The Drifting Thread
 

Really surprised a thread dedicated to drifting the 86 has not come up on the site yet. I can't be the only one who bought the car to get sideways.

Would be really interested to hear what the rest of you have done in terms of drifting the car on track from suspension setups to tire size, etc.

My first official track day will be at the end of June at Club Loose East Coast Bash. I'll be keeping the 215s in front and burning some spare 225's on MB Weapons in the back. Only mods will be drift button, 16mm rear swaybar, and grimmspeed brake cylinder brace. I cant wait!

EDIT: 24 pages and counting with a ton of info. Pulled some useful posts and info from the thread up here so they can be referenced easily. Let me know if there is anything I should add and I will do so.

Disclaimer: All of this information is from the experience of contributors in this thread. That being said, everyone has varying opinions on the "best" setup, the "best" parts, and the "proper" way to do things. This is not an end-all-be-all collection of information. Just a friendly set of guidelines from guys who have been sliding the car. There is a ton more info if you read through the thread.

How to drift:
WATCH The Drift Bible(VIDEO) and Ken Nomoroua's version

General setup tips for noobs:
TIRE PRESSURE: Optimum for stock wheel and tire size seems to be under 40psi hot. 33-35psi cold is a great starting point, some go even lower.

REAR TIRE SIZE: No more than 235 under stock power or the car will feel like poop. Ideally you want 215s but with a stronger sidewall. Just trust us.

FRONT TIRE SIZE: More wiggle room to be wider, be careful with rubbing if you're too wide or too low. What's more important is...

FRONT CAMBER: -2 to -4 makes a huge difference for front end grip in-drift.

SUSPENSION: Lots of talk about Stance, KW, and BC. You get what you pay for.. BUT danger to axles if your car is too low. You can buy diff and subframe risers to help with this, and 600HP rated axles are available from Driveshaft Shop (install pics of both)

A couple of suspension setups on this page


And more suspension setup info here


SPACERS:Are they safe to drift on?



THANKS to everyone for your contributions!

I just got my drift rims a few days ago with some disposable rubber. Made a terrible decision buying KDW2's for my 18's, its like trying to slide a cat across carpet at stock power level.

for drift I would put those 225 in front and keep the 215 in the back

like those guy's:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...59&postcount=6

I hit 2 open drift events at Evergreen Speedway. Car is bone stock, aside from a muffler delete. Stock 215s with 35psi in the front and 50psi in the rears seemed worked best for me.

I bought mine purely to slide with. I have a build thread on here as well.

All I have are Stance Coils and 2.5" muffler delete. Front wheels are some xxr 527 17x8.25 +25 with 215/45 Achilles ATR tires. Threw the stocks on the back at about 40psi hot. Slides 3rd gear 70mph entry tracks all day.

Run about -3 to -4 camber up front with a bit of toe out and around -2 camber rear with a little toe in

Holy shit, you must be pretty good to be doing 70mph entry. :eyebulge:

I get nervous coming off the 3/8ths bank at Evergreen doing 50...:scared0016:

I'll be at ECB too, though I might not have my BRZ there. My friends drive two turbo E36s, one black, one red convertible. Oh, and another friend has a dark green LS swapped FC.

I'm nothing special. Just been doing it for a few years now. I drifted my s14 for a few years at courses from skid pads to road courses with 80mph entries.

Just takes seat time. As you get more time driving the car, your confidence will go up. Starting off smaller is good though, especially when you drive a track with walls. I can tell you right now that the car will not be able to keep the wheels spinning on the big bank unless you have at least 300hp. That corner would be a 4th gear entry in our cars. After a few events,that 3/8ths bank will be like nothing to you.

I envy you though cause I want to drive evergreen so bad haha. It looks like such a fun track:thumbsup:

i was sliding around e town on a road course day. stock tires and sways, bc coils. car jus need a bit more power to get 3rd gear spinning

How stiff do you have the damping set in the rear?

I run exactly mid way up front (might go a tad more stiff) and full stiff in the rear.

Haha well I've never driven on any other track so I wouldn't know.

I do believe they require a full cage to do the 5/8ths bank at Evergreen. Perfectly justified too, I've seen some nasty wrecks on that bank. I'll stick with the infield for now haha.

As much as I would like to squeeze a few more hp out of my car or get a proper suspension setup, I choose to use my money towards tires and seat time. :D

Sliding gets easier at higher speeds in my experience...

Yeah sometimes. Depends on the course layout. I've seen a few high speed courses that are extremely technical.

Tires and seat time is the best thing to spend money on for drifting. With this car, I do an event, see what changes I would like to make. Then after I make them, I do another event. The car will slowly progress as I drive more and more.

At the time I was at 12 front 18 rear cuz the nose wasn't bitting. I wasn't entering crazy and never spun

You could try stiffening up the rear a bit. Depending on your rear alignment and what tires you're using, that will also effect how the rear end of the car feels. I'm running almost -2 degrees and on stock tires so the car pitched out in 3rd gear pretty easy. But the lack of contact patch and grip in the rear made the car a bit too unsettled when it was sideways at higher speeds. Had a couple spinouts but was able to make the needed corrections after a couple runs.

