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To really get sideways before a turn you’ve
got to loose rear traction. There are 5 basic ways
to do this. The first is power. If you’ve
got it (and you’ll need a lot to loose traction
at 60mph), hammer the throttle and steer the nose
of the car wherever you want it to go. Few people
have enough power (or gazunga’s) to do this,
though. This technique is a good start for beginners
as long as you have enough open space around you.
You’ll get a good feel for how the car handles
during a drift. Once you pitch the car with your
foot down full throttle, let go of the steering
wheel. A good drift car will immediately get you
into opposite lock, and therefore allow you to maintain
a minimal sliding position. Eventually, you’ll
spin, and the fun will be over. When you’ve
gained more confidence, catch the steering wheel
on its way to opposite lock. Hold the wheel there
and your drift will be maintained. Steer the car
where ever you want it to go, always keeping the
hammer down.
The second technique is a rarity, but it does work.
By adjusting the front suspension to a ridiculous
camber setting, softening up the fronts, tightening
the rears, and filling your rears 30lbs higher than
normal psi, you’ll be able to come hastily
off the throttle and steer the car into a drifting
situation. Essentially, the weight transfer to the
front of the vehicle makes for a very light back
end. The higher psi in the rear tires creates a
smaller contact patch, thus allowing them to loose
more contact patch with the local grocery store
parking lot road. Uh, track. I mean track…
Yes… Track… This power off method is
hard to do, and requires a lot of talent, as steering
response needs to be as fast as throttle response.
Third is the braking technique that incorporates
good, strong front brakes, that when hammered hard,
shift traction to the front and keep the back light.
This technique is hard to get used to however, it
allows you to use other techniques, like heavy throttle,
later on in the drift itself.
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The fourth technique is a clutch kick, and personally,
this one is my favorite (only because I have a clutch
sponsor…tee hee…). Kicking out the clutch
almost instantaneously looses traction with the
rears, as it shocks the entire drive train. Bad
for the car in every possible way, clutch kicks
aren’t something to get used to, but they
do work fast and can get you out of an under steering
jam, as long as you can control the car through
the apex. Practice this one by pressing your foot
on, and then coming off the clutch through a low
speed (10-20mph) turn. Pop the clutch out when you
reach the apex, and steer yourself out of the turn.
Practice popping the clutch earlier and earlier
from the apex, and eventually you’ll be able
to get sideways well before you begin to steer in
for the turn itself.
Yanking up the E-brake is the fifth possibility,
and like all the other techniques, it shocks the
rear end. The drive train is not as affected as
are your brakes with this manoever; however older
cars like AE86’s and S13’s may have
weak E-brake cables, brackets or connections. It’s
not hard to bend the E-Brake cable stay bracket
if it’s really weak and rusted. Then as the
bracket bends, it makes contact with your axle boot,
shearing it. Then you get dirt rammed into your
new 5 point JDM Rpezza axles you just bought , seizing
bearings and such. Can we say hot spot? I speak
from experience.
Well, that’s it. That’s all I got.
This month. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Practice getting
your ride sideways on the track or in an empty parking
lot. Don’t be a loser and show off around
your neighborhood. The police aren’t dumb,
and they’re catching onto drifting faster
than you’d think. Tame your hormones before
losing it into your neighbors fence. One thing about
drifting that makes drifting so cool is the whole
taming the beast, bull riding effect. That’s
just what it is. Taming an out of control beast
that happens to be Japanese… and isn’t
Godzilla. Hmmm. That would be a cool drift name…
The Godzilla Taming Renegades… I’m a
jeeneeous…
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Story by: Giancarlo Pawec
Photos by: Jeff Lorriman
With a motor sport history spanning almost a century,
Audi is known as the luxury car company with muscle.
Not to my surprise, this brand new Audi S4 is surely
to please even the faint of heart. With eye-catching
figures on paper and hours behind the wheel, this
near $70,000 bullet brushes its competition.
