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This article needs to be cleaned up to meet the standards of the GTA Wiki.
Notes: It's almost a deletion candidate if it wasn't for the addition of the Drift Tampa and Drift Yosemite.

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Wikipedia has an article on: Drifting (motorsport)

Drifting is a driving technique where the driver intentionally oversteers, with loss of traction, while maintaining control and driving the car through the entirety of a corner. The technique causes the rear slip angle to exceed the front slip angle to such an extent that often the front wheels are pointing in the opposite direction to the turn (e.g. car is turning left, wheels are pointed right or vice versa, also known as opposite lock or counter-steering)

Overview[]

In exchange for greater tire friction and lower cornering speed, drifting improves the rate at which a car can steer in any direction. On tarmac, drifting is normally a slower cornering method than traditional methods used by professional drivers. In rally racing, however, drifting is an essential technique for many corners (due to rough terrain, which can sometimes require alternative driving methods to achieve higher cornering speeds). Drifting has been available to players since Grand Theft Auto III. But, prior to the release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, drifting did not offer players much car control.

The differences between drifting around corners and driving around corners are best described visually (watch professionals to better understand these differences). When a vehicle drives around a left turn, for example, the driver is steering left. When a vehicle drifts around a left turn, ideally, the driver is steering right. While a vehicle is drifting, it travels around a corner on an angle. The vehicle has lost rear traction and is spinning around, but the driver is preventing the car from spinning around completely. A driver controls this loss of traction through many rigorous throttle and steering corrections, and is "controlling" a vehicle that is trying to spin around. The driver is "spinning out" around a corner, but remains in control of the vehicle.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas[]

In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, vehicular handling physics were greatly improved. These revised physics emulated reality well in certain ways. Handbrake deceleration encouraged drifting, turning angles during drifts could be very low or very high, and weight transfer could be used to initiate a drift. Vehicles decelerate unrealistically while moving in reverse however, which made performing J-turns or 360 turns impossible without nitrous or speed, or a slope.

The sharp deceleration in reverse makes “donuts” impossible without nitrous activated. Even the quickest rear-wheel drive cars regain traction when spinning around, unless nitrous is engaged. Nitrous was a limited, purchasable performance upgrade for most vehicles in San Andreas. With nitrous engaged, vehicles accelerated quicker, and decelerated slower. Nitrous improved the performance of cars to a great extent, allowing them to drift with much bigger angle at lower speeds. Utilizing nitrous, a player could perform much longer and faster drifts than otherwise possible.

Gallery35096

A Uranus performing a drift with handling lines (GTA San Andreas)

Grand Theft Auto IV[]

The completely new handling physics in GTA IV received mixed reactions among fans. GTA IV is the closest the series has come to being able to properly drift as cars were much more prone to oversteering. Game-assisted J-turns and 360 turns could be performed with ease. To counter the handling physics' shortcomings, players with the PC version of GTA IV have developed original handling physics for vehicles in the game. Drifting in GTA IV can be improved through the use of "handling lines."

Grand Theft Auto V[]

The handling physics system in GTA V is a revision of GTA IV'Grand Theft Auto series system. Vehicles can now corner at much higher speeds, and have greater top speeds. Drifting properly is still impossible, but it can now be well-mimicked at very low speeds. Some players use the single-player cheat “slidey cars” to alter the game’s handling physics system. With “slidey cars” activated, vehicles seem to handle like they are on ice. The “slidey cars” cheat does not make proper drifting possible. Handling lines are now a popular drifting medium on the PC version of GTA V. The Drift Tampa is the very first drift car to be included in Grand Theft Auto Online, with its handling intended for drifting purposes. It was soon followed by the Drift Yosemite, released for Grand Theft Auto Online as part of The Diamond Casino Heist.

With the release of the Los Santos Tuners update, players became able to apply low-grip tires to select vehicles which as the name suggests makes cars more prone to sliding, true drifting still isn't possible with this addition but it's effective at emulating a drift.

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