The Drifting Thread

[Chillemall]

Attended my first drift event with Drift Indy this Saturday. I got a TON of seat time and learned a lot about the car.

I had some difficulties though.. Track was big, initiating in 3rd gear, if done right would use 3rd gear for the whole course..

When trying to throw the car into the first corner it would push suuuuper bad. I fought this all day, i tried playing with dampening and tire pressures in between sessions. nothing seemed to work, I tried different methods of transfering weight and kicking the clutch. I eventually settled on e-brake entry as it was the only thing to get the rear out at those speeds.

My other issue was transitioning at high speeds. the car would snap back around very quickly, and i could almost never get the 1st and 2nd turns linked. 1st turn was a fast right hander, then we went into a left sweeper, finishing off into a right sweeper the went 180 degrees. trying to bring the car into the left hand was the hardest part. It'd feel super numb while trying to set up for the transition, then BAM im spun out.. I could only get it done by sacrificing angle throughout the 1st and 2nd turns.. BORING.

set up is as follows:

Stance SS coilovers.
dampners at 12/16 front 16/16 rear
4 degrees camber up front toe at 0 (I think i should have had some toe out after reading this thread)
Rear camber is Natural for slammed'ish ride height maybe 1.8-2.5~
rear toe at 0 as well
Battle Version solid steering rack bushings
Battle Version Subframe risers
Whiteline & Energy suspension trans/shifter mounts and bushings.
took OEM axle back off and tig welded up a straight pipe out. (no HP gains prolly)
17x9+35 wheels with 215/40/17 Kenda Kaisers

Started the day with 35psi all the way around. After 1st session raised rear to 45 to try and help with entry, then to 50.. Didnt help with awful under steer saw no change in the snap over steer. Lowered front PSI to 28, made understeer worse, raised back to 32. ran course in 2nd gear for entire 2nd session burned up 1st set of Kenda's. Replaced with new set at 35 psi left them there, learned course in 2nd gear then went back to 3rd still had problems initiating so i then relyed on E-brake. After that i just had issues with 1st-2nd turn transition with snap over steer.

Anyone got any ideas? By the end of the day the front had pushed hard enough to start wearing out the sidewalls.. even after i raised tire pressure back up. I tried to soften up the front as well but that didn't seem to help much. (but i did this with the lower PSI in front too)

All in all i still had a blast. It's just frustrating to spin out, or run a 3rd gear course in 2nd gear.. I like to haul ass, getting scared is fun.

Drifting in this car is really awkward for me. I had a 300hp FC before, and back when i was in my teens my 1st few cars were single cam 240's (Like 11 years ago..) However, this was my 1st ACTUAL event, i'd always been stupid and did a lot of streeting and lotting. Trying to get as much seat time as I can this year though.

here are a few pics and videos!






One of the only videos of me somewhat linking the course in 3rd gear.
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C59rcGDe8I4"]Billy FRS Drift Indy 4/11 - YouTube[/ame]

me breaking my bumper support on a cone.. You can see it flapping in the end (my friends thought i killed my tires)
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0j6SpqBnOY"]Billy smokes cone at Drift Indy 4/11 - YouTube[/ame]

Thanks for any advice dudes!

[TylerLieberman]

@Chillemall what are your spring rates?

[Chillemall]

Originally Posted by TylerLieberman

@Chillemall what are your spring rates?

They are just the package that came with the Stance coils. So 6K i guess.

I see some folks getting the higher spring rates from Swift and such. I also see a little bit about people disconnecting their sway bars. Not sure how i feel about that. I know they cause bind and what not.. hmm maybe if i can link them to the LCA instead.

Looking into those megan inner tie rod dealios as well. When I hit that last little loop towards the end of the day, I was peddling it at full lock basically from entry to exit. Was super fun when i could get enough speed left over from turns 1-2 and come in 3rd gear still blazing..

I'm driving Gingerman Raceway for No Star Bash May9-10. This is a pretty big track, and not much info about drifting there. They had very strict policy against drifting for a long time, although I think Justin Pawlak had been allowed to rip it up a few times. (He's actually from my hometown) This is essentially my home track as i live 35 minutes away..
They let Club FR guys slide it last year at GRIDlife, but a lot of those guys didn't really do all that great. A few were doing well, like an sr20det e30, an LS swapped s14, a flat black sr20det s14, and one or two of those Team Proceed cars. I was camped in an RV right on the first section of that track, and I rode passenger for with an MDU driver that was there (the black s14). It was really fast..

So I think my plan before then is:
Maybe some grippier tires up front Federal 595 RS or maybe Falken RT615
megan inner tie rods
arms to dial rear camber to 0. so I can carry more speed in the corner and get better tire wear, also more smoke, and will be consistent if i have to up rear pressure to keep it sliding.
a little toe out all the way around?
maybe make myself a header back exhaust with a resonator and muffler..
tune if i do above^^
take some weight out of the car. rear seats, trunk junk etc.. just easily removable stuff..
disconnect front sway???

