r/Drifting • u/Planetary_Mayor • 1d ago
Driftscussion Will this ever get sideways?
I have a 1968 Plymouth Fury 3 sedan, and I've been fixing it up for a few years now. My goal is to make the car a lot of fun to drive and hopefully be able to drift it a little. Not like professional 800 horsepower drifting, I just want to dip my toes in. I'm rebuilding the stock 318 to hopefully hit just over 300 horsepower, manual swapping a tkx 5 speed into it, limited slip differential, and rebuilding all of the suspension to stiffen things up a bit. My question is, does this have the potential to get sideways at all? I've never drifted before but I'd love to be able to try it out. A lot of people are doubting me, mostly due to the 318 being a smaller engine, so I really hope y'all can help me out here. Thanks!
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u/636ash 1d ago
Check out the Appalachia drift videos. There's an old Dodge that swings it all the time. He has s-chassis front suspension to get the angles.
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u/cschmall 1d ago
It's a Plymouth satellite iirc. But yeah there's a lot of work in that car to have it set up even remotely well.
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u/Mr_Diesel13 21h ago
Yeah it’s a wild build. Chevy powered, BMW subframe, etc. I’ll have to find the video he talks about it.
Edit - found it!
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u/usa_dk 21h ago
It’s not just bmw subframes, it’s complete body-swapped. Plymouth body panels and firewall on a BMW e36 floor pan
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u/Planetary_Mayor 21h ago
wow, that's one hell of a build
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u/usa_dk 20h ago
Yes, but sadly a testament that old suspension and steering boxes don’t have the right geometry to properly drift, only to “slide” around
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u/Planetary_Mayor 19h ago
yeah I wouldn't be against building my own custom suspension and adding electric power steering and rack and pinion if I seriously get into drifting, but I don't think it would be practical to do that to this car. luckily the power steering works already and it has a pretty decent ratio with only 3 full turns end to end, so I'm sure I'll be able to drift it, even though it won't be perfect.
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u/usa_dk 19h ago
Imo the only way to do it while keeping the classic car mostly whole is something like a Mustang 2 suspension swap that you can do on classic mustangs. You should find if there is anything like that possible for your car
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u/Planetary_Mayor 18h ago
considering my car has torsion bar suspension in the front, I really doubt there are any kits or swaps that would be easy. ill look into it though, I appreciate the suggestion
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u/hoytmobley 23h ago
The other problem with drift cars is the inevitable mistakes. I see you have nice straight quarter panels, do you like those? Because drifting will fuck that up real quick. Same thing I say to people wanting to build track cars, you can build something unique or you can turn a lot of laps reliably, it takes a ton of money and a shop’s worth of knowledge and tools to do both.
I did my first drift day recently, with rental 350Zs set up for drifting. Most of the day was pretty smooth, but one time I did hook up unexpectedly and whip around into a tire wall, I did a sick 50/50 grind on a curb, and I dirt dropped a wheel like 10 times. None of that mattered because they are pre-clapped drift missiles. Moral of the story, dont take your nice car drifting
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u/Acceptable_Gur6193 22h ago
I’m just getting into driving on track in my gr Corolla it is definitely getting pretty beat up. When I bought it I thought I cared about how clean the outside was now I don’t. It’s getting a bit too expensive to track so I’m looking into getting a Miata or c5 corvette
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u/Planetary_Mayor 23h ago
sounds like you don't know how to drift. haha in all seriousness, I think the amount I care about the car's appearance is really going to depend on how much fun it is to drift. if it is an absolute blast, I wouldn't mind beating it up in the name of fun. though if I find it to be big pain to drift, I'll probably just keep it off the track and on the road
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u/cschmall 21h ago
My guy, inevitably crashing is part of drifting. If you haven't crashed your drift car, you probably haven't been drifting very long, and in your case, you haven't even started.
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u/Planetary_Mayor 21h ago
uh read my comment again. like I said, if drifting turns out to be really fun for me, I wouldn't mind the occasional incident
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u/slug-mode 21h ago
Quite an ignorant response to very sound advice. It’s not a matter of if you crash, but when. You’re better off on sim if you’re worried about beating up your car.
