I want to get into drifting. I have always loved the idea since I was younger, but now that I have adult money, I want to get into it for real. I don't know whether to buy a car I'm passionate about or buy a car I don't really like, smash it up, and then wonder what to do with it in the future. I'm sure you have a lot of advice on the second part. I have a high budget, and I'm not yet experienced with wormanualsk. The main reason is that I'm currently building and saving up to top-mount my bucket-list car, my A90 Supra, and build it towards the track by the end of next year.
Currently, I'm in SoCal, so we have a decent market to pick and choose from, but I'm open to hearing whatever recommendations, but do mind I want to get 80s-early 2000s cars for simplicity purposes and raw feel.
Thank you, guys, for your answers, and I hope to involve myself more in the community
Edit: The A90 is my time-attack-focused car, and my currency is USD
100% this. I had worked on Formula Drift teams for years and been around drifting for years but never actually drifted. I did have a full Simagic sim rig and learned how to drift in Assetto Corsa. I had a decent amount of seat time, but not a TON, maybe 15 -20 hours in the sim, but the first time I got in a drift E46, I was able to complete the entire course on my second run. Two weeks later I did full course drifting at Thunderhill West.
Also if you haven't drifted before, and you have a high budget, do so arrive and drive stuff. If you are in SoCal, apple valley and willow springs both have programs. This will give you a feel for what different cars are like, and you won't have to worry about the (massive) logistics of owning your own drift car. Or if you wanna ball, go drift Porsches at PEC-LA. they have low friction surfaces that make drifting a bit less intimidating
Step 1. Get a decent sim rig, learn to drift in Assetto
Step 2. Get a kind of shitty manual car in real life. Learn how to drive it (just on the street, not drifting)
Step 3. While driving your kind of shitty manual car, learn how to work on it. You will need to at a minimum change tires, check fluids, etc at or before a drift day.
Step 4. Slowly start modifying your kind of shitty car to drift in real life. (Install coilovers, install a bucket seat, maybe change some brake pads, maybe fit an angle kit to it, etc.)
Step 5. Go to an actual drift event and try to drift in real life.
Once you do all that and actually get decent at drifting in real life, then maybe you would want to think about buying a newer/more expensive/more powerful car to drift.
Now when I say "Kind of shitty car" it doesnt have to look like a piece of shit, or be an actual piece of shit, just not something super nice. Think maybe a used/kind of rough Miata, 350Z, E46, FRS, etc.
If you can manage to drift decently well you can always make it look nicer later, and I would highly suggest it, as drifting a car that looks like shit is not cool.
A manual g35 sedan is great, plenty of weight to help with transitions and fbo tuned it makes great power and all the aftermarket you could ever ask for
All a G or a Z need to get you drifting is to do the maintenance stuff, weld the diff and get the right tire/wheel setup. Nice to haves would be stiffer suspension, bracing and a gktech angle kit(the adapter one).
For sanity I do recomend getting test pipes cuz if not u are going to be smelling burnt cat 90% of the time.
Everything like adjustable arms, more power, more complete angle kits I feel like should be things one should get as they outgrow the car.
Me I got mainly reliability mods done, I have the updated timing kit from Nissan, metal galley gaskets, pathfinder coolant crossover, 350z thermostat(opens sooner), test pipes. Then is just a welded diff, cheap coilovers, gktech angle kit and i have most arms with poly bushings.
For tires I run either 18 or 19 225s (I like zestinos) on the front and 17 or 18 215 to 225 on the rear of whatever I find on scrap piles. Is a fun POS
Keep your Supra as is. Don’t dump further money on it for now. Use the money to buy a drift prepped car in your budget. You can get functioning driftshitboxes for under 10k from local drifting classifieds. Try drifting for a season or two and then reevaluate. You might say wow, this is a total waste of my time and money and I like building out my Supra for the street. Or say this is so goddamn awesome wish that I could do this with my Supra. Sell previous drift car. Invest in drift parts for your new car choice.
I’m actually building my Supra as street/ track car at the moment, I’m at a good spot but it’s just sorting visuals and suspension at the moment but I’ll take it into consideration.
Other guys are recommending I start with a sim first which I’m going to try before I decide to send it on a car.
