RC Drift Bible - 2024 Styles

 

Since my last post in the drift bible on Styles in 2018 a lot has changed in the last 6 years OMG has it been that long. 

The main things that changed are GRIP GRIP AND MORE GRIP and this means driving style changes at more tracks than we think, we have reached the point of full entries on throttle. RIGA is one such place where there is now only one decel zone.

• TYRES with GRIP 

Compounds have become crazy with Valino banned by some competitions like Formula Drift Japan. But there are new ways of doing grip. 

Increased tyre circumference is one such way of prolonging tyre life so you can run harder. 

A Naoki Nakamura style 285/35/R20 on the rear offers 2223mm is around the same with sidewall of 100mm thick

A 315/40/R18 such as an RTR team rear tyre offers a 2228mm circumference with an increased sidewall of 127mm to dial in sidebite and other items as pressures drop. 

compare this to a 285/35/R18 with its' 2060mm circumference (a general performance car size) means you get about 10% more contact patch rubber and 30% more sidewall to play with the larger tyre. Run time is key. basically you go 10% harder before the tyres die. 

Punching the same revs , you are also getting a faster car with less revolutions required per speed. 

All this is a no brainer for serious users that have the power 1200hp to push these grip monsters.  

• Handbrake less

The handbrake is a tool but not used so much due to the above mentioned track changes. the urge towards big smoke and close battles means that for a spectator, keeping the cars close and taking away the inconsistent big entries should result in close PROximity  

• Brake more

Left foot brake is allowed and now the norm for maintaining more angle. Rather than handbrake power handbrake power handbrake power previously used. 

Remember the Formula D brake light rule, that's gone replaced with an accellerometer style due to this.

(But not possible in RC. this is still a setting option.)

• Setup for Speed at Angle

With more focus on Setup and Ackerman settings that have been used in RC since forever. The cut knuckle solutions and driving around poor car setup are nearly gone. Anyone not running fdf/wisefab etc is simply limited in setup and performance. 

Parallel steering angle at lock is mandatory for car speed and when cars are off setting , like Noback E36 at irwindale. it's more than noticeable and simply creates a poor spectacle and forces top teams to operate below the bar.   

• 
  No Seat time is eliminated.   

Thanks to Assetto Corsa. Simulators mean line and skill is maintained even if you don't have real time experience. PROs already have a lot of seat time, but when they can dial in the track before reaching the circuit, they can concentrate on the fine details rather than the major things. 

One major thing to notice is that skill is up across the board and there are many less driving mistakes. I believe this is a result of simulator action. 

• Power is only limited by the tyre grip. 

So with Skills and Setup on point, when we add "ultimate tyrepower" as being the determining factor, everyone knows that the more power and grip, the faster it will be. Sure it maybe harder to drive, but thats the knife edge of any competition. 

So what does this mean. 

When a pro car is sooo much faster than a street car, it rewrites the mid level competition also. 

Now we have a new level as the spread of power 

                        D1 / PRO 1000+

New Level *** Pro AM / Pro2 800+  

                        D1 SL 500+

                        Street 350+

                        AE86 180hp

When this happens, it creates a divide and more segregation. But disregard that and the main PRO cars are amazing to watch. And luckily online streaming gives us access so we also have competition in Series. 

The series with them most grip seems to be Drift Masters. America has the big ovals

and Japan has the big entries still as there is a bit of focus remaining on corner entry. 

Relating to RC PRO

There is a key difference in the way the Japanese RC Drift PRO class has maintained a big fast entry and fast exit track. 

Japanese drivers and competitions are therefore still focused on large entries and fast exists. 

Japanese are the RC Car designers with Yokomo and Overdose leading this push so we shouldn't really expect this to change unless there is enough influence outside Japan. 

Weight is over the rear for traction and Overdose even tried to get more grip into the cars with the 50mm tyre size. 

Maybe next time or still in progress. That depends on the track owners and acceptance of what more grip brings. 

Torque Transfer is the new grip maker of RC. 

as we come to terms with PRO grip, we must be getting torque transferred through the contact patch for ultimate grip. 

Front end bump steer is eliminated leading to more contact patch on both ends. 

For now the pro RC cars are FAST!

Even My YD2 Rear Motor is a speed weapon and now too fast for new local tracks. 

So as we are still bound by the track ... Lets explore this next. 

The focus changes to where we can drive and where agility is favoured over speed and how that impacts our setups. 

 Lets see how this year progresses.