Drift Academy
Eight short lessons in the Finch on Academy Yard. Each one checks what you actually did with the controls and tells you. Take them in any order; none is required before you play anything else.
The eight lessons
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1. Throttle and brake
Learn how long the car takes to gain speed and how much road it needs to stop.
Task: Accelerate to 70 km/h, then stop inside the amber box.
It tells you: How far the car travelled under braking, and where you started braking if you overshot.
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2. Steering
Steering ramps in smoothly: short taps make small corrections, a held key makes a full turn.
Task: Weave through all five cone gates in order.
It tells you: Which gate you missed, by how many metres, on which side and at what speed.
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3. Starting a slide
A slide starts when the rear tires are asked for more than they can give: a handbrake tug, or a burst of power while turning.
Task: Get the car sideways (20° or more) for one full second. Do it twice.
It tells you: The peak angle of each slide and whether you started it with the handbrake or with power.
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4. Countersteering
Once the rear is sliding, point the front wheels where you want to go: into the slide. Let go of the steering and the wheels start doing it for you.
Task: Start a slide of 25° or more, then bring the car straight again without spinning. Catch two slides.
It tells you: The angle you caught the slide from, and the share of the slide you spent countersteering. If you spin, which of three causes it was.
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5. Holding the slide
A held drift is a balance: throttle keeps the rear loose, countersteer keeps the nose from coming all the way around.
Task: Keep one scoring drift alive for four seconds. Circling the painted ring is the easy way.
It tells you: How long you held it and why it ended: too much angle, too little speed, flat throttle, or the car straightening.
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6. Transitions
Linking two corners means swinging the car from one slide into the opposite one before the chain lapses.
Task: Link three direction changes in one chain. The two rings make a figure eight.
It tells you: How many transitions you linked before the chain lapsed.
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7. Clipping zones
Clipping zones are marked circles at the edge of a corner. Passing through one while sliding adds a bonus to your chain.
Task: Clip three cyan zones on the oval while drifting.
It tells you: When you cross a zone without sliding, the angle you crossed it at.
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8. Final clean run
Put it together: one lap of the oval with real drift score and no contact with the walls.
Task: Complete one lap of the oval scoring at least 1,200 points without hitting a wall.
It tells you: Each lap's score against the 1,200 target, and how many wall hits voided it.
How the academy works
A lesson has no timer. You get a task, a progress bar and a line of feedback that updates after each attempt. When something goes wrong the car is put back at the start of the exercise and the message says what happened, in numbers where it can: “Missed gate 3: you passed 2.1 m to the right at 64 km/h.”
Lessons use the Finch with the default setup, because it is the most forgiving car and every beginner task is achievable in it. The academy’s practice rules allow endless donuts around the ring, which challenges do not.
What you earn
Each lesson pays 100 garage credits the first time you pass it. Three lessons are enough to unlock the Meridian. Replaying a lesson is always allowed and pays nothing more.
After a run, the game points you back here
Every result screen in the game ends with one tip taken from that run and a button to practice the matching lesson. If you keep spinning with the throttle flat, it sends you to lesson 4. If you never clip a zone, lesson 7.
Reading to go with the lessons
- How to drift in five steps for lessons 1 to 5.
- Three ways to start a slide for lesson 3.
- Countersteering explained for lesson 4.
- Drift transitions for lesson 6.
- Clipping zones for lesson 7.
- Drift scoring explained for lesson 8.
When all eight are done, the Challenge Tour starts on the same yard with Oval Warm-Up.