Slip Angle in Touge - Master this to be a faster Sim Racer

This is slip angle. An advanced driving technique that blends grip and drift. It was used by Takumi in the show Initial D, and ever since then this technique has almost had an air of mystery surrounding it. I've received tens of comments telling me to look into slip angle in more depth since I made my grip vs drift video so here we are. Ask and thout shall receive guys. So, make sure you keep watching until the end if you want to become a driving god.

So, what is slip angle? Slip angle is a measurement of how much the tire's contact patch has twisted (steered) in relation to the wheel. A good way to demonstrate this characteristic is to stand beside your car and turn the
steering wheel. If you watch the one of the front wheels, you will see that it steers a few degrees before the tire's contact patch starts to turn. This characteristics is important in racing, because as long as the tires have traction, the car tries to go where the tires are pointed. So, even though the wheels may not be steering, the tires can be steering due to the slip angle

For instance, if we take a look at this example, we can see that the vehicle is seemingly oversteering through the curve. It is following the inner radius of the corner closely. Now, because slip angle is in effect, and the tyres are steering without wheel much input, we can follow the inner radius of the corner all the way around. If we weren't using slip angle to take this
corner, we wouldn't be able to follow the inner radius all the way round, thus we will be slower.

If we take a look at a car utilising slip angle in slow motion, we can see that the front tyres are directly on the inner radius of the corner, but the rear tyres are about a foot away from said radius. This is the easiest way to spot slip angle. If the rear tyres are farther away from the inside of the corner than the fronts, that is slip angle. If you go back and watch your fastest
lap times or touge runs, I can almost guarantee that at least some slip angle was used.

Now this may be very counter intuitive to most sim racers, as sliding is usually slower and degrades the tyres massively. But to get around the corner as fast as possible, you actually have to engage a slight bit of oversteer. We can see this done in the top flight of motorsport, Formula 1 at every single corner, by every single driver. It's almost like drifting, however it is very subtle, faster, and less stylish. Whereas drifting is all about breaking traction, slip angle is produced on the very limit, as this is where the tyres are at their grippiest. Newer drivers may have been taught that sliding is bad, and that is why slip angle is so counter intuitive. But, sliding slightly is much faster than cornering well within the limits of the tyres.

So the easiest way to start using slip angle and become a faster driver is to really visualise what is happening with the car as you drive. Those with natural talent may already do this, but for others this may be harder. You need to visualise what the tyres are doing as you turn, throttle and brake. As you approach a corner under throttle, all four tyres are equally distributing the weight to the tarmac. Everything is perfectly balanced. However, once you let off the throttle and brake, the weight of the car will shift to the front tyres. This means that your rear tyres are lifted off the ground slightly and they have much less contact with the tarmac than they usually would have. Thus, the front tyres have more grip, and the rears have a lot less than usual.
As you turn in, still off the throttle and the weight of the car on the front tyres, you will find the front of the car wants to grip more than the rear. And naturally, the rear will want to slide and enter the state of slip angle, thus giving the car the ability to rotate faster that it could if all four tyres were gripping equally. As you proceed through the corner, you will soon need to hit the throttle again. If you throttle too aggressively, you risk the weight being pulled to the rear tyres, and you will enter understeer and wash out of the corner. So, you need to feather the throttle and find the right amount for the car you are using. The hardest part here is of course, not overdoing it and entering an actual drift or even spinning out.

MY SIM RIG:

[TSRB]

Want more Touge Tips? Check out my series 'How To Touge'

[yomu]

Nailing a slip angle with little to no counter steer is the greatest feeling ever.

[Aroo]

I find this more stylish than drifting, it looks so smooth and calculated, especially when executed in a hotlap

[hirzaahmadmutahari]

I remember when takumi explain drifting like its an understeer, i cant imagine his geniuses on explaining that, at that moment.

[razorjk]

So Takumi also does this but with more angle and understeer while keeping countersteer at minimun or at 0 depending on the corner (4 wheel drift), god hand in the other hand (lol) does steers normally but with only one hand so it keeps the *steering* at minimun (never countersteers) while takumi does *countersteers* but at minimun (drifting as fast as humanly possible).
In other words, both Takumi and god hand do slip angle but god hand does it better and more in a "grip" way while Takumi does it on a "fast drift aka 4wheel drift" way.

