DRIFT vs GRIP: Which is Faster?

▶Enjoying the video? Subscribe! bit.ly/3wblXkC
▶Support the channel: / @tsrb
▶Join the Community: / discord
▶Follow me on Twitter: / simracingbloke
▶Music: • TSRB RECORDS: Drum & B...
▶MODS: / discord
Grip or Drift, which is fastest in racing games? Today we’re going to be finding out the answer to one of life’s biggest questions. Now i know some of you are rolling your eyes. Whenever a tyre is out of traction, we get almost no acceleration out of it. So of course, grip is faster ALL of the time right? Well, no.
I’ve done some rigorous testing. Three different drivetrains and types of corners in racing games like forza, gran turismo and sim titles such as assetto corsa. And, this is what I found… Let’s start off with your bog standard, right angle corner. It requires a short brake to shift the weight of the car forward, giving you more grip to turn in and hit the accelerator before you hit the apex. You then exit as wide as possible to gain as much speed for the following straight.
And we’re starting off with a bang in the front wheel drive civic. And no, it’s not VTEC kicking in. Unbelievably, it is an entire hundredth of a second faster whilst drifting than gripping. But, why?
On the drift run, instead of pedal braking, I ripped the handbrake. This means slowed the car less, and the front of the car was already pointed towards the apex way before grip was. Then, all I had to do was stomp the accelerator to line the car back up, and get a fast exit.
But the same can’t be said for all wheel drive. By the apex, grip already had a massive lead, and by the straightaway, it was over 4 tenths of a second ahead. Rear wheel drive was closer, but drift ultimately lost by some 7 hundreths of a second. That may not sound like a lot of time, but in a race scenario, that is a lifetime on a corner by corner basis. If you lost seven hundredths of a second per corner for an entire race, you’d end up 30 seconds begind.
Moving onto my favourite corner in this test, the hairpin. Although this one isn’t your typical hairpin. It requires more of a double apex, than a hug the inside or late apex approach. Either of which would result in you scrubbing off too much speed.
In the front wheel drive car, I chuck it in as hard as possible. Once again trying to get a straighter shot out of the turn. But, the girth of the corner makes this approach poor, and grip gets a much faster drive out of the turn, rendering drifting useless. Once again, rear wheel drive was closer, but grip was once again victorious.
But, here’s the interesting part. In my impreza, drifting had a massive lead even by the half way point. This is because I knew I could throw the car into the turn sideways, and the all wheel drive system would dig me out of the corner. This is something that is only possible with four driven wheels, if attempted with two, it would result in a massive hemmorage of precious time. However, once launching out of the corner, grip began to catch up, as I didn’t need to regain grip. But, overall, drift was a huge .12 seconds faster.
However, let me warn you. Despite drifting obviously being the best approach for this particular turn in this particular car, you shouldn’t do it. Sure, if you’re hotlapping and are striving for a single fast lap, go bonkers. But, over an entire race, if you drift this corner every single time, it’s going to overheat and wear your tyres, making you slower over the entire length of the race. Not to mention, drifting is dangerous with other cars around, especially if they’re not expecting it.
Now I know what you’re thinking.. “What about a proper touge hairpin, a closed hairpin, in which you practically have to stop the car to enter. You know, the ones that are actually recommended to be drifted”
Hit the like, and maybe even subscribe button if you enjoyed the video!
MY SIM RIG:
▶Cammus Wheel Base bit.ly/3xMlRBi
▶Fanatec Shifter
▶Fanatec CSL Elite Loadcell Pedals
▶Heusinkveld Handbrake heusinkveld.co...
▶ GTLite nextlevelracin...
▶ Gloves amzn.to/3ua0PtG
▶Monitor amzn.to/3ERjNKQ
▶Oculus amzn.to/3kEc0Yr
▶GTX 1080 amzn.to/3CPbcGm
▶i5 8600k amzn.to/3i8x2gb
▶16GB DDR4 amzn.to/3ujkozV