I'm thinking of making my 87 Z a drift car. Original ideas were to be a drag car with a 350-383-454 swap. Currently it has a carb'd 305 that will hang well with a 350 it has some minor suspension work and a T-5. I've never heard of a third gen drifter much less a Camaro drifter but who says it can't be done? Any suggestions? Any ideas on where to start? Upgrades?

i will applaud you if you can accomplish this. I'm sure it wouldnt be too hard, just reduce some weight, add some pwer and a stiff suspension, put a good drifter in and you have a drifting camaro. Hell, you can do this, if my buddies can make a corsica into a RWD with a jdm engine and slap a twin turbo on it for drift event your options are limitless lol the only hard part will be to shave ther wiehgt, unless you arent planning to let it be street legal

sure it can be done, take a look a this video
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jIJni8DfFoQ

an aluminum block such as an LS1 would be your biggest weight reduction, and the t-5?! Barely likes the idea of a 350 and your contemplating drifting??? Maaaaaybe a t-56 would take the abuse but i don't know. Just a couple things to think about if your thinking about spending that much cash. And doing it right.

crazyhawaiian used to drift his camaro.. it was an auto too.. search for him on the members list..

I'm not looking to spend a whole boat load of money just trying to get ideas for now. So far I'm thinking of keeping the 305 and pushing as much horsepower as I can safely get out of it and dropping some crucial weight. Wheels and tires are next but you don't think the T-5 would handle that sort of driving? I'm sure I can get a hold of a decent T-56 pretty easily.
Thanks guys

Also could somebody help me with a rear built for drifting? I would assume it would be a similar gearing as you would have for drag racing since there isn't a whole lot of need for top end speed more low end and torque. Currently it sits stock which is what? 2.73?

for drifting, you can use the stock rear.. just get a girdle cover, a posi or locking differential, maybe 4.10 gearing for easier spin, and if you feel the need, upgraded axles.. a 4th gen rearend would be another option.. they have 28 spline axles and are a bit stronger.. but still a girdle and 4.10's..

the only thing i see wrong with the t5 is that 3rd gear is the weakest and beware if your gearing leaves you in 3rd for the drift.. i doubt you will be hitting 50+mph though.. a t-56 is not only stronger, but it has the 6th gear to aid on the highway..

Thats why i suggest the T56, wasn't sure of the T5 but figured that T56 wouldn't hurt, specially with the massive torque and blows of dropping gears, and the 4:10 gearing needed, not to mention you can have somewhat decent highway with 4:10s and still take it to the track on the weekends. A 4th gen rear axle is almost 2" wider on each side...you may wanna see if anyone can play with the phsyics of that if that would hurt or help you on the drift aspect.

Awesome thanks for the help so far I'll post pictures and vids once I get this "idea" up and running. Thats all it is for now is an idea. My 3rd gear is already a little rough as it is so a T-56 might be a good option regardless. Would a junkyard be a good place to find 4.10s?

no factory 3rd gens came with 4.10's so just buy those new.. better to be safe than sorry..

good luck, play with youre car a little drifting aint that hard its more of a physics thing, you should look up the drift bibble its a good way of getting to know what youre getting in to also search for ken nomura instructional videos

http://www.gearsareus.com/gearsareus...ff/gearsgm.htm

I found this, I know this may sound stupid but I'm just kind of getting into this but what kind of rear do I have and where should I look to find gears? This site seems pretty straight forward...if you know what kind of rear you have, which I don't.

I kinda hoped crazy would reply by now, but he's been a ghost lately.

As a thirdgen drifter all I can say is first off,
Don't do anything to your car except get it in good running shape.
Drive it and try drifting it just a bit.
You just want to get to see what's wrong to start with.
If you've already got that covered, move on to a good posi differential.
I've got a 4th gen rear with an auburn diff. It's fine and it was cheap.
You wil need stiffer springs, not just lowering springs. The rear ones in these cars are very weak. You'll also need shocks to match them.
You'll eventually want to change the bushings and balljoints and such.

