Drifting Suspension

[DrachenFire]

What would be a good drifting suspension to get for a 96 Z28 Camaro?

[NJSPEEDER]

i don't know of anyone around here that drifts really. most likely the best set up would be for a very low and very stiff set up.

[Blacdout96]

Well I hate to be the one to bear the bad news, the short answer about F-Bodies, is that their not a good drift car, infact their horrible as one. THe way our weight is balanced in the car, the fact that we have a solid rear axle instead of live axles like in vettes, our turning ratio, just how heavy we are and such, makes our cars not worth trying to make into drift cars.Ive been there, i thought about it, but in the end, youd have to blow a pretty penny to make it remotely driftable, that and youd have to make some one off parts like taking a jaguar live axle rear and putting it in and such, somethign i would do.......but not needed to do lol. beter off you get a 240sx and start from there. its better we go in a straight line, and arent even the best autocross cars.

[NJSPEEDER]

the advanatage is that a motor with a bunch of torque, aka LT1, can easily break the tires loose and make up for any slight short falls in weight distribution

[V]

my ss drifts like nobodys business, 40 mph in 2nd and with a crack of the throttle in any type of turn, i can throw the car around anyway i want. I found that out the other day, actually by accident. lol. My car is slammed up front and soon it will be down in the back again too, i would assume eliminating body roll would be one main goal.

[NJSPEEDER]

yes, you would want to avoid any lateral weight transfer in the resr. having some in he front still would be ok and would be helpful t control at higher speeds. drifting is a fairly low speed activity from what i understand, so low and stiff would be a great answer.

[Blacdout96]

Originally Posted by SmokingSS

my ss drifts like nobodys business, 40 mph in 2nd and with a crack of the throttle in any type of turn, i can throw the car around anyway i want. I found that out the other day, actually by accident. lol. My car is slammed up front and soon it will be down in the back again too, i would assume eliminating body roll would be one main goal.

well how much horse are you running in it, not to bash LT1's I love em, but they dont have as much power as you got running thru, I know i know, its just stock he can do better,he can put bolt ons on it, but its according to his budget, in the end hed be better off buying a nissan and spend the money on a VQ30E engine swap and suspension mods which would turn out to be cheaper, and more plausible to the drifting genre. sure SS you can get it to break, but how long can you hold it, and can you transfer your slide to the opposite side without spinning out, this is when our weight comes into play, with alot of weight we have to be honest, in the rear, even wiht a setup of "stiff and low", it wont sustain a drift proprely. you wonder why you dont see any of our cars even in the backyard drifting scene. our cars ar abundant like a 240, corolla ( RWD version also knwon as AE85's AE86's and such) or S14, etc. were not expensive like a 350Z so why dont we see them, cause we dont make good drift cars period.

[NJSPEEDER]

there are a bunch of long wheel base V8 cars in big league drifting, and not all of them run independant suspension. there are at least 2 first gens i have seen video of with solid axles, a couple thirdgens, and there are a ton of guys that run fox mustangs out there.
all you need is the power to break the tires loose and the suspension + driver to control it.

[98tadriver]

Originally Posted by Blacdout96

Well I hate to be the one to bear the bad news, the short answer about F-Bodies, is that their not a good drift car, infact their horrible as one. THe way our weight is balanced in the car, the fact that we have a solid rear axle instead of live axles like in vettes, our turning ratio, just how heavy we are and such, makes our cars not worth trying to make into drift cars.Ive been there, i thought about it, but in the end, youd have to blow a pretty penny to make it remotely driftable, that and youd have to make some one off parts like taking a jaguar live axle rear and putting it in and such, somethign i would do.......but not needed to do lol. beter off you get a 240sx and start from there. its better we go in a straight line, and arent even the best autocross cars.

I drifted my car around Rt 55 onramp (it would be getting on from exit 26) it was fun. 2nd gear, about 35mph or so, i put the clutch in, blurped the throttle, dumped the clutch and just blurped it every now and then. it felt very controllable too! Its called the driver mod.

[Blacdout96]

Originally Posted by 98tadriver

I drifted my car around Rt 55 onramp (it would be getting on from exit 26) it was fun. 2nd gear, about 35mph or so, i put the clutch in, blurped the throttle, dumped the clutch and just blurped it every now and then. it felt very controllable too! Its called the driver mod.

