Can You Drift a Front Wheel Drive Car?

Drifting has gained recognition and acceptance as full-fledged motorsport in recent decades, thanks to sanctioned events and well-known drivers. As drift racing rises in popularity, more people have become interested in learning how to drift. 

However, not all vehicles are built to be drift racing machines. People often regard drifting as an art form because it takes a lot of work to get it right, especially with rear-drive cars. Almost any RWD vehicle will drift, but what about front-wheel-drive (FWD) cars? If you ever pondered on whether you can drift a front-wheel-drive car, search no further, as this article has got you covered.

The answer is Yes! You can drift a front-wheel-drive car, but the approach is different. In FWD drifting, the racer utilizes the emergency brakes at short intervals to lose rear tire traction by locking the rear brakes.

This article will cover everything you need to know regarding the subject. This may be the best article you find online, so you don’t want to pass it up.

Can you drift a front-wheel-drive car?

Drifting is a driving trick, or more accurately, a stunt, in which the driver purposely oversteers to cause the rear wheels or all tires to lose traction while maintaining control throughout the bend. In drifting, the front wheels are pushed to their limits, and the rear brakes become slack, causing the rear tires to drift sideways.

The approach changes based on whether the platform is RWD or FWD. For RWD vehicles, racers use the clutch-kick over steering approach, while FWD vehicles use the lift-off method.

So Yes, you can drift a front-wheel-drive car. The racer in Front-Wheel-Drive drifting uses the emergency brakes at short intervals to reduce rear tire traction by locking the rear brakes.

It may interest you that the proper term for drifting an FWD car is lift-off oversteer. Lift-off or snap-oversteer occurs when an FWD car corners quickly. The road cannot provide enough grip and traction through the turn due to weight moving from the rear to the front wheels and friction between the tires. As a result, the automobile begins to slide.

Lift-off oversteer is not only fun, but it also has the potential to teach you numerous driving dynamics, such as understeer, oversteer, lift-off oversteer, and how to back off the throttle and properly control your car.  

How to do Front-Wheel-Drive Drifting

There is no need to drive at crazy speeds to conduct drifting. Enter a corner as quickly as possible and follow the steps listed below.

1. Entry: Perform the feign.

• Accelerate to your preferred speeds.
• Prepare for the maneuver as you approach the corner.
• Move the steering wheel to the side away from where you want to make the turn, just 5 to 10 degrees. This tiny movement is known as a ‘feign,’ It causes the vehicle to rock, assisting with the proper shifting of weight once the slide begins.

2. The turn: Take the opposite turn.

• Once you’ve completed the feign, you may spin the wheel 1/4 to 1/3 and turn in the direction you would like the car to roll. This movement will be in the reverse direction as the feign.

3. The Brake: Start the slide.

• As you turn the wheel with your left hand, firmly draw the hand brake with your right to destroy the traction of the back wheels and start the slide. The back end will immediately begin to turn around.

• To stop the slide, you must release the rear brake. By keeping the hand brake on for varied durations, you can experiment with changing the length of your car’s slide. The length of the slide is defined by how long you hold the handbrake. As a result, adjusting the slide’s distance is easy.

4. The Slide: Maintain control of the slide

The final aspect of FWD drifting is controlling the length of the move and the direction of the slide.

As the automobile slides, spin the steering wheel in the direction of the slide. This generally is the direction in which you spin the wheel to enter the slide. You’ll need to feel how far you must spin the wheel to control a specific slide in your car (every vehicle is different).

You can also adjust the maneuver’s direction, control, and length by pushing the throttle during the slide.

What precautions should I take when drifting an FWD car?

FWD drifting is fun, but your fun may turn sour if you don’t handle it well. We put together the following precautions to help you.

– Safe is wise

First and foremost, you must ensure that your vehicle is in good working order. Remember that any drift technique will put your vehicle under a lot of stress, and even the best-kept vehicles can be destroyed.

Drifting on the street is also prohibited in most places. Make sure you choose a location that is both safe and legal. You could find out on the internet. Many automotive enthusiast organizations even organize events where you can try out drifting. You don’t want your good time ruined by an accident or a run-in with the cops.

– The setup

A basic weight-transfer drift in a front-wheel drive is straightforward. One advantage of drifting a front-wheel-drive automobile is that it tends to drift at slower speeds than rear-wheel-drive cars due to its weight distribution.

First, establish the appropriate speed for your vehicle. This is the speed at which the back wheels will readily lose traction. Finding the speed at which a sudden abrupt pressure on the brake pedal will put the car into a short slide. This is normally between 30 and 45 miles per hour in most cars.

Once you find this speed, you can maneuver following the four steps discussed above.

 Note!

While we enjoy educating people about all things automotive, we DO NOT recommend using the practices discussed in this article on public or private highways. There are sanctioned and legal events where you can learn how to safely and legally drift your automobile.

Conclusion

Yes! You can drift an FWD car, and we’ve covered a lot on this topic. We explored various drifting techniques and safety concerns. We, therefore, urge you to be mindful and ONLY experiment with these driving techniques on the track. If there isn’t a nearby track, DON’T TRY IT.