hey guys, i am in the process of buying my first 240. i know i will definately be drifting. i have been practicing in my friends 240 hatch and i can say i am at a beginner's level. with an lsd, some coilovers, and maybe a strut bar would the ka24de have enough power to hold long drifts? i would love to do the sr swap but that wont be for a while down the road. any tips you can give me on how i should set up the car before the swap?
Last edited by s3v3rth3stars : May 14th, 2004 at 04:25 PM.
at beginner level, especially at your level where its occasional in a car that isnt yours, i wouldnt worry about power, wat you said: suspension, lsd, and so on.. you would be able to drift great, if you are familiar with the sport, you should be able to see, that underpowered cars such as the hachi are able to perform damn good drifting
if you wanna go faster at this point in the game, i would consider weight reduction and things along those lines... it not only will better your power to weight ratio, but it;ll make your car a bit more agile and sutable for drifting or racing or w.e
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subaru wrx?!?, wtf am i doin here...
oh yes drifting now is occasional, but soon very soon i will have a 240 to call my own. as far as weight reduction its somethign i have neglected alot in all my cars
when i do get my 240 i will remove the backseat, spare tire, unnecesarry accesories. but i want to retain the stock appearance (besides the no backeat). what else can i do to lighten up?
this raises another question however. the 240 from what i know and have heard is balanced pretty well so if i remove enough wieght from differant places wont i mess that up?
how can i maintain the near perfect weight ration and sill lighten up?
well, use your head and do some math lol, since i dont have much experience in this yet myself i m not exatly sure on wat to do, one thing you can do if you take the back seats out, relocate your battery, ,to the rear end of your car, if you wanna balance the weight loss,
gettin a cf hood will take somethin like 40lbs of the hood, doesnt sound like much but combined with the battery removed from the engine bay, and w.e. else there is to do, it should start making a pretty good impact on the car;s weight distribution
im sure there is more to it, but as i said, im not yet experienced with such a thing
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subaru wrx?!?, wtf am i doin here...
i wish someone who knew alot about weight distribution could help me on this. is it better to have 50/50 distribution or is it better to have more weight in the back so the wheels will have more traction?
i dont know much, but i know its better to have a 50/50 weight distribution, better balance all around, and i believe less understeer then a balance with more weight on the back of the car.. maybe
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subaru wrx?!?, wtf am i doin here...
power is not necessary to drift, think about those guys in the AE86 that are incredible drifters and have barely like 140 hp. what matters most is suspension set up, chassis stiffness and weight distribution and over all balance. its also nice to have a 1 or 1.5 way viscous LSD
Its easy to say 50/50 balance is better...but don't think that its neccessarily going to be better for the 240sx. Messing with the weight balance will effect front and rear tire grip...In Drift Bible, Tsuchiya mentions the s13 naturally understeers because of low front weight and because of alignment...moving more weight to the front might help front grip, but too much could be detrimental, there is also a difference in weight distribution between the S13 coupe and fastback, take that into account...
yes, they understeer like crazy if you dont/didn't know your car. Hatchiroku's are bad about understeer too. I got real familliar w/understeer befor I blew my first motor.
From what I understand, the S14 is more neutrally ballanced.
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1991 RMS13-- DD; Slushbox, bad paint, and dents
1992 CS13-- Getting overhauled for WMD status.
Last edited by Nismo14-180 : Jun 12th, 2004 at 09:02 PM.
the S13 has the problem of understeer, but not because of weight balance. it's more in the suspension. the front is not stiff enough compared to the back. a front sway bar would solve that problem. as far as the HachiRoku goes, it's shows you that power isnt what is needed to drift. you need to have a good suspension, and even more, you need to have skill. and what makes the Hachi such a better drifter is the live axle rear end. the live axle naturally creates oversteer. it is good for drifting, but not daily driving. whoever said the Hachi understeers should be run over by one.
as far as weight reduction: take out back seats, the spare tire and jack, remove all the plastic back there too, remove the tar sound deadening crap, move the battery to the back, carbonfiber hood, remove the AC, remove the little emissions crap. it all adds up. putting the battery in the back will change the front to rear distribution ratio by 1percent. if you started with a 48 to 52 ratio, you'll then have a 49 to 51 ratio. get it? good.
on a side note: drifting is not done with power, it is done with skill and suspension settings, and throttle modulation. during a drift you use a combination of counter-steer, braking, e-braking, and throttle modulation to create or maintain a drift. you can also use weight transfer to being a drift or link them together. anyways, based on how much power you have, you modulate the throttle. by modulating the throttle you are telling the car how much power to use. giving it too much will cause you to oversteer and spin out. too little and the drift ends. with an underpowered car such as the HachiRoku or the naturally aspirated 240sx, you are harder on the gas pedal when drifting. that is the only difference between drifting a 14hp car and a 500hp car.
ok, now i'm done educating you people. do some research and get some seat time if you actually want to learn this stuff. you need to know how your car reacts in certain conditions, which is something that no one else can tell you. figure out every aspect of your car and when to do what and you will be able to hold those long drifts. and stay off the streets.
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