Guide on Drifting Techniques! [Forwarded]

{ ps. this is also originally from other ppl's post, i just shift it here so we all can share it =] }

- Maps with a good amount of turns are your friend. You have the best stat for powering out of corners; acceleration. You'll be the quickest to recover after a drift turn, and you can power back up to your max speed faster than most other cars would be able to. In this fashion, you can pass the cars with high top speeds on corners even if they're managing to overpower you on straights.

- Drag maps will give you a bit more difficulty. In drag maps, you're at a disadvantage in that you won't have the top speed potential that some of the other cars will. However, all is not lost, because most drag maps have a turn in some form or fashion, even if it's a slight one. And barring that, don't forget about your boost potential. On straights, if you watch someone with a faster car boost to get some distance, -do not- boost right along with them. I know it sounds weird, but instead, just let them ride out some distance for a few seconds, and then hit your own boost. If you notice, there's a slight 'slow down' where the car drops back to it's top speed after a boost, while they're doing this, you're still boosting and gaining on them. In this fashion, it's possible you'll be able to get on their tail, or even overtake them.

- Use the traffic to your advantage. You have a small car, don't be afraid to weave in and out of traffic. I've noticed that sometimes players will mimic the car they're tailing, so why not play with their heads? Psyche them out a little and cut it close with some traffic, you'll be rewarded for taking these risks, and you might cause them to wreck, giving you more distance. While I personally don't like 'bullying' people into traffic or guard rails, it's still a viable tactic. Swerve in close to them to make them swerve away from you, even swipe them a little. You may be surprised at how much they give at your 'bullying'. (Note this isn't just specific to this car either, this is a good trick with any car).

- Practice your drifting! Take some practice to drift in the world map until you get it dang near perfect. You need all the help you can get when covering ground against faster cars, so in order to maximize one of your best attributes, you have to be able to drift corners well. Learn to time a corner and do your best to not overjudge or underjudge the distance or the timing. With a bit of practice, you'll be powering around corners and blowing past those faster cars in no time!

- Be daring, not reckless. In Drift City, you have to be daring when you race, you can't always play it safe. That being said; always keep in mind that your car is not a tank. You can't take too many hits before you'll have to repair, and that'll put you at a serious disadvantage. If you have to brake, do it. If you have to swerve across the road in order to save yourself, do it. Losing a little time or a bit of your lead on someone is always better than having to repair and possibly trumping your entire race.

I bolded the stuff that was viable to all cars in the second and third paragraphs. The rest of the paragraphs still have some stuff that apply to all cars as a whole, but we'll touch on everything here.

First, you need to be able to understand and master what I believe is the most important part of this game; drifting. The game is called Drift City, after all, so it makes sense that drifting is an important part of winning races. As I stated above, practice is going to help you out the most with getting the hang of drifting, as very few people can jump right into this and be great at it. I know I wasn't, and I've played my fair share of racing games before.

Drifting:

- When approaching a corner, what I tend to do is release the gas, hold down the drift key, and begin to turn my car right as I'm about to enter the corner, then from there, I tap the opposite key to straighten myself out if necessary. As soon as I've rounded the corner and straightened out, I hit the gas again.

- Traffic is probably the biggest headache when it comes to drifting corners. I can't count the number of times I've drifted straight into a truck because I either couldn't see it, or because it came out in front of me at the wrong time. If you notice that traffic is heavy at your corner, study it. If you need to slow down, then do it, -anything- is better than slamming into something at high speed. Once you find a good opening, don't hesitate to take it. Sometimes you have to swing your drift a bit wider than you wanted to avoid something, and that's alright, as long as you can correct yourself after you've cleared the obstacle.

- Learn to alter your course mid-drift. This may seem obvious, but it's a bit more tricky than it sounds. Sometimes things get in the way of your perfect drift, so you have to make adjustments to it, be that holding the key a bit longer in order to slide further down so you can pass it, or quickly tapping the other direction to make your angle sharper so you can turn into the inside of the corner after going too wide. There's plenty of reasons why you'd need to do this, so learning how to do it well is important. It's hard to explain on paper, but try it out for yourself and you'll see what I mean.

