World Rally Championship rallying today is all about precision through a corner – scrubbing speed off before the apex and pinning the throttle as early as possible to take the most efficient line through the bend.
But roll back the generations and things were a little bit more wayward. A bit more beautiful. A bit more sideways. The steering was done by the rear tires and a healthy amount of throttle, not so much a calculating mindset.
World rally drivers were effectively drifters, regularly sliding their car from corner to corner much to the delight of the onlooking spectators.
But as cars developed and video analysis grew and grew it’s a technique that’s vanished from the modern rally driver’s repertoire.
Or has it?
‘Fanga’ Dan Woolhouse certainly proved that perhaps the relationship between drifting and rallying isn’t dead after all on last weekend’s Otago Rally. A two-time drifting champion in New Zealand, Fanga Dan was contesting his first ever rally – in Team Rossendale’s famous Ford Escort Mk2 – and noticed some similarities between his usual profession and rally driving.
“When we’re on the Tarmac [drifting] we’re throwing as maximum angle as we can and trying to go as fast as we can as well,” he told DirtFish.
“Now on the gravel [rally driving] we’re trying to be a lot smoother coming in, not as much angle but you’re still, well I’m still finding the limits of the grip and that drive to hit the apex and that’s exactly like what we do in drifting as well.
“The car’s sideways, as soon as you see the apex you stand on it and drive through it.
“I’ve got nothing to prove, I just want to go and have fun and show that drifters do have a skill and that drifting is a very professional sport.”
What’s key is that Fanga Dan’s drifting skills proved incredibly useful for driving a rally car. Eighth overall on the Classic Rally last weekend might not sound that earth-breaking, but the fact he was a complete rallying novice and up against some serious pedallers with several wins and years of experience of the Kiwi stages, proves he was able to jump in at a really high level from the get go.
How would it work the other way around, what if a rally driver went drifting? Would that improve their car control and skillset and thus benefit their performances in a rally car?
Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta certainly thinks so. He told DirtFish last year: “When you come to these cars, everything changes. It is quite difficult and very easy to crash. I have to take time to learn, but it’s definitely helping with driving in the World Rally Championship. OK, the cars are very different to the Yaris, but it still makes you understand things more.”
Colleague and WRC points leader Kalle Rovanperä is often Katsuta’s drifting buddy, and likes to slide around a bespoke 1000bhp monster for fun. But he’s equally sure it also helps him in rallying.
“Maybe in some ways yeah, because it’s basically like nowadays [in rallying] when drifting is starting to be so competitive and the cars are fast with a lot of grip, you need to really push quite hard,” he said.
“The whole idea of driving and drifting is being on the edge of grip all the time, so in some ways it gives you the feeling and every time you are in a race car and doing whatever it’s good, it cannot be bad if you just drive something.
“It just gives you a bit more feeling.”
You heard it here first – drifting helps one of the world’s best rally drivers improve his feeling of pushing tires to the limit of their grip.
Given how well Rovanperä has driven over the last few months, might several of his rivals follow suit?
