I've drifted both many times. My GSL-SE is expressly a "drift" car. I prefer to set my car up high compression with a small turbo. That way the powerband is smoother and more controllable. But you still have plenty of power for anything or anyone you might encounter.

 

Actually, I have to agree and diagree with you at the same time. It is not the fastest at times, and other times it is.

I was recently challenged by 2 different groups to prove this. One group is a group of racers that have many years experience each. Each grosup had at least 8 people in it. Both groups took me to an indoor go-kart facility which they were members of. Both groups "gripped" through the whole course. Everyone did 15 laps. In the end, the result was the same. Even though I had never driven there before, I was over a second faster than anyone else. This is a course that is completed in as little as 29 seconds (the record), and the average is about 42 seconds. I drifted on the hairpins and gripped on the regular turns. It is the same technique that I use when I race. My technique has not let me down yet, so I will stick with it.

 

Ok, are you joking? I usually head down to the local indoor go kart facility also (Dromo) and sliding pretty much any of the turns results in a slower lap time. Have you seen the tournaments they hold? I dont think you'll see a single person (thats trying to win) "drifting" any turns. A slight oversteer is advantageous in some situations but not really in open wheel racing.

 

Nope, not joking. Don't drift every turn, it WILL slow you down. You have to pick your hairpins carefully, and follow the line properly. Also, keep the drifts small, the farther you go sideways, the more it will slow you down. All you are really doing is setting up your exit.

No, I haven't seen their tournaments, but I saw their best track times, and I was not far off from it my first time there. I made their Top 25 also.

 

It's easier to start w/ an NA, then maybe a TII later, just easier to handle when starting out.

 

im going to say its go with what you know. i have had both n/a and TII and if you know what your doing and you keep things under wraps you will beat out an n/a. as you said it takes less torque to keep tires spinning and with an agressive turn in you dont worry about it, but even with turbo and the wheel spin you can keep the boost to a few psi(around 5-7psi) but once you exit you are already spooled and just mash the gas and goodbye n/a

my .2

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by David88vert
[B]

Nope, not joking. Don't drift every turn, it WILL slow you down. You have to pick your hairpins carefully, and follow the line properly. Also, keep the drifts small, the farther you go sideways, the more it will slow you down. All you are really doing is setting up your exit.
QUOTE]

That sounds more like "slight oversteer" rather then drift, which might give some of these guys the wrong idea. But again I stick to what I said, almost no type of drifting is advantageous to open wheel racing.

 

The TII drivetrane is alot more expensive than most of you think, well for me. Heres prices I got $200 diff, $100 halfshafts, $75 driveshaft, $400 tranny. All that plus shipping. All that plus the NA car probally costs close to what most 87TIIs do. The stock power band on the TII isnt that bad. The TII I have has a fatter powerband than my streetported 86. Face it the TII is just a better car. The 90 has great throttle response. Whatever you think I still would choose my TII when it comes to anything, especially drifting.

 

thank you, someone finaly said it!! the t2 makes a way better car to slide. not because the japanese use them(most retarded reason i read), but because they are better cars for any performance. the N/A guys may flame me for this but i dont care. the T2 is the better performance car of the 2nd gens. the n/a as far as sliding goes is a good starter car. good to learn the basic techniques on. but the T2 is for the experienced slider. once you learn how to control the throttle and wheel correctly the t2 is the greater drifter. it has the power to do the big smokey hight speed slides and keep it sideways on the straights for the next corner. and it has tehe suspension and brakes that are improved over the N/A cars. the T2 is a better car for any type of performance driving, drift included.

 

wow, I'm an NA owner and I'd vote for the TII...it seems to me it would be much easier to provoke and control a lengthy slide with the extra torque of the turbo. Suspension and brakes isn't even a part of the equation...anyone interested in drifting had better upgrade both stock versions and all 2nd gen suspension components are interchangeable. As for brakes NA/TII should hardly need more than the standard pad/stainless line/fluid upgrade. Although a nice 13inch setup on the front would be great, they are relatively light cars (early NA especially) and I think massive front rotors and calipers would ruin brake bias making the car far more prone to front lock up as opposed to consistently hard stops.

 

wow thanks guys for all the info its helped a lot
Unfortunatly a lot of the ppl that voted for the N/A's did not give explainations on why they felt N/A would make better drifters, If you look at the vot right now its like a lot higher for the N/A's
I own a N/A and i always thought they would make better drifters due to their powerband and wieght diffrence but your ideas have made steared me towards a tII being a better drifter-Thanks! Keep the info comin

 

umm wheres the option to vote this threads lame

 

Driver, Driver, Driver. It's all about the driver. I drove a V6 'Stang for 5 mos, and could turn that thing 180 degrees at 60mph whenever, and where ever I pleased. The GT I test drove was the same way, with way more power. I love my N/A FC. I've driven several Turbo charged RWD cars. You have to really know your car no matter what. Turbo's are more responsive to throttle input, so you have to be smoother and more precise, but neither car is better, only the driver.

