I am new to the FD3S platform so please excuse me if this is a noob question.

Looking for good fluid drift setting for suspension. I have an FD with stockish power and plan on getting the PBM knuckle tierod combo. will i need to get other sus arms or can i achieve decent settings on stock arms. not looking for the crazy whippy that competition often looks for but more of a fluid drift. let me know what you guys think and if you have any recommendations on where to get sus arms if needed.

example of what i am looking for:

Camber front-- -3 degrees
toe ?
caster

rear camber -1.5
toe
caster

+whatever else i am missing.

i am in italy and there is an alignment shop that can do whatever i give em but drifting is not very popular over here so they wouldn't have any idea on what would be good for that. i know some of it is based on style and all that, just looking for a good baseline for fluid drifting on stocking power levels

 

I'm not as knowledgeable as the other guys, but I believe...

The most camber you can get with coilovers and camber plates is about 3*

Toe should be adjusted according to track conditions/your driving style. I would recommend setting toe to 0* and feeling out some toe-in in the rear.

Like toe, caster isn't a necessity to change. I'm not sure what stock FD caster is, but FC is around 4* up front. Adjusting caster can help with steering wheel return.

Basically, get coilovers with camber plates and from there just make sure everything is to factory spec.

My .02

 

I hate to say it but i got in this huge e-argument about how drastically changing your caster for quicker steering toss or whatever after initiation or during transition can help. I say leave that **** as close to factory as possible and THROW the wheel. You drive right and you'll never have to busdriver that ****.

+1 on toe in out back. Start with a half degree and see what that does for you in terms of stability. Keep in mind this will kill your tires faster but more smoke. More smoke is a plus, right?

0 toe out front. Look at a car with it's tires at full lock. What do you think changing toe will do to the angle relationship between the leading tire and trailing tire? If the trailing tire drags too much it's only going to slow you down and possibly cause you to spin. I ran toe out on my fc and i'm running toe out on my s13. It feels crap, especially at lower speeds where it's harder to overcome while keeping angle. I haven't tried toe in up front yet.

 

If you have the right caster, you can get the proper toe out without gaining much ackerman.

It's all in the Caster( front )

IMO, Toe out is a necessity in the front, makes turn in super responsive and is uncompromising during quick transitions.

Also, trailing wheel doesn't play as much importance as you might think( depending on the ackerman), leading wheel carries the weight of the car( to an extent) in most situations.

Alignment stuff is very particular. BE PICKY

 

toe out would make sense for the fronts to give a little more angle on the front tire that has the most pressure on it. as in, your making a left turn but countering right so the right wheel will have the most pressure on it.

sorry for the newb question but camber is vertical in and out, toe is horizontal in and out and caster is what? maybe i will google it.

do stock FD arms have much play in them as in for setting? or do i need to buy after market arms. i was fortunate enough when i was in japan to get all arms except LCA on my silvia and kinda just told a local drift shop to set it up for drift settings. and any recommendations for arms if so?

EDIT: ok so i googled caster but i am not sure how to achieve this and which direction(positive or negative) will give the proper camber in turns for drifting. Seems like what it is saying is where the top mount of the suspension is needs to be forward of the tire contact patch(positive) or rear of the tire contact patch(negative.) it explained that while turning it would effect the camber of the wheels because of caster but did not explain further. let me know what you think?

 

Get up on MotoIQ and read some of Mike Kojima's posts. That will be a great step in understanding suspension setups. It's not something that you can learn overnight. Just keep reading, and make sure you understand something before moving to the next.

 

What I was told when I was a wee boy, is to think of a shopping cart wheel/caster<<<<

The caster is the angle in which the suspension crosses aft/rear the wheel.

 

yeah but when reading it says that it will also play with the camber at lock. so if you look at pictures of drifting at full lock it kinda looks like the leading front wheel has positive camber when under load and at full lock but when just resting it most likely has negative camber. curious as to what the settings would be to give good grip at full lock with the caster. i have always heard for camber setting -3 front and -1.5 rear is a good start but i am trying to find what is good for the rest to give a smooth transition without being super competitive whippy.

 

you want toe out in the front, especially with knuckles, but toe is all about preference. i've always run a ton of toe, 1.5* total toe out in the front without knuckles, 1.75* total toe out in the front with. you want toe with knuckles so the trailing tire helps pull your steering rack off from full lock where it tends to get stuck/overcentered. yes it does slow you down, but pretty minimally and it prevents you from getting STUCK at full lock.

i like stock castor. little bit of toe out in the rear. -4* camber in the front with stock steering and -7* with knuckles. -.5 to -1* of camber out back.



alignments in general are based on preference. some people like a lot of toe, some people like zero toe. some people like castor, some people like stock. best thing to do is understand how all of it works, how it effects the car, and TRY STUFF OUT.

 

wow -7 degrees of camber in the front. how can i achieve that. i believe that camber plates only do -3 right?

ALSO DOES ANYONE HAVE A RECOMMENDED BRAND OR SITE FOR SUSPENSION ARMS? or do the stock arms adjust enough?

 

if you drill out the upper bolt hole where the knuckle mounts to the coilover you can increase camber. there are a few companies that sell coilovers with this already done.