Step One: Practice initiating a drift.
For this step, you don't need to change your differential or suspension settings. Keep everything as you would keep it for 'grip' or normal racing. The only things you'll need to get started is a set of drift tyres - start with hard compound tyres like the #4406 T-Drift tyre or #34501 Stage-D 04S-26 tyre to begin with. The HPI treaded drift tyres are made from a different compound for advanced drift maneuvers.

Start by approaching the corner at a quick speed. The more you accelerate, the more stable the car will be. As you get to the apex, accelerate faster than normal to break rear traction. The rear end should start sliding, giving you a 'tailslide'. When this happens, countersteer back to neutral and accelerate away. You've just completed the first step in drifting! When you're able to do this consistently, you can move on to trying to drift completely around a corner. Keep practicing this first step to perform the tail slide smoothly.

Step Two: Drifting around a corner.
Again, keep the same diff and tyre settings as for grip racing.

Drive into the same corner you were practicing with in step one, but instead of braking and then turning like you would in grip racing, turn the steer and brake hard at the same time to break the back end loose. This starts your 'drift swing'. Counter-steer to keep the nose of the car pointed towards the apex until the car gets past the apex, then steer back to neutral as you exit the turn, and accelerate away.

To link up a sequence of curves use the drift swing technique to get you smoothly through the curves. Between the turns, release the throttle for a moment to increase how much the counter-steer affects the car, then accelerate again as the car starts turning into the following curve.

Remember that the more of an angle you can keep through the corner and the more graceful the car is, the more points you'll earn from any judges, whether you're at an organized competition or just thrashing about with your mates.

Step Three: High performance drifting.
As you make the move into high performance drifting, you'll need to start adjusting your car settings. If you want to maximize the amount of counter-steer you use, keep the front diff as standard but use a tighter rear diff setting, either by tightening the diff screw or using heavier grease. To focus more on extreme drift angle, use a front one-way diff while tightening the rear diff as described for more counter-steer action. For both types of drifting, use a much softer suspension setting than for the earlier steps, by using a spring that is a couple of steps softer than standard and slightly thinner shock oil. You can adjust the suspension links but keep it simple for now and just adjust the shocks by themselves.

To create a big drift angle, brake before entering the corner and control the throttle to pass the apex with a large angle. For an EP (electric-powered) car, use a front one-way for rear braking to quickly change the direction and accelerate. Try to keep the car from spinning. Be gentle on the throttle when using a front differential or exiting the corner.

Step Four: Driving with other cars - Twin Drift!
The ultimate challenge for drift masters is driving with other cars in what is called the 'twin drift'. Both cars are sliding through the corner, just inches from one another, as the drivers delicately balance brake and throttle inputs to either pull away from the car behind, or catch up to the car ahead. It's even tougher when the drivers have wildly different drifting styles - it takes a lot of nerve and a lot of skill to do it right!