R32 Drifters! Question On Your Coilovers!

[DriftSquad]

what is the best spring rate, damper camber, settings for an R32 GTS-T?? im doing a majoir upgrade.

[DriftSquad]

any 1?

[dangerous_daveo]

Ok, I dont drift but this is my theory.

A few of the guys up here have told me drift is about speed. And to have speed you need grip.

So crappy tyres and stupidly stiff suspension does not give grip, it just stops roll. Two different things.

Sooo what you need to do is get a good quality suspension set up (SK stuff is honestly amazingly better than jap coilovers) make the car grip well, so your confident with it, so its not all twitchy and stakty. Then what SK has suggested previously is just go for a stiffer rear anti sway bar setting to just help it kick out the rear.

If you watch all the shows like topgear and fifth gear they all have these 'grippy' supercars with the arse end out. They dont have stupidly stiff anything. Its because they grip and are well set up and balanced cars.

Pretty much if you arent confident in the car as you arent sure what its going to do next, you wont be any good. Grip gives confidence.

Just my theory tho.

[D-limo]

Swaybars are designed to stop body roll.. Although stiffer springs will obviously help.

Around 10kg front, 8kg rear seems to be a nice setup.. Try ADD on the Gold Coast. They can get Racing logic coilovers with any spring rate.. and set up the rest of your car too suit.

[MerlinTheHapyPig]

8kgmm front and 6kgmm rear are a common combination, generally higher spring rates are preferred for drift, and you generally see cars with 8/6 and upward spring rates (in DA and D1), some people using rates as high as 17kg/15kg. It's more important to buy a good quality brand with appropriately matched spring/shock combination than it is to just go as high rate as possible.

There really is no "right" spring rate, but softer rates such as on the SK group buy haven't really been tried for drift, you will also require swaybar upgrades as the stiffer springs tend to compensate for body roll (which you won't get with the softer ones). I'm not saying either one is superiour, I just haven't seen the SK susp tried for drift, and until i see someone on the track with this sort of setup or i try it myself, i can't recommend it over the "tried and true". You'll eventually want to get adjustable swaybars, but jap coilovers + stock swaybars are fine.

suspension setup will also depend on what compomises you want to make in terms of streetability, comfort, tyre wear etc. so keep this in mind when choosing wheel alignment settings and shock/springs -- australian roads kill jap coilovers real quick.... especially if you drive in country a lot.

For the budget drifter, a set of basic jap coilovers will serve you well (e.g. tien/hks hyperd / apexi n1 with 8kg/6kg or 10kg/8kg springs)

drifting isn't really considered a speed event, max speed for most people will be top of 3rd, so around 130-140km/hr. Stiffer springs aren't going to compromise grip to the extent where high-speed stability will be a problem, just make sure your front tyres are good, alot of people use semi-slicks for fronts on track. You also don't tend to jump ripple strips etc. in drifting (as you do in circuit racing) which is a killer with hard suspension....

Wheel alignment settings are also important, if you have camber adjustment, pick a good compromise between handling and tyre wear, i'm running 2deg neg camber on the front and stock on the rear, 8deg positive castor, 1mm front toe out total. But i play around with those settings from time to time.

on another note.... make sure your diff isn't stock.... consider it a safety mod! this is one of the most important things you will need to drift... i've seen accidents happen due to drifting on worn out viscous lsd's...

[Cain]

actaully merlin quite a lot of the drifters are going for softer rates, and smaller swaybars (still larger then stock tho) because when they take out hte weight its being over kill and to twitchy.

[MerlinTheHapyPig]

actaully merlin quite a lot of the drifters are going for softer rates, and smaller swaybars (still larger then stock tho) because when they take out hte weight its being over kill and to twitchy.

really?

who? what rates are they using?...

[eXc]

I drifted on the stockies for 8 months!!

