Wondering if I can get some advice for a novel regarding a drifting scene

A

AuroraLawrence

New Member
Hello all!

Wondering if some of you can give me some advice please, I'm currently writing a novel which I want to put in a big dramatic crash scene involving a drift, a friend of mine said you guys are the ones who know it all about drifting so if you say it can't be done or wouldn't happen in a certain way then I need to scrap it.

I have initially chosen a 07plate Nissan 350z 3.5 ltr v6 as that was my first and only car so I can describe the sound of the engine revving and I did wreck it when I lost control so I know a lot about how it handles. The section of the story I need technical advice with currently please goes as following:
Woman driving down the road at 75mph, looks at the passenger instead of the road ahead, passenger sees they're going into a corner with trees surrounding the edge so grabs the wheel to try and turn it but instead of turning properly the car goes into a drift and the car smashes into a tree sideways.

From a technical perspective could that happen in a Nissan 350z? If not is there another vehicle that it could happen with whilst also being a car you would plausibly see on a UK road? I know strictly speaking my readers wouldnt have a clue if it's factually correct or not but I wouldn't be happy with myself or the novel if it turned out to be complete rubbish that could never happen in a million years. It's integral to the story that I find a way of smashing the passenger side of the vehicle, killing the passenger but not the driver in a way that the driver is responsible and I want it as realistic and believable as possible hence coming to you all for advice.

Any advice any of you can give me please I would greatly appreciate it and of course will be acknowledged in the front of the book.

Thank you in advance for your help.
 
Thats a new one for here ....... anyway, it can happen, I managed to do it myself :wack:

However Id go for a lorry hitting the side of the car after some kind of loss of control, it can be going a lot slower and is much more likely. Could be ice, animal running out, large pothole, sniper, tyre blowing out from previous massive burnout ......

If you need the driver to be at fault then all you need to add is "He turned to her and said "watch this"" or said "hold my beer" :D
 
If you turn sharply as in reacting quickly to something at the same time of stepping off the throttle the car will basically be in a state of lift off over-steer, the weight is shifted to the front as you lift off the throttle and the front end grips, the back end becomes light and looses traction, in a RWD this is also like shift locking where the engine breaking is helping the rear break away, so the car rotates round and if not corrected very quickly car will rotate into a spin and slide down the road collecting something like a tree or another car, you could say a sign post that was warning her of the corner, as that would be kinda of ironic :)
 
docwra said:
Could be ice, animal running out, large pothole, sniper, tyre blowing out from previous massive burnout ......
Click to expand...


Or a combination of the above....maybe there's a cool as fuck squirrel sat in a pothole with a sniper rifle, shooting people's tyres as they drive past in their 350z's

On a serious note though it's good that you're concentrating on getting the detail right rather than just guessing. What's the novel about out of interest?
 
Docwra - thank you for the ideas, i'll keep them in mind im hoping to keep my idea if it works just because it will save re-writing a few chapters.

Superclarkey - wow thats loads of detail, thank you for taking the time :)

Akinadan79 - I'm a stickler for accuracy on this sort of thing lol. Its about a woman who has a nervous breakdown after her boyfriend gets into a car with his ex driving, not realising she is over the legal drink drive limit, who decides to scare him into going back with her by driving very fast looses control and kills the boyfriend but I need the driver to survive and be very clearly at fault with no one else that can be blamed. I wrote the scene and a couple of link backs but it was doing my head in on whether the drifting was accurate or not.
 
I love the replies on here. Somone should write a novel on the whit of DW through the ages.

To the OP

If your serious then please forgive us. Show a little of who you are. These pages are beset daily by utterly improbable stories. These generally come from thoes with more imagination than they will ever have talent and they usually have an equal number of birthdays and brain cells (generally these both number in the teens).

The forum faithful as a result take an institutional position which mixes sarkasm with a lack of faith that's been proven to be well deserved.

If your a genuine author in genuine need of help. Then some on these pages are the best you can ask. But tbh most will just do their best not to take the piss as they assume your yet another 14 year old chav who dreams of drifting a Lamborghini the day after their GTA style heist makes them rich for life. After all the world owes them that at the very least.

I may have wandered off topic.

Why doesn't my car work. Where is my beer.
 
Also.

Having read your synopsis I'm afraid it's completely and utterly unbelievable and impossible given your choice of such a modern car...

And it doesn't depict a 'drift' in any way. Just an accident that has some aspect of oversteer happening during it (not as a cause of or end result of)

Superclakey is correct in that it's how a car we know and love here on DW would behave (he'd know. He knows more than most and wayyyy more than I ever will about a car handles)

However a modern car in this sort of situation would handle very differently due to driver aids. Also 75mph isn't fast. Put a car sideways for even a short distance and it'll bleed speed rapidly (as we all on DW know) [sic]*.

So even in a tiny space you will loose some large percentage of speed...

Even say you loose 0 mph (impossible by the laws of physics) your still going to have to try insanely hard to find a modern car in the UK such as a 350 where somone dies... Crash protection is very good now. It's why Hollywood has adopted the willing suspension of disbelief.

At 70 mph I'd sit in a 350 and you could flip it off a road and I'd plan on walking to the local pub for a beer. I read a lot and can't help but always think this... But that doesn't stop me understanding it's hard to make a car chase dramatic in the age of safety cells and 300 air bags per cm2

You could just have them use a mid 2000s American car. that'd probably kill everyone within a half mile radius after a collision in a McDonald's drive through... Or maybe a vw diesel could gas your protagonist to death.

*The ones who drift. Not those here to figure out how to insure a jzx on P plates...

Note to self. Stop posting on the internet when drunk
 
AuroraLawrence said:
Its about a woman who has a nervous breakdown after her boyfriend gets into a car with his ex driving, not realising she is over the legal drink drive limit, who decides to scare him into going back with her by driving very fast looses control and kills the boyfriend but I need the driver to survive and be very clearly at fault with no one else that can be blamed. I wrote the scene and a couple of link backs but it was doing my head in on whether the drifting was accurate or not.
Click to expand...


Personally I'd look at a more 'Casino Royale' type of accident rather than drifty type scenario. By that I mean:

The drunk ex is as you say is trying to scare the living shite out of the former boyfriend in an attempt to win back his affections/force him to get back with her, she then cranks up the music and cranks up the speed (touching 100mph), former boyfriend doesn't find her erratic driving funny and tells her to slow down, heated exchange back and forth which she finds funny (he doesn't). Subsequently the car wanders over to the other side of the road.....oncoming headlights.....massive swerve followed by several over corrections and then wham....car is sideways, digs into the tarmac and barrel rolls several times before coming to rest on it's roof.

One pissed driver climbs out/passenger has head trauma/spinal injuries/general deadness's etc etc.
 
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