So god hand technique is slip angle but mastered to the perfection, that's why he is indeed faster than Takumi on the corners when going at the limit (his car is also better than the 86).

[rilesmiles]

"Pick one car and stick to it."
It's like what Bunta said, "The Eight-Sox trains the driver."

[Dyloshi]

Another point to this is how when takumi faced shingo (red civic driver) he mentions in astonishment to how instead of sliding and making turns by using steering takumi instead used the cars weight shifting along with very minimal inputs to induce the slide and not needing absurd countersteer ( as he learned before he smacked a barracade)

[emperana]

Know I know why my fastest laps are always not the most "perfect" laps. I always thought I had the perfect lap without slip but the results always come under, I guess I've just been using the slip angle unconsciously when pushing hard

[mojeimja]

Well, this is actually known since Fanghio. The next step from this for such a low-downforce car as AE86 would be 4-wheel sliding technique, like those F1 cars in 60s, before aerodynamics.

[THE_EXPERIMENTER]

I remember discovering this naturally in FM6 in my Mazda Cosmo '72, each time I hit a guardrail or went off the track, I would rewind to see if and how I could prevent it, and I found that slip-angle was the fastest way around. Thanks to this, and all the hours I put into rivals races, I managed to score in the top 1000 (in the U.S.) on the D-Class - Nurburgring - Full Circuit - Day rivals challenge. Let me just say that again, that's 2 laps (1 still lap, 1 flying lap) and over 20 minutes of intense racing where you can't rewind, crash, or even go off the track, and it likely wouldn't have been possible without this technique. I later returned to Forza Horizon 4, and found that my driving skills had drastically improved. I'm not saying this video was the sole reason that I became so good at sim-racing, but I'm sure glad you're teaching this skill to others!

[MemerMan]

With enough time and practice, you can drift and smoke just like Bunta himself

[brieee]

Up until now, I'd only been able to get decent slip angle with cars with really soft tires because they're easier to load up, and this helped me a lot to learn it with other cars.

[kennyiglesias]

It is more about preserving momentum instead of accelerating through, into or out the corner Especially in a low horsepower car like the 86 at a higher speed you would also be able to keep the rpms high keeping the car on its ideal power band on corner exit.

[kaedeschulz]

Me who does this in games since like ever and now watches this: Oooh that makes sense now. Always wondered why ppl who fully grip a corner couldn't get around a corner as fast.

[jwork]

Oh man now im either getting faster or people get more faster than me 😂

Anyways can't wait to watch it

[leon_brave_racing]

sheesh I have been doing this. I would like to note doing this sort of thing with an understeery car will balance the front and the rear more evenly. Resulting in faster cornering speeds.

[VikkiKuznetsova]

I always wondered what this was called. It's always been a part of my driving style in games, and I relied on this mostly in Forza Motorsport (Not Horizon). Won me tons of races in those years, I'm glad I have a name for the technique now.

[christianniederdorfer]

One of the greatest explanations of this driving technique I've seen! And I've seen a lot.
I'm pretty confident I'm going to get much more consistent at my pace, using this technique more conscious.
Like you said: Like everything in life it's all about balance.
You've got one subscriber more right now, mate😊👍

[doritofu]

I did this once by accident in Assetto with the AE86. Didn't even have to countersteer except when I exited the corner. Felt like absolute bliss.

[generacionmarttin]

Back when I was younger and raced with karts at Rotax 125cc, I was struggling on the budget and most of the time had to use worm out tires, like the tires normal people would throw away with 50 percent life left. Because of the less grip those tires had, I unconsciously developed a slip angle driving on most of the turns of the tracks I used to race. I realized that the more straigh the steering was, more throttle I could apply, hence taking the turns faster even if I was techinically loosing my rear end.

Later I started jumping over the curbs, since in my local tracks they were huge, so by invading them with the interior wheels I could cut some cms in each turn, making a quite a decent chunk of .000's at the end of each lap.

So mixing the slip angle and the curb jumping, I would "drift" the turns and balacing the kart on three wheels, making the front inner go over the curb, all the way until said curb would grind against the chassis. With my little 125cc I was destroying the DD2 class.

Sometimes I dream what would happend if I had the money to actually race on a championship or something... Guess life is not that fair. At least I use everything I learnt from my karting days into cars.