Well thats not that hard to do on a ramp, hell I can do that with my V6 camaro, but its not only sliding it, its also getting it to change direction as well, like on a course itll go right to left, and you have to be able to do that without your car spinning out. You can make your car a drift car ,but itll take some money. if your all out serious, go to a u-pull it and find an independant jag rear, fab that to make it work and go from there. Why do I say get a jag rear, cause to me its hard to find japanese I.R.'s and arent as strong as a jag rear to be honest. Alot of home built race cars in teh 60's and 70's used jag rears for their cheap parts, dependability, and easy maintinence. And like they said, you wanna go low and stiff, otherwise the weight will shift too much and cause you to spin out. also you need a good amount of power coming from the engine. drifting is actually controlled by the throttle 80% and steering 20%. if your tires cant spin enough to keep it sideways, they'll gain traction, and the end result will be spinning out, or a premature slide. so look around on drift sites and ask what needs to be stiffened, what needs to me loosened, what rated or style tire you need to use, and such. like I said itll take big bucko's so to me, if you wanted a drift car, buy a 240SX and put a 300ZX motor in it,which I heard make those cars fly like they got wings. or get a 86-92 Supra turbo, and go from there.

[bubba428]

Point A: Autos suck for drift cars, M5/6 is the way to go in an F-body
Point B: V6=not enough factory torque to play like that. serious moding required there
Point C: some sort of sway bar/spring mod needed typicaly stiff spring small sway bar, or Big sway bar soft springs for drifting I would say go big swaybar/stiff springs
Point D: Driver mod FTMFW!!!!!

[NightRydaSS]

Originally Posted by bubba428

Point A: Autos suck for drift cars, M5/6 is the way to go in an F-body
Point B: V6=not enough factory torque to play like that. serious moding required there
Point C: some sort of sway bar/spring mod needed typicaly stiff spring small sway bar, or Big sway bar soft springs for drifting I would say go big swaybar/stiff springs
Point D: Driver mod FTMFW!!!!!

Well he is right, u can't so it with a auto trans, you need to be able to hold the rpm's, you dont want the tranny to shift for you.

But i say go for it. Just be warned you will have to spend A LOT of $$$$ and you'll probably have to fabricate most of the rear suspension parts (I'd love to see how you're gonna manage to mount the upper/lower conrtoll arms of the rear suspension on an f-body). You're also gonna wanna bump the redline of the motor to atleast 7,000-7,500.

It will def be different to see it, and if you got the money, and time, go for it!

"Welcome ladies and gentelmen to tonights drift races! Tonight we have a 240sx, 300zx. 1 S2000, 1 Silvia, and 1 Camaro....What??? Camaro!"

[bubba428]

Originally Posted by NightRydaSS

Well he is right, u can't so it with a auto trans, you need to be able to hold the rpm's, you dont want the tranny to shift for you.

But i say go for it. Just be warned you will have to spend A LOT of $$$$ and you'll probably have to fabricate most of the rear suspension parts (I'd love to see how you're gonna manage to mount the upper/lower conrtoll arms of the rear suspension on an f-body). You're also gonna wanna bump the redline of the motor to atleast 7,000-7,500.

It will def be different to see it, and if you got the money, and time, go for it!

"Welcome ladies and gentelmen to tonights drift races! Tonight we have a 240sx, 300zx. 1 S2000, 1 Silvia, and 1 Camaro....What??? Camaro!"

I've been getting flamed by every one for my dual sway bar plot but this might be its calling....hmmm...stiff spring I'm gonna have to try this lol

[Blacdout96]

Originally Posted by bubba428

I've been getting flamed by every one for my dual sway bar plot but this might be its calling....hmmm...stiff spring I'm gonna have to try this lol

Having bigger sway bars is good but as talked about in a thread before, there is such a thing as having too big and stiff of a sway bar, especially in the rear. you want enough reflex in it so your tires wouldnt chop if it starts to loose traction, also youd get alot of understeer too in the front and too much oversteer i the back, and not they dont equal each other out.if sway bars were such aproblem, they would have elimintor kits, or cars would just not have them period ( race cars of course) but you need deflection, and such from them.

[karr95]

I bet when the new Camaro comes out you will see a lot of people making them into drift cars. I know the concept car has the independent rear, don't know about the production car.

Has anyone seen that tire commercial with the new Charger drifting?

[WildBillyT]

Originally Posted by bubba428

I've been getting flamed by every one for my dual sway bar plot but this might be its calling....hmmm...stiff spring I'm gonna have to try this lol

Dual sway bar?

You do know that the stiffness of a sway bar is to the fourth power with respect to the thickness, right?

Cool idea but unnessecary.