Aerodynamics are used in drifting to
transfer the weight of the car to or away from the tires
during the turn or drifting process. They use the
force of the air resistance or drag to transfer weight to
the desired place on the car. The force of air
resistance is also known as a drag force ( Fdrag= 1/2 p
V^2 Cd A, where p is the
density of the gas or liquid, V is the velocity, C is
the drag coefficient and A is the area). So as you can see, if you lower the area of the
surface or increase the velocity the drag force, it becomes
bigger and can slow the car down or vice versa.
Knowing the drag the car produces is very important. When
you are in a turn you don't want the drag to slow you down
too much to get friction again and head the direction of the
force. They also use aerodynamics to control where the
weight transfers on the car, as we learned earlier weight
transfer is very important also as it lowers the coefficient
of friction on the surface. Aerodynamics are used in
multiple ways while drifting, but a lot of drifting has to
do with the friction and the net forces on the car to
overcome the resistivity of the frictional forces.
