Rally Drift

Slide a lightweight rally car through generated point-to-point stages where momentum and surface grip matter. 10 stages, four surfaces, a drift score with its own records, and a daily stage that is the same for everybody.

ModeStageCar

Point to point against the clock. Read the surface and keep it on the road.

How this stage is scored

Driving

↑ or W accelerates, ↓ or S brakes, ← → steer, and Space is the handbrake. On a touch screen the five pads sit in the lower corners.
The car is stable in a straight line. The handbrake, a lift off the throttle and a hard turn-in are what unsettle it — a drift is something you do, not something that happens to you.

The surfaces

A tyre grips best at a particular slip angle and gives less past it. That angle depends entirely on what is under the wheels, which is why the same slide is a mistake on one surface and the fast way round on another:

Tarmac — best around 6° of slide, and it lets go sharply past that.
Gravel — best around 17° of slide, and it falls away gently past that.
Mud — best around 22° of slide, and it falls away gently past that.
Snow — best around 26° of slide, and it falls away gently past that.

The bar under the car shows how much of what the current surface offers you are using. The mark in the middle is that surface's best angle; past it you are giving grip away.

The stage

Checkpoints count in order. Crossing one out of order costs 10 seconds and does not advance you — the one you skipped is still the one the game is waiting for.
The road is 10 metres wide. Time off it is charged at 1 second for every second, and the verge has far less grip.
The trees will stop you. They scrub speed only when you are actually driving into them, so you can gather the car up along them rather than being pinned.

The style score

A drift earns while it is held and is banked when it ends. One that finishes in the scenery pays nothing.
It counts the angle and the speed. A crawl sideways earns almost nothing, and so does a straight line.
A spin earns nothing at all, and ends the drift. A car travelling backwards is not drifting.
Holding one drift longer multiplies it, up to a limit — so a single committed slide through a long corner is worth more than three short ones.

Your records

Each stage keeps a best time and a best style score, separately. They are different objectives and the fast line is not the showy one.
A run left while the tab was hidden is not recorded — the clock kept running while the car did not, so the time would be a lie.

0 runs, 0 stage records — all kept in this browser only.

The thing that surprises everybody

A slide is a mistake on tarmac and the fast way round on gravel. A tyre grips best at a particular slip angle and gives less past it — and that angle depends entirely on what is under the wheels.

About 6° on tarmac, 17° on gravel, 22° in mud and 26° on snow. On tarmac the grip falls away sharply once the tread lets go; on the loose stuff it piles up in front of a sliding tyre and keeps pushing, which is why a wide angle survives there and does not on the black.

The road is drawn in the colour of whatever is under it, so you can see a change coming. The bar under the car shows how much of what the current surface offers you are using — the mark in the middle is that surface's best angle, and past it you are giving grip away.

How to play

Pick a mode and press Start. On a keyboard the arrows or WASD drive the car and Space is the handbrake. On a phone, five pads sit in the lower corners — the marked one is the handbrake — and they can be swapped to the other thumb from the settings row.

The car is deliberately stable in a straight line. A rally car that was not would be undriveable, and a slide that happened by itself would not be something you did. Provoke it: the handbrake, a lift off the throttle as you turn in, or a hard turn-in followed by the power.

The trees will stop you, but they only scrub speed when you are actually driving into them — so you can gather the car up along them rather than being pinned.

Checkpoints, penalties and the finish

A stage is a sequence of checkpoints taken in order, ending at the final timing line. Crossing one out of order costs 10 seconds and does not advance you — the one you skipped is still the one the game is waiting for. The next checkpoint is picked out in yellow.

The road is 10 metres wide, and time off it is charged at 1 second for every second. It is charged by the second rather than as a flat fee on purpose: a flat fee would make one long cut cheaper than several short ones.

The result shows the time on the road, the penalty and the total separately, so a run that was quick on the road and slow on the sheet says why.

The drift score

A drift earns while it is held and is banked when it ends. One that finishes in the trees, or in a spin, pays nothing — which is what makes committing to a slide a decision rather than free money.

It counts the angle and the speed, so a crawl sideways earns almost nothing and neither does a straight line. Holding one drift longer multiplies it, up to a limit: a single committed slide through a long corner is worth more than three short ones.

Measured over about 6,400 simulated runs per surface, the most productive sustained angle is 30–35° on tarmac and 45–50° on gravel — and the fastest the car can travel anywhere is at almost no angle at all. That is why Stage Run and Drift Score keep separate records: the fast line is not the showy one.

