Drifting is situational at best; a typical radial street tire has a theoretical optimum slip angle of only 5-12 degrees. Grip is almost always faster.
Grip. It's way better than seeing those fart can ricers drift around. I'd much prefer watching American Muscle cars go face-to-face in the quarter mile.
there is drifting then there is power sliding. drifting is for style but power sliding gets you through corners faster, it's basically what rally drivers do
it's almost like different power train and surface conditions can result in different best practices desu
I mean, everyone else here picks grip. Why would I be any different? What sorta person would pick drift? Not me... ;-;
RWD Drift = shit 4 speed, still kinda fun but SHIT RWD Grip = OK AWD Grip = OK AWD Drift = good shit go౦ԁ sHit thats ✔ some goodshit rightthere right✔there ✔✔if i do ƽaү so my self i say so thats what im talking about right there right there (chorus: ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ) mMMMMᎷМ НO0ОଠOOOOOОଠଠOoooᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒ Good shit Depends on what surface and the corner. Drifting is only faster in tighter corners like hairpins because your car faces the exit a lot quicker which can give you a faster track out speed
Mythbusters covered this years ago, they are equal around a track with a even variety of hairpins and long corners
I typically prefer grip racing, as it's faster, more efficient, and easier for me to control. However, I decided to run around WCA in a LeGran S V6 with the 3A to reproduce my style of Gymkhana driving: POS vehicle, sophisticated driving styles, and a whole load of medium-speed sideways. I enjoyed getting that POS sideways all around the map, but my only question is...who would watch that? Who would watch an old FWD sedan go sideways at 20-30 miles per hour all day long, barely producing any smoke whatsoever and not sounding particularly amazing? Who would want to hear a 134-horsepower V6 stuck up to a 3A barely rev to 5,000 RPM? I know that I'd be absolutely terrible at attracting people with a Gymkhana style like this.
It's all about packaging. I've had similar ideas myself; I'd call it "Dumbkhana" and mix the torture of a $500 Craigslist hooptie with a bunch of anti-commercial, anti-authoritarian nonsense. Oh, and whatever somewhat skilled driving I'm capable of.
Why not both. That's why I love the moonhawk in beamng.drive. Its a older car and its got just the right amount of grip and drifting capability + respectable offloading capability's.
I could really go for either, but it's so satisfying and fun to drift the sharp hairpin corner. Or any corner for that matter.
For the fastest times around a track, a mixture of grip and drift is ideal. In other words, slightly sliding the car around corners in a way that will maintain the tires' optimal slip angle for the maximum ammount of grip is the fastest way This means that a small ammount of understeer and a small ammount of oversteer can both be beneficial depending on the circumstances. Here is a visual representation (note that this car is likely already maintaining an excessive slip angle, as this looks significantly higher than 12 degrees)
I love drifting, but it is not as fast on tarmac, because of aerodynamics and tire wear. Unless a race is less than 2 laps, drifting will shred your tires. Pro drivers almost never push the car to the limits, because of the tires. Most drive 80-85% of the limit because it is much nicer on the tires. On the subject of aero, you can set up a grip car with spoilers to out corner a drift car with spoilers because of downforce. Downforce and drifting don’t really talk at the family gatherings anymore. Now, on gravel, dirt or snow (without studded tires) it is a different story. The tires don’t have enough static friction(grip) with the ground, so the kinetic friction(sliding) is preferable because it allows for a higher entrance and exit speed on certain types of turns.
