Woohoo - My first 'proper' Drift session on Saturday !!!

[Ian.G]

Hello all,

I'm taking hachi along to my first ever drift session tomorrow

All the entry money we pay to use the facility is going to charity which is good.

It will be nice to have a proper environment to play in and I will hopefully make some progress tomorrow. I will take a camera along and try and get some shots for you guys. My friend may take a video too.

I'm doing like Kristian says - JUST GET OUT THERE AND DO IT !!!

[Mux213]

Lucky bastard

[Ian.G]

Yesterday was the most fun I've had in a car in ages. And none of it involved travelling at over 40mph LOL.

The big thing I learnt yesterday was to RELAX. I think I am now a lot less frantic at the wheel which I think is making me smoother and makes the car less snappy too.

I have a long long way to go but I think it was a good start. The technique is completely different to grip style driving in the westi. Steering lock is a big difference in the hachi - in the westi its 1.5 turns lock to lock so you never really have to feed or slip the wheel through your hands when dealing with oversteer.

I think we were lucky yesterday - only 8 cars and three completely separate areas to play in gave us all a lot of time. I doubt I will ever see it this quiet again.

Cant wait for the next one.

Big thanks to Conedodgers/Graham(Easytrack). I even managed to pick up some prizes in the MacMillan raffle too which was nice

A few pictures

Trackday at donington last weekend





Drift day yesterday with fellow hachi driver (didn't know about http://www.aeu86.org - he does now





We got some video - but we'll have to see how it came out.

[ZaX]

2 ian: your car looks "kick ass"
Glad you had some fun.

[Ian.G]

Sure did Zax - it was soooooo much fun I didn't want to stop.

I took one of my mates along who is used to a 400(ish)bhp Subaru Type R - he loves the hachi and is thinking of getting one now after a few goes on one of the drift courses.

can't wait for the next one.

[ZaX]

Lot's of people like to drive ae86.
For instance pero has 450bhp evo VI but likes to drive his ae86.
Other one has MY2004 STI, but want's to buy ae86, because he used to own one.
CeeDee has highly modded WRX, but still likes ae86...
there is something special in that car.

[KristianAE86]

congratulations on your first drift day.

tell us more please

K

[Ian.G]

cars present.

3x s14 200sx
2x Hachi
1x MX5 turbo
1x Lotus Esprit Turbo

So few cars and so much space means that everyone had loads of time - which is something the other guys say never really happens - typically practice days in the uk have 20-40 cars - but not the hundreds they get in Japan.



We had the bottom part of the bruntingthorpe runway (which is the top of the photograph) which includes a massive 180 corner - double apex'd - 3rd/4th gear drift for the experienced. This fed back into a big coned roundabout (prob about 25m diameter) the black hachi was going real good here with several tyre smoking laps Dry grippy surface

The other area was laid out with a slalom - cones placed maybe 10m apart. damp but quite grippy.

The other area was laid out in a series of 4 smalled coned roundabouts . This is where I spent most of my time as the surface was quite slidy so everything happened a much lower speeds.

The first thing I had to get used to was not steering too much towards the corner - car started to understeer if more than 1/3 of a lock was wound on. Then onto the gas to break the car free at the rear. I was then freeing my grip on the wheel until what seemed like the correct amount of opposite lock was found. Modulate the slide with small inputs to the steering and throttle until it was time for getting straight again. Then pull the opposite lock back off with the opposite hand.

The hard bit was linking the transition form being sideways one way to being sideways the other. As you swing from one slide into the next the weight transfer makes this happen quite quick. After a few spins I started to get the hang of this and managed to link a few of the roundabouts together. Its a great feeling when it comes together.

Its weird - to begin with I was very frantic on the steering but when I stopped this and got more relaxed it got much better. It got better each time I was out in the car - a good feeling and made for big smiles

[ZaX]

nice report man.
relaxation makes better drifts.

[Ivan141]

Hmm...I need to find myself a good empty parkinglot, but there arent any nearby . I notice that I start panicking the moment the car starts sliding (I was playing with the throttle a bit yesterday, it was wet as hell..)