[TylerLieberman]

@Chillemall

Yeah I ran 8k/9k on stance coils.

I strongly recommend doing the same. Disconnect the front away and add tie rods. Eliminates the bind, adds angle, and makes it much less snappy.

-better tires up front
-<32psi cold in front tires
-ditch front sway bar
-add tie rods
- 3 to 4 degrees negative camber up front
-slight toe out up front
-8k springs up front
-full stiff on damping

-9k springs on rear
-zero or very slight toe out
->40psi cold in rear tires
-no less than -1.5 camber. Anything less will cause positive camber wear. -1.5 wears pretty even.
-4 from full stiff on damping


For power, don't worry about a full exhaust; waste of money for marginal gains. Add a header, muffler delete, air filter, and tune. For weight reduction, all of the tools, spare, and oem exhaust will shed about 70lbs.


You can find a sweet spot from there as far as tire pressures, damping etc are concerned. However, the select few of us who do run this setup absolutely love it.

[Chillemall]

Any thoughts on whiteline's front roll center correction kit? I'm pretty low..

[SciOnDrifTtSlIdeR]

Some impressive stuff going on here, I need to get back out at the track

[jdmblood]

any advice on how to learn how to do figure 8's?

[Ryaquinn]

Originally Posted by jdmblood

any advice on how to learn how to do figure 8's?

[ame]http://youtu.be/IPQyQgyuNMI[/ame]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[philstar]

Went to Drift Day 51 at USAIR, did a few small tweaks and was super curious to try it out! Car performed the best it has yet but still needs work. My FR-S was able to hold its own, stock power and all, against some much faster cars and equally impressive drivers!



Still needs more setup test and tune, I have been able to calm down the twitchiness of the car everywhere except for when transferring my drifts. I tend to use the hand brake a lot to help slow down the snappy transitions.

My friend let me borrow his GoPro for two laps (ofcourse i mess up), first two runs are in my FR-S, last run is me driving my friends FR-S.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx_GNv4QhpY"]philstar dday51 - YouTube[/ame]

[bryanttttttta]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg70UuQwc1k"]Grange May Day Grip/Drift || Hosted by Slide Factory - YouTube[/ame]

[justisaac]

I do a both a little more than half way tighter for both but 4 clicks softer in the rear I have bc Coilovers

[BRZtoni]

http://vid925.photobucket.com/albums...8062243061.mp4

made this snapchat..
i practice at a local empty parking lot haha

sorry not sure how to embed the video to the forum but
i enjoyed my 15 minutes in that parking lot haha...

any advise for me? from what you can hear and see in my 10 sec snap lol

[TylerLieberman]

Originally Posted by BRZtoni

http://vid925.photobucket.com/albums...8062243061.mp4

made this snapchat..
i practice at a local empty parking lot haha

sorry not sure how to embed the video to the forum but
i enjoyed my 15 minutes in that parking lot haha...

any advise for me? from what you can hear and see in my 10 sec snap lol

More throttle. Don't let the Rpms drop so much.

I was able to see that when the Rpms dropped, the car gripped up and you started going to the right. Then you corrected and kept blipping the throttle, so the car kept swinging left and right.

Hard to really analyze given the type of video lol

But if definitely say more throttle. The car doesn't have a bunch of torque, especially down low, so you can feather the throttle at like 3.5k Rpms. Gotta keep it in the upper revs to stay in the power, especially since you're running larger 18" wheels and tires.

Get out to an event and keep practicing. You'll be amazed at how fast you can improve with quality seat time at a sanctioned event.

[BRZtoni]

Originally Posted by TylerLieberman

More throttle. Don't let the Rpms drop so much.

I was able to see that when the Rpms dropped, the car gripped up and you started going to the right. Then you corrected and kept blipping the throttle, so the car kept swinging left and right.

Hard to really analyze given the type of video lol

But if definitely say more throttle. The car doesn't have a bunch of torque, especially down low, so you can feather the throttle at like 3.5k Rpms. Gotta keep it in the upper revs to stay in the power, especially since you're running larger 18" wheels and tires.

Get out to an event and keep practicing. You'll be amazed at how fast you can improve with quality seat time at a sanctioned event.

i definitely want to continue learning, I'm a little embarrass going out to events and making a fool out of myself but i guess thats learning.. :burn rubber:

i switch between my 18" and stocks and i definitely feel like my stocks
drift better because of the prius tire and 17" wheel base.

i gotta check out local events and see i know there pretty cheap.

and thakns for the advise ill try to keep my throttle higher and keep you guys updated maybe ill get a better video haha... as you can see i was doing this one handed haha!