Drift, I need to know how to set up a...

[DirtDriver]

muscle car for...uh...well...mmmmmmmm....oh, hell, I am just gonna say it...drifting!

Can you help me?

DD

[bimmerlovere39]

wowomgzorz DD is sidewayz!!!11!!11one!1

I might help you be able to...

[bimmerlovere39]

First of all, look through there
(warning: you are going to daught gnet)

[DirtDriver]

Gosh, beemer..uh..bimmer..

Thanks for the help...and don't take this wrong...but I am goin' right to the man, himself on this one! Heck, he even uses the term in his name!!!

It's just that PGR has me into this and I wanna see it in a car I can tune!

LOL

DD

[bimmerlovere39]

Gosh, beemer..uh..bimmer..

Thanks for the help...and don't take this wrong...but I am goin' right to the man, himself on this one! Heck, he even uses the term in his name!!!

It's just that PGR has me into this and I wanna see it in a car I can tune!

LOL

DD

Uh-oh.  You'regoing to the dark side

[Drift2XL]

My best setups are my really good race setups. I feel comfortable in overdriving them. The ZR-1 is probably my best one. I was stuck in Asia and couldn't get the Chevelle. So I felt some small block love for the NY minute.

After I got all I could, the car felt so good I slid it through the keyhole.

I'm trying to decipher my poor excuses for notes and get you the ZR-1 setup. With no way to check the old car I can't figure them out.

Ah ha! Eureka! I found it.

ZR-1 

tires       29/28
Gearing   3.65 FD
Camb    -1.3/-.6
Toe        0/-.1
Cast       5.0
ARB        14.7/16.4
Spring     480/ 450
Rebound  5.4/6.5
Bump      5.2/4.8
Diff         a40/d30         EDIT: you may want to up the lock on both sides of the diff. Keep it a little more controllable

Try out a low DF to keep it from swinging out to fast. And start with the widest set of tires you can. If you have a tire that you're comfortable with (IE one you use on M Inc. I only use Toyos.) use that one.

Try it out or use one of your favorites. But you have to be kamikaze comfortable with it. Where you feel you can drive it in really hot and keep it under control.
 
Start with power overs. Just drive slow into a large, wide sweeper, MV short is great, and spin the rears. Control it out and do it again. Once you feel better at your control increase speed. If you can hold it for the whole turn, keep it going for the next turn. Transitions are tough, but real satisfying when you get it right.

Don't get discouraged. You have been driving for speed and it takes some getting used to go past the cars limits effectively. I will say that once you can get good transitions, you will feel a difference in grip driving and controling weight transfers with throttle. You might actually want a looser car for competition.

EDIT: I went over to the drift boards on .net. God I love tabs. They have some for muscles in the database for drift set ups. And they all have about 1000HP. Not going to be good for beginners.

[Drift2XL]

Unfortunatly, there is no real silver bullet tune for drifting either. You can tune a little better feel into the car, but the majority is driver.

I wish you would start with a knock kneed weakling with wider tires than a torque monster. But as much time as we have spent wheeling them around. I figure you can handle it. The ZR-1 reflects my personal style of tuning. Soft (to feel the weight transfers) and neutral (for turn in and rotating the car). In reality, this is probably a good drift setup for a starter.

I haven't really went out and made a drift set up. They kind of fall into place with my kind of tune. I like to be able to control the car at either end with throttle and/or steering. I love the Miata spec. I just wish I had some competition to drive me harder. The Miata is a great car, real engaging. You drive like a fool and your still not really going that fast.

[DirtDriver]

Well, following your lead I grabbed my ZR-1, did a little tweaking (mostly closing the diff on accel) and hit MVS...literally. There wasn't a vertical patch of concrete I didn't scuff.

Seems I might need some help with technique. Like, what is power over? And how do I get the car set in a drift...I am going all the way around!

DD

[Drift2XL]

Power over is overpowering the rear tires resulting in the slide. I'm sure you gave Bertha a little too much coming off a turn and it kicked the rear out. That's a power over. If you can keep on it and keep it straight that's drifting.

The spin is too much gas. Back off a little.

A good beginner exercise is do some doughnuts and try to straighten the car out without fully lifting. Do one or two, then countersteer and lift slightly. You should eventually feel the rear gain traction and start going straight. Hold the gas there and keep smoking the tires.

Next step would be a run at MV.  You want to start by going real slow, like 40 MPH in the big sweeper. Then hit the gas hard to start the spin. Give opposite lock and then modulate the throttle to keep the rear out.

There are other types like braking with a higher rear bias/E-brake to get the rear out. Then going to gas to keep the slide going. Tougher.

