There’s nothing cooler than watching a car appear from out of a bend with its rear end jutting out, front wheels pointing in the wrong direction, back wheels spinning, gracefully manoeuvring through the curve, and defying science - as it moves in a direction that's different to its actual direction of travel.
Well, there is! There’s the actual experience, the doing bit, where you jump into your rear-wheel drive, lightweight machine, and actually have a go at it yourself.
When we looked up the definition of a Powerslide, Wiki gave us :- ‘A throttle-on induced oversteer. Initiating a drift (oversteer) by applying the throttle in a turn enough to make the rear wheels break traction and slide out”. Well, that sounds pretty easy, doesn’t it?
When you watch someone execute a powerslide, such as the likes of Tiff Needell, the Stig, or Jeremy Clarkson, it looks really easy. They somehow seem to be able to make a car dance around a corner like a prima ballerina at the Royal Opera House. Admittedly they do it for their TV program ratings, but you can see that they are having serious fun, and they just make it look effortless.
But how can you do it yourself? Please, note that you should only do this in the right environment, with the proper training, and on a track where it is legal to do so. Please follow the guidelines of your juridistiction as to who can undertake powerslides and under what circumstances (e.g. is supervision needed? etc.).
Not So Easy
If you’ve never tried it before, the first time you do, it will feel so alien to you, its hard to describe. It's like walking on your hands (in a handstand position) to the shopping mall, or trying to eat a banana with your nose. This is not something that you get taught on your advanced driving test.
But if you are keen to give it shot, and you want a few tips before you jump into the hot-seat, we hope that you find these few simple points below useful. And when you finally notch up that perfect slide, for those precious few seconds, as you follow in the footsteps of Rembrandt or Van Gogh, creating something stunning to look at, just make sure that a friend is with you to catch it all on video.
First things first, we need a decent ride. Go for something lightweight, with lots of torque, plenty of power, rear-wheel drive (preferred), with a manual gearbox and good tires. Obviously this may not match up to your ride, but if you can get hold of one that does have these characteristics, it will make your life a whole lot easier.
And whatever you do, don’t try it outside your friends house, or down your street. Sorry to sound like a school teacher, but the law is the law and safety comes first. So the first step after finding the right car is finding a suitable track.
How To Get Sliding
Step One
Get a good line in the middle of the track. As you come into the target bend keep the speed fairly gentle, and make sure you're in a low gear. Maintain the line and start to steer into the apex. The apex is the point on the inside of a corner that you pass the closest to. It’s actually the spot where you’re moving the slowest as you manoeuvre through the bend.
Step Two
As you pass through the apex, give the steering wheel a sharp tug and spin it hard in the direction of the turn, you’ll want to achieve at least ninety degrees, and at the same time lift your foot off the gas. As the nose of the car starts to dig in, the tires will probably start to screech, as they try to maintain traction, and you should then feel the rear starting to pull out.
Now hit the gas hard, this forces the car to do something it doesn’t like to do; it forces the rear of the car to break traction. As you feel the rear end losing control, keep increasing the gas, you should then start to feel the tires beginning to spin as they lose grip. If it’s not starting to slide, you may need to reduce the amount of power that you’re sending to wheels, so drop the clutch just a bit.
Step Three
The key thing now is balance, you have to try and maintain the right balance as the car is moving. So let go of the gas, and be gentle with the throttle. Try to just feather the accelerator to keep the wheels spinning nicely. It has to be just the right amount of pressure, not too much or the back end will overtake the front end and you’ll find yourself in a spin. If you don’t apply enough gas as you oversteer, the car is likely to jolt and snake back into a straight line, neither of which look very cool.
Step Four
Then as you begin to reach the exit of the curve, and you can see the car starting to line back up with the straight of the track, lightly reduce the amount of lock on the wheel and ease off the gas. This will allow the car to once more regain traction, and you should feel the wheels beginning to reestablish grip and take hold on the tarmac.
Step Five
Once the traction comes back, and the front wheels are almost lined up again, hit the gas, not too hard, but just enough to get the car fully straightened up and back into line. As it straightens, and you feel the line is almost bang on, then you can apply even more gas to make your glorious exit.
And we can guarantee that the feeling of elation that you get when you achieve your first slide is just intoxicationg.
There are a number of other techniques that you can also try to get your ride to perform a controlled slide, the steps that we've listed above are just one of them. One of the other techniques, which is also very popular, involves the handbrake.
You can use the handbrake to force the rear end of your ride to pull out, and hence initiate a slide. To do this, you need to bury the clutch as you enter the bend, flip the wheel and pull the handbrake just at the right spot in the curve. The rear wheels will lock up and the back end should kick out; if all goes well you’ll start to slide. Then, as you progress through the curve, you’ve got to release the handbrake as fast as you can, take your foot off the clutch and apply some gas to get the car to maintain the slide.
So, we hope that this has been insightful for you. With manufacturers now making cars that have insane levels of grip, its not easy to push one out of its comfort zone. But, its well worth giving it a go. If you are going to try to this for the first time, it will feel pretty weird. But we know that, without a doubt, you'll have fantastic fun.
And if you are booking a track day to sample some of this thrilling, tire burning, entertainment - if there's one final takeaway for your day that we can give you, it's be patient with your ride, stay calm and be gentle with the peddles. Have fun!