How to drift a car with low horsepower: The basics

I don’t think anyone here needs an explanation about the definition of drifting, so let’s jump right into the basics.

The most important and definitely the most difficult part of drifting a low-horsepower car is initiating the drift. There are multiple ways of doing that:

1. Handbrake:
   This is probably the easiest way. Just pull the handbrake and steer into the corner, and the car will go sideways without too much effort.

2. Weight shift:
   This one is a little harder to master. Brake hard before entering the corner so the weight shifts to the front wheels. This will give you more grip in the front, which makes turning in easier by eliminating as much understeer as possible. Also, the rear end of the car will have less traction which obviously makes it more tailhappy.

3. Scandinavian flick:
   The most violent initiation of them all. You basically turn away from the corner, and then turn in hard to upset the rear end of the car and make it slide. This one is good for higher speed drifting, but can be a little tricky at times.

From this moment on, it is all pretty straight forward. You countersteer as smoothly as possible while you give it some gas. In some cars you can easily floor it, while in other cars you should be more delicate. Don’t be too afraid to really put your foot down though, after a few runs you will become more precise.

Setting up your car:
Many people think drifting is expensive because you need much power and a professional handling setup, but this isn’t true. Tire pressure is a very important aspect which costs nothing at all. Lower the tire pressure on the front wheels while you increase it at the rear. This will cause less understeer and more oversteer. You can also try to remove some weight from the back by making sure your boot is empty.

I hope this is useful to some people. If I missed out on anything or made a grammar mistake, please let me know in a comment.

Have fun getting sideways!