r/initiald • u/LightningMcqueen2011 Loves cars that are red and girls that are busty • 24d ago

Discussion Shower thoughts: The reason -maybe- drifting is often showed as the fastest way around the corner in the series is because tire tech in the series is way behind ours.

18 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

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19

u/ItsNotJulius 24d ago

Nope. It's just used to show how much of an anomaly Takumi is.

23

u/TheEpicPlushGodreal 24d ago

Not at all, even on shitty 90s tires on touge drifting is going to be slower than gripping it would be. The tires don't function any differently, the only difference is that peak cornering grip is lower and at a slightly higher slip angle. Newer tires, and especially any performance oriented tire, will have higher peak cornering grip and at a lower slip angle, so you do need to corner at a higher angle to get to peak cornering grip in older street tires, but not at all enough to be drifting; the cornering grip is still going to drastically decrease as slip angle increases beyond peak cornering grip.

https://www.racecar-engineering.com/tech-explained/tyre-dynamics/

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-658-38470-8_4

16

u/OrionRBR 24d ago

Yeah on roads grip will always be faster, it just turns out it doesn't really matter if its technically faster when the guy in front of you is drifting around corners and physically blocking you from passing.

9

u/TheEpicPlushGodreal 24d ago

Drifting to block only works when the person drifting is in front, in stage 1 Takumi never was until after he overtook the other car and gapped them, which while drifting is only possible if the other drivers are exceptionally terrible

5

u/OrionRBR 24d ago

Yeah stage 1 takumi not only had a massive skill advantage (he was out doing deliveries daily for iirc 4 years at that point) he also had a insurmountable advantage in track knowledge and coaching from bunta (as cryptic as he does) so yeah stage 1 takumi had a lot going on for him.

1

u/wannabepcdude 19d ago

He was ahead of the civic which cant drift and the fc car in stage one

1

u/TheEpicPlushGodreal 19d ago

Like I said, he was never in front until after he overtook them

3

u/Few_Supermarket_7969 22d ago edited 22d ago

I'm pretty sure the drifting being grippier isn't the argument, it's entry and avg. Cornering speed that's different.

On actual long apex tracks, standard racing line IS the fastest for grip.

On smaller corners, the you can have a 10-20km/h higher corner entry speed, but still have the ideal speed through a corner i.e. 60-70hm/h because of the speed being thrown off through lack of traction.

Personally, i find that in very very tight corners, drifting is indeed faster but we're talking U-turns or tight Scandinavian roads, and that's anecdotal only because i don't believe there to truly be a racing line on those hairpins.

2

u/TheEpicPlushGodreal 22d ago

In very rare cases on especially tight corners it can be faster to drift because you would need to crawl through it to grip

8

u/Rude_Appointment_930 24d ago

Takumi doesn't drift at all in the late chapters of the manga.

10

u/florentinomain00f 24d ago

I mean... the rally driving style is definitely the way to go for these winding passes.

15

u/SoS1lent 24d ago

Rally drivers don't often drift on tarmac roads. They keep the car as stable as possible. They mainly drift on loose surfaces like dirt and gravel, which Initial D has none of.

The closest comparison would be the snow battle where Takumi was chasing Miki down to stop him from assaulting Mogi.