Thoughts on drifting daily car?

[Sky_lin3]

Thoughts on drifting daily car?

Hey guys I am looking to purchase a turbo car for my daily drive and I want to get into drifting. I am just curious, considering I've never done drifting before, how often do you run into issues with your car due to drifting? Would you say its a bad decision to drift in a daily?

[Binarydata]

Yeah, probably not a good idea if it's your only car. If you break something important. You're f**ked.

[Steve85]

I don't know personally, but it was my impression that drifting was the most brutal of all the "track car" setups. Dumping the clutch, throwing the car around sideways and running high rpms. I'm not saying don't do it, but I'd expect that every Monday after a session you'll be catching the bus for a day or two.
I'd love to see you do it just to see how you go, but I really think you might have troubles. Just my two cents...

[Jordy32]

My personal opinion is that it's never a good idea.

You'll be fine with having the occasional skid, or wet pan/peanut day but drifting is incredibly harsh on every part of a car.

Not only will you break critical items all the time, you will also strain everything else to the point of failure eg: suspension and bushes/clutch/diff/gearbox/engine/exterior and interior

Which all round results in a lower quality car which you started with. And as mentioned you'll probably need to catch the bus at times.. 

[bcozican]

Agreed ... I wouldn't do it. Especially when your learning and if your car isn't up to scratch .... belting on it if something goes wrong, at best you'll prob get stuck at the track and have to get a tow home ... and then what. No car to do anything else with even drive around and get parts you need to fix the car

Drifting whether learning or at top level is brutal on your car

 

Edited July 6, 2017 by bcozican

[admS15]

On the bright side, riding on the bus can be fun

[wildeagle44]

A bit of a late reply but having done i'll share a few bits. 

Drove and drifted an r33 gtst regularly for about 14 months with minimal issue. Do suspension mods only. Aside from a front mount and radiator don't touch the engine, thats when problems arise. Put a good clutch in from the start  

A good diff, suspension arms and diff and it will handle great. Keep spares of as much as you can. Namely axles, lca's and tie rods will make up most of your breakages. 

Watch your temps and regular maintenance and you should be fine for the most part, it's drifting though, eventually you will crash, break a gearbox and ruin a motor so be prepared.

 

[CEF33Y]

It will be tough while your learning. But in saying that 2 out of my 3 drift cars have been registered, driven to and from the track, and the first one was my only car.

I learnt to start small, too many people try too hard too quick and crash.

As above, don't do anything more than an exhaust and front mount etc power wise, even leave boost stock.

Car has to be in reasonable condition to start with, if you've bought something that's clapped out to start with it will give you problems

Get a good aftermarket temp gauge.

Don't go crazy with clutch choice (nothing too aggresive), take it easy clutch kicking and you'll have half a chance of driving it home.

Driving style will play a big part, its possible to drift without abusing the living crap out of your car. Again, this will be hard to do if your learning.

 

I did the 1300km (one way!) trip to QLD raceway, drifted for two days, then drove it home. My current car is pretty basic, RB20 powered (bolt on turbo, supporting mods, good tune @Unigroup Engineering), RB25 gearbox, jim berry clutch, cusco 2 way. Adjustable caster rods and camber arms, basic coil overs and thats about it.

 

 

 

[Murray_Calavera]

I can talk from experience as well, my R33 is my daily and is drifted quite regularly. 

My story will be similar to those above. I only have suspension, steering, interior and cooling mods really. Main things of note are oil cooler/power steering cooler/radiator & intercooler upgrade on a stock motor & turbo - my temperatures are never an issue, oil temps typically don't crack 110 degrees. 

I don't limiter bash, I don't clutch kick (well very very rarely), I rarely hand brake entry - 90% of my entries are with a little feint and weight transfer on the brakes. 

I'd say I'm pretty gentle on the car overall and the only part I have had to replace in the past 2 years are the HICAS arms. I went through a set of new genuine arms in no time at all so I've replaced them with a proper HICAS delete kit, hopefully problem solved. 

If you want to drift your daily and your a learner, or want to abuse the car... hmmm I'd probably buy a cheap 2nd car and drift that 

[Murray_Calavera]

Probably worth an update, so my daily drift car has done a big end bearing. Guess it was only a matter of time with no oil control mods done on the engine. 

Next  one will have pump, sump, restrictors, drain etc etc - hopefully no more spun bearings. 

On the plus side, still haven't broken any driveline or suspension components.