R/C Drifting FAQ
What is Drifting?
A simple explanation would be getting your car sideways in a series of corners. That doesn't sound very hard, I know. The way it works is, instead of trying to counter steer to try and straighten the car out, you over-counter to try to get your car sliding into the next corner. This is why many drifters go to the mountains. There are many consecutive sharp turns that the drifter can connect together in one long slide. So a drifter can take two or more turns without having traction at anytime.
What is a good car for drifting?
Well any touring car that you can adjust camber and ride height would work for drifting. There are a ton of options out there, for example: Yokomo, Team Associated, HPI touring, Tamiya AWD touring cars and Trinity. Some are more popular than others, but I would recommend going to your LHS (Local Hobby Shop) to see what parts they carry because when you break a part you won't want to wait for it to come in the mail. Also do some research and just find what you really like.
What is a good motor for drifting?
The motor that a lot of us have found very suited to drifting is the Yokomo 19T D1SP motor. Designed for drifting, it has a very smooth toque curve and lets your throttle imput work well with the cars smooth drifts. Although, any 19 turn to 27 turn motor would do the job well. Low wind motors do not have any advantages over motors 19 turns and above we discovered. All that happens is that the wheels spin up a lot more with no speed gain. The tyres just wear out quicker. This applies to brushless motors also.
What kind of tires should I use?
A lot of us have found that the Yokomo ZR-DR02 Single Ring drift tyres to be best. New Yokomo single rings drift just like ABS piping when first fitted but that's not the way to use them! The Yokomo rubber tyre on which the ring fits onto has a taller outside shoulder than the inside so the inside rubber section does no work. To get the tyres ready for competition, set the camber to around 2-3 degrees and then run crazy doughnuts on some clean, flat tarmac until the ring grinds down so that both the outer and inner rubber shoulders are in contact. The tyre is now ready for use. Those shoulders will give you just enough grip on the straights and, especially if you run around 4 degrees castor, through the transitions and corners. A set of tyres will give you around 2 - 3 days of competition use on tarmac, much longer on carpet. When the rings are spent, the rubber tyre will also be too worn to use any further so you'll need a full set of replacement tyres/rings but it's easy to remove the old ones so the rims can be re-used. As for the cost, yes the Yokomos are a tad more expensive than plastic piping but they're much better too!
Can I use my nitro for drifting?
Yes, but like all nitro rc action in the UK, EP cars are more popular. Noise levels and small tracks limit where you can use them and there are no meets in the UK that allow Nitro powered drift cars.
What suspension setup should I use?
To put it simply, you want it soft. Low weight oil and very soft springs are needed to get the most out of the chassis. Springs designed for drift use seem to be far softer than the softest racing springs on the market. Most drivers seems to prefer to have some toe in on the rear and neutral up front.
What camber setting should I use?
Depends on what tires you will be using to drift. If you are running Yokomo drift tires, anywhere around 2° of camber will work well. You should not run any camber (0°) if you are running ABS. It does not really help performance also when the ABS starts to wear it will just end up being like 0° of camber anyway and plus it will wear quicker running negative camber.
2004/05