Introduction

On a professional level, there is almost never a feint drift performed without either a clutch kick or hand brake as a follow up. I find feint initiations are mainly to add flare to a drift. It doesn’t seem to take away much forward momentum like the hand brake drift but it doesn’t seem to give as much extra forward momentum as simply gripping and then clutch kicking into a corner.

Here’s the simplest example by the one I see do the most feint entries, Forrest Wang in Miami.

How To

This one can’t be bullet pointed like the others. Simply drift the opposite direction before drifting the desired direction. In some rare (grassroots/noobie) situations, this can be done without drifting the first portion but that isn’t helpful nor does it look good.

Regardless, pick the initiation of choice but drift the wrong direction, then transfer the weight into the next corner.

As an example, here is Mike Essa at Wall NJ. He performs a clutch kick (lightly), feints one direction, and then hand brakes into the corner.

What’s Going On and Why

The usefulness of this technique is to build momentum to throw the car into the following corner as hard as possible. It’s akin to pulling the swing back first before pushing it forward. It isn’t necessary. But it looks cool.

Key Concepts

A power over feint will only work with sufficient power and/or small tires. In the Essa video, his shift into third was the clutch kick but he has so much power that it almost wasn’t a kick at all. Hand braking into the first drift is possible but will likely slow the vehicle down excessively. Normally, hand braking is seen into the switch back to modulate or slow down once the final drift line is known.

The weight transferred into the first mini drift is the base for the strength of the follow up switch back. This means that the strength (or weakness) of the first drift directly affects the angle and speed of the following drift.

Beginner Level Usage

Most beginners should not do this until their basic line and initiation skills have been reasonably sharpened. This is because the first drift’s line being off will cause the second drift’s line to be extremely off.

Otherwise, this is a good technique for cars with deficiencies like a weak hand brake or if the car has too little power to spin the tires well enough. (Aside: Adding air pressure to the rear tires is probably simpler option as another remedy)

Intermediate Level Usage

At the pro/am level, this technique is great to impress judges if it can be performed properly. Again, because messing up the first drift will domino into the second drift, it can be a gamble. The same idea applies as for beginners. Bigger feints take up more speed so big shows will sacrifice the following corner. In some cases, this is a great way to get over budget/time/knowledge limitations if the car has a hard time initiating in the first corner.

Higher Level Usage

At the professional level, I don’t often see it. If so, they tend to be very tiny and almost on accident (too much power). I think this is mainly to conserve and add speed for the main corner. Most FD tracks have extremely fast first corners and not always enough run up. Hand brake entries also seem to be much more predictable and easier to be consistent at as oppose to clutch kicks and/or feints.