New here. Ref: SERIOUS drift spec

HI

New here, names Steve, from England.

I drive a Sierra RS Cosworth 3dr (RWD), totally stripped out (no carpet, doorcards, roof lining, nothing), welded in cage, buckets, big brakes, coilovers, and a HEAVILY modded engine.

Currently around 420bhp and 1050kg (soon to be even lighter and even more power).

Heres a few pics--
http://picserver.student.utwente.nl/getpicture.php?id=178315

http://picserver.student.utwente.nl/getpicture.php?id=178316

Old pic with it doing a nice blue flame at standstill--
http://picserver.student.utwente.nl/getpicture.php?id=178325

Steaming down the motorway and popping a nice flame
http://picserver.student.utwente.nl/getpicture.php?id=178336

To be honest its mainly been used for racing, but as its what i do anyway (im a showoff, lol) im going to totally spec it for Drift.

Obviously its good to have as little lag as possible while still having loads of power, and ive got that, as i run an anti-lag system (like rallycars etc, ie the big fuckoff bangs n flames out the exhaust they got. my car still shows 15psi+ even when off throttle with it activated), and as im about on the limit of power before using a really big turbo (its the turbo thats holding me back, id have 550+bhp if i jus changed the turbo, but then thered be lag), but the things i wana know about is---

TYRE WIDTH and SUSPENSION SETTINGS

I noticed the serious drift cars seem to run quite wide tyres, how wide to they use, would you say thats best, and mainly WHY? some look majorly wide, 245+ by looks of some. Obviously the wider the tyre the harder it is to get them to lose traction, but is it easier to control the drift (especially flicking from one direction to the next) with wider tyres or what? Theres gotta be a reason! Its also a LOT easier to control oversteer when the breakaway of traction is progressive and you can feel it rather than when the car suddenly snaps into oversteer, whats best for that? Idve thought not so wide tyres, but looking at the other serious drift cars, maybe not...

Suspension- I run coilovers and uprated bushes all round, and the camber angles are totaly adjustable, but what is the best spec for drift?
LOTS of front cabmer for loads of front end grip when drifting is obvious, but what kind of angle do they use?
What about rear camber? Leave at about zero like standard or is rear camber a good thing too?
And the suspension, serious drift cars always look like the suspensions very hard n very low, which is fine by me, but is that correct, and most of all. WHY?

Im glad i found this forum as Driftings still not big in the UK yet so hard to get serious info (there are literally NO Ford drift cars in the UK, which is crazy when a Cosworth like i drive is perfect for it, im the first it seems), there are drift clubs (thankfully still underground and not commercial), and hopefully itl stay with the hardcore (as most "ricers" "boyracers" "total dicks" drive round in bodykitted 1.3litre FWD shitheaps so couldnt drift in a million years, lol). Friend of mine, James W, runs a drift club (Dori Kin), and in conjunction with Option Drift, they do drift days at an airfield, but due to serious bad luck my cars never been ready when they days have been on so ive not attended yet (so its been 100% road drift, so the police REALLY hate me, and im sooo close to a driving ban, lol).
Before i found this site James was my only source of info, and i dont get to speak to him that much (and when i do at least one of us is drunk so i forget to ask anything!) so glad i found y'all.

Are there any other drift sites in the world? There must be loads. I cant find any!

Soz bout such a long post, but hey.

Any questions (about my car, the spec, me, whatever) jus ask.

And answer my questions eh? :bigthumb:

Nice one, Steve

Welcome!! Awesome machine you have there man! Got any pics of the engine bay?

This forum's only just started up,but hopefully soon there will be a truckload of information to help you out :) So stick around :) Alternatively, you could just go drifting and figure out which setup works best for your car ;)

And on a side note, there's a member here called Dorikin :p

Ello.

This forum new is it? Its doing well for a new forum. Hope it keeps going strong.

Ive no up to date pics of the engine bay unfortunatley (ive no digicam so every jpeg i got of the car i found on car websites that complete strangers have taken and posted for people to see! mainly at shows n dragstrip, etc).

