Drifting - in Auto?
 

Hey guys.

Bought the auto because fuel economy (I get an average of 32.1 mpg) + DC traffic + no designated drivers who can drive manual + it's my daily. Also, first time with a car with paddle shifters.

A buddy is going off to a summit later and he challenged me in his tuned AE86, just for fun. I've never even considered taking an AT car sideways, but is it possible? My limited experience with drifting is in a 2nd gen RX-7 six years ago, and whenever I casually hit the tracks, I've always driven my friends' grip cars.

Yes, I realize that grip is faster than drift, but we're doing this for fun and in the spirit of the old 86. Any tips on drifting with paddle shifters?

It's a painfully bad idea in an under-powered car

Well, the original AE86 had 112 bph :-X I've seen the car sideways plenty of times.

Moto-P discusses drifting AT a bit in an earlier thread comparing the two transmissions:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...9&postcount=20

In my brief experience (on private property and away from curbs & obstacles) it's not difficult to break tires loose with VSC/TC fully disabled. I am NOT however experienced at drifting and so mostly just slid around a bit to see if it could. I came away fairly satisfied that, at least for now, it's capable enough to learn on when I have budget for tires + semiregular access to a place where I can develop some skill.

There are some things that you simply can't do with AT (ex: clutch kick) but those are things I would not do in any case because it's simply terrible for the car. Replacing tires is a lot different from wiping out your transmission.

I think he means drifting in an auto is a bad idea. While auto isn't the best for drifting, I highly doubt Toyobaru wouldn't have designed this car to slide even with the auto models. It'd just be plain unfair for the people who just can't own a manual.

I'm also interested in knowing how to drift with paddle shifters. I'm nearing the end of my break-in and all of my buddies are practically at my door ready to see who can drift better, even if it is an automatic.

You probably haven't seen it sideways plenty of times with an Automatic Transmission.

Drifting is more than getting a car to put the rear out. Once you break traction you need to also be able to maintain the drift through various controls - a hugely important one being the throttle.

Throwing out power-slides and drifting are 2 wildly different things.

Very true, which is why I'm asking if it's possible with paddle shifters. I imagine the only way I can achieve this is shift down + e-brake + throttle. I've seen the Toyota rep tear up the tracks with an AT but I'm curious as to what techniques he used to perform the power slides.

i saw an auto el camino beat n s15 at the formula d 2004 at infineon...just sayin. sure it was modded and had more power and had a special trans but it was auto and an el camino and beat an s15.

drift at your own risk dude youll break something eventaully

I would probably avoid the paddle shifters in most cases. Especially since they are not stationary on the column. To me, the natural thing to do is use the slap method on on the actual shifter while it's over in the manual position.

Moto-P pretty much covers all the bases otherwise....

Will the paddle shifters shift as fast as the stick shift?
I imagine when you go drift having some precise timing of the shift being important to keep yourself in the desired torque range.
(No expert so I could be be wrong but just another area of thought)

Depends on the driver. An amateur driver, especially in a drift situation, will not shift nearly as well as a professional would. Personally I drive the AT but keep it in manual at all times. I drift my AT very often and the manual makes it incredibly easy for a learning platform. I don't use the paddles but the shifter itself in the manual position as trying to use paddles on a steering wheel that is spinning this way and that is rather difficult, plus the shifter feels more natural. I can't condone any illegal means of practicing on the forums but just start simple. From what I've seen the FR-S is much like the ae86 in that to drift you have to keep it in high-revs and just power over. So take off all Stability Controls and all traction control, throw it into manual, rev it high, power over and get it slideways. It's been a really easy car for me to learn on so far.

Can someone pro just come in here and squash this dream? A low power automatic is horrific for drifting. End of story.

Bubbadrifts el camino had a three speed auto tranni with a ratchet shifter that allowed him to stay in gear and manually select his gears. Still an auto since there is no clutch. This worked because he had gobs of power from an LS1. If he didn't drifting a low powered auto would suck big time not being able to clutch kick. He was able to compensate the lack of a clutch through light weight, high power and high torque. Drifting the FR-S with an auto could be done be I bet it wouldn't be much fun. And let it be clear I'm talking about proper drifting not getting the tail out for two seconds or doing donuts in a parking lot.

Edit

I am not a pro but have been drifting for about 10 years including late night hooning and various competitions and track days.

We've already had one professional (Moto-P) say this is possible and a viable choice for learning technique in a separate thread.

Seems like you and some other folks are very invested in talking about what can and can't be done in a car you haven't driven.

If you've actually driven an AT BRZ/FR-S please correct me...

I'd like to see some people with actual experience talk about technique and not a bunch of trollish commentary from the "it can't be be done" crowd.

But please do us a favor, since you've declared it the "end of story", and go hang out in some other thread.