It's been a kick ass year of finally taking my car out to events and learning how to drive. Let me go over what I learned for those looking to start drifting.

Start on Sim

Although not a prerequisite, sim racing is overall a very powerful tool to get started.

Firstly, it’s relatively cheap compared to actual drifting (where you maintain a car, buy tires, event fees, etc) a sim will set you back as little as $200 if you buy used online.

A sim will never feel like the real deal, but it will give you fundamental muscle memory and an idea of how the car reacts in certain situations. This will make your first real event a lot more enjoyable and productive.

Dial in Your Car

A very crucial step is making sure your car is equipped with the proper set up. Though you should've dive too deep starting out, you for sure need the basics. If you have a welded diff, coilovers, and an appropriately sized tire, you are well on your way for a fun time at the track.

Also ensure your car is functioning well. An improperly adjusted TPS made my first few events very difficult.

So make sure you have a basic setup and make sure your car works. Do your research and try things out until you find success.

Manage Variables

Speaking of finding success, make sure you take notes of any changes you make and how it affected your driving. You want to have a relatively consistent car so that you can progress your driving.

Slowly make upgrades and changes as events progress. But in all honesty, the best upgrade you can make is to your driving. Focus on how you drive, rather than components to make your car “better”.

Socialize

If you have questions, talk to people. We all start somewhere and sometimes looking through old forums or videos doesn't help. Ask for a ride along and study how good drivers drive.

DRIVE!

While you can rant all day about what to do to your car and driving techniques, you will only get better by driving. Aim to learn something and/or try something new every event. Critique yourself and make adjustments. More importantly, have fun doing it. If driving doesn't put a smile on your face, you are doing it wrong.

see ya out there!

Introduction

Over the years I've learned a thing or two about working on cars, but nothing about making them go sideways. I became a fanboy of drifting at 12 years old ever since I watched former FD driver, Tanner Foust, put on an elegant display of car control on an early episode of Top Gear USA. I have been obsessed ever since. I've watched countless videos and consumed tons of drifting media but now it's time to learn. Now at 24 years old, I decided to start where all modern 12-year-olds learn to drive, on a racing simulator.

My goals with the simulator are not to learn how to drift but rather, learn the muscle memory to apply to my first drift event. Because truthfully, I’ve never kicked a clutch.

Setup

Starting out, I strongly suggest just getting a basic setup. No need to spend your whole allowance on a sim rig you MAYBE use once a month. Save your money for your real drift car and just get through the sim door with something affordable. Once you can justify fancy equipment, then you should upgrade. 

Right off the bat, the most expensive equipment is going to be a PC and monitor. If you already have that, then you're already almost there!

Sim Rig I Use:

Logitech G29

I currently have a used Logitech G29 I found online. I highly recommend checking marketplace for a Logitech sim rig. It's easy, tons of support and troubleshooting guides. Great starting point. I paid roughly $170 secondhand. Minus the unnecessary handbrake and steering wheel upgrade.

Stand I Use:

VEVOR Racing Stand

I currently use this Vevor stand from Amazon. To be honest, it is a bit wobbly at times but it gets the job done and the price was right. Plus it conveniently folds up so that it is easier to store away. In the future, when I have a more permanent place for sim racing, I will build a better stand.

Game Setup:

After purchasing Assetto Corsa on Steam, you want to unlock the countless mods it has to offer. First download Assetto Content Manager. This is where you will fire up your game with all your mods. Then you will also want to download the custom shaders pack that will allow you to run all the cars you download.

Car Packs:

I recommend downloading the Death Wish Garage car pack. Plenty of stylish cars with ranging HP and wheelbases.

Doing Donuts

To effectively learn how to drift on sim, with hopes to apply it to real life, I recommend you play in 3rd person. At least in the beginning! 3rd person allows a better view of where you are in space, how the car is behaving, and where your wheels are pointed. All things that will help a bunch when starting out. 

I recommend starting in the stock drift map on Assetto and going to this donut circle. Use this circle as a guide to see how well you can go around an object.

Use a car with a 200-350hp range. Although not a prerequisite (but helpful) in the real world, a little bit more power in the sim world will help you break traction a little more consistently which will help when practicing. Too little power can be inconsistent when you are starting out and too much power will be too sensitive.

You want to start with donuts before progressing. Donuts can be boring but are truly fundamental for everything else. Don't skip steps! Walk before you run. 

