To cause a vehicle to slide or ‘drift’ laterally. It is caused by making a turn a speeds high enough to cause the tires (both front and rear, but the rear tires go first and the front don’t always go) to loose traction, allowing the car to slide laterally. It is possible in front, rear, and all wheel drive. Pulling the hand/emergency/parking break (three names for the same thing) at the apex of a turn will allow one to drift at lower speeds than if the rear wheels were allowed to spin freely. Also, drastically speeding up the rear wheels by revving the engine (therefore causing the rear wheels to spin faster than the car is moving forward) will allow one to drift more easily, this is only possible in rear wheel drive.
I find it difficult to understand the physics behind drifting.
by Don W. February 21, 2005
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to follow a persons conversation as their mind drifts to a different yet somehow connected thought
by Drezdyn February 22, 2004
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A controlled loss of control
a car drifts round the track in control of the drift but the drift is a loss of control
by jack cl January 5, 2011
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In racing, it is the clipping of the apex of a turn to attain higher corner exit speeds. This achieved by breaking the tire traction limit and putting the car into a controlled skid. As the vehicle slides, the weight shifts from each tire to another, and causes the car to circle around and clip the apex.

Popularized by the anime "Initial D."
They call keiichi tsuchiya the Drift King because he drifted in touge battles.
by davey November 29, 2003
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A motorsport in which a car is sliding lateraly through a turn of a series of turns. During a drift (not a powerslide), the front wheels are pointing in the opposite direction of the turn (example: Front wheels pointing left during a right hand turn). Drifting takes place under total control of the vehicle. Drifting is the slowest way around a corner because of the extra friction on the wheels slows the vehicle down (friction=slow).

Types of Techniques to induce a drift: Hand Brake Drift is the most common and a beginner technique. This is done by approaching a corner at the desired speed, downshifting while keeping the clutch in and pulling the hand brake quickly and stongly for a moment while turning into the corner. Let down the hand brake and release the clutch and counter steer. Just because this is a beginner techinique, doesn't mean that proffessionals can't use it.
Power-over: not going to go over this one because it don't like it.
Shift Lock: Down shifting very quick without heel-and-toeing which causes the wheels to lock suddenly and momentarily to induce the drift. Sort of like the Hand Brake.
Clutch Kicking: I learned on this as well as Hand Brake. This is done by "kicking" (hence the title) the clutch to send a jolt or shock throught the powertrain which causes the rear wheels to slip. I don't exactly know why.
Braking Drift: This is one of the weight shift techinques. It is done by shifting the weight to the front of the vehicle which is followed immediatly by the gas which makes the rear wheels to lose traction.
Feint Drift: Another weight shift techinique. This is done by turning very quickly away from the turn a little then swinging or flick it back into the corner to get the rear to lose traction. Hit the gas and continue with the drift.
Kansei Drifting: Don't know how to do this so i will take straight from wikipedia: "By letting off the accelerator while cornering at very high speeds, cars with relatively neutral handling will begin to slide, simply from the weight transfer resulting from engine braking. The drift is controlled afterwards by steering inputs from the driver and light pedal work, similar to the Braking drift."
There.
Thats about it. Have fun. I'm not going to go over the cars used because you can basically use any rear wheeled drive vehicle. All-Wheeled drive cars are able to drift but due to their pulling of their front wheels, will pull out of it. Same with Front-Wheeled cars.
"I drift not because it is a quicker way around a corner, but the most exciting way."
-Tsuchiya Keiichi
by Charlie Dango November 28, 2007
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A "Fortnite" character that has a large fanboy/fangirl group. Based off of the Japanese creature Kitusne
Amy: There's this one fortnite character who I think is kinda cute
Me:It's drift, the kitsune character. Amy you are gone
by RandomStarlight November 2, 2019
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Drifting (v.) The act of an Xbox 360 controller 'skipping' when playing a first person shooter (such as Modern Warfare 2). Usually caused by getting pizza dough in it; causes a higher sensitivity in the analog sticks.
Cowan was playing CoD with James, Clark, and Stru one day when his Uncle Gianluca needed help in the kitchen making a calzone. As he was kneading the dough, he got his controller caught in it and got pizza dough under the joysticks. To this day, the controller has him drifting all over the place if he's trying to quick scope.
by UglyStru August 14, 2010
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