Drift Chassis Setup

[Novablue454]

There are already a few good threads floating around, but another one can't hurt. I'd like to discuss the subject of competition level chassis setup. There is a lot of good info in this MotoIQ article

http://www.motoiq.com/Tech/BasicDriftCarSetup.aspx

There is also a lot of alignment info in this thread

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...up-SLR-kit-E36

There doesn't seem to be a lot of info around about weighting in drift cars, but after reading a few articles like this

http://www.onedirt.com/news/matters-of-scale/

I've convinced myself that although it is overlooked, it may be pretty important.

Basically I am just trying to get a discussion going on the do's and dont's of setting up a drift car, so please share any experiences, tips, tricks, or settings!

[Novablue454]

dang...no one wants to share any tips?

[protomor]

Pay attention to scrub radius/motion ratios, and monster camber is not useful in most situations (IE probably not yours).

[Novablue454]

I'm on the hunt for all the rear grip I can manage.

[MikeE36]

I'm still learning as well, as drift suspension setup is pretty complex. I still haven't corner balanced my car, and with the turbo and top mount, my FR corner is significantly heavier than my FL. The car is still around 52/48 F/R last time I had it on scales (I did not make adjustments and put it back, just checked it for a drift media day thing). I would like to check it again and corner balance it, as I set my coilover lengths the same L/R and the car is noticeably lower on the FR corner due to the higher weight there from the turbo stuff.

I've tried 12/16k suspension, and now 8/10k and the difference was significantly more body roll in drift, as well as significantly more squat and forward bite. I've been advised to try to run much stiffer up front and soften the rear even more, to essentially make the car much more understeer biased which will require more throttle to maintain drift. Next setup will be 14/8 at the advice of Chelsea. I'll be sure to report the changes.

Toe-in in the rear in our cars adds forward bite as well, but at the expensive of tire wear on the inner/outer edges. You can also lower pressure if you run a tire with a sidewall that will cooperate. I started running 12-15psi cold vs 22-24psi before in Kenda KR20 265/35-18 and it seemed to improve forward and side bite a noticeable amount.

Mike

[Jrcanes55]

My new setup I'll be testing in two weeks.
E46 330

Front:
SLR ultra kit at full drift ackermann
SLR Camber/caster adapters. 5.5 degrees camber
e36 non-m front bar and solid endlinks
BC racing BR type 10k
18x9 et10 after spacers
245/40 18 Achilles ATR sport 2 (no clearance issues as far as I can see.)
Factory front toe setting ~.1 degree toe in per side. (weird I know. But that's what I've always done.)

Rear
Custom rear toe brackets
Garagistic offset rtabs (Have not put this setup on the rack yet to see what it'll do, but looking to be at about .5 degree total toe in)
CA tuned rlcas zero camber
BC BR 8k springs
17x8 et-20 +/-5mm ish with spacers and depending on what rear wheels I have on.
225/45 17 Achilles ATR sport 2.

Hopefully this will be a good start I'll have to plates at the track to make adjustments. But on my previous setup the biggest factor when in came to increasing rear grip was tire compound and pressure. The little bit of street testing I've done though suggest that this setup is really grippy.

As far as dos and don'ts, don't run used tires, don't use runflat tires, and start with a chassis that has product support. Coming from my last build where I pretty much had to make all my own products or modify parts from other cars and do things that hadn't really ever been tested or done before. Most people here drive e30/36/46 so It's not that important. But for anyone else trying to drift a less common chassis, if you want to be competitive and not spend 2 brazilian dollars, make your life easy and buy a tested and proven chassis.

[Novablue454]

Curious what you think of the full drift setting, I don't know anyone who uses their SLR kits in that setting. I've always ran mine in the next one up. And yeah, toe in in the front is super weird, everything I've read says to tow out the front. Lastly, I tried a set of those tires once and got 2 laps out of each pair haha, never again.

Thanks for the input!

