frank theriault wrote:
I'm wondering if all that drifting is the fastest way around the course.
In general on-pavement racing, no, it's not. It's a lot more visually and auditorially exciting, but it's usually not the fastest way. In off-road racing, though, like Paris-Dakar or Baja 1000, it often can be the fastest way through the course.
Naturally, in parts where ultra-tight 360s are required in small spaces there's no choice, but there were quite a few wild four-wheel drifts where I'd have thought that keeping the tires stuck to the ground would give more control, and therefore better acceleration and higher cornering speeds.
May or may not give more control (usually does), that's up to the skills of the driver. But keeping the contact patch "immobile" with respect to the pavement does improve traction, thus acceleration, braking, and cornering. For example, when you're braking hard, if you let the wheels lock up and skid, you're giving up something like 30% of your traction, and thus your ability to slow down. Obviously the exact amount depends on a lot of variables, like the tires and their condition. And "immobile" is in quotation marks because it's not really immobile, it's just not moving /much/ compared to the pavement.
I'm thinking there's probably a reason that F1 pilots don't drift around like that (I know it would be impossible with all the aerodynamic downforce anyway, but they put all those wings on the car so they ~don't~ drift around, right?).
In F1 road course racing, maximizing traction is the only way to win, because that allows you to maximize cornering, acceleration, and braking. And it's not impossible to drift an F1 car around like that, you just have to do it at low speed. By the time an F1 car hits around 100 mph it's already developing more downforce than its own weight and could drive on the ceiling of a tunnel if it had good ramps in and out.
In sand, mud, gravel, snow, etc., traction is often so scarce that you have to resort to other techniques.
Cool stuff, nonetheless.
Drifting is a tire manufacturer's wet dream. You'll notice that tire manufacturers are the biggest sponsors of all things drifting. I don't deny their car control skills and all that; it takes a ton of skill to do competition level drift driving. But it's still an excuse to sell tires. :-)
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