prblmslvrs
Active Member
Right so if you're on this forum you're probably a dying breed of people who actually want to read stuff rather than be spoon fed something in an hour long video of someone chatting 75% pish. (I am probably going to have to do a video at some point but will try to keep the pish to a minimum.)
I've done a couple of write ups for my project Insurgent with the help of a few mates. Basically tips and advice for setting up a practice car and driving on track. I'm looking to do more in depth stuff in line with the harder technical driving but these two topics would be good starting off points. I've posted these in a couple different places and have had decent feedback so feel it would be good to post up in here also.
So the first one is for Practice Car Setup.
Your first car.
This comes up all the fucking time. Theres loads of information out there but if you ask the question publically/on a forum you’ll probably get some twat being shitty with you rather than give you actual helpful advice or you’ll get someone with a blinkered view on what they feel is best.
So beginner cars is what you want and can afford. Mx5 is what I chose because it was it was underpowered and I wanted to learn to be able to skid something low power with shit lock, so when I went to something with more power and more lock I’d have a head start with technique and (hopefully) have no bad habits such as relying on power.
Most common beginner cars I see are mx5/roadster’s and BMW 3 series but theres more IS200/Altezzas showing up also.
Basic rule of thumb with your first car:
Less than 150bhp. It will be hard, trust me. You’ll struggle like fuck to start with then it’ll eventually click when you nail that first big corner/link. You’ll learn to rely on speed and momentum and you won’t have the safety net of power to catch you. Run up to 70psi in the rears, more info later.
150-180bhp – Good middle ground. You’re not going to struggle so much with the initial click and you’ll also be able to “Power through” but you might end up relying on power if you aren’t mindful.
180bhp+ – This is a tricky one for learning in my opinion. You really need to be mindful of your technique and ensure you’re not just “Powering through” every corner. Team Orange have been quoted as saying something like “Drifting is the momentum you pull into the corner, as soon as you put your foot down you’re power sliding, not drifting.”
One thing to keep in mind is if you’re learning in a nice car you may hold back and not push as hard as you would in a beater. This is why I had an mx5, theres no such thing as a cool mx5 so I didn’t care if it was crashed/battered when learning which I feel helped with my progression as I could push it without the worry of having to make it “clean” again but kept it relatively presentable.
Making your car “Drift spec yo!”
So before I even get into modifications I need to stress that no matter what mods you do to your car; it will not make you a better driver. Call me out on that all you want but its true. If you can’t do a drift day without spinning out every 3rd corner, steering mods will only mask you being a shitty driver. Focus more on getting used to your car and your driver skill will come. Then once you are being limited by what the car can do, that’s when you modify it. Also, keeping your build simple and reliable is the best thing you can do, more seat time, more skill development and you’ll be a better driver. Just because you have £100 lying about doesn’t mean you should get cut knuckles. Spend that on seat time or tyres, or god forbid save it!
So for this section I’ve imagined I’ve been given a bog standard RWD car to set up for someone. Here’s what I’d do to it, in a rough order of priority. – Fixing broken shit (properly) and servicing isn’t even being mentioned cause come on, you need to do that shit. Having a fucking tin of a bodged car is not cool and will only let you down.
Differential:
Straight up first thing is diff. If its open, Weld it. Do NOT try and skid an open diff car, its far too unpredictable even if you’re a self proclaimed DK it will catch you out eventually. That and you will not be able to skid an open diff properly. Fact.
If you’ve got a Torsen, take it out for a few days and see how you get on with it. I personally weigh a welder as far superior and predictable than a Torsen diff but thats MY preference, make your own decision. My car is a daily with a welder and I’ve never had any issues. If you’re welding it uprate the diff mounts. S chassis I’ve got solid mounts, MX5 I used void fillers. Found this out the hard way running standard mx5 bushes and destroying them in weeks with a welder.
If your car is lucky enough to have a 1.5/2 way, you’re laughing they’re all the benefits of a welder but a bit better for street use.
Suspension:
Sort yourself out with some fully adjustable coilovers. I can’t stress how good these are after driving about on budget coilovers for 8+ years. Obviously if you can’t afford them get budget ones, but keep in mind if you are planning keeping the car you WILL eventually upgrade. No point paying £150 if you’re going to flog them for £80 and buy £400 coilovers eventually…
Bucket seat:
You need to be planted when you’re driving. Some cars as standard have fairly supportive seats standard but once you’re throwing your car about at 60mph+ you need to be fully in control and not flailing about trying to keep yourself upright and steer.
With a bucket seat you really should add in harnesses and a roll cage at the same time but I accept that some budgets don’t allow for it and know some people accept the risk of doing without one or the other. If your car is a convertible don’t fucking buy harnesses until you have a cage/roll bar.