- - - Updated - - -

I'm still learning as well, as drift suspension setup is pretty complex. I still haven't corner balanced my car, and with the turbo and top mount, my FR corner is significantly heavier than my FL. The car is still around 52/48 F/R last time I had it on scales (I did not make adjustments and put it back, just checked it for a drift media day thing). I would like to check it again and corner balance it, as I set my coilover lengths the same L/R and the car is noticeably lower on the FR corner due to the higher weight there from the turbo stuff.

I've tried 12/16k suspension, and now 8/10k and the difference was significantly more body roll in drift, as well as significantly more squat and forward bite. I've been advised to try to run much stiffer up front and soften the rear even more, to essentially make the car much more understeer biased which will require more throttle to maintain drift. Next setup will be 14/8 at the advice of Chelsea. I'll be sure to report the changes.

Toe-in in the rear in our cars adds forward bite as well, but at the expensive of tire wear on the inner/outer edges. You can also lower pressure if you run a tire with a sidewall that will cooperate. I started running 12-15psi cold vs 22-24psi before in Kenda KR20 265/35-18 and it seemed to improve forward and side bite a noticeable amount.

Mike

Rad, thank you Mike! I am worried i've completely F'd my f/r weight balance with the swap and then tubing the rear with the cf 1/4 panels and trunk, I am afraid there is just no weight back there and that might be why my car feels so bad. The fortunes I have in the mail are 10k/8k which is opposite of the 8k/10k BCs on the car now.

I've also been using 245/45r17 on an 8" wheel so I am wondering if the tall sidewalls / opposite tire stretch is hurting me as well.

[protomor]

5.5 camber WITH the SLR plates? Why?

Also worth noting that if you aren't spherical for the RTABS on an E36/E46, you toe out mega under accel. Meaning, you generally wind up with a ton of toe out then snap toe in when you lift. It's one of the things I'd suggest fixing on those chassis first and foremost.

Really, JRcanes55 has the right idea. Find a setup that works well and copying it with a chassis that's been done. Tweak from there once you know wtf you're doing. You are not smarter than the collective. Like Justin posted the motoiq link about basic setup. Just do that and go play.

[Novablue454]

I am Justin, lol. And I've set mine up basically as the motoiq article suggests, as well as copied alignment setups from well performing e36s, and mine stuff drives like shit. I hop in my RX7 and it drives just fine, which tells me it's not just me sucking.

[Jrcanes55]

5.5 camber WITH the SLR plates? Why?

Also worth noting that if you aren't spherical for the RTABS on an E36/E46, you toe out mega under accel. Meaning, you generally wind up with a ton of toe out then snap toe in when you lift. It's one of the things I'd suggest fixing on those chassis first and foremost.

Really, JRcanes55 has the right idea. Find a setup that works well and copying it with a chassis that's been done. Tweak from there once you know wtf you're doing. You are not smarter than the collective. Like Justin posted the motoiq link about basic setup. Just do that and go play.

Is that a lot? I've been at 4.1 per side for the longest time and the car has been rolling on to the sidewall badly. Granted I'm on a totally new setup now but I figured it was a good start. I'll make adjustments as I go. I have every single alignment sheet in a folder saved and dated from every time I made a change to help me figure out what I like.

Also 18/10 those spherical rtabs are gold. I recently (like within the last week) learned about those, how they work, and what they do. I would say those should be a staple for any track/drift build.

And also in regards to the toe in. It's just what I'm used to. It has always worked well for me and I have plenty of people who will vouch on how consistent the car is. I have friends drive it, get out, and want to build one just because of how easy it is to drive. But who knows how it will perform now. It's completely different.

Also last thing I can think to add. Don't buy ebay junk. After tearing the car down, all my shocks were leaking, any and all rubber bushings and mounts were torn/severely cracked and those raceland ultimo springs were drooping about 1/8" more after every event. It got so bad that the last event I did they started cutting my tires.

[protomor]

Sidewall roll over on the front can be any number of things. But most successful pro/pro2 cars run 2 or less in terms of camber. Regardless, it's a test and tune thing. If you get a great contact patch, then you're fine. I wound up with weird grip level issues when I had camber that high. Sometimes the steering wheel would just plain stop responding mid return. Or just be lazy on wanting to return.