For a proper counter steer donut, follow these steps:

1. Turn into the direction you want to go. Either stopped or slightly rolling.
2. Break traction by stomping on gas, or clutch kick (high revs and dumping the clutch). Give enough throttle so the car starts to kick out. Once spinning, let off throttle to avoid a spin out. 
3. Once the car starts to kick out, let go of the steering wheel to allow the car to counter-steer. Essentially the car will point the wheels in the direction of your momentum. 
4. Once you reach a point where the car has counter steer’ed, catch your drift by grabbing the wheel again and getting back on the throttle. Make corrections with steering and throttle input described below.

For More Angle:	For Less Angle:
More throttle	Less Throttle
Less Countersteer	More Countersteer

Final Thoughts

Although you can never replace the real deal, sim drifting is a cost effective and fun way to be involved. I think it teaches fundamental hand eye coordination and muscle memory required to be successful on your first drift event. If you can do donuts in the sim you can do donuts in real life. It's better to already have that in your back pocket when you go spend real money on a track day and tires. Next time, I'll show you how that went for me.

Fueled by the monotonous hours at a cubicle and the burning desire to play some beer die with the boys, this short film was pieced together with some old college camcorder clips. Its bitter-sweet to think that the conditions of our senior year will never be replicable. After having almost half of our college experience taken away by Covid, we came back strong to have the most memorable senior year. The beaches in Isla Vista were still mostly sand, and Del Playa was still (for the most part) standing strong. With no worries in the world, we truly lived like beach bums, woken up by the sounds of seagull squawks and last nights aluminum cans rolling with the breeze. Times have changed now as we all, unfortunately, have more adult responsibilities. But one thing hasn't changed though, and that's never turning down a game of beer die!

Although I struggled to upload this on multiple social media platforms. Here is the full unedited, unfiltered version of this video, as it was meant to be enjoyed. Cheers! 🍻

Send It Drift Magazine Issue #002 dives deep into Good Luck League! drift events held at Thunderhill in Willows, CA. This magazine has eye-catching visuals on every page filled with perfectly styled cars and lots of tire smoke. The magazine stays true to their slogan "Support Local Drifters". Being local to the Bay Area, it is awesome being able to see a local drift magazine come to fruition. Have a look at the full magazine @sendit.jp on instagram and at https://senditjp.com/ Can't wait to pick up future releases!

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My first ever drift day. After years of watching drifting videos on high school Chromebooks. Years of pretending to clutch kick while studying for college midterms. And years of work on my S13. I made it. 

Goodluck League held a practice day this past weekend and thankfully I was able to make it. It took a whole team effort and a lot of prep on my part. I spent a lot of time after work in the dark with a hoodie and a flashlight in hand, to dial in the car for the event. In true fashion of my “cursed” car, everything was going bad last minute…

The weekend before the event my steering wheel wasn’t returning to center after turning. After a bit of troubleshooting turns out my “new”aftermarket tie rod ends were sorta seized as the heim joints would get stuck in certain positions. After multiple return trips to O’reillys, I finally got the correct parts and threw them on. Problem solved.

The next few days after work were spent installing the LSD. Since I drive my car in the street I figured an LSD would be best fit for the car, and this also gave me the opportunity to weld the open diff I have for the future. That was a 3-day process as I only had a few hours to install after work.

After the diff was installed, I took it on a test drive and heard a funky noise coming from the engine. Power steering pump was bad and no parts available anywhere…

I was down bad for a power steering pump. I frantically scoured Facebook marketplace and thankfully I sourced one on Thursday night. And after a smooth install on Friday night, we loaded the car on the trailer.

Getting to the event Saturday morning, I was a bit nervous but remembering all of the time and effort I had put into the car put me at ease. The vibes for this event were cool. Music was bumping and everybody’s car was so sick. I couldn’t help but think about all the work each owner had put into their machines. 

I didn’t spend much time out of the donut/figure 8 pit. I really wanted to practice my control before I graduate to anything bigger. I learned that small technical details are exaggerated even more in a low horsepower car and my setup was not the most ideal. Nonetheless, I was still able to do a few donuts and figure 8’s and grew more comfortable with driving the car harder than usual. And, I know I have a lot more work to do if I want to continue to learn to drift in this car. 

After the event I am feeling a bit weird as this was sort of a goal I have been working towards for years now. I feel like I just finished watching the season finale of a show I have been invested in for a long time. It’s a bittersweet feeling to finally have attended my first drift event. However, the show isn’t over yet and the next season will be even more exciting than before. 

A very special thanks to my pit crew <3

Dylan for being there on my 240 journey since day 1 and helping me successfully get my car to this event. Karen for being very supportive and getting into the car after a bit of convincing. My loving girlfriend Gabi for always cheering me on and making me look cooler in photos than in real life. My mom for the obligatory Facebook post before the event. And my dad for always supporting my crazy ideas and making a 16 year old’s dream become a reality. 

Looking forward to where this car will take us next…