So lets have a talk about drift suspension... cause frankly i enjoy sliding around my drive way at 50 mph.

Clealy a good racing coil over would be nessary like tien or somehting.

I imagine a fully tricked out suspension per the upgrade paths, coilover dampers, strut bars, roll bars, camber kits... will do a good job.

Tires is the big question? Lets talk about this, cause drifitng is slowly becomign the big thing in America

I'll add my two cents on this one. Having lived in Japan for nearly a decade, I can provide some info. Since drifting has been in Japan for a while, many manufacturers have specific Drift Kits. Basically, suspension that is designed for a car that will be going side ways. I'll attach the link to the Tein Drift Kit. It explains a few things about the kit. As far as tires. Are you AWD? If so, And your starting out and you car does not have awd tire spinning power start out witha drift set of wheels and tires. Most Guys I knew that drift AWD's had there nice street and track rim and tire combo. The had a set of junk rims with semi bald tires that were evenly worn or even ones were the camber and toe ate the edges(these they would sand down till the wera was even. With your junk set on this will help get familiar with how the car breaks loose and will allow the car to break all 4 loose easier without breaking anything(drivetrain). Then when you get comfortable(lots and lots, did I say lots of practice) and your car has more power you can upgrade to bigger better tires because you now are more skilled and your car has the pwer to break bigger wheels loose. One hint I will give you, that ALL AWD drifters I knew did before anything was-Weight Reduction. AWD are inherently heavy due to the added suspension/drivetrain components. PM or E-mail me with any questions you may have if you are a serious enthusuist and not just wanting to pull the e-brake in some Wal-mart parking lot.

Jose

link to Tein Drift kit, There are others, just search. I have Tein brand loyalty though-I run the Tein Type HA.

Tein Type HE-Drift Spec

Thanks for the info, hahahha, but whats wrong with practicing in a walmart parking lot?

Originally posted by focusedrage
Thanks for the info, hahahha, but whats wrong with practicing in a walmart parking lot?

Click to expand...

I just have seen alot you kids think that drifting is flying through the Walmart parking lot and pulling the e-brake and having their car slide out of control. I never see them trying to just practice. Drifting is just like any sport. You need to learn the fundamentals. Learn the theory behind it and the physics that make the car do what it does and learning how to control these actions. Professional drifting is a true art form and takes years and years of practice to trully be be good and competitive.

I blame Initial D for making Drifting the new "kewlie".

Drifting is all in the practice of learning proper weight transfer and throttle control, My car is/was relatively stock suspensioned besides some swaybars, and I could get the rear end to properly swing out and hold it if the roads were at all wet (edit: In a straight line and some 90° curves, although I'm still trying to work on the transition back... Got a lot to learn still. ), while still not having that much power. With my 17/235 Yoko AVS's, even, although they have mediocre wet traction as is.

Did I mention wet pavement is quite possibly the best thing to learn how to drift on? You don't kill tires, and it's easy to break loose. Go down to the docks in Japan after it's raining at night... Depending on the area, it'll be packed full of cars learning drifting.

Weight, weight BALANCE (There's a big reason why RX-7's are seen all over drift competitions), chassis stiffness (A big thing to combat with the DSM platform) , and a decent set of coilovers help out immensely on AWD cars, along with front 1.5 way LSD will also get rid of the dreaded power-on PUSH, which if you don't understand what I'm talking about, you probably shouldn't be trying to drift. A spool center diff can also create oversteer, but I don't really think those are nessicary if you know proper technique. Another issue on 2G DSM's is the fact it's so damn hard to get any camber out of them or really control it other than some weak bushings... Stupid Mitsubishi!

Oh yeah, and power is a biggie too, for AWD at least, if you want to go anywhere dry.

I've been following drift information for some time now out of my own interest, and I've applied it to my car as much as my budget allows.

As far as coilovers, I know you're loyal to Tein, Artic, and I know they make some very high quality suspensions for cars other than DSMs, but I just don't think that the FLEX system that's the limit of DSMs can really compare to a set of FLT-A2's by JIC, unless they start manufacturing what you have on your car for everyone...

But yeah, whatever.. Heh.

Its funny you mention the bushings. Alot of folks dont realize or know that bushings can make such a big difference. If you replace your suspension bushings with some good rock solid Polyurethane ones that will allow you to feel what is going on much better. I've known some guys who have gone as far as welding trailer arms and what not. With the stock rubber garbage not there to absorb the road you loose ride comfort. But it adds response which in turn adds predictability and with that you have greater control. And with all that rigidness is will be easier to make things happen. You will be better able to weight transfer because very little of your weight transfer momemtum will be swallowed up by the rubber stockers.

Bushings are great, but bearings are better...