Steering Wheel:
I almost left this off cause I grief the whole “Drift wheel” shit but I’ve had the relevance made clear rather than my personal preference. You want to have either a spacer or a dished wheel on your car. This is to keep your flailing hands (your hands will flail) away from indicators and wipers. As well as have the wheel in the most comfortable position you can.
Hydro:
At this point you shouldn’t need a hydro regardless of the car. Learning with a hydro is only going to give you bad habits and I’ve seen a lot of people with dodgy handbrake techniques just because the hydro is there and its “Cool” and “Driftcar” to have it. If you don’t know how to use it (which you won’t at this stage.) leave it the fuck alone. Instead of using the handbrake at this stage you should be focusing on perfecting your line rather than trying to adjust it all the time with the handbrake. – I am looking to do more information on handbrakes in the future.
Lock Mods:
Hold off for lock mods to be discussed in the driving/second part. Short version: Don’t go for lock mods straight off the bat.
Alignment:
This is sort of up to you. I always thought straight and true is the best way for learning. 0 toe front and rear. -3 degree’s or so front camber. A bit of negative rear camber will help the car slip a bit better but you should be working up to around -1 so that you can maintain speed and grip. I ran -3 on the rear of the mx5 as that’s as little as i could get with my setup, I was looking to extend rear upper arms for more grip before as I sold it. Ride height: as low as you can get it pretty much. A little increase in castor to make the steering a bit quicker. Once you’re confident and consistent you can start fucking about with your alignment so it bites when you steer etc. Of course there’s also the other side of not caring about the alignment and just learning to drive it with whatever wonky alignment it has.
Front Tyres:
Again this is another preference thing. I’ve driven with three types of tyres and for learning I’d recommend some mid range tyres similar to Nankang NS2’s or Uniroyal Rainsports. Nice and cheap as well as being well balanced in dry and wet. I have ran RSR 595’s also but felt the front end grip from these let the car down a bit as it only wanted to pivot around the front of the car rather than the whole car have a fluid movement. I’d imagine with more power and a grippier rear tyre to balance this would even out. Might be good for people aiming for competition drifting.
So I’ve done all of the above to this imaginary car. I’d give it to whoever driving and tell them to just fucking drive the thing. Getting hung up on modifications and shit will only impede your progression. This is a resounding statement from everyone I’ve spoken to about this article. My first year of driving my mx5 only had welder, suspension, bucket seat, wheel, rack spacers. I’d do the exact same again. My current S13 is relatively basic apart from lock mods, its just got a stock SR and T25g in it and I don’t plan to upgrade any time soon.
*Reached character limit*
I've done a couple of write ups for my project Insurgent with the help of a few mates. Basically tips and advice for setting up a practice car and driving on track. I'm looking to do more in depth stuff in line with the harder technical driving but these two topics would be good starting off points. I've posted these in a couple different places and have had decent feedback so feel it would be good to post up in here also.
So the first one is for Practice Car Setup.
Your first car.
This comes up all the fucking time. Theres loads of information out there but if you ask the question publically/on a forum you’ll probably get some twat being shitty with you rather than give you actual helpful advice or you’ll get someone with a blinkered view on what they feel is best.
So beginner cars is what you want and can afford. Mx5 is what I chose because it was it was underpowered and I wanted to learn to be able to skid something low power with shit lock, so when I went to something with more power and more lock I’d have a head start with technique and (hopefully) have no bad habits such as relying on power.
Most common beginner cars I see are mx5/roadster’s and BMW 3 series but theres more IS200/Altezzas showing up also.
Basic rule of thumb with your first car:
Less than 150bhp. It will be hard, trust me. You’ll struggle like fuck to start with then it’ll eventually click when you nail that first big corner/link. You’ll learn to rely on speed and momentum and you won’t have the safety net of power to catch you. Run up to 70psi in the rears, more info later.
150-180bhp – Good middle ground. You’re not going to struggle so much with the initial click and you’ll also be able to “Power through” but you might end up relying on power if you aren’t mindful.
180bhp+ – This is a tricky one for learning in my opinion. You really need to be mindful of your technique and ensure you’re not just “Powering through” every corner. Team Orange have been quoted as saying something like “Drifting is the momentum you pull into the corner, as soon as you put your foot down you’re power sliding, not drifting.”
One thing to keep in mind is if you’re learning in a nice car you may hold back and not push as hard as you would in a beater. This is why I had an mx5, theres no such thing as a cool mx5 so I didn’t care if it was crashed/battered when learning which I feel helped with my progression as I could push it without the worry of having to make it “clean” again but kept it relatively presentable.
Making your car “Drift spec yo!”