Tips

Look at the colour of the road ahead, not the one under you. A surface change mid-corner is what catches people out.
On tarmac, tidy is fast. Straighten the car before you use the throttle and the stage comes to you.
On gravel and snow, carry the angle. The grip does not fall away the way it does on the black, and a slide that would end a tarmac corner is simply how you get round.
In Drift Score, end the drift on the road. A slide that pays nothing because it finished in the trees is the single most expensive mistake in the mode.
The three cars are genuinely different: one rotates more willingly, one is faster in a straight line, one is easier to catch. On a snow stage the willing one is not the fast one.

Privacy and local play

Everything runs in your browser. Your best times, style scores, ghosts, daily history and settings are kept in this browser's local storage and are never sent anywhere — there is no account, no server and no leaderboard. The stages are generated on your own device from fixed seeds and the engine note is synthesised there rather than downloaded. There is a button to clear the saved ghosts on their own, and one that deletes this game's stored data and touches nothing else on Zerdly.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the car feel completely different from one corner to the next?: Because the surface changed. A tyre grips best at a particular slip angle and gives less past it, and that angle depends on what is under the wheels: about 6° on tarmac, 17° on gravel, 22° in mud and 26° on snow. So a slide that is throwing grip away on tarmac is using all there is on gravel. The road is drawn in the colour of whatever is under it, and the bar under the car shows how much of what that surface offers you are currently using.
How do I actually start a drift?: Provoke it. The car is deliberately stable in a straight line — a rally car that was not would be undriveable — so a slide comes from the handbrake, from lifting off the throttle as you turn in, or from turning in hard and then using the power. Space is the handbrake on a keyboard, and the marked pad on a touch screen. That is the difference between a drift you performed and one that happened to you.
Does drifting make me faster or slower?: Both, depending on the surface, and that is the game. Measured over about 6,400 simulated runs per surface, the most productive sustained angle is 30–35° on tarmac and 45–50° on gravel — and the fastest a car can go anywhere is at almost no angle at all. So Stage Run rewards a tidy line and Drift Score rewards a committed one, and each keeps its own record because they are different objectives.
Why did my huge drift score nothing?: Because of how it ended. A drift earns while it is held and is banked when it ends — a slide that finishes in the trees, or in a spin, pays nothing. That is what makes committing to one a decision rather than free money. A spin scores nothing at all, because a car travelling backwards is not drifting, however sideways it looks.
I drove through the finish and nothing happened. Why?: Because a stage is a sequence of checkpoints taken in order, not a line crossed. If you missed one, the game is still waiting for that one. Crossing a checkpoint out of order costs 10 seconds and does not advance you.
Can I cut the corners?: You can leave the road, and it will cost you: 1 second of penalty for every second off it, plus far less grip on the verge. The road is 10 metres wide and the trees are sixteen metres from the centre line — they will stop you, though they only scrub speed when you are actually driving into them, so you can gather the car up along them rather than being pinned.
Are the stages the same every time?: Yes. The 10 stages are generated from fixed seeds, so the list is the same for everybody and the same tomorrow — a best time is meaningless on a stage that is different every time it loads. The generator draws a layout, then rejects it if it is too short, too long, too straight, too tight for a car to get round, or passes within a road's width of itself. About one draw in five survives that.
Is the Daily Stage the same for everyone?: Yes. The stage, its surfaces and its checkpoints are all seeded from the UTC date and nothing else, so two people on opposite sides of the world drive the same stage on the same day. Everything else is seeded on your own device.
Why is my time sometimes not recorded?: Because the tab was hidden part-way through. A hidden tab cannot run the simulation, so the clock counted time the car did not drive; the catch-up is capped so the browser does not freeze, and the run is marked as not recordable. On this route that protects two scores rather than one — the clock and the style total.
Can I get rid of the ghost?: Yes, on its own. There is a button on the result to clear the ghost for that stage, and one under the game to clear every saved ghost — neither touches your records. Wanting to stop racing a time you can no longer beat should not mean deleting your bests.
Why is there no leaderboard?: There is no server and no account, so there is nobody to compare you with. Your best times, your style scores, your ghosts, your daily history and your settings live in this browser and nowhere else, and the button under the game deletes all of them without touching anything else on Zerdly.