Nothing too fancy to look at in engine bay anyhow, its all function rather than looks. Everythings dirty, T35 turbo (.63 ex housing), heat wrapped manifold, and lots and lots of pipes. all the tanks etc are metal ones that WOULD be shiney, but i hardly wash the outside of the car, and never underbonnet, lol. The things got a huuuge intercooler too (nearly twice the size of the rad) but you can hardly see it cause of the std bumper.
Battery, fuel pumps, water injection tank, and a bottle of nitrous is in the back too (i didnt mention the nitrous before did i? So i guess its 420bhp + 75bhp nitrous, but i might jus change the nitrous setup to a secondary anti-lag device, so it activates soon as full throttle and switches itself off once at say, 20psi. Boost is set to 30psi held by the way).

You mention bout figuring out whats best for your car, thas fair enough, but apart from things like adjusting suspension hardness and possibly height, its a pain in the ass to keep fiddling with camber settings, and deffo cant afford to have lots of different tyre sizes to see what i prefer!

Jus a guide to what does what, and who does what, and why, would give me a starting place for tweaking.

At moment when drifting its good, jus a lil too much understeer turning in fast when off the power, and too snappy. Power oversteer is stupidly easy as i got about 400bhp/ton! I got too much rear camber and maybe not enough on the front. The cars on the deck but doesnt rub, but maybe set the susp a lil bit harder might help.

Anyways, comon ladies n gents, gimme some help (or jus link to somewhere that might b able to help),

OH! And DoriKin off here is someone completley different by looks of it

Steve

About wide wheels and tires: more contact with the road obviously means more traction. Even when you're drifting and driving beyond the limits of traction it's important to have wide wheels and tires. The more traction you've got the more control you've got.

It's hard to look at suspension setups on serious drift cars and really determine what you should also be using on your car. The low ride height is mostly for looks, but it will also lower your center of gravity a little. They also run a ton of negative camber. This helps prevent tires from scraping the fenders, but more importantly negative camber makes break away a lot smoother. This will help to get rid of that snap oversteer you explained. To help this more you want a hard, linear springs. You can probably adjust your coilovers to act like that. Rear camber is mostly just so tires will clear the fenders, but will also decrease warning before you break away. Usually it's better to run a bit less camber in back cause it will also make your car a little harder to oversteer. To tune your suspension to get rid of your understeer you've got now, increase your spring rate in back a little or stiffen your rear anti-sway bar.

If you've got any more questions just ask. :smile:

YES! Finally ive found somewhere i can get info from people who know what the hell they on about, lol.

I honestly think if i get rid of the rear camber and run plenty of front camber i can dial out all understeer, but say if i DID harden the rear suspension (jus a simple job with coilovers) would it make the back harder to control (more snappy) when drifting?

I think that may be just somthing to try out n feel whats best.

Thanks again! :bigthumb: :bigthumb:

What usually causes the rear end to feel snappy is a looser rear end because the weight shifts to that side causing the suspension to load up, and once there is enough force to break traction the rear end quickly snaps out. If you stiffen it up a little there will be less rolling so the weight will shift to the side of the car, you'll break away and initiate the drift and not have any of the hesitation. This should make it feel smoother and easier to control because the car will act a lot more predictably.

Aaaah, now u explain it i can picture it in my head and you dead right.

Nice one :bigthumb:

No problem at all. :smile:

If you have any more questions don't hesitate to ask.

Steve - James the big bloke who drives the silver R32? i talked to him through another web-forum for a while not too long ago. haven't spoken to him lately though. your car is rather nice. glad you got rid of the clear tails (you did...right?) i love Cossies.

Yea james has got a silver R32, might be same person.

And yea, clear rear lights are LONG gone. Ony got em because there was FAR too much orange on the std rear lights (hate orange and looked too old n 80s), but the red rears look a lot better.

Amazing car man!:bigthumb: I'm not familiar with the car though, what are the specs of the motor under the hood?

NO, its a VERY rare car here, never mind in the USA (tho i think there are 2 in the US) so not suprised you never heard of it.

