Forza Horizon 6 Drifting Guide: How to Master the Mountain Passes
Sliding your car around the Japanese mountain passes requires a lot more than just ripping the handbrake and praying.
If you grew up watching Tokyo Drift on repeat on a scratched DVD (guilty as charged), Horizon's new map probably has you itching to hit the Touge routes immediately. Almost anyone can accidentally kick the back end of their car out by slamming on the brakes too hard going into a tight corner. Turning those accidental slides into long, sweeping chains of movement across an entire mountain pass is an entirely different beast. Drifting requires a deep understanding of weight transfer and throttle control. Before you waste hours throwing your favorite sports car into a guardrail in pure frustration, you need to understand how the underlying physics actually work. I spent countless hours testing builds and tuning setups to help you nail the perfect angle.
Choosing the Right Drift Car
Technically, you can force absolutely anything to drift if you throw enough momentum at it. You can take a massive American tank like the Lincoln Continental and hurl it sideways (because nothing says agility like a heavy land yacht), but you are just making your life miserable for no reason.
When you are first learning the ropes, the absolute best way to secure predictable weight transfer is to pick a vehicle that features a front-mounted engine and a rear-wheel drive layout. The rear-wheel drive configuration naturally wants to kick the back tires out when you apply heavy throttle.
If you browse the Autoshow, look at the bottom left of your screen to check the engine placement and drivetrain before you buy. I highly recommend picking up the Mazda RX-8 R3, the Nissan Silvia Spec-R, the Toyota GR86, the Toyota Supra RZ, or the legendary Toyota Sprinter Trueno GT Apex. If you are struggling to afford a dedicated drift project, check out my guide on how to earn credits fast in Forza Horizon 6 so you can fund your new tire-shredding habit.
Mandatory Difficulty Settings
Before you even think about tapping your handbrake, you must open your difficulty settings and make a few crucial adjustments. The default driving assists in this game are actively designed to stop you from losing traction.
You need to turn Traction Control completely off. This system desperately tries to keep your tires glued to the asphalt, and that grip will instantly kill any slide you attempt to start. You also need to turn Stability Control off so the car allows you to hold extreme horizontal angles. Finally, you can optionally turn off Anti-Lock Braking. Leaving your ABS on will not completely ruin your drifts if you are a beginner, but turning it off gives you much more aggressive control over your weight transfer when you stomp on the brakes.
Core Drifting Techniques
Once your car is built and your assists are disabled, you have a few different ways to initiate a slide depending on your transmission settings and the corner layout.
The Standard Handbrake Drift
This is your bread and butter technique. As you approach a corner at a decent speed, apply your footbrake using the left trigger while aggressively steering into the turn. This shifts the weight of the car forward and causes the rear tires to lose grip, putting you into a state of oversteer. Once the back end starts to step out, tap your emergency brake to lock the rear wheels and extend the slide. You can initiate a slide by just pulling the handbrake without using the footbrake first, but this is technically considered an E-drift rather than a proper weight-transfer drift.
The Clutch Kick
If you dive into your settings and switch your shifting method to Manual with Clutch, you unlock a highly aggressive technique. To execute a clutch kick, enter a turn and steer while keeping your foot completely off the gas pedal. Suddenly slam on the accelerator while quickly pressing and releasing your clutch button. This sends a massive, immediate jolt of power to the rear wheels, violently breaking traction and causing an instant oversteer. This trick is incredibly useful when you are driving a lower-power car through a slow corner because it creates an artificial burst of momentum.
Upgrading Your Drift Build
A stock vehicle from the dealership can handle basic sliding, but if you want to become a local legend, you need to install purpose-built parts.
The biggest mistake I see involves engine swaps. Do not just buy the most expensive V12 engine available. Drifting requires a delicate balance of horsepower and torque to keep the wheel spin consistent. Pick an engine where the foot-pounds of torque and the overall horsepower numbers sit roughly equal to each other.
Once your engine is balanced, install a dedicated drift four-speed transmission. Add the specialized drift tire compound and bolt on the drift-specific springs and dampers. I also suggest putting wider tires on the rear and installing a rear spoiler. These two upgrades add just enough grip to stop you from completely spinning out when you apply too much throttle mid-corner.
The Ultimate Drift Tuning Setup
Throwing expensive parts at a chassis is only half the battle. You have to open the tuning menu to get your ride behaving predictably on the asphalt. I mapped out a reliable baseline tune below that you can apply to almost any rear-wheel drive build to make sliding significantly easier.
Knowing When to Slide
You should only bust out these techniques when you are attacking dedicated Drift Zones, farming skill points, or just showing off in free roam.
If you are trying to maximize your skill point returns on long straightaways, gently throw the car into shallow zigzag drifts back and forth across the lane to keep your multiplier alive. However, you should never attempt to drift during a competitive circuit race. Sliding burns a massive amount of forward momentum. Taking a corner using proper racing lines with high grip will always result in a faster lap time. Keep your handbrake strictly reserved for emergencies where you need to save a bad oversteer during a race.