The only thing with bushings and what not is that it's a real pain in the ass job to do. Mine will be replaced as soon as my coilovers go in.

And what I meant as far as the "weak bushings" was the way that 2G's adjust camber with different bushings set to different angles, although I'm sure you knew that.

They are a pain to install. I'm in the process of putting in my Whiteline bushings. Pacing my self. Doing just a pair a wekend. I must admit the offcentered camber bushing for the rear upper lateral link/control arm is awesome. they do use the docks alot. Even in the middle of the night after a light rain and the temperature has dropped and froze the litle water that is on the road I would see alot of guys out. I was neat to see guys lined up to take turns doing donuts and what not while the more experienced drivers were just watching and giving advice and tips. Thats what is all about.

I would like to do the bearing thing... that would be cool, i supose you get them, heat up the parts, press them in, and then let cool, advise me.

i wish i didn't have FWD...but i did "drift on an off-ramp......closest ill ever get
i was going like 70 and the back tires broke ass end loose nad i was like Whoa....it looked cool they guy behind me said....

Drifting is implied that you have control over what you're doing.

Simply getting the ass out by accident is referred to as having gross oversteer.

yeah but i think i controlled it very well...it was cool.....but alas im fwd so i cant really legitimately drift unless im in the rain or on gravel

so how about those bearings.... how do you do that

FF drifting hard, I have done it quite a few times and pulled most of them out of the clipping point ok. Some I spun out with too much oversteer. I know some of you guys are like, ur not drifting, ur just ass draggin, well whatever u may call it, I am controlling the car throught he apex sideways. Though I"m not good enough to connect corners with the weight transfer, it's teaching me how to control the car. I do plan on getting a RWD by the end of the summer so I can do some real drifting.

Keys to having a tail happy AWD car are as follows (these are alignment/suspension related, not power)

Front:
removed or stock front sway bar
less, meaning more positive camber
slight toe in
lower pressure or slightly stickier tires

Rear:
big beefy sway bar
more, negative camber
higher tire pressure
slight toe out
stiffer springs

Assuming you have coilovers and a few bucks to spare, dont be afraid to order a couple different rate spring sets to experiment... A set up that sounds very un-conventional may work best.

Tail-out fun! Dont get to crazy, oposite lock at highway speeds is hairy

we have a guy here in hawaii named "crazy kyle"..drives a box civic, the best at FF drifting here..probably because he practices so much..heh..but anyway, i was debating on wether or not to go ahead and set my car up to drift...im thinking on just getting an s13 since i have one readily availiable for cheap but teeter tottering on the decision...i posted in the other thread but heres the comp in hawaii www.driftsession.com alot of the japan and okinawan guys are here like HI-PACE and team murder...so theres alot of "high level" drivers here...search on kazaa for drift session and ull find the clip from signal autos clinic..

yo slideways or arctic, what do u think? i haven't tried to break it out yet with my car since i haven't found a goodspot thats secluded with no curbs..but just the other night we found an empty back road...should i stick w/ my GR2s and Prokits for now and save up for a coilover suspension or should i go ahead and get AGXs? im going to start practicing after i do some weight reduction (clean it out) and make sure the car is running right.arctic ill shoot u a PM agen.....pz

onegee,
IMO a kyb agxs and a collar kit are a good way to go. I've used gound cotrols on agx's and on koni yellows in the past and had the results I wanted. GC is nice beacause you get Eibachs of your choice and the guys at GC are very helpful. But as with everything you get what you pay for. A "true" coilover set is the best way, but not the only way.

Originally posted by slideways
Blah blah blah blah Specs

Click to expand...

Is this from personal experience, or are you pulling it out of your ass? Pulling out the front swaybar is going to make the car way too tail happy for drifting (Yes, there is such a thing as too tail happy), mostly because, yes, I actually have disconnected my front sway bar links and the car is too unpredictable to be a decent enough drift car. Putting MORE positive camber on the front wheels? Uhhhhh...... No. DSM's have crap for camber adjustment as it is, and trying to put MORE camber on the front end is going for worse.

A decent setup would be trial and error with the car by making it as neutral as possible and let technique control the car.

If Keiichi can drift a NASCAR boat, a turkey like a GSX isn't a huge deal. It's just a matter of keeping the drivetrain together.

cait,
Out my ass no. From personal experience both on my own cars, on the job and through formal education yes. In my personal opinion removing the front sway bar does not make the car overly tail happy, but it does take time to get the feel for. More positive doesnt actually mean going to + side readings, more positive simply means less negative (which I thought I made very clear on my post) or closer to 0 but still on the negative side. The things I posted are simply general guidelines, notice I did not list certain specs and I make no claim to ever having built a drift-only awd dsm.