Shocks,springs and posi will get you going. It's all the normal suspension upgrades really. Anything you'd do to road race the car will work for drifting.
The T-5 is okay to start, as long as you don't launch on it, it works. Clutch kicking isn't hurting it so far either. Of course, I have a 305 with no mods...
The tricky part is steering angle. I might have a fix for that, but it's pretty crazy, so I'll keep it under wraps until it works.

I had a build thread at the domestic drifting forum, but I think it's dead.

video including my car from last year (either me or the GF driving)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAQzDLMMiOQ

Tons of 3rds (work safe with the volume down)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9x3gr_YUL8


Post your pics and videos!

This isn't a Tech/General Engine topic.

Hey man sounds cool i drift in my camaro but now onlt in the snow b/c tires arent cheap. One of my first drift videos is on youtube if you want to check it out its called drifting with the beast. Its kinda cool. Have fun!

soultrons got it. you could probably get away with running the stock rear end with a spool as long as youre not running super fat and grippy tires. your biggest obstacle will be steering angle. without a bit of room for steering angle, youre going to be living in spin city. i'd also include the idea of a steering quickener in the mix (how far is it lock to lock?). i'm actually thinking about doing a similar project. i love my 240, but the idea of a domestic drifting monster is just too sweet.

My plans for a stripped down drift car....
A beefed up 4.3 v6 (lightweight and plenty of torque and moves the weight more towards the rear)
WC T-5 with a good clutch, aluminum driveshaft and 4.10 gears.

Plus gut the HELL out of the car. get it down to an easy 2750.
I think that would be a hardass drift car.

If you do get this to work well, it will be amazing!

You can do it, listen to soultron, he's got it right. Side note, T56 w/ Spec Sg3 clutch, and 10 bolt with T2R and 4.10's is a proven drift combination. This is what I'm running on the 84 (car in sig) with heads/cam and a brutal abusive drifting style with 235's-245's in the rear. Thanks to the OG (Revlimit) for proving this combo. Don't give up! Just because its uncommon dosn't mean its impossibe. Have fun and good luck!!

I will be seeing you guys in Texas soon. Ran into some problems but I'm getting back on track. Soon as I get my 84 converted to EFI and the blower is working properly, car will be Texas ready .... already got the trailer over there too with guarantee'd parking ...

keep the camaro for st8 line or autox, use a jap car for drifting, there really is no better drift car than a s13 chasis.....240sx slides all day.....

Well well well hello friends sorry I've been a ghost in the shadows for a while my grandad passed away amd I've been going through some issues with the old lady but all is well in the long run. Plans have changed I have somebody coming this weekend and the weekend following interested in buying my Camaro and I might be putting a down payment on a Harley, VRSCD. Regardless of whether I sell the car or not I'm going to get the Harley, the sale of the car will just hurry the bike. Hang in there if all works out the way I want to I will be able to keep ALL my toys and you will be seeing/hearing a lot more about builing this sick nasty drifter I have dreamt up.

Boo on 240s, there are enough of them. I want to slide the car I like.
And if you're autoXing, you might as well drift too. Cones are cones.

heres the thing i don't like about the S13-S15: cajones aren't standard equipment. come on man, people drift the new GTO's, 3rd gens aren't that much different. i want to see a turbo 2.8/3.1, maybe 3100 head swap, built to drift.

well i think if u were to build a drift camaro the best engines would be either the 3.8 beefed up or a 4.3 i mean i can warm up to the idea i guess it be cool camaros can dominate all aspects of the automotive world lol actually the ls1 based engines (aluminum blocked ones) would be best cause u could still be light with a crap load of torque but the v6s would be cheaper....

