How to Drift like a Pro in Forza Horizon 4

A lot of people want to drift like a pro in Forza. It looks sick sliding around corners seamlessly. It’s also a great pastime when you get bored of racing in the game.

It’s not that hard to do once you get used to it. It just takes a little knowledge and practice. However, before you start to practice. You need to build a drift car. This involves tuning the engine of the car so it’s perfect for drifting. But before all of that, let’s buy our first drift car.

If you like this guide… check out more of our Forza Horizon 5 Drift guides or quickly unlock all the barn finds with our quick map.

Choosing your first build

When choosing a car to drift in, there are some fundamentals. The car should be rear-wheel drive and preferably front engine. Coupe’s and saloons make for better drift cars because of the better weight distribution. You can use a hatchback or pretty much anything. However, coupes and saloons work best.

I recommend starting with a low break horsepower car(BHP). It’s a lot easier to learn how to drift in a car that’s not too powerful. The car we’re going to tune is the Nissan 240SX. You can grab it for about 25000 credits.

Upgrading your car

When you have bought the 240SX. Take it to the upgrade section. It’s time to upgrade that pony. You got to upgrade pretty much every part of the car. Follow the steps below to tune your drift car in Forza 4.

Engine

First, go to the engine section and upgrade all the components to race, except the turbo.

Conversion

Next, go to conversion. In the aspiration section, choose a single turbo.

Brakes

Upgrade all components to race, except weight reduction. Select a street weight reduction. Taking too much weight from the car makes the car too twitchy and difficult to control.

Drivetrain

Max out all components to race spec.

Tyres

Keep the tyre component as stock. Upgrading the tyres too much adds more grip which makes it difficult to whip the back out.

Keep the front tyre width at stock. Change the rear-wheel tyres to 215mm. This will give us a little bit more grip at the back. This depends on how much horsepower the cars got. The higher the horsepower the wider the tyres. We’re going for low horsepower so 215mm will work perfectly.

Finally, make the front track width of the car’s tyres 10mm. Choose the first upgrade option. Leave the backtrack width stock.

Tuning for Drifting

We will now tune your cars finer details to make it perfect for drifting. Copy the stats you see below.

Tyres

Tyres set to 28 at the front and 26 at the rear.

Gearing

Set the Final Drive setting to 4.0. Each gear should be in descending order as follows: 1st: 2.90, 2nd: 2.00, 3rd: 1.55, 4th: 1.35, 5th: 1.15, 6th: 0.85.

Alignment

Change the Camber setting to Front: -5.0 and Rear -5.0

Anti-roll bars

Tuning the anti rolls bars will change the amount of understeer and oversteer of the car. Settings: Front: 32, Rear: 36.

Springs

The stiffer the springs the more responsive the car is. So stiffen up your springs. Settings: Front: 210, Rear: 170. Ride Height: Front: 21, Rear, 16.2

Damping

Change the Rebound Stiffness to Front: 13. Rear: 13.2. The Bump Stiffness should be about half of the rebound. Front: 6.8, Rear: 6.4.

Aero

This feature should be locked. However, if you put a spoiler on the car change the setting to speed on the front. The rear should be in the middle to balance between speed and cornering.

Brake

The balance of the brakes is important when drifting in Forza 4. It is best to balance the brakes so they lean more to the front of the car. This will make sure to keep the back out when drifting. Settings: Balance: 84% to Front. Braking Force: 50% on a controller, 150% if you use a steering wheel.

Differential

Lock the diff out at 100% for both acceleration and deceleration.

Change Game Settings

There are not many settings you need to change. However, there are 3 fundamental changes you need to make. Set ABS and traction control to OFF. You will also need to set the gear changing to manual. Turning ABS and traction control off gives the car less grip on the road which is better for drifting. Changing to manual gives you complete control over your gears. Which is crucial for drifting.

Learning the drifting technique

Drifting is most easily explained in 4 stages. The 4 stages in order are the line, the entry, the drift and the transition.

The Line

The line is how you approach the corner. It is very important to approach the corner correctly in order to set up for the next corner. Make sure to be approaching the turn wide, meaning to the very left of the road. However, it should be noted that every car is different and requires practice to master.

The Entry

There are many ways to enter a drift. The most common ways are explained below.

Handbrake Entry

This method involves using the handbrake to whip the car into a drift. If you are just starting. You should definitely try this method. Try turning into the corner at speed, let off the throttle and hold the handbrake. See how long you can hold the drift without spinning out.

Weight Transfer Entry

This method involves using the throttle and the weight of the car to force the car into a drift. Practice this method by approaching the corner wide. Lock the wheels into the drift and flutter the throttle. This means stepping on and off the throttle lightly. Using the acceleration to manipulate the direction of the drift.

The Drift

There are many ways to control the car mid-drift. Here are some of the most common.

Front Breaks

This method involves using the front brakes. This method helps to slow the car down while increasing the angle of the drift. The front brake bias helps to whip out the back of the car.

Fluttering the throttle

Fluttering the throttle means to step on and off the gas lightly in order to steer the car into the corner.

The Exit

When exiting the drift. Keep 2 things in mind. The first, coming out of the drift slowly. Secondly, knowing where to be positioned so you’re set up for the next corner. This takes practice. Choose a road you like and keep practicing until you master it.

Best Drifting Spots in Forza Horizon 4 – Map Locations

Check out the map below. It shows all the best drifts spots in Forza Horizon 4. The map includes.

• The railyard
• The car park
• The Loop Loop
• Edinburgh
• Ambleside
• Horizon festival site roundabout (for practice)

Finally…

Drifting takes lots of practice. Every car and every person is different. It may take you longer to get the hang of it. But keep practicing and you will eventually master it. Just remember the basics:

Start slowly just practicing small turns. Focus on only controlling the car so it doesn’t spin out. Keep in mind the basics of steering and counter steering.

When the car is close to spinning out, steer out of the drift. This is a basic counter steer. And when the car feels likes its straightening up, steer more into the drift.

Keep practicing these above techniques and you will get better in no time. Let me know in the comment section if you have any good techniques to practice drifting!