drift

I wonder if you know how they live in Tokyo?

I went for a drifting course courtesy of Rexona last Sunday. My entry snagged the first prize so I woke up bright and early to drive to Bangsar. I had to meet PPC and Kalai (who was there on Official Business (TM)) before tailgating them to the venue coz I wasn’t familiar with that area (it’s about 45 minutes away).

The full day car drifting course was held at MAEPS in Serdang and I arrived just in time to see Tina and Carmen working on one of the cars that was provided. I took Tina’s car (coz my car’s suspension is too fucked up for that kind of driving) for the drifting session, which I inadvertently overheated. >.<  I guess I can’t do the same things I do in my driftcompany online games that I play in preparation to these drifts.

The first part of the session (AM) started with a briefing by Sean and was more about defensive driving and emergency maneuvers. We also did a slalom course with traffic cones as obstructions. I was a little apprehensive about running down the instructors since some of them had the appalling tendency of standing in the middle. My driving history is not exactly pristine. 😉

I used my car for one exercise though; coz I figured it would be useful considering the unusual amount of accidents I’ve been through. This is the first part – it involves driving at high speed towards a cone barrier (without prepping yourself by letting go of the gas or brake anticipation) and jam the brakes after the last cone while swerving to avoid the barrier into the side lane before moving back into the center.

Joe-Han was instructing me most of the time. I like the guy, and he can drift something awesome! The basics were covered in the morning and we had a one hour lunch break at the nearby (which is 15 minutes away) mamak before the afternoon session.

The afternoon (PM) session is the drifting course and the rain during lunch caused the track to be a little bit slippery, but it was a lot of fun. It was really hard to drift with a car that I’m not very familiar with, and most of the time, I didn’t make it at all. However, I managed to drift once without losing control and I was really pleased about that.

Next up is the various methods you can use to do doughnuts. Watched Fast and Furious 3: Tokyo Drift? It’s the technique where one car goes around the other car in a circular motion, using understeer (or izzit oversteer?).

There are three methods to do that and the easiest is the e-brake method followed by the clutch pop, and I managed to somewhat perfect the technique with Tina’s car. It kinda overheated after that though, and I was told that I’m very “persistent” as in I go all out and wouldn’t quit until I have it right. I know…its part of my personality. 😉

Things I learned:
Always steer to the left while avoiding a probable collision – this is so you don’t run into incoming traffic.
The 9-3 position is the best way to drive long distance coz your heart won’t have to work as hard to pump blood to your extremities.
Do not drive with your thumb(s) inside the steering wheel; you’ll break them in a collision.
Push and pull with your hands mirroring each other when you drive. Don’t cross over coz if the airbags deploy on impact, the force will drive your arms towards your face, a Very Bad Thing (TM) if you like how you look. 😉

Other interesting things about Tina’s car:

She has this really nifty e-brake which doesn’t engage per se when you pull it (it goes back down) but it works for drifting, perfect for rally driving.

I sure hope Tina doesn’t see this but since I added her on FB I seriously doubt it. I was having a rather crude discussion on MSN with a friend and the gist of it is replicated here:

trust me
when she’s drifting
fu yoh
damn
i nearly jizzed my pants

Tina, it’s a compliment! Racer chicks are hot. 😉

I got a cert for…er, Advanced Course Driving. I’m not sure I deserve it, so don’t look at me weird the next time I get into an accident. :p