Stiffer and stiffer

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yeager

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So far my main drive for improving the car for drifting is making it stiffer. Would everyone agree this is the way to go? So far I have KYB AGX shocks which when adjusted to hard feel good, the Apex springs i'm not sure about, I think I need to go for something a little more solid. Any ideas?

I've got the ARB's on and set to stiff and they helped a huge amount, plus the obvious front and back strut braces. Next is the bushes on the subframes and possibly the diff/gearbox as well.

Is going for a super stiff car the way to go?
 
I was told that the front end needs to be softer than the rear for drifting. I have Leda coilovers, full hard at the back, 6/24 on the front, Whiteline ARBs (Can someone offer advice on the settings please?), Powerflex subby bushes and Cusco front brace. I'm getting a guy at work to make me a cage, so I'm not bothering with a rear brace.

However, in my case, all the gear and no idea springs to mind, 'cos when you see people like Ben and Graham in their barges rocking it at Silverstone, you see it's more about the driver than the car IMHO
 
Totally agree. I keep thinking I need stiffer springs and a pukka LSD and then I think of Julian and Midgers and realise I just need to learn how to drift properly.

I'm thinking the expensive drift goodies are nice to have and probably make drifting easier but if you havent got the ability in the first place they wont make you a star drifter.
 
There's a Drifting feature this month in an American mag called "Grassroots Motorsports". They suggest very high ARB rates and less stiff springs to minimise the roll angle and allow for geometry changes.

As I haven't even started building my car yet, I've no idea what's going to work other than I'll be concentrating on the dampers, springs and ARBs and probably leaving the bushes alone to begin with. As long as you've got adjustable dampers and spring platforms ,you can learn what changing the settings does to the handling and then go from there.

This feature also says that some top drifters like a bit of chassis flex in their cars so they don't go for fully welded-in cages.

Ultimately, I think it's best to get a reasonable set-up and then spend the rest of your time and money practising and competing so you can learn how to feel what's right and wrong with the car and what you need to do to the set-up to work with your driving style.
 
I know a lot of the jap D1 cars run an uprated rear anti roll bar, but they completely remove the front one.

and Si, I have Apex springs on my road car and although they're an improvement over standard, they're progressive which makes them a bit soft. I found the difference between Apex and SE springs very noticable. SE ones felt much more solid.
 
It makes sense to have a soft front for more grip and stiff rear to help break away and make it more predictable.
I'm going to build an S14 which initially will need to be useable on the road, so I reckon I'll have to compromise a bit and use softer springs with stiffer ARB's and use adjustable dampers to stiffen up the rear.
Any recommendations on coilovers which would fit the bill?
 
really any coilovers with top adjustable front camber plates combined with hard springs will do the job nicely. I have D2 coilovers on mine which are cheap compared to Tein, Nismo, HKS etc but I'm totally happy with them. Certainly a world apart from standard suspension or even standard shocks and lowering springs :nod:
I'm running 9kg front 7kg rear spring rates and it's well stiff. I understand the pro jap drift cars run more like 12/10........ dread to think what that would be like on bumpy Birmingham roads.....

One cheap way to get a really stiff antiroll bar is to bodge 2 standard ones together. I haven't seen it done in the UK yet, but I've seen pics from Australia and can't see why it wouldn't work if you can find a good way of joining them together......
 
James said:
One cheap way to get a really stiff antiroll bar is to bodge 2 standard ones together. I haven't seen it done in the UK yet, but I've seen pics from Australia and can't see why it wouldn't work if you can find a good way of joining them together......
Click to expand...

Now that, is what they call, a good idea. Trouble is if the "good way of joining them together" breaks mid corner.

Also it would probably rip the ARB mounts off the car, on mine.
 
AstonMan said:
Now that, is what they call, a good idea. Trouble is if the "good way of joining them together" breaks mid corner.

Also it would probably rip the ARB mounts off the car, on mine.
Click to expand...

Bah, who needs ARBs? Just weld a bar from side to side :D:D
 
A magazine I was reading a while ago (I think it was autocar) said that you needed a hard front, to give lots of grip on turn in (like a race car, v hard) and then soft at the back, to make it progressive and low-grip (like a road car) I guess they are talking shit, yes?? :confused:
 
I also heard that harder rears are better than softer rears for drifting. Would a setting of 7F 8R (for Apex (or D2) coilovers) be acceptable for an everyday car/DriftR? Don't want to go too hard, roads arent that good nic' around here.
James: Are there any video's of you drifting with the D2's installed. I would like to see how the car behaves with these babies on :)
Thanks,
-Milosz
 
James said:
I know a lot of the jap D1 cars run an uprated rear anti roll bar, but they completely remove the front one.

and Si, I have Apex springs on my road car and although they're an improvement over standard, they're progressive which makes them a bit soft. I found the difference between Apex and SE springs very noticable. SE ones felt much more solid.
Click to expand...

Silvia Engineering springs ? (?!)

They're bloody stiff, and on shot shocks it's dental.
 
MiRoX S13 said:
James: Are there any video's of you drifting with the D2's installed. I would like to see how the car behaves with these babies on :)
Click to expand...
yes, finally there is :) here

and yes, SE, Silvia Engineering springs. I certainly didn't find them too hard, they just felt nice and solid :)
 
AstonMan said:
Now that, is what they call, a good idea. Trouble is if the "good way of joining them together" breaks mid corner.

Also it would probably rip the ARB mounts off the car, on mine.
Click to expand...

Maybe like this on my ae86?


AE86-461_small.jpg

AE86-462_small.jpg
 
:D:D:D
exactly like that :thumbs:
Are those clips strong enough? Have you driven it hard setup like that?
 
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