Ive messed around on gymkhana a little, tryin to learn the basics of driftin in gt4 since i got the game the minute it came out. Ive mainly just been trying out all the different tracks/cars and messing around 'n stuff but I actually sat down a couple hours ago today and attempted to drift on a track...
First off, i should reference my basic game setup: im in a mazda BP FALKEN RX-7 d1gp '03 at apricot hill with the car suspension setup real soft in the back and relatively hard in the front. Using a DFP, 900* mode, power steering on, active steering off, strong feedback, no steering/traction assists whatsoever(unless you want to count power steering) and (customizable) limited slip differential options all set to 5..... music set to 15, racing sound effects set to 9.. just kidding
<try that though, it makes listening to music in game fun again if you happened to have just turned it off 
The tip i would offer that ive realized makes things a whooole lot easier to drift consistently is to let the DFP do the initial countersteering work for you! Perhaps this was allready known by some who are still having trouble to drift, but for those who didnt id offer this strategy: once you initiate a tail slide just let the wheel slide through your hands, it will counter steer on its own, pointing the wheels in the direction of the road surface (im guessing this is how it would be in real life as the tires, i think, would follow the path of least resistance if you let them and that would be in the direction your momentum is carrying you). This eliminated almost all the difficulty I had in being unsure of the right amount of initial counter steer to input and putting too much or too little in. Of course, you still need to catch the car once it rebounds to have all four wheels pointing in the same direction, but if you let the wheel put in the right amount of initial counter steer for you (or at least help out a bit) I found that its much, much, much, easier to correctly straighten the car out again.
further explanation:
It might be hard to understand in words, but when you start to turn the wheel in the opposite direction AFTER feeling or anticipating the front tires 'biting'(begining to rotate the car quickly back toward the direction you were countersteering) you will feel a good deal of 'resistance' in the DFP wheel. Thats usually(possibly allways) a good sign that you havnt begun unwinding the wheel too late (as long as your car hasnt allready whipped back across the track allready and is spinning in the other direction, obviously). You should feel this resistance through the wheel as you continue to unwind and your car should be rotating fairly controllably back to having 4 wheels pointing in the same direction again!
^^This is just a suggestion I thought id put out after spending about an hour at apricot hill. There may be flaws in this intended-to-be-helpfull advice or the consistencies of the steering control strategies ive mentioned. Lemme know if this helps at all or what else youve learned. Thanks and good luck!
First off, i should reference my basic game setup: im in a mazda BP FALKEN RX-7 d1gp '03 at apricot hill with the car suspension setup real soft in the back and relatively hard in the front. Using a DFP, 900* mode, power steering on, active steering off, strong feedback, no steering/traction assists whatsoever(unless you want to count power steering) and (customizable) limited slip differential options all set to 5..... music set to 15, racing sound effects set to 9.. just kidding
<try that though, it makes listening to music in game fun again if you happened to have just turned it off The tip i would offer that ive realized makes things a whooole lot easier to drift consistently is to let the DFP do the initial countersteering work for you! Perhaps this was allready known by some who are still having trouble to drift, but for those who didnt id offer this strategy: once you initiate a tail slide just let the wheel slide through your hands, it will counter steer on its own, pointing the wheels in the direction of the road surface (im guessing this is how it would be in real life as the tires, i think, would follow the path of least resistance if you let them and that would be in the direction your momentum is carrying you). This eliminated almost all the difficulty I had in being unsure of the right amount of initial counter steer to input and putting too much or too little in. Of course, you still need to catch the car once it rebounds to have all four wheels pointing in the same direction, but if you let the wheel put in the right amount of initial counter steer for you (or at least help out a bit) I found that its much, much, much, easier to correctly straighten the car out again.
further explanation:
It might be hard to understand in words, but when you start to turn the wheel in the opposite direction AFTER feeling or anticipating the front tires 'biting'(begining to rotate the car quickly back toward the direction you were countersteering) you will feel a good deal of 'resistance' in the DFP wheel. Thats usually(possibly allways) a good sign that you havnt begun unwinding the wheel too late (as long as your car hasnt allready whipped back across the track allready and is spinning in the other direction, obviously). You should feel this resistance through the wheel as you continue to unwind and your car should be rotating fairly controllably back to having 4 wheels pointing in the same direction again!
^^This is just a suggestion I thought id put out after spending about an hour at apricot hill. There may be flaws in this intended-to-be-helpfull advice or the consistencies of the steering control strategies ive mentioned. Lemme know if this helps at all or what else youve learned. Thanks and good luck!
The point of the post wasnt that i found it really amazing that the wheel would attempt to go "straight" on its own like you said, but that allowing it to do that seemed to be an easier way to have the correct amount of countersteer input when trying to drift. lol 
). The trick works well in GT4 when a good feint is applied, but I've found that every time I use this trick, the drift itself becomes all about throttle control, otherwise its all about the wall 
. TIP: remember to reduce countersteer as soon as you grab the wheel again, because of the the extreme whippage you've been hearing about (or rather, realistic quality).
