--------------------------------------- Drift FAQ - Need for Speed: Underground v1.0 by Veen --------------------------------------- ii. CONTENTS i. DISCLAIMER 1. Introduction 1.1. What is Drifting? 1.2. What is Drifting In-Game? 1.3. Which Car Should I Pick? 2. Control 2.1. Game controls a. A Quick Note on Countersteer 2.2. Drift Techniques a. Handbrake b. Braking Drift c. Power Over Drift d. Inertia Drift e. Choku-Dori 2.3. Chaining 2.4. Turbo or NA? 3. Misc 3.1. Drift Ranks 3.2. Specific Car Help a. Nissan 240sx b. Mazda Miata c. Mazda RX-7 d. Toyota Supra e. Honda S2000 f. Subaru Impreza g. Mitsubishi Lancer h. Nissan Skyline R34 4. Conclusion 5. Contributors and Version History i. DISCLAIMER All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. This FAQ is intended for general use. You may post this on your site or wherever, provided that you leave everything in this file intact the way it is. Do not modify it in any way, shape, or form. If you see this FAQ modified elsewhere, notify me at veen@phreaker.net, with the phrase "DRIFT FAQ" without quotes in the header of your e-mail. I make references in this FAQ to certain styles of driving that could be possibly transfered over into real life. However, it is important that you remember that this is a game, and that the people who do this in real life are professionals and quite experienced at what they do. Just because you can do it in NFS:U doesn't mean you can go do it in real life. As such, you hold yourself and yourself alone responsible if you go try this in your real car and hurt anyone or anything. Follow traffic laws and always use your turn signals and seatbelt. That being said... let's move on. --------------------------------------- 1. Introduction --------------------------------------- 1.1. What is Drifting? --------------------------------------- Drifting is a variation of motorsports that originated in Japan. As opposed to most types of driving, which require a driver to reach a certain point first, or in the shortest amount of time to be declared the winner, drifting relies more on style than anything else. How far sideways you send the car, and how stylish in general your drift is, the better you score. This type of driving has now migrated all over the world, and various organizations have begun to support it. Chances are if you live in any fairly large city, you can find a drift team or organization around yourself. The best part about it is that you don't need to be rich to compete. If you have a fairly well balanced car, you can do it. It just takes finesse with the controls and a feel for the car. Obviously RWD helps, but isn't neccesary. Due to the magic of the handbrake, even FF econoboxes can drift with some work. --------------------------------------- 1.2. What is Drifting In-Game? --------------------------------------- Drifting in Need for Speed: Underground has to be one of the most frustrating parts of the game. It has a fairly steep learning curve, it's, tough to win consistently in the beginning of Underground mode, you can't feel the car adequately through your controller, and it's also the most fun mode in the game. That's right, this is actually really fun once you learn how to do it. The trick is getting over that steep learning curve. Once you learn to control the car solely from visual feedback, you will find that it's incredibly easy to progress from there. Don't be discouraged by constant losses, once you hit that plateau it's all downhill from there. --------------------------------------- 1.3. Which Car Should I Pick? --------------------------------------- This is almost entirely a personal preference issue. Due to the fact that the game exaggerates physics for the drift mode, you can get away with picking a FF car. I really can't reccomend it, as this is going to hinder you once you graduate from Easy mode. Besides, FF is probably the worst drivetrain you could have for any type of race. Go with AWD or RWD. With the exception of the Nissan Skyline R34, any of the AWD cars will drift well enough to be competitive. They will just require a bit more work and finesse, and use of the e-brake. I'll touch more on some of the best cars later on. For now, pick the best RWD or AWD car you have available in Underground Mode. It will see you through just fine, and still be a nice contender for the rest of the modes. See? It's getting easier already. --------------------------------------- 2. Controls --------------------------------------- 2.1. Game Controls --------------------------------------- The game controls you will want to have bound to your wheel, joystick, or pad are as follows. -Steering -Accelerate -Brake -Shift Up -Shift Down -Handbrake That's all you need. NOS is not available in this mode, you don't need to look around you, and you won't need that horn or anything, either. Also, the first thing you should do when you start the drift mode is to hit the view change button three times. This will put you in the "bumper cam." If you absolutely despise racing in this view, just learn how to do it. You actually drift more effectively if you use this view than you would any of the outside views, and you become a better driver overall in the other race modes. You get a feel for where the car is really quick, and after a few seconds in this mode it's literally a non-issue. a. A Quick Note on Countersteer A quick note on countersteering. I will refer to this a few times in the upcoming techniques. The basic concept of this, and the easiest way to remember how exactly to do it, is "steer where you want to go." This is also a nice technique that works in real life, if your car starts sliding out of control and you need to get it back. Technically, countersteer is where you turn the front wheels into the direction that your back end is skidding, thus providing resistance against the skid, and