With a better tire, and less rear camber, the car would be PERFECT.

Depending on how you drive, you might want different settings for your car. Next event, try a bit more aggressive of an initiation and while you're sideways, if you feel the rear end starting to get that traction back and the rpms are dropping too low, kick the clutch again and it should help keep it going.

Stupid question, but how does one drift?
I've tried the e-brake, not really working , i gotta do the clutch kick and it gets tail happy but i can't seem to hold the sideways-ness for long.

Setup
HSD coilovers
Micheline PS2 tires 225/40 FR 255/35 RR
Enkei Raijin 18s
Cusco drift knob
Cusco Front/rear strut bars
Catless front pipe Invidia
Catback Invidia Q300
FA20CLUB tuned

I'll be turbo'd next week. but i want to drift a bit in N/A get a feel of it.. Any tips? i'm going to a local drift night this saturday night to try it out.
I also need a wheel alignment, what specs should i be getting?

Two basic and easy techniques are ebrake and clutch kick. There are loads of others but given the lower power of our cars, those two methods are the easiest and most consistant ways to get the rear end out right when you want it.

When you go to the event, have somebody with some track time ride shotgun and give you some pointers. People always tend to be pretty willing to help at events for those who ask. You'll start to get it after a few runs. Spinning out is normal so don't get frustrated or embarassed cause you look like a "noob". You're still having more fun than the guys on the side lines watching.

As far as suspension goes, my only recommendation is when you get to the track, lift up the front and add more negative camber. It will help your turn in and front end grip so much. The car will feel a lot more responsive to your steering inputs. You don't have to go crazy but I would run at least -2. I run near -4 at the track. For the rear, in my opinion, I would run as little camber as possible. No more than -1. More contact patch and the rear end will feel more planted. Won't feel like it's getting out of shape so fast. For toe, zero or VERY minor toe in on the rear. For the front, I would run zero so when you camber in the front wheels more at the track, they will naturally push the toe out a little bit.

These are based off my personal preference though and you might find different setups work better for how you drive.

It's a mixture of throttle and steering (brake and clutch if you know how) inputs. In short and a very small nutshell, think of it this way. The amount of throttle you use determines your speed and rotation while your steering inputs determine the line and general path of the car. Inputs on both determine where the car will go and how much angle and fast it gets there.

There's a lot more to it than that but it really just takes seat time. If you concentrate and put in some effort to learn, by the end of the event, you'll probably be linking close to the entire course.


Also, I would run stock tires in the back. 255 Michelins in the back won't work very well...and be expensive haha

I had a chance to do a drift clinic with just drift at WSIR balcony. I wanted to have a baseline with a stock car so the only thing it had was 16x6.5 wrx wheels with some falken ziex as my drift spares in the back and the stockers on the front. Only adjustments made were whiteline camber bolts up front with an alignment of 1.5 and 1.7 on the passenger side trying to max them out. My buddy who did the alignment also gave a bit of toe out to prevent chunking of the stock tire.

My first impressions in this car are:

1. Donuts are much easier in this car than my previous NB miata. Power and throttle response was smooth.

2. Figure 8's just needed a touch of clutch kick and ebrake. Drift knob would've made the day much easier.

3. Big sweepers in 2nd gear were very snap oversteery with a bit of roll. 3rd gear needed alot more clutch to keep the revs up.

4. The steering feel was great for the donuts but the bigger drifts it was a bit floaty compared to the manual rack the miata had so counter steering needed getting used to. Needed smooth inputs to initiate but and rough counters to get the wheel at the right place.

5. Stock steering angle kinda sucks but it was the same way with the stock miata. I guess i was spoiled with the 240.

Power was great for donuts but i feel that the car needs that extra 50hp to keep the rear happier. But then again i was babying the car around the walls so it wasn't something a little more speed could fix once i get more confident.

Now my baseline is done the next event will see some suspension upgrades and some wider wheels. Tire choice probably be Achilles since they are so cheap for drift spare.

GREAT information, thanks a lot!
If you check my Build in my sig, i'm pretty low.

255s in the back just for the looks, probably going to buy a new set up for drifting with cheap tires next year. When i rip through 2nd and try ebrake nothing happens, like absolutely nothing unless it wet out i'll slide. What about sway bars? Should i be upgrading these?

You COULD but it's not necessary. I would see how the car feels before making more changes. You might find out that the car drives perfectly how you want it with the setup you run at the event. No need in changing it if you like it the way it is. After you get the turbo setup, go to another event and see how it is then. At that point, you'll be able to run wider tires too and make other suspension/alignment changes.

