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Official and Confirmed... My 2000 Ford Focus does drift!

Well sort of drift...

after tonight's conversation with my ex gf... i went on a drive to cool off. For the most part i was doing great until i started to push it a bit on the upper end on Topanga Canyon.

I know Topanga Cyn pretty well, i have done it several times on the motorcycle. Well in a car its different. For one I cant look through teh curve when its curving to the left. Even so i did pretty awesome.. kept it about 20mph faster than speed limit for the turn or straightaway.

Anyway so i was coming up to "top o topanga" and one of those turns had water on the ground. A left handed long turn and I started to push it into the turn. I suddenly felt the rear end pulling out and the front drifting into the turn. However if teh cliff wasnt there and i had more room i could have held it. But I had to quickly use opposite lock to bring the car in line and straighten it out.

Yes the focus does oversteer.. infact mine does pretty easily when you push it into a turn. I think mine is setup far better than another focus that i drove. Mine is neutral in handling (there isnt much of an understeer in most turns - like compared to most front wheel drive cars which do understeer into a turn) until you push it into an oversteer.

This is the first time I did an oversteer on the Bridgestone Protenza's. My old continentals would readily oversteer.. infact it didnt have any grip.. pushing into a turn would make the car feel like its loosing grip as the rear starts to slide and then you have to back away before the front loses grip.

I wonder if I change teh shocks on my focus (right now they are too damn soft and seems to bounce alot) the handling will change or not. I need to stiffen her up if i want to live on the edge.

By the way my route was this..

101 West -> Las Virgines / Malibu Canyon -> PCH (hwy 1) East -> North 27 (Topanga Canyon) -> 101East to Home.
 
I dont drift for a living, its just so happened i pushed it a bit too hard into a corner and the tires lost grip on that wet / damp surface.
 
I'm not entirly sure why people would call drifters pansy's, but i just came home from drfiting in my 82 honda accord. It's not an easy task to pull off, at any speed, w/out using the e-brake. not sure the grade on my tires at the moment, but am starting to realize why drifters have bucket seats in their cars
 
i've done that in my car but i don't think it's b/c of the car. it's more b/c of the weather and speed you are driving. any car can "drift"
 
Originally posted by: Albis
i've done that in my car but i don't think it's b/c of the car. it's more b/c of the weather and speed you are driving. any car can "drift"

weather and speed are variables, but its the suspension and wheels that can carry you through. or in other words, the handling of the car. but yeah, in essence, every car can drift, but some feel like they are gonna flip
 
jesus, i do 70+ through 40 MPH curves over humps and crests in my freaking station wagon EVERY SINGLE DAY. (it's my commute). when it rains the road gets completely saturated (as in big rivers running lengthwise down the road) and the drive is basically one constant hydroplane through dense fog and violent blasts of rain. now that's drifting. last week i blew the doors off a brand-new M45 and the riced-out 300ZX TT that wanted to play was unable to lose me despite probably having triple the power and certainly more grip. yeah baby. i eat big bowls of focuses for breakfast.

</chest-pounding> 😀
 
Originally posted by: thomsbrain
jesus, i do 70+ through 40 MPH curves over humps and crests in my freaking station wagon EVERY SINGLE DAY. (it's my commute). when it rains the road gets completely saturated (as in big rivers running lengthwise down the road) and the drive is basically one constant hydroplane through dense fog and violent blasts of rain. now that's drifting. last week i blew the doors off a brand-new M45 and the riced-out 300ZX TT that wanted to play was unable to lose me despite probably having triple the power and certainly more grip. yeah baby. i eat big bowls of focuses for breakfast.

</chest-pounding> 😀

spiffy, what kind of "wagon" you have?
 
Originally posted by: thomsbrain
jesus, i do 70+ through 40 MPH curves over humps and crests in my freaking station wagon EVERY SINGLE DAY. (it's my commute). when it rains the road gets completely saturated (as in big rivers running lengthwise down the road) and the drive is basically one constant hydroplane through dense fog and violent blasts of rain. now that's drifting. last week i blew the doors off a brand-new M45 and the riced-out 300ZX TT that wanted to play was unable to lose me despite probably having triple the power and certainly more grip. yeah baby. i eat big bowls of focuses for breakfast.

</chest-pounding> 😀
There's a really good road like that near my apartment, I love flinging the Lincoln around on it, people just don't expect a Lincoln to handle well.

Had an IS300 that kept trying (and failing) to pull away from me and apparently he was pretty embarassed about it or something (it wasn't like I was pushing hard, maybe 7/10ths). Anyway, he decided he was going to be a big man and he floored it around a hard right-hander, didn't go easy on the throttle at all, just mashed it like a dumbass. He broke his back end loose, caught it, over-corrected (and never once took his foot off the gas, I could hear his tires spinning the whole time) and very neatly arced off the road and came to a rest sitting on the shoulder facing oncoming traffic. He didn't hit anything so I didn't stop, but the look on his face was priceless.

ZV
 
Cool, an AT kill stories thread.

Once, I beat a V6 eclipse convertible with a bunch of chicks in it. The passengers were all cheering me on, lol.
 
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