RX7 Drift 3D

Summary

RX7 Drift 3D puts you behind the wheel of a Mazda RX7 FD in an empty city with zero rules, traffic, or consequences. It’s just you, a rotary that’s ready to be tuned to its full potential (for free), and a flame spittin’ exhaust!

You get a manual gearbox, nitrous, slow-motion replays, body kits, and a surprisingly deep tuning system, all completely unlocked from the moment you load the game. Pick your color, bolt on your favorite kit, dial in the suspension, and go shred some rear tires through the back alleys.

Few cars capture the soul of the Japanese drifting culture quite like the FD. Powered by the legendary twin-turbo 13B-REW rotary engine, it’s a car that sounds like nothing else on the road and has earned its place among the greatest JDM machines ever built, and this is your chance to push it to its limits in a closed-off city.

If the game looks familiar, it’s from the same team that gifted us Supra Drift 3D and Skyline Drift 3D, which also share the same city layout, but instead hand you the keys to a Toyota Supra MKIV or Nissan Skyline R34. If you’d rather have all three legends in a single game, along with online multiplayer, Drift Hunters Pro features the RX-7 alongside the Supra, Skyline, S15 Silvia, and more, with tandem drifting in public and private lobbies.

RX7 Drift 3D features

• Release date – November 25, 2019
• Difficulty – Beginner
• Levels/environments – 1 (Free-roam city)
• Number of vehicles – 1
• Vehicle customization/upgrades – Yes
• Multiplayer – No
• Mobile – No
• Developer – Smartline-Games

Physics

The drifting physics are smooth and predictable, with somewhat realistic weight transfer. One thing that isn’t quite so realistic is that the rotary does tend to lose momentum mid-drift if you haven’t tuned it properly (maybe they accidentally fitted a Renesis instead of the 13B?!), so keeping the revs in the sweet spot is essential.

Switching to the manual gearbox (covered below) makes a huge difference to keeping the rev-happy engine in its sweet spot. You haven’t got a clutch to worry about, either, so it’s still ideal for beginners, and a great opportunity to learn how a manual works.

If you’re looking for a (much more) complete experience, Drift Hunters MAX delivers the most realistic weight transfer in any browser game. You also get a huge car selection (including the FD!) along with an endless street mode where you weave through unpredictable AI traffic while chaining combos, and a Drift Attack mode with clipping points, judged runs, and online leaderboards.

Graphics

As you’d expect from a classic browser game, they’re basic but decent, especially on ‘Ultra’ settings. You’ve got six options from ‘Lowest’ to ‘Ultra’, and cranking it up lets you appreciate the FD in all its glory. If you’re struggling to get the game to go full screen, try the button inside the game frame, rather than the Drifted one.

It won’t blow you away compared to what modern browser drifters like UNBOUNDED are capable of, stunning nighttime lighting and reflections, but it’s a step above the most basic browser games. The simple car model might make you feel like you’re in Initial D, but this time, you’ll be trading the touge for the streets, so it’s time to channel your inner Keisuke! 

Controls

PC/laptop/Chromebook

• W/Up arrow – Accelerate
• S/Down arrow – Brake/reverse
• A/Left arrow – Steer left
• D/Right arrow – Steer right
• Space – Handbrake/e-brake
• F – Nitrous
• Left Shift – Upshift (manual gearbox)
• Left Ctrl – Downshift (manual gearbox)
• C – Toggle camera (4 views)
• B – Look behind
• G – Slow motion (hold)
• L – Toggle headlights
• Q/E – Left/right blinkers
• Z – Hazard lights
• R – Record gameplay
• P – Play recorded clip

Mobile/tablet (iOS/Android)

RX7 Drift 3D isn’t available on mobile devices. But, if you’re on your phone or tablet, make sure you head over to our mobile-optimized games section. All of these work perfectly in your browser without needing any downloads.

How to play RX7 Drift 3D

Initial setup

When you load the game, you’ll find yourself in the main with the FD sitting in the garage. Before anything else, open the settings cog in the top right and bump the graphics to ‘Ultra’ if your device can handle it (you can always drop it later if things get choppy).

On the left side, you’ll see the body color options, and on the right, three body kit choices (all completely free). We’ll cover those in detail in the Customization section below.

Once you’re happy with the look, click the red ‘Play’ icon in the bottom right to head into the city.

Getting started

You’re now loose on the quiet city streets with no harsh objectives or timers to worry about. The turbo and nitrous gauges sit in the bottom right alongside the rev counter, with your speedo in the bottom left.

The exhaust spits flames as you push into the upper revs, and the nitrous (F key) adds a burst of power along with blue flames pouring out the exhaust. More on when to use nitrous in the tips below.

We’d recommend switching off auto transmission in ‘Settings’ (top-right cog) straight away. As Drift Race Simulator fans will know, manual transforms the entire drifting experience, and is great for learning if you’ve not got your first real-world drift car yet. All you need to do is use ‘Shift’ to go up a gear and ‘Ctrl’ to go down (don’t worry – there’s no clutch to worry about). Second gear handles the tight stuff, third covers the faster corners, and fourth works for high-speed entries when you’re feeling brave.

An awesome feature on offer here, rarely seen in browser games, is the slow-motion mode. Hold ‘G’ to watch your drifts in cinematic slow-mo as the flames pour out of the exhaust. You can also press ‘R’ to record, then ‘P’ to play it back.

