywhere beyond
is what I call moderate left foot brake. The amount where you not only slow the car
but also rotate it. Similar to normal foot brake, You can swing the car to more angle
and slow down to get onto a tighter line. Of course, you don't have to let the weight transfer
tighten your line: by counter steering, as the car gains angle,
you can temporarily stay on the same line at more angle and going slower
than you normally could. Here are a few ways
you can use this technique. You can correct for a shallow transition
by giving a firm press of the foot brake
to swing the car out to more angle. This works similar to using the handbrake,
but you have more control over how much it slows the car down
and there's less risk of bogging the engine
because you're still on throttle. You can also tuck the car in tighter
mid-corner if you're running a little too wide and need to pinch the car in,
or if the corner tightens at the exit. And last
but not least, here's a bonus tip: You can nail your tandem transitions
by using these two left foot braking techniques. In tandem, you'll naturally flow
between light and moderate left foot braking as you adjust to the lead car
and match their speed and angle. If you're happy with your proximity,
you'll be on light left foot brake, and if they make an adjustment, you can dip into heavier braking
to maintain your distance or back away. After giving them a tire mark. Though,
outside of the simulator, you should always make sure
the lead driver is cool with that before pushing them around
your favorite sweeper. One of the coolest scenarios for left foot
braking is how you can use it to ease into the pocket
after a transition. Let me paint you a picture: You're in the chase position and you've
matched the lead car's speed and angle. You're approaching the end of this turn,
and soon the lead driver will transition
into the other direction. Making your best guess as to
when this will be, you nail the timing and watch as your car
mirrors their transition in real time. You then get on throttle and drive back into the pocket
at a shallower angle than the lead car. This shallow angle
means you accelerate faster and before long
you'll be about to drive into their door. This is the part where you dip into
moderate left foot braking over throttle, slowing your car to match their speed
so you don't collide and simultaneously swinging your car
around to match their angle too. When your angle is set, ease off to light
left foot brake to maintain your desired proximity
until the next turn. Getting this right feels amazing
and I hope you all get to the point where you can experience this either
in sim or your real cars. Good braking technique gives drivers
the confidence and control to drift at high speed and connect
a range of corners, making it essential for building the ability to link
any turn on any track. But the ultimate skill for this is finding an affordable way
to get reliable seat time. And for that, I highly recommend practicing
using a driving simulator like Assetto Corsa on PC. So click this video to learn
how to get started with Sim Drifting. You're also invited to join my newsletter
called Tandem Talk, where I share more tips on drift technique, behind the scenes
content, and unreleased footage. It's linked in the description and pinned comment, so sign up
and I'll see you in the next video.