Unlike the previous generation with its 2.7 litre
V6 bi-turbo, the latest prodigy boasts a 4.2 litre
V8 producing 340hp @ 7,000 rpm and 302 lb/ft @ 3,500
rpm; commonly found in larger Audis. The exterior
styling is quit simple with the use of subtle lines
and fender flares; along with the complimentary
18” six-spoke wheels wrapped in 235/40R/18
Continental tires. A subtle rear lip spoiler adds
a hint to the simplistic mystery of the S4 along
with nicely tucked dual exhaust producing a resonating
grumble that could force you to do things you normally
would not.
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Quite simply, the entire vehicle has been redone
remarkably. From the leather wrapped Recaro race
bucket seats to the effortless planning of dials,
buttons, and all other gadgets. Varying conclusions
are drawn from all drivers who noticed an excessive
amount of brake fade, thus leading to the common
issue on all All Wheel Drive vehicles – under
steer. It is a common problem, however, without
proper brake force, you find yourself on uneven
ground quickly. As for the delivery of power –
it surely put a smile on my face.
A flawless power band from low torque to the high
revving allows for one to reach unimaginable speeds
that could get you into trouble – quickly.
Too bad most other automobile manufacturers do not
follow in the same suit.
Other interesting notes to point include a 10 piece
sound machine that clearly plays the high trebles
of classical to the low bass of hip-hop. A unique
climate control that allows for individual temperature
settings, rain sensing wiper system, and a short
indictor timing option on turn signals. Over all,
an everyday sedan with the heart of a weekend track
attacker.
More affordable then many of the other sports cars
on the market accompanied by the luxury features
found standard on the 2004 Audi S4, it surely is
an impressive time in Audi’s research and
development. If you are looking for something to
parade on nights or to bless the German souls who
produced it then this AWD Attacker is your calling
– just remember its purpose and you will forever
be grateful!
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Cars are delivered from the factory with alignment
settings intended to make the car stable and to
treat the tires as forgivingly as possible. However
in most cases this makes the car a little less than
exciting in a performance situation.
Let’s look at the different suspension tuning
points each and every modern suspension set up shares.
First, and quite commonly tuned and disturbed is
camber. Measuring in degrees how much the tire leans
in at the top is called negative camber or adversely,
how much it leans out, is called positive camber.
Generally if you add some negative camber to the
front wheels, they tend to give more front grip
in corners. The reason being, as the car leans,
or rolls, on its suspension, the tire with negative
camber has more of a contact patch with the road.
The same applies to the rear tires. Keeping in mind
that too much negative camber will reduce potential
grip and also limit braking ability by not having
all the tire tread on the road through straight
line acceleration, as the inside portion of the
tread is doing all of the work. This situation also
leads to uneven tire wear, which has turned out
to be a common problem for many individuals that
lower their cars without getting a proper alignment
afterwards.
Caster (think of the front wheels on a shopping
cart) on most cars these days is not adjustable
with out modifying suspension components, so I’ll
save that for a later article.
Adjusting the “toe” is another effective
way to change the vehicles’ handling. As I
said above, cars are delivered from the factory
with safety and stability in mind. Most cars have
a little “toe in” (check your car’s
alignment specs) in the rear, kind of pigeon toed,
if you will. This helps keep the rear end of the
car from sliding out through corners. Adjusting
the toe to “0” will help to make the
car more directionally oriented, carrying on so
that the wheels, when toed out, can make the car
very nervous and unsettling to drive, not to mention
the risk of ending up in the ditch.
This is a very basic description of what your alignment
is doing for you. There are many fine books available
at Chapters or on line if you wish to learn and
understand more. I strongly suggest learning what
it is that you’re doing, attempting to do
and the reason you’re doing it. Suspension
is an extremely finicky game where an adjustment
on one side can affect adjustments made on all of
the others. That being said, suspension adjustments
should be carried out with the guidance of an experience
technician, until you get better at doing it yourself,
of course. At least with this basic knowledge and
with a bit of tuning practice, you’ll know
why you under steered off course and into a ditch.
Yeah sure, blame it on dash glare…
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