Game modes

There are no modes, challenges, or scoring systems. It’s purely a practice sandbox where you make your own fun. You could cruise around and get used to the manual gearbox, or advanced players can use it to try getting to grips with backwards entries – the choice is yours.

The city streets offer plenty of wide, high-speed corners for discovering your high-speed limits, while the tight back alleys are great for practicing with shifting down a few gears but still keeping the wheels spinning.

There’s also an underground parking lot with pillars that make sick clipping points, and a few jumps scattered around if you fancy getting some air.

While the simplicity makes it ideal for a quick session when you can’t get to your sim rig, you’ll probably soon find yourself wanting a bit more to do. Drift King is a perfect pick, with real-time online lobbies where you can tandem (or battle) with your friends across six tracks, including an awesomely steep mountain touge road. We’ve also got a huge selection of other free browser drifting games if you’d rather choose something else.

Car list

You get one car, and as you probably guessed, it’s the legendary Mazda RX-7 FD with the 13B-REW twin-turbo rotary, which is yours from the moment you load the game. (Yup, no need to worry about grinding or unlocks – just burning rubber!)

The three free body kits (on the right side) are again unlocked right away, and let you choose your preferred look:

• Body kit 1 keeps the FD completely stock. Clean, timeless, and one of the best-looking cars to come out of the 90s (which is saying something).
• Body kit 2 adds an aftermarket front and rear bumper, side skirts, a bigger rear wing, and a hood with vent cutouts. It kinda reminds us of the JP Fiber Shop kit (though not identical).
• Body kit 3 swaps to a different aero package with a more aggressive stance (no widebody options, unfortunately.) It looks like it’s based on a RE Amemiya-inspired design, and it’s hard to decide which aftermarket kit looks better, so be sure to give them both a try.

Tuning and upgrades

Despite having just one car, there’s a surprising amount to adjust. Open the in-game ‘Settings’ menu (cog wheel, top right) to find four tabs: Wheels, Steering Assistances, Configurations, and Colors.

Base drift tune

After some experimentation, here’s a solid starting setup. Adjust from here once you’re comfortable.

Wheels

Beyond changing your rims (seven aftermarket designs via a slider at the bottom), this is also where you can tweak your suspension settings.

• Front camber – 4.0 (note: the camber sliders are reversed, so slide in the “positive” direction for negative camber)
• Rear camber – 2.3
• Front spring force – 30,000
• Rear spring force – 27,000
• Front spring dampers – 5,000
• Rear spring dampers – 4,500
• Ride height (front) – 0.1
• Ride height (rear) – 0.1

Don’t drop the ride height below 0.1. While we love a stanced drift car as much as you guys, it’ll be too low, bottom out, and barely crawl forward.

Steering assistances

You can toggle TCS, ABS, ESP, and a steering helper here. We recommend keeping everything turned off except the steering helper on a low setting (around 0.1) with counter-steer ticked. Once you’re confident, you can turn that off too.

Configurations

Adjust maximum brake (horsepower), torque, and top speed here. Starting point:

• Maximum speed – 280
• Maximum brake – 3800
• Maximum torque – 3200
• Gear shifting threshold – slide slightly left
• Clutch threshold – slide slightly right

Don’t crank everything to max. The car just redlines endlessly with zero usable traction (and we already have enough apex seal anxiety without bouncing off the limiter all day).

You can also swap between RWD, FWD, and AWD drivetrains here – keep it on RWD for drifting, obviously (like anyone’s gonna want FWD!). Make sure NOS, Turbo, Rev limiter, Exhaust flame, and Clutch margin at 1st gear are all ticked. Click ‘DRIVE’ to test it out, and head back if you want to make more tweaks.

For a far more comprehensive tuning experience, Force Drift Racing: Aussie Burnout gives you the most advanced tuning of any browser game, before shredding your tires in a Summernats-style burnout pit, or drifting on the track. You can tweak just about everything you can think of, from Ackermann geometry and caster angles to forced induction swaps and a selection of tire compounds.

Customization

The visual options are limited but cover the basics. You get eight body colors (red, green, blue, orange, yellow, purple, black, and white), three body kits (covered in the ‘Car List’ above), and a full color palette for headlight and tire smoke colors via the in-game ‘Colors’ tab.

Advanced tips & tricks

Keep the power moderate until you’re comfortable

The sliders go absurdly high (50,000!), but cranking everything to max just results in endless wheelspin and bouncing off the limiter, where your car pretty much fails to move. Start around 3,200 torque and only increase once you feel you’re comfortable with the physics.

Use the underground parking lot pillars as your training ground

The bins scattered around the city are fun to use as clipping points, but the unforgiving concrete parking lot pillars are the real training tool. Thread the gaps while drifting through them, and you’ll build precision fast. Mad Mike Whiddett didn’t become a rotary drifting legend by playing it safe around obstacles, and neither should you (even if the stakes here are considerably lower).

Save the nitrous for when you need a quick power boost

It’s tempting to use it on the straights, but the nitrous is most helpful mid-corner when you find the rotary is getting a little bogged down and you need a burst to maintain your angle. Keep an eye on the gauge in the bottom right, as it drains quickly. If you’re finding this happens a lot, it’s also worth adding a little more power in the tuning menu.

RX7 Drift 3D FAQ