+1 to the above idea, if your power to weight ratio is ATLEAST 2:1 youll be good but you still want to drop most of the weight without sacrificing the bit you need for momentum at times

I'm looking for a decent priced LS1 and a T56. Plans are a go ahead. I'll have a new rear by the end of June and hopefully the money for the LS1 and T56.

nice my friend is putting an LS1 and T56 in his FC rx7, i think he said hes trading his 20b motor and like 3 grand for the set up, good luck man cant wait to see the end result

i was talking with my friends at a speed shop about this yesterday, he said to seek out the 6.0L LS1 out of the trucks and then mild hop ups would put the car quicker with less money then the LS1 outta a camaro or vette.
and easier to find too

well the trucks have cast iron blocks so its the weight thing that can be overcome and what you are refering to are LQ4 AND LQ9 Motors they are not LS1s they are in the same family but an LS1 is a particular motor....

It's not a bad idea really, some alluminum LSx heads and plastic intake would still make it pretty light. You should still concentrate on suspension first. My car is just 305 and it's still easy to slide even with 3.23 gears and also even though I suck at it.

a camaro can be a great drift car, you dont need alota fancy stuff camaros handle really well wtih the right springrates and swaybars. i run a 355 carbed motor with maby 370-400hp t-5 tranny that i got rebuilt by g force to handle 600+hp and alota custom parts i made like control arms and such. the car is striped down to 3000lbs with a cage and gas. it will keep up with just about any car out there, im freshining it up over the winter hopefully you guys will see it this next season.

what exactly did g-force "build" on your t-5? From what ive seen in tucson and at my school its the case that gets messed up i have never seen a t5 that isnt on a mustang that can handle that kind of power, especially in a drift application where your using such high torque spread out over a long corner

ive pulled a couple apart where the case was twisted, so it tweaked the backlash of the gears and grenaded the things. If youve found a miracle t5 id like to know whats been done so i can attempt the same

hey man, sorry to rain on your parade, but any GTO is EXTREMLY different from 3rd gens, they have a 6.0 engine and independant rear suspension, like the 240sx. if you go to any professional drift event you just will not find a straight axle car. because its impracticle and to prone axle/diff/u-joint breaks.

Thats because the DRIFT world (unexperienced drifters or F&F cults) has it where they think I need a 240sx with IRS, thus giving the aspect that only IRS cars drift since thats all people use.

Look at the Falken drift car....solid axle. Bubba Drift and his el camino who made it into the pro drift comp. with an automatic, which was also a solid axle car.

Another reason is all these kids and ricers turned drifters only know of jdm dude gotta have a nissan 240, toyota corolla or rx-7 yo, its the only cars that drift.

So now that domestics (me and fellow friends with 3rd gen camaro's and fox-body mustangs) are into the game people think they won't work.

Its a different type of car, and a different technique used with these cars. Its something you learn and tune to, not just switch out from because of one thing or another.

I also plan to drift my camaro, and will do so with my SA and Auto transmission. No one will tell me otherwise.

Take care, and drift without mercy

once again, sorry to burst someones bubble, but vaugn gittin jr`s mustang is an IRS car. i know this for a fact ive been under the car while it was on a rack 7 feet in the air. and the 69 camaro on the falken drift team, also converted to an IRS car.

i wasnt implying that there wernt straight axle drifters out there, im a firm believing in keeping american cars a part of things like drifting events. i was just saying, IRS is fundamentally BETTER then a straight axle car, its been proven time and time again.

Proof positive. This guy lives near me too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P2zCGi9VVk

well im for it personally, however ive seen some good points here, yes straight axles are technically inferior to independant rear but it is possible to drift our land yachts, it just takes a different outlook on how you go about doing it

The reason we see so many 240's out there is 1, theyre cheap. My buddy has an s14 that just kills my car, on the track and even on the street. SR swaps for those are like a cam to us, no big deal for a higher power output

and secondly the cars are lighter, more responsive and practially drift themselves.

THe closest ive seen to a "muscle car" drifting is an FC rx7 with an ls1/t56 swap so you have th best ofboth worlds, a high power motor/trans combo and the independant rear and handling of an import.

