DRIFT vs GRIP: Which is Faster?

Grip or Drift, which is fastest in racing games? Today we’re going to be finding out the answer to one of life’s biggest questions. Now i know some of you are rolling your eyes. Whenever a tyre is out of traction, we get almost no acceleration out of it. So of course, grip is faster ALL of the time right? Well, no.

I’ve done some rigorous testing. Three different drivetrains and types of corners in racing games like forza, gran turismo and sim titles such as assetto corsa. And, this is what I found… Let’s start off with your bog standard, right angle corner. It requires a short brake to shift the weight of the car forward, giving you more grip to turn in and hit the accelerator before you hit the apex. You then exit as wide as possible to gain as much speed for the following straight.
And we’re starting off with a bang in the front wheel drive civic. And no, it’s not VTEC kicking in. Unbelievably, it is an entire hundredth of a second faster whilst drifting than gripping. But, why?

On the drift run, instead of pedal braking, I ripped the handbrake. This means slowed the car less, and the front of the car was already pointed towards the apex way before grip was. Then, all I had to do was stomp the accelerator to line the car back up, and get a fast exit.
But the same can’t be said for all wheel drive. By the apex, grip already had a massive lead, and by the straightaway, it was over 4 tenths of a second ahead. Rear wheel drive was closer, but drift ultimately lost by some 7 hundreths of a second. That may not sound like a lot of time, but in a race scenario, that is a lifetime on a corner by corner basis. If you lost seven hundredths of a second per corner for an entire race, you’d end up 30 seconds begind.
Moving onto my favourite corner in this test, the hairpin. Although this one isn’t your typical hairpin. It requires more of a double apex, than a hug the inside or late apex approach. Either of which would result in you scrubbing off too much speed.
In the front wheel drive car, I chuck it in as hard as possible. Once again trying to get a straighter shot out of the turn. But, the girth of the corner makes this approach poor, and grip gets a much faster drive out of the turn, rendering drifting useless. Once again, rear wheel drive was closer, but grip was once again victorious.
But, here’s the interesting part. In my impreza, drifting had a massive lead even by the half way point. This is because I knew I could throw the car into the turn sideways, and the all wheel drive system would dig me out of the corner. This is something that is only possible with four driven wheels, if attempted with two, it would result in a massive hemmorage of precious time. However, once launching out of the corner, grip began to catch up, as I didn’t need to regain grip. But, overall, drift was a huge .12 seconds faster.
However, let me warn you. Despite drifting obviously being the best approach for this particular turn in this particular car, you shouldn’t do it. Sure, if you’re hotlapping and are striving for a single fast lap, go bonkers. But, over an entire race, if you drift this corner every single time, it’s going to overheat and wear your tyres, making you slower over the entire length of the race. Not to mention, drifting is dangerous with other cars around, especially if they’re not expecting it.
Now I know what you’re thinking.. “What about a proper touge hairpin, a closed hairpin, in which you practically have to stop the car to enter. You know, the ones that are actually recommended to be drifted”

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[nightflash]

I feel like some of the reason why you might want to drift on a touge hairpin is that, althought the time is very close or slower, you can enter the hairpin much faster and lose speed in the drift, which sometimes, in a race, will allow you to get ahead of someone who brakes early, to grip the corner.

[AustinHampton]

I feel like documenting the exit speed at the end of the finish line would be very useful as well. Since if the straight is huge any small speed gain will compound for a faster lap

[IbrahimAli-wiui]

Honestly, drifting isn't done to go faster, but instead, people drift for fun.

[Dgsbody]

coming from someone that’s played with fwds at limits irl, the fwd drift only works properly if it’s an inertia drift. you’re relying on the car to load the suspension itself to maximise grip on the longer or shorter corners without sacrificing speed. very hard to get properly right but definitely an advantage. shorter corners like hairpins and such would more rely on the good ol’ Scandinavian flick, this pulls the rear around without flat spotting the tires. again, very hard to get right and i haven’t attempted it many times due to it almost going wrong on me last time i did it. cars :)

[sooryan_]

Short, precise and accurate. Thank you for your content (now make a Cobra maneuver tutorial for a MIG-21)

[HPsawus]

There’s nothing more satisfying than accidentally sliding through a corner and shaving a few tenths of a second off

[khelmotovlog]

For me drifting is useful when I made an overtake and then immediately defend/blocking

[srsr]

in all of these situations, what about that kind of middle point. Using the brakes, weight shifting, and letting the cars 4 wheel drift mid corner where youre still steering in, in most situations. There, youre both sliding into or at the mid point but usually gripping from mid-out. Also, for certain turbo cars, a light slide can help keep engine rpm up and not let the power bog.

