Is Sideways Faster? Ep1: AWD Snow and Ice

Shouldnt he be wearing a better helmet than a bicycle one?

man i would be in heaven there...

If sliding was faster, wrc drivers would slide everywhere, if straight and steady wrc drivers would do that.. it depends entirelly on the corner conditions and environment.. both have their benefits

subies look so majestic in the snow

Just the fact that you admitted that you broke traction on the Tidy lap proves you have to slide the car to go faster

I always thought that sliding is faster.

Only on snow and gravel not pavement or cement

powering through a snow covered track or digging through the gravel and rocks to get as much traction as you can...you gotta go both feet down on the floor exiting a turn to carry as much kinetic energy to stay on your line, I learned to drive this way running from the cops trying to give me tickets for racing, and never got caught rolled them into the ditch because learning to earhart a driver running in a sraight line is no way like trying to catch a light weight car setup for skinning down gravel roads and staying out of the ditch or bashing a tree....Thats how I learned to drive. Now driving a GT500 is a big A$$ handful if you want to go fast on tight roads..Kevino

add speedometer in corner of video. that will show the difference of speed what you use to go in corners ,Sideways Faster in sharp corner , if that is shallow then you lose time .

I got 2 things to say one you did a great job keeping grip and you drifted super good

Who couldn't tell your white?

when i watch formula 1 racing i love watching them always drifting sideways in every corner and all straight-a-ways. just constantly drifting to the point where i think they are at a drift contest. (sarcasm)

rip ppl who think grip is faster on snow🤦🏼‍♂️😂😂😂

on throttle vs pendulum.

So.Many.HawkEyes🤤🤤😍😍

it's all depends on grip. The goal is to gain as much average speed as you can. So for good grip surface where you can brake and accelerate faster the best tactics is to stay steady and use slow entrance\fast exit. And for loosy surface the best way is to keep in corner as much speed as you can by drifting it

My take on the slide vs clean:
In theory (perfect world, not real), not sliding will always be faster (regardless of the surface) because there is less wasted energy.
Pro rally drivers (real, not just theory) on the other hand , do not drive the 'perfect' non-sliding turn on slick surfaces because, the benefit of being efficient does not outweigh the gain of being able to make adjustments on the fly during the turn.
When sliding, the ability to correct for the imperfections of the real world will more often result in a more graceful and efficient turn than the theoretically correct turn.
The type-of-surface factor comes into the debate because, there is less need to correct on a smooth clean surface than a sloppy one.
The benefit of a clean non-sliding turn grows proportionally to how easy it is to get perfect.
Please do not take my word for it: Watch the video again and decide for yourself which lap-set is smoother.
When he was trying to not slide he had a few nice turns but the rest were unsettled and slow to exit.
With the set where he didn't care if he felt sliding, the car was much smoother and exited the turns much faster.
If you wanted to test my theory, do 40 laps on a consistent-level-slip track like sandy gravel or sprinklered/watered asphalt?
My hypothesis is that the sliding laps would be faster on average or elapsed time (best for racing, I agree) with the fastest lap of the day being one of the non-sliding set.

I found that this kind of sporty driving with my Forester XT helped to develop the reflexes necessary to pull the car back into control during an emergency maneuver on glare iced roads when the circumstances are not by your choice

It's certainly more fun to slide... :)

When driveing on snow its faster to go sideways because the tires will dig in moore to the road. The tyres also push much moore effective the snow trhough the grooves when going sideways = moore grip. When you drive on snow not slideing at all youre not on the limit because of what i told above because you have less grip just driveing on the loose surface. It is the same when you brake with abs on snow - the abs doesnt allow the tyre to dig in to the road surface, it will only use the tyre on the loose surface = less grip. Your car will stop quicker on snow without abs because the tyre will dig in to the road. I hope you understand and this is the same on all drive types fwd rwd awd. Greatings from Finland :)

Obviously fwd will not slide as much and slow corners must be taken with moore grip because its not possible to maintain a slide like rwd or awd and will take the speed moore off if slideing too much - the handbrake is only nessesary if you mess up and or the car wont turn othervice.

You should use incar camera so that we could see the whole course and the camera youre showing. You should also use a course that will show better all different drive types, because this course just doesnt favor front wheel drive at all, rear wheel drive little better. This course favors awd and thats why its the fastest. There are situations and corners that is faster with 2wd because of less weight than the awd. Allthough that wasnt the point of this test. :)

Short answer: Yes, because you want to lose as little of your momentum as possible on snow and ice because accelerating doesn't quite work so well.

If car wanna slide. Let it slide. Just prepare so

Can you guys do a video on setting up a budget friendly car like this Impreza? Covering all the basics i.e suspension and alignment, wheel/tire, etc.

Who else is here cuz they keep crashing in dirt rally?

Real good stuff, as always, Wyatt. Keep up the good work and cheers from Hungary. :)

F1 on snow I'd love to see!

That does NOT look like the right helmet for rallying ahha.

I’d love to see you do this test on a paved autox course (you’re welcome to come down to Devens, MA).

WRX would be even more fun than those scoop-less Imprezas

I'm curious as to how the results change for a car that is driven by 2 wheels instead of 4. One theory I have heard is that sliding the car causes it to yaw steer and I'd like to see if that is lessened by reducing drive wheel grip

Ford RS200's 0-60 mph time was 2.1 seconds, y
in the dirt!

Basically, a rally car eject gravel like rockets eject hot gases.

YES, the answer is YES. Whatever the actual scientific answer is, it's YES.


How much slip angle is optimal?? YES.


:D

When off-road, a little sliding is natural. But you shouldn't be drifting or power sliding lol

This guy sounds like Justin Trudeau and Neil Patel had a baby

Do it on gravel and on pavement. Why don't F1's drift?

De ja vu!!!!

sideways is faster offroad, sticking better on road imo

Sliding is funner and that's the important thing

It sounds lame but how about a 2nd gen Honda CR-V realtime4WD with snow and ice tires. Preferably 5sp, but I had an auto and Michelin X-ICE so that’s ok too.

In rally, sideways is usually faster because it conserves momentum

Momentum is key in car racing the smoother you can make your turns and hold your speed the better your time. On loose surfaces the tire spinning actually helps shove dirt snow and gravel under the tires helping you get grip. On pavement its crucial you maintain the rubber on the road at all times. Even getting air on a jump detracts from time you could be accelerating.

very interestiing

That's so many Subarus in the back. I want one.

Drifting vs grip would be interesting on pavement

Driving sideways only keeps constant engine speed, while there might not be proper grip

Old school drifters for Japan always said drifting into a corner allows you to enter the corner at a faster speed. Useful in situations where you couldn't brake without being over taken. It wasn't until later, people said it was faster way around corners.