keeping the tail under control, thereby minimizing your chances of spinning out. Put simply, when this word is said in this FAQ, point the wheels down the track where you want to go. :) --------------------------------------- 2.2. Basic Techniques --------------------------------------- Ok, now we get into the juicy stuff. The Drift Techniques. First thing is first though, make sure the text below lines up. Otherwise this is not going to make any sense at all to you. 1234567890 QWERTYUIOP First technique up to bat is the Handbrake Drift a. Handbrake This is probably the simplest drift. This is done almost as it is in real life, though try to remember that this is a game, and does not behave that close to real physics. It's an arcade simulation, and close, and it WILL give you an idea of how to do this in real life, but don't try it unless you really know what you're doing. Anyways, on with it. Here's your turn. You are the car "240," going "up," making this a left turn. _______________________ \ \ ______________ & \ \ \ | | | | | * | | | | 2 | | 4 | | 0 | You should approach this at a fairly decent speed, maybe about 60mph. Most turns in the game will do well at this speed in Drift Mode. Remember, you aren't trying to get to the line first, you're doing this with style. If you have to brake before most of your turns, you're driving too fast. Keep the car in control. You'll get a feel for how fast is too fast when you start slamming into walls and skidding (not drifting) out of control, or for too slow when the car just goes sideways a bit and stops dead in its tracks. Take this turn above. For the handbrake drift, you should start turning the wheel at the *, and hold the handbrake for about a half second to one second at the &. Aim for the inside of the turn so that when your back end kicks around, you can have room to control it. This will send the tail around, and you will probably need to feather the throttle and countersteer. The idea is to keep the tail in control and your car moving. The handbrake just helps you get there. This is the easiest drift to do, and once you learn it, you'll only need to use it for a short time. Especially once your car gets more power. Just practice this until you get the hang of sending the tail out and keeping control of it. If you're driving a manual, you'll want to shift to 2nd or 3rd when you start to go sideways, so that you have enough power to control the back end. This is done fairly decently if you let the computer handle the shifting, but it's much more rewarding to do it yourself. Next up, we have the Braking Drift. b. Braking Drift This drift works well for hairpin turns. The handbrake would only send you into the wall in one of these turns, so we need something a bit more controlled. Hence, we just hit the brakes as usual. This will also have the added advantage of disturbing the weight transfer of the car in such a way that a drift will be induced. You would brake a lot later than you normally would in a regular race to get this one going, and contrary to what is usually ideal, you actually steer WHILE braking with this. Observe _________________ / \ / _*-----&- \ / / __ \ | / || | | * || | | / || | | 2 || | | 4 || | | 0 || | Once more, you are the 240, heading up, making a right turn this time. Try to steer the car to follow the line up there, but start your braking at the first *. Your car will start to skid. Let off the brake at around the second *, and slam on the gas at the & to turn this skid into a drift. Countersteer the car and feather the throttle to keep it under control, and you should have just taken a hairpin turn with a Great or Superb drift. Other cars may require different braking points or acceleration points, but if it's one of the RWDs, this will serve as a good starting point. For manual drivers, shift to 2nd or 3rd, whichever pulls you through drifts better, as you start braking. Any sooner and you don't brake well enough to pull off the hairpin, any longer and you lose too much power to make an effective drift. Next up, we have my favorite, the Power Over Drift. c. Power Over Drift This one is so simple it's funny. It's also the easiest to pull off once you've mastered the art of keeping the rear under control. You can approach turns really fast with this one, go through them at a blistering speed, and come out with plenty more speed for the next drift. The only downfall is that you need a RWD to pull this off successfully. FWDs just don't cut it, and the AWDs are pretty iffy. _______________________ \ \ ______________ \ \ \ | | | & | | | | | | 2 | | 4 | | 0 | Now eariler, I told you to approach this very same turn and to brake where that & is. We're going to do this similar, but you're going to approach it at a medium to low speed. Next you steer AND mash the gas at that &. Using the steering and throttle of your car, keep it going at about a 20-45 degree angle through the turn and as far into the straight as you can. This won't get you sideways too much, but it'll get you going fast enough to overcome that pointwise. You CAN get the car to go sideways, but you'll really have trouble coming out of it and setting up for the next turn. Eventually, you'll be able to pull this off at really high speeds. For now, just learn to do it from a slow start. The beauty of this drift is it's ease of use. Once you learn it, it'll be your primary mode of drifting. You can eventually just power over through hairpins, low speed turns, high speed turns, and most anything else. No handbrake involved. This is the beauty of RWD, right here. I'd reccomend third gear for doing something like this. It should give you enough torque to control the drift, and enough power to keep the car going at a nice speed. Shift into third as you turn the wheel and mash the gas at that &. Next up we have a little gem known as the Inertia