Hydro handbrake

squid

squid

Member
Hi there!
Did a bit of drift, and start thinking about some upgrades. Question is, how useful is handbrake to manage drift angle? I do not need it to start slide, but i think it can be useful to slow down rear end. Like now i use brakes, when i feel is too much angle, but brakes slow down all 4 wheels and i lose speed in general. So if its possible to brake, not block, rear wheels with hydro handbrake? And in general, in which situations peoples use handbrake, except start slide, of course.
Thanks.
 
Okay. Just watch some onboard videos with D1GP drivers. Seems, they use handbrake only for initiation, and INCREASE angle in middle of corner, i don't understand this moment, why they use handbrake if they got 500hp+ on rear wheels, and just not press accelerator pedal instead.
 
Handbrake is to make small adjustments, usually when slowing down, when twin drifting, or in a situation where there's not enough front end grip to increase the angle in a better way.
 
It's all down to the forces acting on the car. If you initiate using power you'll have a lot of force pushing you forward as well as pushing the rear sideways, if you initiate with the handbrake you'll slow down a bit and start hanging the rear out.

My take on it (a relatively uneducated one, I'm no professional) is that with a lower powered car it's better to initiate with the accelerator, purely because you'll be scrubbing off speed once you're drifting anyway, you'll want to be carrying as much momentum as possible. With 500bhp+ cars initiating with power when you're already going at high speed could end up launching you in to the barriers.
 
Bagpuss said:
with a lower powered car it's better to initiate with the accelerator, purely because you'll be scrubbing off speed once you're drifting anyway, you'll want to be carrying as much momentum as possible. With 500bhp+ cars initiating with power when you're already going at high speed could end up launching you in to the barriers.
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No. Nothing to do with power.

It's never better to initiate with a handbrake, just so many do in the UK as the drifting style over here is a fucking joke and awful to watch.
 
Stavros said:
No. Nothing to do with power.

It's never better to initiate with a handbrake, just so many do in the UK as the drifting style over here is a fucking joke and awful to watch.
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I'd say it depends entirely on your situation, take Devils Elbow at Lydden (even though they don't do drift days any more). Initiating with power there, given the speed of entry, will put you in the gravel every time.
 
I use it to keep the arse out while using clutch and brake to slow for a corner, cos once off the power with clutch down the angle starts to get less as the wheels gain grip. With them locked with the hydro it helps keep it out till back on the accelerator
 
Its an incredibly stable way of both reducing speed and initiating a drift. Which is why so many people use it. (Doesnt make it any more fun to watch, though)
 
Bagpuss said:
I'd say it depends entirely on your situation, take Devils Elbow at Lydden (even though they don't do drift days any more). Initiating with power there, given the speed of entry, will put you in the gravel every time.
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Hanging off the wand will slow you down no better than a big flick and kick then use angle and footbrake to keep you on the track, maybe worse as it's just the rears you're flat spotting.

It just looks shitter and more people in the UK know how to do it.

We've a handbrake mentality here.
 
Munkul said:
Its an incredibly stable way of both reducing speed and initiating a drift. Which is why so many people use it. (Doesnt make it any more fun to watch, though)
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This seems to be answer. At least couple of hundreds watched onboard videos agree with that. And apparently it's not about how lazy are UK drivers, its about efficiency, easy and predictable. And also that explain way i'm faster in a corner than more experienced drivers even if entry speed is same, they just braking with handbrake during slide, but i keep going with same speed.
Thanks for replays everyone, got a bit enlightened about these things.
 
It's not just UK, i'd call it a western epidemic

If you want to learn on the wand, do it. But know that you'll learn more about car control initiating with weight transfer

Check out this guys videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/Yunosurodosuta

Kieran's earlier stuff was all done on standard lock and a standard 1600 (just with 6 speed). Hardly touches the standard handbrake
 
A big angle flick and left foot braking does 90% of what a handbrake does for entries. It did for me at Lydden anyway, I was able to enter at the top of 3rd in a relatively low spec 325 E36 (rack spacers / coilovers) pretty damn early. Left foot brake and lock up the fronts before the apex and youve scrubbed off enough speed to clear the gravel. It seems alot of people forget that the footbrake exists the second they start drifting. Failing that, shift locks are great as well. I've never had a hydro and I've kept up and outmatched people in far more powerful and specced cars than my lil E36 on a standard diff ratio with nothing more than coils, rack spacers, camber bolts and a bucket seat.
 
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