Drifting thirdgens is possible, its just that our cars fall just short of the curve and if you wanna get technical all the imports are 2 steps ahead of us when it comes to a drift car

The Falken Camaro uses a truck arm suspension which relocates the SOLID AXLE it uses further forward so the truck suspension does the job of taking in all the wheel motion as they state. So its still Solid axle with a new look on it. If anything we can call it a IRSAS (Independent Rear Solid Axle Suspension)

4th Paragraph down. Starts with "Starting with a clean"
http://www.hotrod.com/featuredvehicl...ift/index.html

Zach is awesome, nice car as well...haha cuz its one of ours.

I cant wait to really get started tuning my camaro....he gives me hope I guess you could say, as well as soul tron z28evans and the others on here drifting our cars and making it look good.

Speaking of drifting -




Location - Mineral Wells, TX (west of DFW)

link - http://fabricatedmotorsports.com/for...hp?topic=703.0

I plan on going, hopefully driving the camaro 8-)

James

any ls1 swap imports attending?
seen a black fd rx7 with ls1 t56 drifting. it was sight to see,
the 450hp ls1 sounded killer and the smoke it made. dam!

there are often 3 ls1 swapped 240sx 's out there (should be at least one this weekend), and often at least 1 ls1 swapped rx7 (silver one).

Sounds like the imports are doing some catching up. Its not all about POWER in drifting but since us DOMESTICS came in, it is now

Any updates on your springs evans, the car on the road yet?

nope, no on the road yet. should be in a few days though

When I went out in February, there was an FC RX-7 with an LS6 in it. A few weeks ago I saw the same car in the Team Drift Competition at Long Beach.

But, I gotta say, this here is quite possibly the coolest drift car build I've ever seen:
http://www.drifting.com/forums/pictu...ch-carbed.html


I'm glad to see there's still talk of third-gen drifting going on around here. I'm tempted to start a build thread w/ pics from some of the events I've been to lately. It's down at the welder getting some serious fab work done right now, and I'm pretty regularly embarassing a lot of the import guys.

Drifting is for 4 bangers

...and ignorance is for the south.

Drifting is a sport that takes a tremendous amount of skill and ***** to attempt, especially in our cars. Ive seen a thirdgen drift car, it was amazing but the driver even said its a whole different ballpark than an import, size is obvously a factor

if you dont think our cars should drift then dont post its that simple

love the idea of a drift 3rd gen, doing the same for mine, it'll also be street legal... keep updating so i can steal a few suspension tips from you

read my bio... its absolutely true... had a 90 z28 5spd when i was 17... nobody called it drifting then, i would "drift" around my neighborhood, had a set "course" i learned to drive in dirt and when i started driving on the real road all the time i wanted the feel of sliding... so i just started MAKING it slide... if you cna drive your car is already a "drifter... add some power reduce the weight, stiffen up the suspension like they said... ofcourse i was running 215s back then cause thats all i could afford if you want to go slideways "grip" is your enemy... used to "park out of full drifts into the neighborhood gas pump with no suspension mods...
if your thirdgen cant drift, i dont think you tried hard enough

Drift Muscle FTW!!! i have a 240sx that i have made leaps and bounds in when it comes to perfecting my drifting abilities. but i learned to slide in my 78 Z28 with a damn auto trany and an open dif. so sick of people saying muscle cars shouldn't drift. if u look at formula d right now it is more popular to do an LS swap in a 240 than it is to do an SR swap. there is a reason. the LS7 weighs les than a stock KA24DE (the twin came engine that came in all USDM 240's from 91 to like 98) and the KA puts out 140 hp compared to the LS7 stock putting out 500hp plus it is cheeper to build the ls than it is to build the KA. muscle is better no argument required. no replacement for displacement. even the tuners have realized that. i love my 240 but i love my Camaro's more.
oh and u think u cant get angle outa a 3rd gen well think again. 54* with no tire rub.