"Drifting - A driving technique and a motor sport involving the use of the technique. A car is said to be drifting when the rear slip angle is
greater than the front slip angle, and the front wheels are pointing in the opposite direction in relationship to the turn (e.g. car is turning left, wheels
are pointed right), and the driver is controlling these factors." - Wikipedia
In other words, drifting is controlled sliding through a set of
corners.
In full scale drifting, the scene is dominated by "Import Tuner," rear-wheel drive vehicles such as the Nissan Silvia and Skyline, as well as the Toyota AE86.
Radio-controlled drifting varies in that vehicles used are usually AWD in order to maintain a controlled drift. In order to get the little cars
to drift, pvc tires were developed by different RC companies in order to reduce the mechanical traction of the cars and allow a fluid, controlled slide.
We decided to test two of the most popular drift vehicles on the RC market today:
HPI's Micro RS4 drift and
Kyosho's Mini-Z AWD. Both cars are very capable and
tons of readily available drift parts and hop-ups are manufactured for them.
Recently, HPI re-released their Micro-RS4 in drift trim. Aptly named the Micro RS4 drift, the car comes ready to slide out of the package. Amongst the cool
features of this car include the PVC tires, a locked front differential and HPI's very own drift assist controller known as the "D-BOX". The Locked front
diff allows the car to have better on and off power control by making both front wheels spin at the same rate. The D-BOX is a small yaw control sensor
that detects the tail sliding and applies counter steering to prevent the vehicle from spinning out. It connects in between the servo and receiver and
yields incredible results on the track.
The Mini-Z AWD is a jack of all trades. This platform is many racers' preferred car for all out Mini-Z racing, and in the underground world of RC drifting
this car is the Drift King. Coupled with minor upgrades, the Mini-Z MA010 is a great car to slide around a track, especially those made out of RCP. Amongst the
upgrades we installed were 2 degree rear toe bar to get a little more rear traction during the drift.
GPM's Drift tires, these are the best in our opinion as
they have a diamond pattern cut into them that provide just a little bit more traction than fully slick tires. We also added a
PN Racing Speedy 07 to
increase our approach speeds, an aluminum pinion to transfer the power better and
Kyosho 1.5 degree knuckles in the front to get better tire contact.
The Driving
We took our two drift platforms to our test track in order to get a better feel for the cars. We took the Micro RS4 straight out of the package and just ran it.
Being a bigger car, it got a little scary in the really tight sections of the track, but with the assist of the D-Box, drifting was a cinch. Actually, the
harder you drove the Micro RS4, the easier it was to maintain a controlled, stylish drift.
The Mini-Z was another story though. It took a little more finesse. This was probably due to the fact that the motor made the car a little bit more powerful
in contrast to the Micro RS4. If you worked the powerband of the motor properly, the car was awesome. The drift speeds and angles were super fast and extreme.
It really made us feel like it was the real thing. We also did some tandem drifting with the Z's and the side by side action was intense! Swapping in front
of each other with little to no grip took tons of skill and was super fun.
Now that we have our drift cars, we definitely need to practice more! We did come up with some sick video that we are editing at the time for your viewing pleasure.
Hopefully, once we get a little bit better at this, we can keep the editing to a minimum.