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Since I've decided that driving sideways is a lot more fun than driving straight, I've decided to build my 2002 NB into a mini drift car. I've done a skid pan and a motorkhana session in the car so far, and while it's agile and handles well, it could definitely do with some upgrades. While it is keen to get its tail out, keeping the car sideways without spinning out is quite difficult.

Apart from me getting more practice in drifting, I was looking for suggestions on how I can build the car up for this purpose. The car has a torsen type 2 LSD and a 2.5" catback exhaust, but otherwise it's pretty stock.

What are the upgrades that I should be looking at next?

Not to promote people away from our wonderful forum, but go have a look around http://www.roadsterdrift.com/forums/.

I'd suggest practice.

As with anything, learn to do it with the tools you have.
Then once you know the car well enough you can decide "yes, it needs more X"


It saves having to re-work things later on.

Yup, practice, practice, practice. Everything is a compromise, if you change the alignment settings to make it more "twitchy" and a tendency to oversteer, then you've lost a fair bit of straight-line/cruising stability, and when you bring it up to speed on the track it will exacerbate it's instability (for lack of a better word) especially cornering at speed.

Like you, I also found doing donuts more fun than track-work, but not so much that I wanted to set my car to accommodate.

Don't change anything until you get yourself onto the track and start hard-cornering at >90km/h.

The car is already slighty oversteer-biased.

IMO, once you upgrade anti-sway bars and dampers&springs, tweaking and changing settings of these parts for track & motorkhana duty would be enough.
If you really start to get hardcore into khana events, then start simple, eg. install higher-friction brake pads on the rears or a brake bias adjuster.

Having said that, of course changing alignment settings is straight forward for any competent mechanic/shop, but I don't know of anyone who makes drastic changes in camber/toe/caster on a regular basis.

Next time you go to a khana event, find and talk to the father & son team (Peter & Jeremy) driving the silver NA. That car is almost a dedicated khana car. See if you want to do the things he's done.

Also keep in mind that motorkhana not entirely the same as drifting.

Buy motorsports tyres for the fronts, touring tyres for the rears
Practice
Purchase plate type LSD
Practice
Purchase biggest rear swaybar available
Practice
Practice
Practice
Practice
Practice
Get coilovers with 1.00:0.75 F/R setup
Practice

Project r is pretty close, however I prefer balanced tyres front/rear.

You will also want a better alignment, specifically max castor and neutral toe on the rear and possibly some front toe out.

And practice.

You wet drifting or dry drifting for now?

Dann

When I recommended the TorSen to you I didn't realise you would be wanting to drift, it probably isn't the best choice.

http://www.motoiq.com/magazine_articles ... art-1.aspx

Also worth a read is their Hayabusa powered MX build, unrelated but awesome nonetheless.

torsen can be done, it just requires sharper throttle inputs than a plate diff. Which is hard with no power. and less than ideal.

Dann

I'm doing a bit of motorkhana and wet drifting on the skid pan. I don't really see myself getting too serious in it but I'd like to set the car up to have the maximum fun at these events. I was spinning out on every other corner last weekend on the wet skid pan, even just by clutch kicking. I've never dríven a car that has initial understeer followed by rather sudden oversteer, a real challenge trying to catch it at the right moment. Even a quick dab of the handbrake caused the car to spin, so I stopped doing that. In the dry, oversteer is more controllable but not enough power to keep the slide going.

Thanks for all the advice so far. I will probably do the sway bars soon, followed by coilovers before I address the power issue.

RecursiveLoop wrote:In the dry, oversteer is more controllable but not enough power to keep the slide going.

Think you've just answered your own question there. Read a thread on CR? about a practically stock NB running in one of the grassroots drifting series in the states. Somewhat prone to snap oversteer, but he still did pretty well in it.

If you can't keep a slide going, I'd suggest you need more practice before you go changing a bunch of things.

RecursiveLoop wrote:I've never dríven a car that has initial understeer followed by rather sudden oversteer, a real challenge trying to catch it at the right moment. Even a quick dab of the handbrake caused the car to spin, so I stopped doing that. In the dry, oversteer is more controllable but not enough power to keep the slide going.

It doesnt have snap oversteer.

Whats happenning is this.
You push the throttle while steering to break traction.
The initial acceleration transfers weight off the front wheels onto the rears.
Insert understeer here.
As revs rise, the car produces enough power to break traction.
By now the front wheels are pointed around the bend and your furiously try to upset the balance to get oversteer.
The rears lose traction, and the weight transfers instantly forward.
You now have a car with front traction, no rear traction, half way around a bend, that just started wheel spinning.

Snap oversteer.

You need more practice.

Its not snap oversteer, its a short wheelbase car. Theres a reason that a S13 gets smooth long slides but an AE86 makes wicked transitions. If people can professionally drift an AE86 you can drift an MX5.

As for the power issue, a stock car can drift till the end of 3rd gear (120-130kph). if you cant you need practice before the car needs power.

Dann

i use lift-off oversteer and a sharp weight transfer/scandy-flick to initiate because my rear brakes are stock and like all good thing they're 22 years old.

never tried 3rd because well... never tried to slide on a racetrack.

stock power, rubbish rear tires (words can't express how sh*t these things are), coilovers and a stock NA6 open diff.

i realize it's more oversteer than actual "drift" but it's the same sh*t and fun all the same.

Lift off oversteer is drifting. Any properly entered and exited corner with countersteer 100% of the time initiated with just the throttle is drifting.

Im trying to learn handbrake entries but my handbrake sucks balls.

Dann

OP, search for posts from rjr666 and wazman, resident roadster drifters.