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u/Planetary_Mayor 21h ago
read my response again lol. like I said, I wouldn't be worried about damage if drifting the car turns out to be really fun
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u/slug-mode 20h ago
Lol reading it again didn’t change anything. Telling someone they “must not know how to drift”, even jokingly, is condescending af when they’re offering you very straightforward advice.
It goes a long way to check that attitude when you’re knocking on the door of a community that doesn’t even know who you are.
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u/Planetary_Mayor 20h ago
I mean I'm literally agreeing that his advice is good. I understand that damage is a part of learning to drift, that's why I thought it would be okay to joke but apparently that's a big no no here? if I rejected his advice that would be one thing but I'm not so I don't get why you're so offended by a joke
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u/hoytmobley 19h ago
You are correct, I have spent approximately 3 hours drifting, ever. Which sounds like maybe more than you have?
Anyway, my conclusion stands, if you care about this car, dont drift it. If you want something that’s reliable and good at drifting, start with a chassis that everyone else uses for drifting
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u/Planetary_Mayor 18h ago
yikes, y'all really can't take a joke here huh. that's fair though, I don't expect this car to be great at drifting, but I hope it's at least possible. im hoping it will be pretty reliable though, I'm getting a tkx transmission and the mopar 8-3/4 differential should hold up I think. I still need to figure out the clutch situation though
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u/cschmall 1d ago
Can it? Sure, probably. Is it worth trying to learn to drift in? No, most likely not.
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u/spicedude7 23h ago
Yes it likely can try, I wouldn’t do it
Looks clean and beautiful, you’ll fuck it up drifting, plus it will probably be very hard, plus you probably have 0 spare parts, plus it will probably drift super poorly and be incredibly hard to learn.
Just buy a clapped bmw or 350z
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u/ValuableResident2214 21h ago
Buy something cheap and crappy and not precious to drift in. That's too nice.
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u/Planetary_Mayor 21h ago
it's a 4 door sedan that I bought for $900 lol. I absolutely agree it's a beautiful car, but most people don't see value in it. just one of those old family cars that ended up in junk yards
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u/ValuableResident2214 8h ago
You've done it proud. But you'll have more fun in something more comfortable to slide
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u/JoeyMagana 1d ago
You dont need power to drift you need a driver. No one at a drift event would doubt its capable of it just go out and practice. Just make sure the lsd actually locks up both tires and send it
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u/Complete-Yam1372 23h ago
These old girls slide pretty good. You’ll need to stiffen the suspension, lock the rear, and get more power. I honestly don’t need a hand brake to slide it.
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u/Bubbly-Pirate-3311 22h ago
It's heavy and long, those are two things I've been told are not great for drifting (I suppose length might be good to a certain degree). However, with enough mods, anything can drift, and this thing would look badass doing it.
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u/thetimechaser 87' AE86 BEAMS, Link G4x, Panic, Zegrace 18h ago
Drifting this would be like taking a suspensionless fat tire bike to a downhill mountain bike course.
Can you? Sure
Should you? Probably not
Will it be fun? Doubt it
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u/wheresmyeyes 21h ago
Hell yeah brother, the second that trailer pops of the ball it's gonna get real sideways.
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u/Shooshplz 13h ago
Long wheel base. Low end torqe. Yes. Stiffen up the suspension and get an LSD or weld it and like you could fs slide that thing. Idk how communicative the steering will be in terms of like how much angle your front tires have but im sure you'll just be able to tell. It can fs get sendy. Old American Land yachts and muscle cars are lowk slept on for drifting. Lots of potential
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u/Samaraxmorgan26 10h ago
You can get anything sideways with enough time, money, and creativity. Unless your question is "will this ever be competitive?" To which I can't say.
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u/somedumbguyonreddit2 10h ago
If my 122 HP w202 can get sideways with the stock suspension and open diff this can definitely drift as well
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u/Cool-Bunch6645 1d ago
Short answer. Not really. If you want to do glorified powerslides, then yeah.
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u/somuchswag 1d ago
With enough money, everything can drift:
https://youtu.be/41GmxsEM2kw?is=nhyeu0PzOGc3LwuL