I see guys running them in "speed run" cars and drifters but what do they do exactly?

Can be used during straight line speed runs to keep the car tracking straight

Drifters use them to keep the wheels pointed in the right direction throughout a corner

Cheers

A gyro is set to maintain a straight line, as a vehicle or plane tries to deviate from that straight line it inputs small corrections into the servo/servos to maintain that straight line. In general they tame down a twitchy car or plane. When trying to turn a vehicle/plane with a gyro it will actually "fight" you to stay straight.

I'm not sure if drift gyros and plane/straight line gyros are designed to work the same.

There are a lot of what would normally be heli type gyros used in surface and they do work - anything from a cheap esky $20 to a Futaba 401 gyro. Opinion is that running a gyro in a drift car is cheating they are so effective.

It may be an ok way to learn, but if you want to really drift the car, you need to learn to run without it. Believe I saw where they are illegal in any kind of drift competition.

Thanks guys for the info..... No drifting for me...lol just speed runs at the moment

gyro makes the car go where you steer the wheel to. if you want a slight turn to the left, it will automatically correct the steering and make the car turn slightly left. if you have a fast servo for steering it is even better. should be very illegal if not already in racing. i tried a cheepo $17 gyro from hoby partz in my sc10 back in the day and it was insane. it literally took all the fun out of driving it cause it would always go straight. the only way to loose the back end in a turn is to just go wide open. if i used it for racing everyone would have known something was up cause it was just so obvious.