So before I even get into modifications I need to stress that no matter what mods you do to your car; it will not make you a better driver. Call me out on that all you want but its true. If you can’t do a drift day without spinning out every 3rd corner, steering mods will only mask you being a shitty driver. Focus more on getting used to your car and your driver skill will come. Then once you are being limited by what the car can do, that’s when you modify it. Also, keeping your build simple and reliable is the best thing you can do, more seat time, more skill development and you’ll be a better driver. Just because you have £100 lying about doesn’t mean you should get cut knuckles. Spend that on seat time or tyres, or god forbid save it!
So for this section I’ve imagined I’ve been given a bog standard RWD car to set up for someone. Here’s what I’d do to it, in a rough order of priority. – Fixing broken shit (properly) and servicing isn’t even being mentioned cause come on, you need to do that shit. Having a fucking tin of a bodged car is not cool and will only let you down.
Differential:
Straight up first thing is diff. If its open, Weld it. Do NOT try and skid an open diff car, its far too unpredictable even if you’re a self proclaimed DK it will catch you out eventually. That and you will not be able to skid an open diff properly. Fact.
If you’ve got a Torsen, take it out for a few days and see how you get on with it. I personally weigh a welder as far superior and predictable than a Torsen diff but thats MY preference, make your own decision. My car is a daily with a welder and I’ve never had any issues. If you’re welding it uprate the diff mounts. S chassis I’ve got solid mounts, MX5 I used void fillers. Found this out the hard way running standard mx5 bushes and destroying them in weeks with a welder.
If your car is lucky enough to have a 1.5/2 way, you’re laughing they’re all the benefits of a welder but a bit better for street use.
Suspension:
Sort yourself out with some fully adjustable coilovers. I can’t stress how good these are after driving about on budget coilovers for 8+ years. Obviously if you can’t afford them get budget ones, but keep in mind if you are planning keeping the car you WILL eventually upgrade. No point paying £150 if you’re going to flog them for £80 and buy £400 coilovers eventually…
Bucket seat:
You need to be planted when you’re driving. Some cars as standard have fairly supportive seats standard but once you’re throwing your car about at 60mph+ you need to be fully in control and not flailing about trying to keep yourself upright and steer.
With a bucket seat you really should add in harnesses and a roll cage at the same time but I accept that some budgets don’t allow for it and know some people accept the risk of doing without one or the other. If your car is a convertible don’t fucking buy harnesses until you have a cage/roll bar.
Steering Wheel:
I almost left this off cause I grief the whole “Drift wheel” shit but I’ve had the relevance made clear rather than my personal preference. You want to have either a spacer or a dished wheel on your car. This is to keep your flailing hands (your hands will flail) away from indicators and wipers. As well as have the wheel in the most comfortable position you can.
Hydro:
At this point you shouldn’t need a hydro regardless of the car. Learning with a hydro is only going to give you bad habits and I’ve seen a lot of people with dodgy handbrake techniques just because the hydro is there and its “Cool” and “Driftcar” to have it. If you don’t know how to use it (which you won’t at this stage.) leave it the fuck alone. Instead of using the handbrake at this stage you should be focusing on perfecting your line rather than trying to adjust it all the time with the handbrake. – I am looking to do more information on handbrakes in the future.
Lock Mods:
Hold off for lock mods to be discussed in the driving/second part. Short version: Don’t go for lock mods straight off the bat.
Alignment:
This is sort of up to you. I always thought straight and true is the best way for learning. 0 toe front and rear. -3 degree’s or so front camber. A bit of negative rear camber will help the car slip a bit better but you should be working up to around -1 so that you can maintain speed and grip. I ran -3 on the rear of the mx5 as that’s as little as i could get with my setup, I was looking to extend rear upper arms for more grip before as I sold it. Ride height: as low as you can get it pretty much. A little increase in castor to make the steering a bit quicker. Once you’re confident and consistent you can start fucking about with your alignment so it bites when you steer etc. Of course there’s also the other side of not caring about the alignment and just learning to drive it with whatever wonky alignment it has.
Front Tyres:
Again this is another preference thing. I’ve driven with three types of tyres and for learning I’d recommend some mid range tyres similar to Nankang NS2’s or Uniroyal Rainsports. Nice and cheap as well as being well balanced in dry and wet. I have ran RSR 595’s also but felt the front end grip from these let the car down a bit as it only wanted to pivot around the front of the car rather than the whole car have a fluid movement. I’d imagine with more power and a grippier rear tyre to balance this would even out. Might be good for people aiming for competition drifting.
So I’ve done all of the above to this imaginary car. I’d give it to whoever driving and tell them to just fucking drive the thing. Getting hung up on modifications and shit will only impede your progression. This is a resounding statement from everyone I’ve spoken to about this article. My first year of driving my mx5 only had welder, suspension, bucket seat, wheel, rack spacers. I’d do the exact same again. My current S13 is relatively basic apart from lock mods, its just got a stock SR and T25g in it and I don’t plan to upgrade any time soon.
*Reached character limit*