[datboi_gv]

I like to take references from real life. for example, if you watch the old lotus cortina’s racing at good wood, through a majority of the corners, they are four wheel ‘drifting’ with minimal countersteer. This is similar to takumi’s technique, and I have a suspicion this part of the inspiration for it. They are doing it for the same reason as takumi too, since they are driving lower powered cars, they need to maintain as much speed as possible, hence, four wheel ‘drifting’ (its more of a slide than a forced drift)

[Kuolema]

True but every corner is defined by what's coming after it. We should compare exit speed for straights and car placement for the next corner

[standard-carrier-wo-chan]

Seems like it's ultimately comes down to how much grip you have/need. Drifting gives you much higher friction compared to grip, so in scenarios where a quick stop-quick launch is possible, it always comes on top. The problem with RWD is that once you initiate a drift, your rear tires stops having grip, making it nigh-impossible to do that quick launch part, while AWD and FWD has the advantage of the front wheels still having ample grip to quickly launch forward after the rear wheels lose grip.

[Rikverse]

IRL it depends on each corner and what corner comes after the corner. In my Ford Escort RS2000 I usually do Grip Racing but if the Corner is really wide I just throw the car in with lift off drift to get as much speed as possible out of the corner, especially when there is a long straight after this corner. While in my 3000GT VR4 i use the E-Brake at slow corners while braking hard too and turn the wheel faster as you usually would do. The back turns out and the front turns into the corner better, because the car has massive weight on the Front with the heavy V6 Iron Cast Twin Turbo engine you would end up with understeer but then the cars 4-wheel steering just give you even more rotation. If you step on the Gas mid corner way before you would do with a 2WD car, you end up with tyre squeeking but an faster lap time. To drive a 4WD Car fast, you need to use the potential of the car and mechanics. Compared to an Evo, which gives more power to the Rear Wheels, the 3000GT VR4 feels more heavy but turns in better and accelerates faster out of the corner due to a way shorter wheelbase and the 4 Wheel Steering. But Evo makes more fun and will have an advantage if there are very different road situations since the AYC-AWD give you less understeer which means you are more safe when driving fast which gives you a better feeling as a driver. This is why many people prefer the Lancer Evo, because the AWD System is so driver friendly and makes lots of fun. If I drive my 3000GT VR4 very hard I may be faster than in my Lan EVO or Escort RS2000, but every corner just feels like I could crash the car if the brakes or 4 Wheel Steering would fail. Because of heavy front weight to VR4 usually turns in better but also wears the tyres off faster which means the Car is good for Time Attack but the longer the race, the less you can get advantages of the car. Same with the Nissan GTR which is also an amazingly fast car but because of the weight you get tyre problems at long distances. Over an 1h Race I would prefer my 50 Years Old Escort RS2000 since the brakes and tyres have no Problems with 800kg weight. The 1800kg GTR or 1700kg 3000GT VR4 will loose Grip after 20 mins of racing at full speed. The Lan Evo, especially the most famous VII, VIII and XI are still 1580kg which is still much weight. On a long distance an Old Lan Evo IV or Impreza GT / GC WRX STI which only 1100kg would be the better car. Thats the reason why Bunta bought the Impreza in the Anime Intial D, since the old Impreza is one of the best cars for road racing on long distances and combines AWD with less weight. There are not many cars like that. Probably the new Toyota Yaris GR is the best fast AWD Car ever build....

[rattlehead]

So the setup with the most grip is fastest when you drift, the irony in that is just crazy. I assumed that RWD would be the best for drifting, but I guess I was wrong.

[wrighteously]

you're the man! your videos never dissapoint

[catalystmac]

In FWD, I feel like there is a magic spot in a turn where you can "tap" the e-brake and use that sweeping rear weight shift for momentum + acceleration to get an even better time than throwing it in, ebraking, and powering out the other side. There is such a fine line in it that it sounds ridiculous, but I swear there has to be a distinction.

[aperson]

The theory Ive always gone by is that drifting allows you to keep your momentum in a sense. When you drift through say, a hairpin, you're keeping the constant, albeit slower pace throughout the hairpin, as compared to someone who grips the hairpin but loses a lot of speed in the entry.

[thedude]

yeah, sim racing channels are usually so serious, this i dont mind watching

[spike]

Good video, there are some other cases in which drift might be faster, for example, if you watch a video of a Caterham driving (which is RWD), you will find them four wheel drifting, because they're basically just modernized Lotus 7s. There are also certain circumstances in which a braking drift will allow you to enter and exit certain corners at full throttle, where grip may not.

[shadyomo]

My view on it is that it's about judgement, drifting can be a helluva lot faster than grip on certain corners, but there are also plenty of corners where drifting isn't necessary and WILL slow you down, plus whatever comes after that, the car itself, and the conditions all determine what is the best course of action.

But i also gotta say, using the handbrake to drift is gonna slow you down way more than just using the foot brake

[tomatesacree]

Well drifting in a rwd slowdown the tires that are giving you traction so it seems pretty logical