This past weekend I went to my first drift comp here in Hawaii (Hawaii Raceway Park) and I can honestly say I'm addicted. Both REVLiMiT (also a thirdgen.org member) and I took runs in our thirdgens around a course mostly dominated by lighter imports designed to drift turns (Nissan 240sx, Toyota Corolla GTS AE86, Ect). This is prolly the most fun i've ever had in my camaro because it wasnt about who was fastest or who had the best times, it was about who looked the coolest!! (yeah it was all judged by style). Anyway, I was wondering if anyone knew what parts of the car are stressed the most while taking turns hard roadracing or drifting turns? I know what I need to upgrade as far as suspension parts but im more interested in finding out what other parts of the car to watch .. like my c clips, my u bolts, front ball joints .... stuff like that. I want to make sure I know what to inspect prior to entering these comps. Last thing I want is my rear axle flying off going around a turn @ 45 sideways with everyone recording.

Check out the website ... www.driftsession.com

 

guess nobody likes drifting heheheh

 

The body, control arms, universal joints on the drive shaft, brakes, transmission, tires, wheel bearings, and more.

Anytime you ask your car to do more than just take you places, like racing or stuff like tha, your car 's parts will wear out faster.

 

Must be an island state phenomenon, since I've seen a couple of other posts about drifting from there, but not from anyplace else.

If your e-mail can handle a 3.6 meg or so video attachment I've got one of a Supra demonstrating (in a cloud of smoke, no less) what I think it looks like.

Norm

 

good observation! I'm not sure why nobody else posts about it here on the messageboards. Might be because Hawaii is closer to Japan than everyone else ... you know how it goes ... in Japan drifting is a big thing. I really hope it dosnt become some sort of fad in the US. After this past weekend I'm definately addicted to drifting. I like it so much because it relies more on driver ability than horsepower numbers. Now im going to dump some money into drop springs and some new shocks/struts, instead of that NOS kit I was thinking about. Is the Supra in that video a gold colored supra? If it is, thats the JUN Supra and it can drift like crazy!!!!

 

Yup. That's the one. "Advan" on the drivers side and a big wing. The filename I've got is junsupra[1].mpeg - does that ring a bell?

Re: drifting (on bare pavement, anyway) - it's way newer than either drag racing or auto-x/road racing, so I'm not too surprised at the relatively few posts or replies. Just the notion that the inside front wheel [edit: relative to steering, anyway] is the heavily loaded one is contrary to the conventional understanding of wheel/tire cornering loading.

'Course up here in the Northeast where we occasionally get snow there's lots of people (myself included) that do the very same thing in deserted parking lots after a snowfall, only we never bothered to give it a name. And yes, it's still fun.

Norm

 

snow??? whats that?? LOL!! j/p

 

did someone say drifting!!!!!!? haha...I took 2nd place in CrazyHawaiians pretty much stock RS camaro!! With dead suspension. Yet I took out modified hachis and 240s haha! And now that I have a strong ebrake system. Next month I should be able to show them what camaro drifting is all about. My posi and gears should be in soon. I cant wait!!!!......

 

With your axles tied together (w/ posi) better, your most likely going to pick-up more understeer...you may want to increase your rear sway bar size or decrease your front. You may also want to get a adjustable brake bias valve, cockpit mounted of course. Do left foot braking too induce oversteer at turn in. Since this isn't a speed event maybe smaller tire width in the rear could be a option, use good quality tires they'll be easier to control at those slip angles (slicks would be best). Increase your rebound on the front..it'll keep the weight at the front for a longer time. Or lower your rear bump rubbers. (warning to this, when you hit your rubbers hard it well want to swap ends)
Sounds like fun what you are doing, it's just so ironic that you are trying to get your car to do what we (road/circle track) don't....I'm sure it'll take as much time and effort though.
Have fun.....crazy kids...

 

I almost forgot...you were asking about stresses.
The skinner tires will help lessen this. You need to increase the strength of everything....as soon as you increase one thing it'll pass it on to the next weak link...Put some magnesium strips on some mounting blocks on your rocker panels so as when the car rolls (thru the turns) they just touch and sparks fly...got to be good for some points....

 

Definitely a good reason to install SFC's and an aftermarket PHB. Frequent inspection of the PHB chassis attachment and brace is adviseable too.

Norm

 

Thanks for the info guys!!!! I'll definately be checking my car before each event and now I got a better idea of what to check. Safety first!! Hopefully we can get some ppl out there next month (Feb Drift Session is on the 9th) with video cams to get some footage for ya.

 

never thought I would see the day a domestic car is going into the drift world, but hey it is hella fun no matter what you drive.

if anyone wants have a vid of a rx-7 chasing a skyline though it is 8MB
if you want it just give me a shout on AIM
rxspeed87

also
does anyone out there have any drifting vids?

 

Hehe, I got pulled over for "drifting" my mom's blazer around a turn on the street. I told the cop I was used to my camaro and the blazer's high center of gravity got me loose. He let me go!

Then i did it again a different day and got an excessive noise ticket.

This sounds cool, it's good that someone is organizing screwing around so that we don't have to vent ourselves on the street!

I can see this turning into serious competition as people realize how to tune the car for sliding rather than going fast.

Stresses the entire car no doubt, nothing is safe!

 

Interested in the Jun Supra one that I mentioned earlier?

Not sure if my e-mail will handle 8MB, but I'm interested in that RX-7 / Skyline one. Or maybe I can save it from a link.

Norm

 

I found that video.. (I think). Its the JUN Supra, and it's at http://www.mkiv.com/videoarchive/ . One thing- It's a 29 meg file... 56k modem users, don't try it! (Took me 5 minutes!)

 

The long one has a lot of non-drifting content; things like underhood, tire, interior shot, parts of a lap. I think you want the short one.

Norm

 

well I am on dial up which sux


but if you had aim and can leave your computer on I am sure we can manage to get the files moved about
if you dont ahve aim head yourself on over to www.aim.com


only other thing is I can open a few homestead or geocities accounts and hae the files split up with winrar