I apologize in advance if this topic has been previously worn out, but I ran a search and couldn't seem to find what I was looking for. The only thread that came close was mainly centered around exchanging theories between people who have done it before and people who didn't seem to. Then when people started yelling at each other and saying "any idiot can do it", I lost interest.

I just took delivery of an 86 Z28 with a 350 and a 5 speed this weekend. Despite the last owner telling us that the car was perpetually lean and he couldn't get it to run right, I can see, smell and feel that the car is drowning in fuel. So, the first thing on the agenda is to rebuild the original carb (he'd swapped it and included the old one) and get the thing to pass Smog. After that, my plan is simply to gut the car. Seats, carpet, all the plastic in and around the rear half of the car, anything that isn't bolted down and important formaking the car safe or functional is coming out. After that, though, I'm kind of at a loss for what to do . . .

My question is this: as for the suspension, how would the set up of the car differ from a car that's been dedicated to, let's say . . . autocross? It would make sense to me that you'd want the car to be as stiff as possible to eliminate body roll and keep the car from getting a mind of it's own. I also understand that you want some negative camber to maintain a large contact patch while turning, but from what I understand, these are also things that are true of any Auto-X car.

I remember reading that it's better to loosen up the rear to help the car understeer and make it more drift friendly, but how would you go about doing that? Which suspension components would you start adjusting first?

Any input would be helpful as, though my family has been doing go-karts/stadium offroad/drag racing/etc for decades, the idea of making a car want to slide on asphalt is a concept that none of us can really wrap our minds around.

 

*bump*

Nothing? No one?

*lip quivers, puppy eyes*

Please?

 

I'm an avid auto-xer....so take this with a grain of salt. From my observations of "drift" cars and my playing around with rear wheel drive cars I've found that the stiffer and lighter a car is the easier it is to balance on the edge of traction or even over that edge (which is basically what you are doing in a drift).

You don't want to have the car setup to be naturally loose, to get a "drift" to stick and be controllable you want to use the gas to control how much rear grip you have at any point in the turn.

Your 86 will either have 450 lb/in springs or 600 lb/in depending on the suspension package it had. I would look for something north of 1000 lb/in. You can use cheap circle track springs ment for the metric chassis. For the rear I would start with around 250 lb/in and tune for feel from there. Get some koni shocks and maybe look into getting them re-valved for the utltra high spring rates.

Of couse you are going to need a spool and some kind of low profile wheel and tire combo. Big soft sidewalls are not the way to go. The less movement you have from the suspension and tires the easier it will be to predict what the car is going to do.

I would double check to see what engine you actually have, you couldn't get a 350 with a 5 speed so some one would have had to swap it in. It's most likely just a 305.

The biggest problem you are going to run into is getting enough steering lock to get really sideways. You'll have to do some major cutting and welding to get any more steering lock than stock.

Again, I'm not a drifter.....but I have gotten a bit overzelous with the throttle more than once on an auto-x course. The closer my car gets to being a full on race car the easier it's been to catch the spin and carry it through the turn.

 

Drifting eh?

Now why would you wanna do that?

BMmonteSS is pretty close, but 1000 lbs in the front seems a little exteme. You really don't need a spool, but at least posi. It'll need a little lowering, but that's preference. Most of it's preference, I love my tokicos, but alot of guys here hate them. Best I can say is just drive it and fix what you break.

Check out the forum I mod, domestic drifting

Post some pics!

 

That was one of the first things I was going to do. I still have the 16's from my RS and while they're not ideal, they're better than the 15's on it.

I really need to get my eyes checked, I could have sworn I saw a 350 option on the 86 Camaro tech data page here, guess not. Stupid scratched glasses . . . it was a fly, uh, a fly was on my monitor . . .

The motor probably won't stay in there all that long anyway. Once I get some seat time and can confidently throw the car around without backing into walls, I'd like to pull the 305 and drop in my dad's Super Late Model motor. It makes about 450hp and turns over 8,000 so it will be a lot more capable than what's in there now. He's not using it . . .

I have heard that before, thanks for confirming. I'd like to avoid any huge amounts of fabrication if I can, but we'll see what happens.


