Drifting and powersliding. They both look similar when you watch them, but what are the real differences?
The differences between drifting and powersliding are pretty simple. Powersliding is the act of using nothing but power to overwhelm the rear tyres and get the wheels spinning. If you’re cornering hard enough, the natural momentum of the car will result in the back swinging out. Due to the fact you need that natural momentum, powersliding can only commence after turn in, with the bulk of the sideways action happening beyond the apex. You can powerslide just for fun, but you can also use it as a way of changing the angle of your car on the exit of a corner to straighten you up.
A car drifting.
The key is that powersliding can only happen after turn-in. Drifting, on the other hand, is about getting sideways as early as possible and sustaining as big an angle as possible. Powersliding is all about using your speed to your advantage, whereas drifting focuses on the actual act of sliding.
The main differences, though, are that a drift begins well before a corner begins, and requires a number of techniques to be employed to hold the slide. There’s braking to initiate the slide, weight shifting, yanking the handbrake, clutch kicking, modulating the throttle, and steering into the slide. All of these actions are intended to initiate and/or hold the slide for as long and as fast as possible, from before the corner begins to well after it’s ended.
So to summarise, powersliding happens in the corner, drifting is initiated before.
Check out the video on drifting and powersliding below for a more in depth explanation, and for more motoring articles, click here.
