How to Drift a Healey

Saw this video from Goodwood in the rain:

Hi John,

A Northern NJ (just across the river from NYC) guy with a new BJ8P1 and having met my 2-be wife who lived in NE Penn, I would try to see her each weekend. Traveling on a newly paved road passing through Pike County Reserve, I would put the Healey through its paces when passing through the mountains and drift around every corner I could. As a City boy, I had no understanding of the presence of forest animals and wore out my original Dunlop Road Speed cross-ply tires in a handful of trips.

Taking my then-girl friend back to meet my family, and driving as I did, she quired if I ever considered the deer that were in the forest. What dear I responded and she notified me that every light in the forest was a reflection of my lights off their eyes. The forest was light by an uncountable number of these lights and I immediately slowed.

My original tires were great to drift around turns but I could never drift with their replacement Pirelli Cinturatos.

Great fun,
Ray(64BJ8P1)

Very busy hands behind the wheel , great stuff .

Not to throw a wet blanket on anyone's enthusiasm or aspirations but it is worth noting that the Healey shown is a race car, fully prepped for the track. The radial tires that most of use are not set up to provide the gradual loss of traction necessary to achieve controlled,predictable sliding/drifting whether in wet or dry. Without some serious suspension mods to reduce push and rear wheel spin resulting from body roll any sudden loss of traction, whether in front, back or both might be a lot more scary than fun.

Yeah Michel:

But if these fellas want to continue havin fun all they gotta do is turn loose of the steering wheel N the Healey will drift off course all by itself don't need no out side help.:smile-new:

y original tires were great to drift around turns but I could never drift with their replacement Pirelli Cinturatos.​

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You are right Ray, no one can drift radials as well as cross ply, the car in the video most likely has cross-ply tires.

The following is cut & pasted from a SascoSports page and explains the difference well (had a visual graph too but that wouldn't copy & paste for me)

"The side force generated by the radial tire
increases with increasing slip angle on the tire
However, with increasing side force, after the
maximum side force has been reached, the radial
tire's side force drops off. This is the characteristic
of the radial tire, and is apparent to the racing
driver by a sudden loss of traction at the limit of
adhesion.

The bias ply will also develop its side force as the
slip angle increases but at a slightly lesser slope.
The peak of the bias ply curve may be the same
as that of the radial tire, but the slip angle will be
greater. However, at the limit the bias ply does not
have a real peak, but rather a plateau. Increasing
slip angles do not cause a sudden drop off of the
side force, but usually the side force is maintained
at quite large slip angles. Therefore the driver with
bias ply tires has a much larger range of slip
angles to feel what the car is doing. The result is
usually a driver who will go faster and who will
have more fun."

I love cross-plys on the track but much prefer radials for normal street driving.
Dave

I use cross-ply's on all the race cars as well:

Dunlop 204's on the Elva MK IV
Avon ACB 9's on the Elva Courier and Ginetta G4

All of them have very neutral handling and are easily started into a drift/slide. The Courier is a bit more tail-happy than the others and more likely to get away unless closely watched. When I have done something a bit too aggressive the MK IV just about stops reacting and asks me a question: "Are you sure you want to proceed past this point?" before doing anything dramatic on its own. The G4 has the best handling and road-holding and I am still learning its limitations.

I had a race like that at Sears Point a few years back. My car was the only one with wipers and I was happy to have them. It was the first time for rain in a while at the track, it felt like racing on ice, short shifting trying not to break the "raw egg" under the fast pedal....

That extract from Goodwood does not do the drive justice. I was there on the Saturday directly opposite the chicane and to see young Woolmer hammering down the Lavant straight, late braking into Woodcote passing all and sundry and then putting the power down as he was leaving the bend and before the chicane was awesome to say the least. The back end was twitching and the power was increasingly being applied as corrections were being made to the steering, before easing off a touch into the chicane and then back on again. Brilliant driving. I overheard his father talking as the cars were held before re-entering the paddock and he said that his son was extremely quick, IMO an understatement.



Bob

Thanks, Bob! I figured that in addition to being a race-prepared Healey with appropriate tires, the driver was exceptional.

John Turney said:

Thanks, Bob! I figured that in addition to being a race-prepared Healey with appropriate tires, the driver was exceptional.

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John, I saw this video on FB before you posted it here and was so impressed with the drive I immediately shared it on our club home page. It is an incredible drive. I can do the same thing with my Nasty Boy right up to the first 90 degrees, but then I can't seem to stop it until it goes into a full 360 degrees. It doesn't hurt, per Bob's quote. that "dad" is Paul Woolmer. an experienced Healey chauffer in his own right as anyone who saw him during the Team Healey Challenge races can attest.

Rick

I have to say that Richard outclassed his dad on this day, ( as so often the younger members of the family do) it was a two driver event and Paul was a Sunday driver by comparison.



Bob

Richard has also won at Goodwood driving other cars. In particular an HWM Chevrolet. He is very fast. I'd like to see him and Jack Rawles in the same race, in similar machinery. Maybe this will happen now that Richard has access to a 3000. He has previously been competing in 100s and Sprites.

Derek

I think that would be a battle royal and I do think that they would make an awesome duo in a two hander.



Bob