Drift. d. Inertia Drift This is a godsend for you FF drifters. It's about the only way, save some handbrake work, that you'll ever see a drift in this game. Unfortunately, it can't be continued or done fast enough to score enough points to really win. Still, if you want to go ahead and try, here it is. _______________________ \ _________ \ ______________ \_ \ \ \ \ | 1 | | / | | / | | / | | G | | T | | I | Approach this turn at a slow speed. Nothing above 55 or so until you learn this particular technique. At this point, steer the car to follow the first line off to the right. When you get to about that 1, you jam the wheel back left. What this does in real life, is compresses the shocks and springs on the left side of the car, and then springs the weight back over to the right side, upsetting traction and sending the car into a drift. Since you can't sense how compressed your shocks are in NFS:U, you'll need to practice this a lot before you can do it well enough to even try to compete. This also works for RWD and AWD cars, which have a lot better luck with it. In these vehicles, after you jam the wheel back left, you can downshift and feather the throttle to control the drift like you would any other. If you're in a FF, you may as well just downshift to 1st or 2nd and floor it after you hit the 1 to keep the wheels spinning. In a RWD or AWD, second or third should suffice. Next up is another useful little trick for getting points. The Choku-Dori Drift. e. Choku-Dori Drift This is a fancy way to say "swaying" drift. A RWD exclusive, it's one nice trick for either continuing a chained drift, or just getting some extra points. It is usually done on a straight, but some turns, like the doglegs in Drift Track 2, actually require this technique for maximum points. | | | | * | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | * | | | | | | | | | | | | | | * | | 2 | | 4 | | 0 | | | To start with, just find a straight and do this SLOWLY. Go about 40mph or less, and go in a straight line. At the first *, jam the wheel left and hit the gas. Immediately countersteer to the right, let off the gas. The tail should be coming back straight now. When it gets straight, or just before, gun the gas again. Countersteer back to the left, and repeat the throttle dance you just did. At each * you should send the tail in it's opposite direction. Keep this up as long as you can. The real use of this is to continue a drift. For example, coming out of a left drift with another left turn up ahead, the rear will be out to your right. You can use this technique to kick the rear back to the right, and then back left again in time for the new drift to the left. This will chain two drifts, and keep the point total going up. Two 2,500 drifts could easily become a 10,000 Superb. As with most other drifts, second or third should suffice. Third if you're going faster, second if you're going slower. Keeping enough power to keep the rear swinging is the key here. Not having enough to keep it swinging will kill this drift. --------------------------------------- 2.3. Chaining --------------------------------------- Go out and practice these drifts until you can pull them off whenever you want. The goal is to get to know which drift to pick for which turns. When you achieve this, then it's time to move on to chaining. The problem with writing a FAQ on this, is that drifting is hardly an exact science. There's also plenty of different ways for different drivers to do the same turn equally well. By now though, you should know which drifts you prefer. Time to chain them together. You should now have a good feeling over the car, and be able to tell what the rear end is going to do at any given moment. Using the drifts above, just keep it going as long as you possibly can. Choku-Dori through the straights, do a braking drift through one turn and then hit the gas for a power over into the next, the possibilities are literally endless. For practice, here's two drills you can do. First off, try to chain a drift through an entire lap of Drift Track 1. This will require you to choku-dori into a power over drift, and then do it back into a choku-dori. Secondly, try to score an Insane Drift on Drift Track 2. This will require you to either modify the choku-dori to clear the doglegs, or inertia drift through them into a power over. It can be done either way though, and this is probably the easiest track to score an Insane Drift on. --------------------------------------- 2.4. Turbo or NA? --------------------------------------- This is about the only real bit of tuning you can do to your car, and it can make a big difference. Some cars don't come stock with a turbo, and you may want to keep it this way. A turbo will take a small amount of time to spool up, and if you are feathering the throttle, this might interfere with your driving enough that you may want to remove the device. It's really a matter of taste. I prefer to keep the maximum turbo kit on, as I like the additional power and can compensate for it, but others may prefer the finer control that keeping it off can give you. Some cars do come with a turbo, however. This is unfortunate, because it forces you to use a turbo. If the car is a turbo, you may as well just go with the maximum turbo kit to remove most of that turbo lag. Usually the car will be manageable, even if dealing with the lag drives you nuts. --------------------------------------- 3. Misc --------------------------------------- 3.1. Drift Ranks --------------------------------------- The ranks for the drifts are as follows. Good Drift 1,000 Great Drift 3,000 Superb! 7,000 Colossal! 15,000 Outrageous! 20,000 Insane Drift! 