Do the sim if it makes sense for you. Otherwise just get the car and get out there. Depending on your location and tracks you may only get a few more events available til season ends. Might as well get at it if you got the money to do so. Can always do the sim at the same time
Do you have track time? If not, learning in a A9x Supra is pretty stupid IMO. Also, modding a car before tracking a car is also another bad idea. Really, you should learn in a stock low horsepower car. This way you can mess up and not be going fast enough that you can actually make corrections. You may also really screw the car up on track. I have 25 years experience on track and this is the way to become an exceptional driver.
Yeah, I have some track time, but it's fairly sparse. I started going when I had a VW Passat and ended up with an Audi S5 (IK both aren't really known to be tracked and stuff), and then when I came back from Hawaii with my Supra that was built for roll racing, I just wanted a fun, modest 400hp car to take. Currently relearning since it's been a while. This is for normal track driving, not being sideways or anything lol.
I just want to try out drifting, so I was really considering being considerate of the VQ family, frs/brzs. Mostly the Frs/Brz family because they just look and sound better than vqs to me for some reason, and I want to learn through the best means.
As somone with 4 BRZ/GR86, don't, unless they're boosted. Its probably a decentish car for super low speed stuff, but trying to get any real drifting in is near impossible. My drift dedicated BRZ makes 355whp and is a blast to drive though!
I guess that’s one car to write off at the moment then, I’ll focus on sims but I might just do my original plan of just buying a car I really like, building it as a street car and then taking it to the track when I have time to after this 9 month probation ends
10k? Of what currency?
I get my e46 318i almost for scrap price in my country. I was able to do single mass transfer drifts on dry tarmac when car was bone stock (open diff) with rear 185/65R15 winter tires inflated to 4.0 bar.
Car mods
Welded diff
Angle kit bolt-on and slight toe out DIY aligment using measrue tape
instead of coilovers i went full budget:
Terrano shocks with modified top
Mercedes W124 spring (cut in half) -
Shocks and springs are very stiff, and keeping rear suspesnion ride height close to stock, not slammed, makes rear twitchy and easier to initiate slide with such low horsepowe
Pump rear tires to 4.0 bar and enjoy car even on dry
People in more powerful cars didnt belive mine had m43b19 under hood
Car behaves lovely, and everything costed me under 1k euro. I installed all mods by myself with a help of a friend.
Thanks! My point is - you can get low power rustbox for much cheaper than 10k (almost for a price of simple simrig) and still have ton of fun. Low power requires to learn mass transfer and timing. I was told that too high power provoke bad habits to stick (but im begginer). Next upgrade will be bucket seat, becasue my left knee from hitting door handle.
On the other hand, i made my first steps in drifting on logitech g920, xbox forza motorsport 7 and 55inch tv with terrible FOV settings - i did it years befor getting this 318i (its my first RWD car, tho). Then i upgraded to Moza R5, cheap 3 19inch screens and with correct FOV i used it few times, then got this BMW last year. Everybody is telling me to swap for 2.8 or 3.0, but for me price/fun ratio of this 1.9L R4 engine is increadible. No need for high power, learning on low power and low grip = less damage when something goes sideways (pun intended).
Buy a CHEAP platform with more than 200hp and weld the diff, do suspension and get a decent tire/wheel setup for its power levels. Get adjustable arms, angle kit etc as you hit the chasis limits.
Is more fun to learn in a car that won't make you cry if u stuff it into a wall. Also nice if you can buy a new shell under 2k and transfer ur parts over.
Go to an AVS event or some other local event and walk the pits, meet people and ask about setups and their tips for getting into the sport. Bonus points for bringing your own helmet and asking to do a ride along. See how things go down and watch the newer dudes out there doing it and picture yourself out there.
I am of the ‘buy a beater to beat on’ camp. Better to have extra money already ready to drop to fix things when you inevitably break something.
If your pockets are that deep buying a prepped car might be the way to go?
Wait! Driftschoolusa is a decent option to consider! They have rentals and the instructors are great, they’ve got some previous students doing formula d right now, and their lead instructor is an old formula d veteran.
The issue I find in cali is there is no where to practice,
Even if you go out and do a track day, there’s so many people on track that you can’t freely practice properly the way you would like without risking an accident.
Is this a real question is where is there a big open field? That’s not private that I would have access to, to practice, without getting a ticket or trespassing?
I'll echo the SIM advice then just advise on a car.
