Drift Racing or Driving
Somethings about it to make it easier to understand
Hi drifting is an interesting motorsport it involves controling a car while it is going sideway whether it through a corner or in a straight line the cars set up for drifting have a completly different suspension setup compared to normal or grip racing as it is called. In grip racing you are trying to get the car to stick to the road at the highest speed . Drift racing as all about style and control the better you are the faster you go and the longer you can drift. Time and speed don't play a part really it the skill of the driver, his level of control.
The cars are often not the most popular models and are generally older types because parts cost less and the initial purchase price isn't so high the reason is accidents /crashes yes they happen in drifting no one is perfect and when you get good you just push it harder and faster.
Some more pictures of drifting a big gallery. Click here
How the cars are set up:
The suspension in a drift car is very tight and unforgiveing even the chassis is tighened with roll cages and strut brace. The die hard followers of drift also alter the geometry of the suspenion this is to allow the the car to slide alot better.. The differentials aren't your standard limited slip type they are semi lockers to ensure there is more wheel spin.The cars quite often have different wheels front and back cause the owner has quite a few sets cause one afternoon of drifting can destroy a set of tyres. As a rule the good tyres and I mean very good tyres go on the front on the back they fit hard compund tyres quite often second hand ones as they tend to end up in a cloud of smoke. Also they stretch the tyres over a wide rim to give an example fitting 205 50 16 tyres to an 8" rim or 235 45 17 to a 9" rim this reduces the chance of the tyre rolling off the rim and enables the car to side better. The clutches on these cars ( dont bother drifting with an auto it is quite dangerous.. you can pretend in the wet though) tend to be very tough ceramic brass button or multiple plate varieties. Why? well alot of drifter use their clutch to commence wheel spin and hence the slide by either using compression lock or a clutch dump at high revs.
Power is not a requirement but helps in the learning stages. the most popular car for drifting is the the Toyota Tureno or sprinter this is a non turbo 1.6L 4 cylinder car that is quite light and twitchy. the cars I will talk about are the Nissan Skyline and silvia/180-240 platform. as I know a bit about these
The Silvia/180/240sx s13 platform .
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| Silvia | 180/240SX |
These are some of the most popular drifter in Japan Australia and the US.
Japan and the US were fortuante to get these cars new, in Australia these cars have only been coming in as second hand imports for the last few years. They come with a range of engines from 1.8 L non turbo to to 2.0 Lturbo inthe US they only get the 2.4 ka engine non turbo.
The 2 turbo engines both lend themselves to modification and are great for drifting as they like to rev and with a few simple bolt on mods can make 300 hp. Basically these cars in turbo form come from the factory with manual or auto transmissions manual is the choice to go for LSD is fitted as standard as well. then you would change the suspension for some thing harder. and proceed from there. as for the engines 300-350 hp should be ample power.
here are some pictures of drift cars a bit closer up.
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The Nissan Skylines and Cefiro's
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| R32 drifting | Cefiro drifting | R33 drifting |
These cars are popular in Australia and Japan for drifting they aren't avaliable in the US ( they are from the same family as the maxima)
The Skyline, the Cefiro and the Silvia share alot of common parts as alot of other Nissans do. Cefiro's and Skylines share the rb series of engines. engines slot in, diffs do, gearboxes can be made to fit. thats why these cars are a choice for drifters mainly the drifter want cars which have cheap parts.the skylines and cefiros are heavier than the silvias and 180's but they have a 6 cylinder engine to make up for that.
Lets start with the Cefiro. built as a luxury car with out a manual option for the turbo version these cars were never intended to see the track but its obvious to me a few boys got handed down these cars by dad. and they turned them in to racers. they come with smaller brakes than the skylines, 15" wheels as standard soft suspension velour seats these car were made to impress 40 -60 year olds with the turbo for wow factor more than anything.The boys soon found that the gearbox and hand brake from the r32 skyline fitted and the brakes could be upgraded from the skyline they could grab shock from an silvia (don't quote me but I think so) and away they went. the computers were even set with a lower boost limit than the skyline. but with some tweaking these cars can be made to go very fast. and they handel really well considering. power in the same range as the silvia300-400 hp no more is really needed for drifting unless you are in all out competion and have a very high level of skill. specs for cefiro's are on my cefiro page.
The Nissan Skyline my favorite a good solid car with a large range of engines and options this was built as a sports car and it shows with its heritage in the gtr's etc the gtst were for the young man about town and now there getting a bit older they are finding there way in to the hands of the young men and women who like to tinker and customise there cars for individuallity.
The tough rb engines will rev hard all day the gear boxes are strong the diffs are bulletproof the perfect instrument for drifting adn they take a long time to break. The fully independant rear end allows endless adjustenet to get the car sliding and smoking its great.
Some other pics of Cefiros
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My white cefiro and new project
Now that you have read all of this I assume you would like to see some actual drifting?
Well I have a short video to give you the idea.
here is a link to a great japanese drift site with videos drift movies.
here is a link to great japanese drift lesson video's to teach you the basics of drifting and how to make it happen in japanese drift movies
My old drift page is here The old drift page
thanks for visiting my site please vote for me on the top nissan sites page.
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see disclaimer on first page
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