I know I am going to upgrade sway bars but I made that decision after driving it at the event. For my setup, I could utilize the changes from thicker sway bars.

ya thanx i try not to beat on it too much cause i dont want to stretch the eb cables so i user mostly momentum entries when messing around but 3rd jus always seemed to die out hmm gonna have to work the rpm band a lil more

How to the clutch, gearbox and rear end (diff & axles) hold up on this car?

Havent heard of any issues yet. I tore a cv boot at the last event...but that was from running the tires until they exploded haha

Nice man, look for me. I'll have the black BRZ with stockers and Bronze MB weapons. Registered to drive Sunday but I'll be up Saturday night I think.

This is great advice, I should have done it this way when I was drifting my 350Z.

Bump, anyone driving at Club Loose East Coast Bash this weekend? I will be there Sunday.

thinking about spectating on sunday depends on how much coin I got

Cool, come say what's up if you see me.. back brz in c group

Went to thunderdrift last time, all stock.the is awesome. Easy to handle 2nd gear only though.only thing I want is that I think this car needs more steering angle. Spun out because of that when I m trying to enter faster. Still a very Nice car to drift or grip.love it

i'll be doing my first drift event at lime rock july 26th... excited and hopefully get the hang of it...

Had a lot of fun in the car today, but was struggling a bit. The front end kept washing out, really hard to recover from a bad entry or if I went into a corner too slow and clutch kicked it spun. But whenever I managed to hit the sweet spot it was spectacular.

Ran the stock tires up front and Sunny 3800 225/45/17s at 45psi in the rear. I just wanted to smoke the sunny's because they came with the wheels I bought but I was actually pretty impressed with the tire. 2 hours or so of track time with constant runs, they didnt chunk, smoked up well, and have plenty of tread left (I actually drove home on them because it started to rain at the track and i didn't feel like swapping them.. just dropped the pressure and rolled out)

Stock tires in the front were very limiting. As others have said - weak sidewall and very little bite. Will probably go with a better performance tire next time around.

Yeah better tires up front will help for sure. Maybe lower rear pressure too. I started at 45psi cold and it was too much. Went down to under 40psi hot and it was a 100x better.

Yeah, I should not have bumped up to 45 for my second run. My first time out I was at 35 hot which was a little too grippy but I had more control in-slide. 45 cold was easier to initiate but harder to control. 35 cold is probably a good starting point for next time.

Gotta get the car into the shop tomorrow to get checked out, I definitely knocked my left front out of alignment.

For suspension set-up - should i have higher rates at the front and lower rate at the back? Or is it the other way around?

Should I buy a second set of stock wheels/tires for cheap? Or just spend more money and go for something aftermarket at possibly 3x the price? Are the weights/dimensions of the stockies good for drifting?

That's correct.

I too would like to know the answer to this. ^

-Sent from outer space

The stock wheels work fine for drifting. I run my daily wheels on the front and then the stock wheels as spares on the back.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...47260364_n.jpg

My gold wheels are 17x8.25 with 215/45 tires. The stock wheels use the same size tires so the car still sits the way I want it. The setup works great for me and a lot of other people on here do the same thing. No rubbing at all and the wheel weight doesn't really make the car feel sluggish. Stock wheels make great drift spares.

Eventually, I'll buy a set of 18" Gram Lights or Works and then the gold wheels will become my drift spares...but until then, this works fine.

As far as tires go, you can pick up some used tires or get some new, cheap tires. Achilles, Nexen, Nankang, Federal, Kenda, Accelera etc etc. All of those tires are extremely cheap (~$55 per tire in 215/45r17) and some of them last quite a while. Seeing how we only make 150-160whp, you don't need some extremely wide, extremely grippy tire. Cheap tires work well for the car.

Hopefully, that helps answer your question.

What's the fave initiation method?

I can't help but fall back on the ripping fast & hard on the ebrake with lots of gas texhnique even in second...works well enough even though I know it's rather noobish.

Running 225/40/18 continue sport contact 2s so I have a bit much grip I think...hard to maintain a really good smokey slide.

Big difference running stock tires & higher PSIs on the rear?

Caveat - I just slide on occasion for fun. Not serious.

Upping rear tire pressure helps. Can also stiffen up the rear dampers (assuming you have coilovers). Make sure you push in the clutch when pulling the handbrake. I know it sounds weird, but I've seen people go months doing it without the clutch and then wonder why they break shit.

Clutch in, handbrake, keep rpms up and then drop handbrake and dump clutch. If you don't keep the rpms up, the car will bog and grip up. Gotta stay in the power band.

You can also try clutch kicking. Turn in with the throttle down and give the clutch a good kick and the rear will slide out.

There's a bunch of different methods. For more on that, search for Drift Bible on youtube. It'll give a quick run down on some of the basic techniques.

I prefer clutch kicking. I don't like using the handbrake. I only really use it on transitions and to extend my line really far. Everything else I pretty much use left foot brake and clutch work with throttle.

Nice thread, subscribed and everyone keep the info flowing...