Now we'll move on to boosting tactics. Sometimes people consider boost that little extra bit of top speed, and in most cases, it is. But there's also a bit more to it then that. Learning when to use your boost is very important in races, as boosting too soon can result in some wasted boost potential and boosting too late can do much of the same, as well as put you in some less than desirable situations.

Boosting:

- Some people want to boost as soon as they hear that sound. Sometimes, it's worth it, and it's a good thing, but more often then not, it's best to wait to use it until the most good can come from it. As I mentioned above, pay attention to your opponents and how they're using boost, and formulate a strategy for gaining some ground on them with your own boost.

- If you have unused boost, burn it before you enter a gate. This is optional of course, and a gamble, but unless you're in first place, you're most likely going to get boost power from a gate or better; a hyper-boost, untouchable, or a Drift City (Which I call 'burn', 'cause that's what the guy says). If you save your boost and pass the gate, and you get more boost, you're just wasting that extra boost you got in most cases. There are exceptions to this rule, such as ramps, but as a rule of thumb, I usually burn my boost before entering a gate.

- Sometimes I've noticed that people burn their boost right after they around a corner, and in most cases this is a good strategy. It builds you back up to your top speed faster and helps you negate any loss of speed you got from rounding a corner. However, consider this; if your car has higher than average acceleration, why not wait until after you've gained a bit of speed? This sort of ties into 'watch your opponents' as I stated above, but if you wait for a bit after rounding a corner, you'll squeeze out every bit of boost power without wasting any on spinning your tires to build up that first few MPH you could make on your own.

Now on to braking. I know, the brake. I'm sure a lot of people are looking at me with blank stares asking, "There's a brake?". Braking can come in real handy in this game, as I've come to find, and you shouldn't be afraid to use it.

Braking:

- When you're rounding a corner too fast, and you're about to swipe the rail, or worse, collide into it, don't just hold the drift button. Sure, you can do it that way, and I've seen some people do it really well, but if you want to be on the safe side, give the brake a little tap to slow yourself down and get your momentum moving elsewhere, then accelerate again.

- When approaching a bottleneck of traffic, either on a straight or a corner, don't be afraid to tap your brake to allow the traffic to move out of your way or give you more time to react to it. It sure beats the alternative of slamming into it hood-first.

- 'Braking' doesn't mean you have to use the brake! I know that sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, but it really doesn't. Sometimes, you can just ease off the gas and coast for a few seconds in the situations I described above, before correcting yourself and hitting the gas again. Whenever I enter a turn, I always release the gas, as I find it helps you control your car better.

Whew... well, that about sums it up for me. Please keep in mind that you may disagree with some of these tactics, and some you may find don't work out that well at all, and I understand that. These are just some tricks that have worked for me and helped me cross that finish line in first place more than once. If you'd like, feel free to add-on to my tricks here, or post here as well if you think that something I've said is incorrect.

-when going over hills get in the right lane to avoid collisions with on coming cars
-when cornering aim to end in the right lane so you don't plow into traffic that is stopped at the lights.
-always look as far ahead as possible to better prepare yourself for traffic and other obsticles
-drifting slows you down, so if you don't have to drift don't.
-make wide turns. This way you can see what is around the corner before you have to drive into it.
-try to steer into the turn before drifting, then give a short drift to swing the back end around and release the drift before your car is straight to avoid fishtailing.
-if your in first place don't use your boost, instead focus on driving well and if you crash then use it to quickly recover.
-try to focus on good sound driving and not worry about all the other drivers. Often when you get passed there is the urge to try and go faster to catch up, which always leads to reckless driving and poor decision making which inevitably ends with you losing more ground than you regain.

most of this is common sense but i see people make these mistakes all the time. Hope that helps a little.
__________________

thanks niz for the guide, i'll be sure to make full use of it

great guide niz