Getting a car sideways can be tricky and dangerous, but once you master the ability, it’s one of the coolest-looking things you can do while driving your car. Just don’t be an ass, be safe, and know the differences between drifting and power-sliding.
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The cool folks over at CarThrottle threw together a handy little run down of the difference between drifting and pwersliding, and I should note they did so on a “closed course” with a “driving badass” in a more-than-capable BMW M2.
So that means if you find yourself trying this on a public road as an uncoordinated novice in vehicle made out of scrap mismatched parts sourced from more countries of origin than sit on the U.N. Security Council, you may want to reconsider your abilities.
The fundamental difference, as Alex Glassman puts it, is that drifting concerns everything that happens on the way into the corner, and powersliding is essentially everything on the way out of the corner.
Powersliding is essentially just making the front end of the car “bite” into the corner and hold grip, matched with a lot of power around the corner and forcing the car to slide. Drfiting can be a little more complicated. In the video, Alex uses the handbrake to initiate. In the manual RWD M2, he has to pull the handbrake and push the clutch into the corner, and then almost immediately release the handbrake, let off the clutch and simultaneously apply power to drift out of the bend.
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You could also clutch kick to drift, which means you’d have to go towards the corner at low power, kick the clutch and release while mashing on the gas, sending the rear wheels loose before you get to the apex. Just keep in mind this is generally bad for the mechanical sensitivities of your car if you can’t quit living that drift life.
Then again, who can quit living the drift life. How am I supposed to navigate an “emergency situation, officer” if I can’t look cool doing it like in the movies?
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