- First things first, this article is about learning to drift in Forza 3 for beginners with zero experience. It was only a few months ago that I was in your shoes not knowing the first thing about drifting and was dying to learn. After watching many Forza 2 videos of cars sliding sideways with such precision and control, I quickly became frustrated with my constant spinouts, wall crashes and lame attempts. Although I haven’t mastered the art I share what have learned in a spirit of giving back to the community and learning together.
- From my experience with Forza 3 so far I see many similarities to the previous game in terms of driving dynamics, the physics model, and the behavior of the cars at the limit. Bottom-line is that any of the skills that you’ve learned from Forza 2 are applicable to Forza 3, but don’t worry, we’re starting at the beginner level here so no experience is necessary.
- You will suck at first. Chances are you’re going to get discouraged early on and want to give up. That’s normal so you’re going to have to push through it. Don’t expect that you’ll be shredding Fujimi Kaido downhill after 20 minutes.
- Practice practice practice. Read the tips below, practice the exercises and give it some time. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try new techniques. Everyone drifts differently so what works for me may not work for you.
- Have fun! This is a video game and it’s supposed to be entertainment. Keep a smile on your face, don’t take it too seriously and have a good time.
As always, having a good tune for an appropriate car is important when learning to drift. I personally am not an accomplished tuner so I leverage the fine work of the folks at the official Forza Motorsports forums.
Forza Motsports Drift Tune DatabaseFor the purposes of this article we will be using the following tune as our beginner drift car of choice:
1997 Mazda RX-7 by xRylinx – props for the free tune xRylinx!Stick to one car for now as it will take you some time to get used to the setup and find out what you like. If you keep switching cars it’ll do more harm than good at this point.
Basic Drift Exercise #1 – The Drift Circle
The first thing we need to get comfortable with is breaking the grip of the rear tires without our car spinning wildly out of control. We’re going to do a very simple sounding exercise but is very hard to do reliably.Select the drift tuned RX-7 and load up Sunset Peninsula Club Circuit. Drive over to turn 1 and in the large area of the track stop on the right side.
Step 1 – Turn In, Mash the Throttle
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| Step 1 = Uncontrolled Spin or "doing donuts". |
Turn your wheel fully to the left and select 1st gear. Fully depress the brake and then fully depress the throttle or gas pedal. Release the brake. The car will now be bouncing off the rev-limiter and be in an uncontrolled left-hand spin that frankly makes me very dizzy. This is typically what people call “doing donuts” and is NOT drifting but gives a sense of how the back end of the car wants to rotate on throttle.
Release the throttle and drive back to where you started on the right side of the track.
Step 2 – Turn in, “Feather” the Throttle
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| Step 2 = Semi-controlled spin using Throttle Control. |
Turn your wheel fully to the left and select 1st gear. Fully depress the brake and then fully depress the throttle. Release the brake.
Now as you are at 100% throttle. Change the amount of throttle to 25%. You will notice that the car will spin around less quickly and may regain grip. If you go to 0% throttle (foot off the throttle) the car will stop all together. Now go to 100% throttle again and you’ll spin faster. Back to 25% means less spin. Try 75% throttle and see what happens. You’ll spin more than at 25%.
Notice the behavior of the car as you change the amount of throttle input. Continuously changing the % of the throttle is called “feathering”. Practice feathering and get a feel for how the car’s angle will change.
You’re still not drifting but you’re learning a key principle of drifting: Throttle Control.
Less Throttle = Less AngleRelease the throttle and drive back to where you started on the right side of the track.
More Throttle = More Angle
Step 3 – Counter-Steer, Throttle Control
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| Step 3 = Drift Circle using Throttle Control and Counter-Steer. |
Turn your wheel fully to the left and select 1st gear. Fully depress the brake and then fully depress the throttle. Release the brake start the spin and feather the throttle as you did in Step 2.
Now, turn the steering wheel to the right or “opposite the turn”. Did you notice what happened? The car will spin less the more you turn right and the car will spin more the less you turn right. When you turn the wheel opposite the turn it is called counter-steer.
Now you’ve learned another key drifting principle: Counter-Steer
More Counter-Steer = Less AnglePut the two principles of Throttle Control and Counter-Steer together to perform a perfect drifting circle. That is, the car will drive in a left-hand circle with the rear wheels spinning, the car at a drift angle and counter-steering right.
Less Counter-Steer = More Angle
Experiment with it:
More counter-steer + less throttle = the car will regain grip and stop drifting.Remember that you’re not going to be holding the wheel stationary in a counter-steer. You’re going to be moving from less to more and more to less counter-steer. Your hands will be moving a lot as you’re balancing the angle or less angle, the throttle and steering.
Less counter-steer + more throttle = the car will get more drift angle.
More counter-steer + more throttle = the car will drift more but with less angle.
Less counter-steer + less throttle = the car will drift less but may maintain angle.
Basic Drift Exercise #2 – The Drift Figure 8
The next exercise is what I call the Drift Figure 8. That is we’re going to do a left drift circle and then transition into a right drift circle. It’s much harder than it sounds.
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| Exercise #2 - The Drift Figure 8 |
Start off by performing a left drift circle as we were doing in the previous exercise. After 2 rotations regain grip by using less throttle and transition into a right turn. Give lots of throttle to break grip in the rear tires and perform a right drift circle for 2 rotations.
Not as easy as it sounds huh? Focus on your throttle control and counter-steer. Focus on being smooth but quick with your steering and throttle control. This is one of the skills that you just have to do to learn. Keep practicing it and when you need a refresher try it again.
You now have the basics, you just need to connect the dots. Keep at it!