 

Basically you can drift anything with a decient LSD. LSD is the key, even the drift king says that. Everything else is less important. I have drift videos with the usual s13, fc, AE86 but the guys that suprise me are the ones with VIPs, laurels, ceferos, aristos. Ive even seen a RWD van, which had a roll cage slide nice. LSDLSD. TIIs and GTUs have the best ones.

 

there is a big difference between a 4 wheel drift (generally agreed as the fastest way around a corner - you are at the car's absolute maximum cornering speed) and "drifting" which is just showboating with the *** end hanging way out.

i corner in 4 wheel drifts all the time. it is an INCREDIBLE RUSH to feel all four tires scrabbling across the pavement and know that there is not one ounce more grip left in the car. (Eats tires though)

I've "drifted" only a few times on purpose. One of those times it actually worked It's completely different from cornering hard, since you have to keep the back end from REGAINING traction, at least until you want to change direction.... of course the car I was doing it in didn't have any power at all (estimated 70hp b/c of carb problems) so I had to clutch-kick it a lot...

 

and third, where do you see cars drifting at 100mph It seems what you've said above is based on no solid fact.

On a side note, 1 post away from 700

 

Drifting is the slowest way to take a corner?

I can see why people would think this in some cases but drifting IS THEORETICALLY faster. Even though grip may be much more consistent, drift COULD go faster than the fastest grip corner. Drift allows for higher entrance speed and equal exiting speed, it takes nearly the same line as well. If you threshold brake into a corner you can devote 100% of tire traction to braking, so you threshold brake into the corner. Usually where time is lost is when the drift isn't initiated untill after the turn in. Technically you should begin turning sideways before the turn in. If you are sliding sideways you can propell the car towards the inside of the corner which keeps your car away from the outside of the corner. After you've passed the apex you no longer need to stay towards the inside so you eliminate the sliding of your rear tires and let the car have 100% traction back on the rear tires for accelerating.
Drift IS technically faster.

Even though it may be very hard for people to execute consistently and perfectly (much harder than grip) it is faster if executed properly. Unless the driver can somehow defy the laws of physics and corner beyond 100% of his tire traction.

 

i think people see japanese drifting videos where the speedometer says "100" and think it's MPH... Really even 62mph is kinda fast for drifting.

Drifting is NOT FASTER THAN CORNERING. When you are drifting you are intentionally not using all available traction in the front, and trying to keep the rear on a fine line between sliding and grabbing again.

The most important thing about cornering is exit speed. It's better to enter too slow and pick a line that allows max exit speed. Best exit speed is paramount because if you exit the corner going faster, then you'll be faster all the way down the straight. Drifting is pretty much the exact opposite... you don't exit very fast. This makes for SLOWER LAP TIMES.

 

you're wrong man, drifting has equal exit speed and better entrance speed. People just can't execute the perfect drift, but if you can, its IS FASTER than the perfect grip for the same corner. Obviously considering it is a fairly tight corner.

 

Care to explain how having less traction allows you to corner harder and accelerate out of corners harder?

 

Yes, this I would like to know.

 

in some cases, in some turns, i can see a drift being faster when done at stupid fast speeds and done right. but hardly anyone can do that so its pretty safe to say that drifting is slower than griping. in all reality drifting is slower.

 

n/a suspension unless it is a five lug....sucks look at the difference yourself between the 2, big difference....drifting is fun if your ******* around but in all actuality at the track...just makes you look like a showoff with a slower time...

 

wow. its amazing how hype sometimes totally blinds people towards real facts. NO DRIFTING IS NOT FASTER. INITIAL D IS A CARTOON, IT IS NOT REAL. You have a cool SN but you come through with 27 posts(?) and you're telling someone with over 1000 posts and been a long time member and exp'd 7 owner their wrong when they're probably just trying to help you out. If you still think you're honestly write, I beg you to please write letters with your new found discovery on drifting to all professional racing organizations and tell them they've been doing it all wrong for the past couple decades. Im sure they'll all agree and embrace your theory with open arms and within months we'll see Formula 1 cars doing awesome drifts around hairpins, NASCAR will become the newest oval drifting venue and you'll start seeing all your favorite JGTC cars with massive negetive camber. You'll be a visionary with no equal

 

LOL

Well, there's one four-wheeled sport where sideways is fastest... Sprint cars... if you've never seen one, imagine an 800hp small block with a cage around it and a HUGE wing on top. There's two teeny tiny wheels in front, two big huge wheels on the back, and the driver sits roughly on top of the rear differential with his legs straddling the engine. (Gee, when ya explain it like that, it sounds like something that giggling kids in junior high would come up with during study hall ) In this case, the cars are highly specialized for turning left on dirt - the right rear tire has roughly 12" more circumference than the left rear ("stagger") so the car naturally wants to turn left. That combines with the huge tires digging at the ground and the enormous wing on top acting as a rudder, to make the car insanely fast around little tiny dirt ovals. The front tires don't do much of anything other than keep the oil pan from digging a furrow in the track, and in fact most of the "steering" is done with the throttle.

if you sense that this has very little to do with any other kind of racing or fast driving, you are correct.