@Soultron: You're one of the people I was really hoping to hear from since this is quite obviously your area of expertise. I registered for the domestic drifting forums over a week ago and the admin still hasn't activated my account. I'll stop by and post some pics as soon as I can.

 

Expertise eh? We'll see about that. Don't worry about that late model monster till much later. My 305 can break em loose fine, but myself and the steering aren't fast enough to keep up. Get all the suspension parts you can get your hands on. You want as much control as you can get. Get all the seat time you can, alot of tires and read alot of Crazy Hawaiian and Revlimit's posts. They got me as far as I am. What area are you in? I'm relocating to the south( good bye snow) and I'll have a drift practice once a week a hour from me! What'd your user name at DomeDori ? I'll give the admin a buzz.

 

Well, you've drifted a third gen F-Body before, so you already know more than I do. Don't worry, though, the motor swap wasn't going to happen until I found myself needing it to stay competitive or the 305 went ka-chunk. My highest priorities after getting the car to run properly are weight and suspension.

I'm in So-Cal. There's a couple local org's that have competitions averaging once a month or so, but I've yet to find a place that holds regular practice sessions *dreams*. I'm still just barely getting into this whole thing, though, so maybe I'll find something. I really don't want to resort to street drifitng just to get seat time. I can't afford to go to jail right now . . .

User name is Soldat

 

So Cal here also.

I have a guess you can say lots of experience autoxing and road coursing.
As well as a few other credentials. I have proven to be untouchable locally by a couple handfuls of 3rdgens (apples for apples). Thats just ment to get you up to speed of my experience with 3rd gens as well as just about anything.

If you want to drift successfully well? you have to lock up the suspension for transition movement. Very heavy springs, very high rebound shocks, very high treadwear tires (400TW+, if not then you'd better have so serious HP to be doing anything consistant about 35mph). And as stated, you need a good turning radius with the proper alignment specs so the inside tire does not snap oversteer you on a countersteer grab.

All the pros have tractor brakes- If someone claims they do not need them they are not in top competitive levels and could not hang.

You need to strip polar weight (weight that is at the outer extremities from your center of gravity) so the car is nimble and transitions quickly. In other words sit everything posible right next to you in the cockpit and everything else discard if not necessary.

lastly, a quick steer box and a larger steering wheel(perferably a 350mm or larger) for control.


Oh yeah, You had better have deep pockets. last time I checked, even the best drifters pile up their cars into the barriers at least twice a year. wish we all could afford to do that and not have to pay for it like the big sponsors do.
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Now to anyone that thinks they can do drifting without the above and have done it successfully, Give me you car for a day and I will show you how you can be better. If you think yopu car is drifting great without the above, then why not enter it in a professional competition? Its not all the person driving, its also got a whole lot to do with those pros cars and how they are setup. They have proven at Irwindale raceway that any decent driver can get behind the wheel of a pro drift car in in a few hours be doing it successfully. Most Nascar drivers actualy suck sh*t when trying something else, They only know traction and when something does not feel right they whine and complain- ask me how I know? I cross paths with a few of them form time to time. Nascar is about 75% the car, and so is professional drifting. ( only in drifing the other 25% is made up with driving skill- NASCARs other 25% is 5% driving skills (oh its so damn difficult to keep a car floored and pass everybody in traffic with someone in you ear telling you you are clear to make any move, nad bump them repeatitively like they did growing up in the frikin go-karts they come out of) and 20% boy band charm. Lear to drive a car and pass somebody respectfully and skillfully without touching them.

 

Let me clarify what I meant by "serious drifting" . . . I'm not planning on going pro. It's just that I hear a lot of people saying "Ya, i wuz driftin ma c1v16 lst n1te in da mcdonlads parkn lot, man it wuz hellatigt!!1!!" I'm trying to avoid the input that those types of people try to give me.

True, the big name teams like RMR, Mopar and Falken have the cubic dollars to trash cars, break stuff, test on a daily basis and drive purpose built racecars. I'm planning on doing some local competitions and stuff, but I have a wife and kid. Throwing away my career to go try to be the next Chris Forsberg is just not smart.