And the weight transfer.  Hardest, well, until you get used to it. Ever had a tankslapper? That snap back in the other direction is weight transfer. It was countersteered too much or pulled out too much gas and the weight snaps back to the other direction. That's basically how to do a transition.

Well you can do it to start a drift. Most commonly known as "The Swedish Flick" I catch myself doing it sometimes while grip racing. Just before you turn in, you slightly turn the other way. Its almost a nessesary with my soft set up. To get the susp. to compress and sit on the tires at maximum grip the whole way through. Just not violently enough to start a slide. The drift crowd calls it a Kansei or feint.

[Fit4aking]

Feint drifting is a blast.  Most Touge style or downhill drifters use it far more than the power over.  The E-brake drift is usually a last resort for me.  Unless I'm in an increasing radius and need to initiate the drift and power over through it.  I wholly agree with the brake biasing though.  I tend to set the bias a bit more toward the rear than a grip setup but not overly so.  I just go by feel.

Good luck Dirt, heres one I did a while back with the Sagaris around Silverstone.  I was fed up trying to actually run the track so I took the opportunity to over-run it.

[Drift2XL]

Great shot Fit!

Its hard to really tell someone how to feint. But once you learn how to do it it becomes instinctive.
Basically your just doing the teenage tomfoolery.

It reminds me of one Christmas at my grandparents. Eight inches of snow on the ground

Mom: Can I take your car?
Me: Why?
Mom: We need some bread and milk.(There are three things always at Grandma's; Milk, Lunchmeat, and Bread)
Me: You sure? We just opened a new jug for dinner.
Mom: (funny look) I have a Camry.
Me: (handing over keys to the 5.0) Okay. Enough said
(Her and my aunt scurrying out the door, giggling.)

[Fit4aking]

Here's my little drift exersize.  Pick a fun car and head off to Suzuka East.

Set up who's in front or rear on the straight.  Feint into the first two corners as a decreasing radius using slight power-over to maintain wheelspin.

Increase speed into the first left hander but maintain a decent slide angle.  Feint through the entire section of twisties getting your left-to-right transitions down. 

The final right hander is a true test of throttle control and entry angle.  Being downhill, off-camber magnifies throttle input and decreases the chances of slowing an over-rotation.  Accelerate out of the turn and swap positions, repeat as necessary.

Side Note: I tend to use a long wheelbase car for this as the narrow track is hard to pass without contact.  Remember, you hit me you lose.

[DirtDriver]

Thanks, gents.

That outta give me some kind of handle on this little adventure! Will get back to you.

DD

[Drift2XL]

I've just received my monthly dose of alternative car culture, also known as Sport Compact Car magazine.

And there is an interesting article where the engineering ed. talks to drifter Rhys Millen about the settigns on his newly built Solstice drift car. Well not that newly built.

Of particular interest for those who want to show off more than go fast are the alignment settings noticed. Such as the car set up to understeer quite a bit with a huge front ARB. Massive amounts of caster, over six degrees definitely. And the 1/4 to 1/2 inch of toe in in the rear.

I will be giving these a try whenever I finish with career. But I'm not going to devote a ton of time and turn into Drift King or any of that scene. But someone (Dirt) asked the question, and it would be unpolite and unprofessional for me not to look into this.

Hoping that this info works in game.

BTW does anyone know anyway to convert toe degree into measured toe in/out? (More like I'm used to)

Also of interest was the fact that it was cheaper to by and use a MiG-15 vs. drift or rally car for a single year.
Talk about getting your speed jones off. A freaking MiG.

[Ske]

Hoping that this info works in game.

Indeed it did! I was amazed at how easy it was to drift with that type of setup.

Anyway for those interested, here's how I'll set up a car for drifting nowadays:

Power: 400-500hp for DOT tires, 200-400 for Y rated.. wide powerband helps.

Tires      unchanged
Gearing   unchanged
Camb    -1.0/-0.5 (0 if live axle)
Toe        0/-1.0
Cast       7.0
ARB        35/unchanged
Spring     unchanged
Rebound  unchanged
Bump      both +1.5 from default
Brakes    45-40/user pref
Diff         unchanged

In 9 out of 10 cases, this will produce a car that is very steady but can easily be flung sideways by flicking or overpowering - or even braking. It's extremely hard to spin these cars, but you need to be aggressive with the throttle or it'll grip.

I even applied this tune to my racing Monaro and it works a charm - although I reduced the caster by 1 degree and the rear bump by 5 clicks. It's a bit understeery, but you can get on the throttle much earlier and harder without breaking traction.