Drifting is fun if you’re the kind of person who sees a car as more than an A to B mode of transport. It can also be unsafe, though, so of course it goes without saying that operating a vehicle in such a fashion on public roads is both illegal and silly – don’t do it.
Based on a recent U.S. Patent and Trade Mark filing, Ford have been working on a rather exciting system, destined for future products. The drift mode system will supposedly be able to be applied to both internal combustion engines and electric motors according to Ford’s patent.
Remember the Focus RS? That had a drift mode, so this isn’t the first time that the Blue Oval has applied this sort of thing to a vehicle. The new U.S. Patent and Trade Mark Filing goes into quite some detail about how the new system will work, stating, “A controller is programmed to, in response to the vehicle being in a drift mode, decouple the driven wheels from the actuator, engage the friction brakes to lockup the driven wheels, and place the actuator in speed control and command a torque to the actuator based on a difference between a measured speed of the actuator and a target speed of the actuator.”
Image: Road and Track The Focus RS could land itself in some rather smokey situations with its Drift Mode…
Furthermore, the filing goes on to explain how the tech can be applied to both ICE and EV powered vehicles. “A vehicle includes an engine having a crankshaft, an electric machine having a shaft, a front-end accessory drive (FEAD) having a tension member operably connecting the crankshaft and the shaft, a drivetrain operably coupling the engine to driven wheels.”
When a vehicle is in drift mode, the system will decouple the driven wheels and then use the brakes to lock them up, thus inducing a slide. Using sensor data based on current wheel speed and the target wheel speed, the system will then add power to maximise the induced slide.
Currently, vehicles that are fitted with a drift mode are all-wheel drive such as the Mercedes-AMG A45 and the Mk8 Volkswagen Golf R. These systems tend to send additional power to the rear wheels, thus creating a slide much akin to that of a rear-wheel drive car. Ford’s new system, however, appears to be a completely different proposition.
The advantages and possible safety benefits here are great, but it’s likely that many of us are hoping that this sort of tech can be switched off and still allow talented drivers to manhandle their cars the old fashioned way.
Keyword: Ford Patents ‘drift mode’ technology for ICE & EV vehicles