Best Drift Setup? - Newbie -

[Hell_Ride]

The aim is to get as much power and torque from tuning the engine as possible. This entails a great deal of car tuning work but there is a logical order you should approach things in. Generally speaking the more power a car has the bigger the gain you will get from car tuning. So if you have a 60bhp car an investment of £3000 will only yield a car of say 90bhp wheras a 150bhp car can achieve 300bhp from the same amount of money.

Turbo engines are the best to work with, first off throw away the standard turbo and air flow meter. Getting a wider aperture air flow meter will help to free up the air flow into the engine and an aftermarket turbo will help to provide larger power gains. Choose an OEM replacement if you are on a budget which should be a straight turbo swap and ask for one with ball bearings as these last longer and withstand a lot of punishment. For larger budgets I would go with a larger turbo but these will involve some plumbing modifications. After the turbo is fitted you need to get the engine remapped to take full advantage of the extra power on offer.

Other details worth considering when tuning a drift car would be to fit a lighter flywheel. You need a responsive engine which responds quickly to changes of throttle and a lighter flywheel will do just that, mate this to a carbon fibre drive shaft and you will have a flexible drift engine. Induction kits should be fitted with a cold air feed and will help to free up the top end of the engine but this should be matched to a sports exhaust to expel the spent gasses effectively.

A sports cam, fast road profile will suffice but for racing a sport cam will be better. The low down power will be lost but you will find a lot more top end power which is just where you need it to be when drifting. You will also need a heavy duty clutch and stronger gearbox as this will take a real pounding when you are competatively drifting.

Brakes
Brakes will certainly take a pounding and should be upgraded. As a minimum ensure you have race or fast road spec pads all round. Change the brake fluid or better still swap it for completely synthetic brake fluid. Adding braided brake hoses will further ensure that braking disasters are minimised. If you are spending money on the brakes also consider upgrading to bigger brake disks which are vented, drilled and groved.

Suspension.
Control is key, so a soft suspension setup will cause all manner of problems and create a stodgy ride. Obviously the optimum suspension set up varies from car to car and also driver preference plays a large part. It is worth getting suspension you can modify yourself so look for ones that permit custom ride height, stiffness and electronic adjustment to the dampers. At least you can play around until you find your optimum set up and you can switch back to a more road friendly setting for the journey home.

Suspension can be supplemented with strut braces for rigidity and also by switching rubber bushes for polyeurothane to aid stiffness. Set the front for negative Camber to give the front more grip and help with oversteer. The rears should be set with very little negative camber (virtually vertical) to reduce grip in corners.

Steering.
Ensure that your steering rack is in good condition, has no play and that the wheels are straight when the steering wheel is in its default rotation. A quick lock to lock steering rack is nice to have. Small steering wheels are actually worse to use so get an ‘old bus’ steering wheel rather than trying to look cool.

Clutch.
This takes a real pounding. For drifting get the heaviest duty clutch you can fit. Double and Triple plate clutches are good as are ceramic, brass button clutches but these are not always available for all cars. Various compounds are available. If you get a heavy clutch and your car has a cable clutch pedal make sure that the cable is heavy duty enough. (I got through 4 cables because the plastic retaining clip kept breaking, why they use plastic I will never know.)

Body work.
You will crash and spin off. Impact with other vehicles and barriers is also typical especially as you are starting out. In pro drift championships the bumpers are secured with cable ties so when the inevitable happens the bumper rips off breaking the cable tie and suffers little damage itself.

Tyres.
Have you noticed that the main sponsors of drift championships are tyre companies (call me synical). You will get through more tyres than anything else. You’ll often overhear drifters talking about how many Tyres Per Mile they get through.

If you are starting out stick with cheap part worn tyres. (Don’t be tempted to go for remoulds.) Some drivers stretch small tyres on a large rim to aid stability. Some drives have different sizes (height and width) on the front to the rear. Look for low profile tyres as these are less inclined to roll off the rims under heavy sliding. Tyre pattern is a matter of individual choice I suggest that you chat with other drivers and see what they are using. Typically hard compound on the back and the rear tyres are what you will use more of. Tyre pressures also can make a big difference - experiment with different pressures to see how handling is affected as this varies greatly from car to car.

Safety.
Need we say this Helmet, Harness, Fire Extinguisher, Roll Cage etc..