The Dubai Autodrome has an Easy Drift Experience available, taught in a Volkswagen GTI. If you buy a sporty VW in UAE, you get a voucher to do this experience for free. It is 950 AED for the class, noted as 5 minutes passenger and 40 minutes driving; I got it as part of a combo package with the Single Seater Experience. The Single Seater Experience is 875 AED, and the combo was 1250. 375 AED to drift around and try something new didn’t seem too bad to me.
The combo is actually an abbreviated session I believe, about 30 minutes of driving time. I figured a lot of people would do it that were in my single seater class, however I ended up being the only one.
Easy Drift is actually a French company, and what they do is make this hard plastic cover for the wheels. They stick it on the rear wheels of the car, which is pretty normally driveable at low speeds, although a good flick or just a bit more speed to exceed the rear wheel grip the plastic provides and the car goes sliding.
I’m not a drifter, but I have done a couple Drift 101 days in Chicagoland in my BRZ, to punish the OEM tires in the rear for sucking. This session started the same – trying to do donuts/circles in both directions, then it is possible to graduate to figure 8’s – I wasn’t sure if that required a 2nd session or if I whipped donuts right away the instructor would have had me do those. My instructor was a cool French guy who teaches racing drivers, he was a pretty wired dude and I think we both knew he had better things to do than be patient with me making a mess of things!
I have not done bad at my drift classes, but this was a bit different and more challenging. I was used to a lot more grip in the rear and having to drive a bit differently to start and keep a drift going. I thought I’d be a lot better starting out than I was, but eventually I was able to make things happen and do some semi-consistent cone circles. At that point, doing it effortlessly and smoothly would just be a lot more practice, practice, practice. When we first got to the track, the instructor sure made it look effortless – he was with the company from the start as well. He was able to lose traction and control it around the track down into my little practice course area and certainly all around it, just as easily as breathing.
Was it worth the money? I wouldn’t do this as a standalone experience myself – I don’t think it is worth the cost of entry; it’s even more than the single seater. As the combo, it’s not bad – kinda depends on if you have done something like this before. I have, and although I enjoyed it, I wouldn’t do it again, nor would I advise some friends who have done something similar like my Drift 101 events. If you haven’t done something like that or are interested in some fundamental drifting and car control techniques though, it would be a fun experience at the combo price.