50,000 Drift King! 100,000 As far as I know, Drift King is the highest, and kicks in at around 100,000 points in a single drift. You can pull this off, and it is, in fact, quite insane to do and/or see. --------------------------------------- 3.2. Specific Car Help --------------------------------------- This section is for help with specific cars. Each one is different, and these are the ones I personally reccomend. I will try my best to categorize their weakness and strength. I have also put in which cars are NA (or naturally aspirated, the cars that come stock without a turbo), and which are turboed. The drivelines of the cars are also here for easy reference. a. Nissan 240sx Engine Type: NA, FR This car is the simplest to start drifting with. It's probably the second best drifting car in the game, tied with the RX-7. The tail will fly out at your whim with a touch of throttle, and it stays well under control when you want it to. That and the fact that it's an excellent little contender for all the OTHER modes of Underground make it probably the best one to choose for quite some time. b. Mazda Miata Engine Type: NA, FR Technically the best drifting car in the game. It sticks to the ground at VERY high speeds in the drift physics, but if you just hold the throttle in and jam the wheel to the left or the right, it'll go into an excellent power over drift without complaining. Let off the gas and steer the other way and you can transistion into a choku-dori no problem. Chaining drifts in this thing is easy, power overing is easy, everything about this car is easy. Its only downfall is it's squirreliness in other game modes. Fortunately, you can just choose this car for drifting anywhere but Underground mode and not have to worry about this. A very sweet car. c. Mazda RX-7 Engine Type: Turbo, FR Once you unlock this car in Underground mode, I would strongly suggest you snag it. It's excellent in most any form of racing, but it absolutely rules at drifting. It takes the versatility of the 240sx, and the speed of the Miata, and gives it to you in one very nice package. If you love RWD, this will probably be your main car throughout Underground mode once it's unlocked, and possibly through other modes too. d. Toyota Supra Engine Type: NA, FR This car requires finesse. Out of all the RWDs, this one is probably the worst. You have to take it slow, you have to carefully plan your drifts, you have to make sure your foot is so fine on the throttle it's almost scary. However, you can still pull off decent drifts in it, so long as you're smooth on the controls. I can not stress this enough. Your movements need to flow like water with this car. e. Honda S2000 Drivetrain: NA, FR This car is a middle ground between the Miata and the 240sx. It goes faster than the 240sx, but still requires a bit of skill to successfully chain drifts with. Not a bad choice, though I'd honestly prefer the 240sx. f. Subaru Impreza Drivetrain: NA, AWD I think this car is supposed to be AWD, but it behaves more like a RWD. It's just as good as the Honda S2000, though I think the S2000 is mildly better at drift. Still, the Impreza drives drift mode just like it was a rally race. It's not a bad car for other modes either, and the only glaring weakness it has is just a bit of trouble chaining some extended drifts. g. Mitsubishi Lancer Engine Type: NA, FF A bit more sluggish than the Impreza, and a bit harder to control. Still better than the Supra, but doesn't really compare to the real drift kings like the 240sx or the Miata. Great for other game modes though, so it's liveable. It would also appear to be the baseline FF, not the AWD Evo, but it drifts like an AWD in game. If you absolutely HAVE to drive FF, at least pick this car. h. Nissan Skyline R34 Engine Type: Turbo, AWD At first glance, this would appear to be a horrible choice for drifting. However, the AWD platform and insane amounts of horsepower help it pull through any drift with incredible control. It almost behaves like a RWD in drift mode, possibly to replicate disabling the front wheels for the event. You can chain some fairly long drifts, you just have to use the handbrake to keep them going. The power the car has will more than make up for its weight though, and the control it gives in the rest of Underground mode make this a wise choice once you unlock it. You can at least muscle through the rest of drift mode with it, or just temporarily swap to a Miata and back. --------------------------------------- 4. Conclusion --------------------------------------- Well that's about it. This should serve as a rather nice primer for drifting, and at least get you started. Just remember to take it easy, relax, and be smooth. Your movements should be fluid and relaxed. This doesn't go just for drift, this goes for all forms of driving. If you have questions, you may e-mail me at veen@phreaker.net, and if you see something I haven't covered, feel free to let me know. I will keep updating this FAQ as new questions and information come in. Just put "DRIFT FAQ" without the quotes somewhere in the title of the e-mail so that my spam filter knows to save it and not throw it out. With all that said, I wish you all good luck. Drift On! --------------------------------------- 5. Contributors and Version History --------------------------------------- This section will contain the version history, and a list of contributors that have helped out on this FAQ, be it by sending me information, pointing out mistakes, or whatnot. Contributors: D12ift 2 Win - For pointing out that I completely forgot a staple of drifting, the Mazda RX-7, and pointing out that I should probably mention turbo lag. Numerous - Drift King ranking at 100,000, which I also confirmed myself. Thanks for letting me know about this one. Version History: 1.0 - 3/10/2004 - The First 1.1 - 3/29/2004 - Whoops, forgot the RX-7, Whoops, forgot to put the drivetrains, also added a small bit on turbos and turbo lag in Section 2.4., and confirmed and added the Drift King! score. Copyright Brent Pedigo 2004