Haha

I finally have HSDs in my car now. I haven't drifted with them yet, so time will tell, but I am sure they will be sooooooooooo much better than stock. I know SydneyKid doesn't agree that it's the best setup. I was gonna try what SK recommended, but decided I couldn't afford to 'waste' the money if it didn't do what I hoped for. So I went down this ave. And they are pretty cheap nowadays too. $1599 I think they are.

[dangerous_daveo]

Look at it this way maybe. If your car is towed to the track disregard this comment.

Your car is still a road car. If the spring are too hard, as will be the shocks. They will not do what they are meant to do. Which is to keep the tyre (the ONLY bit of the car in contact with the road) on the road. So it starts to become not so much an issue of 'whats proven and what might work on the track' but more so an issue of safty.

Say, a kid runs out on the road, your super stiff suspension is great until you hit the cats eye on the road, wheel comes OFF the road, you kill kid. (yes very extream example, probably wont happen just making a point). You cant then tell me, 'ahh well, it drifts better'.

Just something to think about.

[MerlinTheHapyPig]

mate, i'm using 8kg/mm front and 8kg/mm rear spring on my skyline, i have never gone over a bump and had the wheels loose traction, or loose grip to the extent where it is dangerous. (including when i forgot to slow down for a speed bump one time...)

The difference in grip between 5kg/mm springs and 8kg/mm springs isn't enough to make the car loose traction coming off a cat's eye in the road! that's a load of crap! And it isn't going to make the car dangerous to drive on the street.

All this stuff is street legal in japan, whilst they do have better roads in general, the worst of their roads must be something similar to the worst of our roads

and do you know of anyone who has had an accident caused by harder springs?????

on a side note, as far as grip goes, if you drive on the cheapest tyres you can get, and then drive on really good tyres, there is a huge difference in grip and handling, you also get difference with different tyre pressures. I'd be more worried about these things before I were to worry about stiff suspension

[eXc]

on a side note, as far as grip goes, if you drive on the cheapest tyres you can get, and then drive on really good tyres, there is a huge difference in grip and handling, you also get difference with different tyre pressures. I'd be more worried about these things before I were to worry about stiff suspension

I'd agree with that too. I haven't driven my car with the new suspension except up the road (I live on dirt, country road with pot holes everywhere) and it was MUCH better than the standard suspension. It turned sharper and stuck to (gravel) road much better.

This is with re-treads on the front and bald tyres on the back (temporary tyres while it's off the road for a while)

[DriftSquad]

so any ways back on topic,

i would like to know is what are your, camber, adjustment, castor, toe, you guys run on your drift setups on R32's?

[r33_racer]

If your going to go for a suspension, typically jap coilovers of any brand with spring rate from 8-10kgs front and back, dont bother with sway bars, springs that hard dont let anything else do their job. Your kidding yourself if you think changing swaybars settings or even changing swaybays alltogether with springs that stiff is gonna make a difference, unless magically somehow circuit racing and drifting use swaybars completely differently.

Ive learnt that from experience with the r33 racecar. Teins with 8kg fronts and 8kg backs, shithouse for handling, I made adjustments in every possible way front and back(swaybar wise), and they made no bloudy difference. I had to drop spring rates significantly to let the swaybars start to work.

Camber i would guess around -2F -1/-1.5R at the most, caster prob as much as possible around +8, toe would be a play around, see what happens.

[ISC-Performance]

so any ways back on topic,

i would like to know is what are your, camber, adjustment, castor, toe, you guys run on your drift setups on R32's?

hey bud my car is r32 street/drift, ive got ISC coilovers with 10fronts and 8 rears , also using whiteline adjustable sway bars 24mm and 22mm, front camber is -2.5 and rear is -1. hope this helps a little.

[Anarkei]

i personally play around with a 10/10 set up on a set of TEIN Coilovers...it's bloody stiff for road use but i found i works well for drifting...at least for me. as for tires, i'm running a set of Pirelli P-Zero's which provide some decent grip but will let go with enough persuasion.