I never see other ones apart from at shows. They made 5000 of em worldwide, not that many left (as were made for Group A World Touring Car Championchip and Rallying so most have been destoywed in racing, olr was roadcars and stolen by joyriders!).

Its a 2litre 16v turbo, standard they 205bhp and 0-60 in 6 and 150mph, in early race form they was around 350bhp and in later RS500 spec they were 550bhp+.
These days technologys moved on and ive seen (dyno proven) 730bhp from the engine without using nitrous.
The engine was designed for race use, so is veeery tunable, which is y i bought it!

The engines also in a door sapphire cosweorths which are rwd and 4wd. And also in Escort Cosworths (which i think there are about 10 in USA and Canada, most rallycars) which are 4wd.

Any more questions, jus ask (also got pics n dyno sheets of the other versions of the car and other tuned ones if want)

C....co.....co....Cosworth? Such a beautiful atomobile. Your one lucky guy. And that thing looks like its got mad balls. Keep up the good work and welcome to the forum.

Originally posted by Steve3drALS
NO, its a VERY rare car here, never mind in the USA (tho i think there are 2 in the US) so not suprised you never heard of it.

I never see other ones apart from at shows. They made 5000 of em worldwide, not that many left (as were made for Group A World Touring Car Championchip and Rallying so most have been destoywed in racing, olr was roadcars and stolen by joyriders!).

Its a 2litre 16v turbo, standard they 205bhp and 0-60 in 6 and 150mph, in early race form they was around 350bhp and in later RS500 spec they were 550bhp+.
These days technologys moved on and ive seen (dyno proven) 730bhp from the engine without using nitrous.
The engine was designed for race use, so is veeery tunable, which is y i bought it!

The engines also in a door sapphire cosweorths which are rwd and 4wd. And also in Escort Cosworths (which i think there are about 10 in USA and Canada, most rallycars) which are 4wd.

Any more questions, jus ask (also got pics n dyno sheets of the other versions of the car and other tuned ones if want)

Wow...I'm in awe. I've never heard of or seen your car but I want one,lol. Actually getting one is another matter entirely, especially with you telling me how rare theyare. But if you decide to sell yours...hehe, let me know:iceslolan I have herd of the Cosworth Escort though, didn't know your car had the same motor.

Sweet ride man!! That must be a beast and those flames ( the non-kit way!!!:eek: ) are incredible!!

Later:cool:

take off that gawdy rear wing man.....

I know you didn't ask and Im not flamming you..... plus you could possibly save some weight, whats that thing weigh about 400lbs? hehe


:biggrin:

oh ya one more thing...

for us steside people.....

that car is basically a Merkur Xr4ti or something like that. My friend used to have one, pretty peppy stock.... the ti or I on the end indicates its the turbo version. Also for some strange reason, I've read a long time ago those cars have a REAL REAL REAL low drag coeffecient, the Merkur's.... its in Lambo territory....

The rear wing is about the most famous and instantly recognisable thing about cosworths, i doubt theres a single REAL cosworth thats ever had its wing removed.
Its no shit bodykit for looks anyhow, its there for a reason, it needs a wing to keep it stable at high speed (even in the 80s the racecar versions were pushing 180+ on the longer straights on tracks), they did tests and that was the most effective wing, any higher or any lower and it hardly works. The RS500 ones had an even bigger wing (well an extra vertical lip along the rear edge).
The arches are like that to cover race tyre widths (in world touring cars you wasnt allowed to change the physical shape of the car from itd std looks), and the bumper n grille was let air to the massive intercooler.

Its very little like the XR4Ti really, only same floor pan and some bodypanels, no mechanical parts (engine transmission, susp, brakes) are the same.

About inporting them to USA, its VERY hard, emmission and safely laws and regulations in the US means itd be almost impossible to get it road legal, TINY bit easier to get a Escort in (due to CATs, airbags, etc etc, but not much!).

In canada, you can bring em in, as there over 15 years old

My cousin has the 4door Sierra, the RS 4x4 I belive...

BTW, S13_iketani is talking about james wolstenholme