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by gtirloni 1239 days ago
I know explaining a joke ruins it but I failed to understand it so far.
2 comments

"Drift" is another term for understeer which is when the rear-end of the car loses traction in a turn. It tends to be easier to induce (accidentally or on purpose) in a rear-wheel-drive car.

I should note that my ~2005 MY Ford Focus would absolutely understeer if you enter a turn too fast without applying power.

Oversteer is when the rear end loses traction. Understeer is when the front end loses traction.
holy shit I wrote it exactly backwards. I didn't have my coffee this morning.
Are you lifting right before you start to turn in? That'll do it, because lifting off the throttle abruptly will shift weight to the front, which will unweight the rear; and sometimes that little weight transfer is all it takes to break the back end out a bit. (Used to do this regularly in a Taurus that I had the pleasure of driving for a few months.)
Yeah, the first gen focus is pretty easy to induce lift-off oversteer in. The rear end weighs nothing and the suspension sits strangely high.
> Lift-off oversteer

was on the tip of my tongue. Thank you!

They are intentionally misinterpreting "drift" as the driving technique (often associated with RWD vehicles) rather than the intended meaning.