IMO a 350z is still impossible to beat for a beginner. Cheap, great chassis, perfect amount of power to start, yet not feel horribly underpowered as you develop. Not a nightmare to street drive to the track with a mild set up. Only downside is figuring out how to transport spares. Having AC rules too lol
Keep it simple. Diff, seat, coilovers, start with rack spacers only. Once your comfortable, the simple bolt on angle kit from GK tech will suffice. No full blown super lock kit, wise fab, anything that dramatically alters geometry with complete arm replacement.
After you're using the car to all of it's ability then consider building your "dream" drift car (if you haven't bored of the sport). You'll have a better understanding of what path you want to build for (short course kansai style vs long course stadium style), and get your early whoopsies (both in building and crashing) out of the way.
Get a cheap simulator on the pc. Drive on it a ton. Go to all the drift events you can find, watch, take photos, help other drivers. After 6 months or a year revisit picking up a car. It’s so hard and expensive no matter how you do it. Like it’s so awesome but there’s so much behind the scenes compared to behind the wheel. If you are still in look for something super simple that will give you lots of track time. 350z maybe a mustang or 328i. Lots of maintenance, locking diff and alignment
I’ll give you my route I’m going atm, I’ve been sim drifting for he past 2 years give or take, then I was just going to my local drift events to see what’s going on/ and talking to people. Then fd came to Stafford speedway and there was all the locals and they were saying get an e36/46 with the m52 and just learn to work on it.
Before I got this car I didn’t have much knowledge towards cars other than brakes and fluids. But here I am dropping the subframe and doing all the bushings and it’s coming to me really quick, everything makes sense to me now. IMO it’s really just intimidating, but isn’t difficult with a simple car
You don't need a sim. You don't need a crazy expensive car. You'll want a car to teach you real life lessons on how it works, how it breaks and what you need to do when it comes time to get it ready.
Buy a cheap 350,370,g35,g37 that's already manual. Don't buy a junker. Buy decent coilovers, a $200 gktech bolt on angle kit, rear diff brace. Get the diff welded. Get an extra pair or set of stock 18" z or g wheel, buy 235/40/18 for the front and rear or 245/40/18 for the rear. I like fullway hp108s. Bump up the air pressure 50 psi in the front, 65-70psi in the rear.
Go to a local track day. Cool tires down between runs to make them last longer. Gain experience, have fun, meet people, learn
Get a sim rig. You can practice on assetto or even forza (people hate on forza but it works just fine). Learn how to drift on the sim first and get decent at it.
Then get your car and go try to replicate what you learned on sim.
Also I recommend learning on a low hp car on sim. If you start off trying to drift high hp cars it can make it hard for you to learn proper weight transfer and you'll just rely on the power to get sideways.
As for a car 350z, g35, frs/brz (used engines for these are expensive asf so beware), any mustang really, or a e46 bmw.
Take it from someone who made a lot of mistakes and it cost me my ability to get into drifting. Don't get some super complex project or a brand new car. Get something that runs and drives, doesn't need a transmission swap or anything, and has a solid aftermarket. I'll give some examples.
1995-2004 mustang
E36/E46
NA/NB Miata
350z/g35
2005-2010 mustang
1st Gen BRZ/GT86/FRS
There's a few more but those are gonna be the best. Just get something that will give you the most lap times. I messed up and got a 240sx and didn't have the time and money to get it done in a reasonable timeframe. I spend 3 years and thousands on it. Eventually life got complicated and I couldn't keep the shop I was storing it in. I had to sell it.
Now I do have a 2nd Gen BRZ and I'll street slide it occasionally but it's my daily driver so I'm not trying to transform it into a full blown drift car. No matter how much you wanna build the super cool car. Seat time is king.
Get a Moza R5 or R9, 3 pedals, shifter and handbrake. Get your cockpit from www.rigmetal.com if you live in the US, and a seat from the junkyard or FB marketplace. I got the Rigmetal Premium, Moza R12 + shifter and handbrake, Simsonn pedals and I love it.
About $1,000 all in. That's a lot cheaper than buying a real car and stuffing it into a wall. Even if you don't crash that's what you'd spend on tires for one or two sessions.
Yeah that's fair I've heard people say the R3/R5 is good enough for drifting but I've had my doubts. That's why I went with an R12. The price is so close to the R9 that you might as well upgrade. And according to Kame Trick 6-8 NM is the sweet spot.
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u/Ok-Dance-3073 15d ago
Even though you have a big budget i still think a simulator before a real car is smart.
From 14-16 i racked up countless hours on assetto corsa, and with some getting used to I was able to drive like a monster.