370z drift setup?
 

can't find much info, doesn't seem like much people drift their Z.
anyone know what would be a good set up? what things would i need to make it a good drift car?
thanks :tiphat:

Because most people can't afford to ball the car up in a wall and then walk away wiping their hands clean of every owning one. Wear and tear is also not the cheapest to fix or maintain on this new of a car.

locking diff, more power, stiffer suspension and a shitload of tires.

Where do you plan on practicing at? When I lived in japan I had buddies that did it on the weekends in the industrial yards. Even had one guy ball a supra up head on into a 3 foot high concrete wall that seperated the side walk from a the parking lot at one of the business. Car was needless to say totaled... Even on some closed courses you take a very good chance of ball it up into a wall.

You've forever traumatized me. Lol
Well I mean I didn't want to get too serious about it. Just wanted to be able to slide the car around on occasion. Or be able to go to a track every now n then.. Just wanted to have some fun in it. I live in L.A

please buy a 1-3k 240sx to learn to drift...unless your Z is already paid off?

PM VDC_OFF, he drifts his Z in many Texas events and does fairly well.

What he said! But out the box it is ready to drift especially with the sport package.

Awe thanks sweety :tup: Im about to enter my third event in the Z on the 19th. Still have a lot more practicing to do before I get really good at controlling this car around every turn.

^ This is you have never drifted before or dont have a safe event with no walls. I only enter events in tracks with no walls or parking lots with no barriers.

I was also looking into places with no walls or barriers as well! :)
I haven't really tried drifting it yet, just a couple doughnuts. But good to hear that there good drifters! Gonna start sliding it :)

Any tips or advice on drifting it? :)
I feel like its a heavy car in comparison to a 240sx which is what I'm more used to.

Yes I came from a 240 as well and noticed that the 240 since it was light was great on short turns but ran out of power on big high speed turns. This car is the opposite. My biggest tip that most people fail to instruct on is steering. Steering is everything, as soon as you initiate the drift you have to throw the steering wheel all the way in the opposite direction because this thing gets sideways quick. Do that and just feather the throttle until it's under control and you will see this thing go forever, more gas more smoke ;) I like clutch kicking versus ebrake cause it's easier, but you will see that this car makes so much power you don't need either. I can initiate by just stepping on the gas.

Check out my vid in my journal below, I show a lot of mistakes you can learn from lol.

solid rear end bushings, good control arms, clutch diff, diff cooler, a good adjustable coilover, good clutch/flywheel, bolt on power should suffice, no bigger then a 275 tire in back

One thing that I think my car could use more of is steering angle. I feel it maxing out on some turns causing me to stop drifting. If you can find some fab shop to create some custom knuckles that might help but thats not until you get a little better.

Are you from LA or L.A. ?

Do you think it would be possible with the auto tranny?

Yes but you will be limited to only two initiation techniques.

One is the feint which is when you throw the weight of the car by first swerving to the oppostite direction of the turn and then quickly jerking your car towards the turn while countersteering immediately while gassing.

The other is like I was mentioning before, just entering the turn at a high RPM and stepping hard on the gas to break traction while counter steering.

Maybe a third if you are very good which is having such a high speed that you quickly let off the throttle during the turn to break traction like Keiichi Tsuchiya shows in his drift bible video.

You will not be able to pull the handbrake since you need to do that with the clutch and of course no clutch kicking which is my favorite :/

Thanks! :D
I really want to start sliding my car!
My bad. I live in Los Angeles :)

When I was in Japan, there was actually alot of guys that ran with auto's. More specifically the guys in the mark II's, chasers, and aristos that had the 2jz and older 1jz's in them, too exspensive and hard to source the tranny and rear end out of the new supras. They would do the "feint" (never heard it called that, we always just refered to it as inertia drifiting), but also grab on the e-brake to initiate the slide. It is easy to spot since all of a sudden the rear tire is no longer spinning for a split second. Keep it in manual mode. My friends that would go to comps there were telling me that if you didnt use the ebrake they would docked points or the run wouldnt be counted.

I would assume that a square set-up preferable in the 18" range somewhere around a 265-275 at most all season non-directional so as to be able to rotate front to back and also cheaper than 19's, would be what I would look into. Get some elcheapo 18's, I would try to get a set of 4 then find a set of 2, off craigslist then go to a used tire shop and and get the cheapest tires that give you a square setup. Take 2 spares, one in the trunk and the other on the passenger seat with a towel. Burn through the first set, swap out with the spares, burn through those but keep in mind that you need to get home on them, then swap front to rear. 3 sets for playing and practicing.

I think the car suspension and power wise is more than enough. My concerns would lie in what was already mentioned regarding the steering angle not being able to go far enough and also the factory LSD. Outside of that this car is pretty much ready to go for a novice. I would even think about getting the beefiest rear sway bar to help even more in inducing over steer.

Can the front sway be disconnected on this chassis without causing issues to it?

I have personally tried to pull an ebrake on an auto 350 and wasn't very successful because the engine is still connect to the tranny and your brake fights against the engine. So the car just acted really confused and i Looked like an idiot. You need a clutch to separate the two and then you can completely stop the rear wheels from spinning so not sure how they were doing it.

I bought a set of stock 18's and the stock tires which are 245 and 265 worked great. New rears will last a full day for an beginner\intermediate driver with about 20-30 short runs. Once you get good you will need to bring extra spares. I would disagree with used tires as they don't last as long and you will waist time swapping them out. Plus new tires drive so much better, when they get worn down you start spinning out a lot.

Do you think adding a carbon fiber hatch will mess with the weight in the car making it too light in the back for drifting or auto track?

You are already thinking in the wrong direction...

Sorry to have jacked your thread about the auto tranny. I also will be coming from the 240 crowd.

What do you mean?

Lol its cool man. There always something to learn. :)

Im not sure of the weight difference but if anything it will help decrease weight for flicking the car in short turns and should help prevent spinouts. This car is easy to spin out because it has so much weight in the rear that you barely need to do anything to get it sideways. If you clutch kick/ebrake/feint, its just for a second and then you're sideways so you may have to initiate a bit harder but I doubt it will make that much of a difference. But losing weight is never a bad thing for this heavy car.

I had my friend in my car and we were doing some clutch kicks and messing around and he said it feels like the VDC is still on even though i turned it off. Did you come across this problem and if so, how did you fix it to turn the VDC completely off?

Strangely, I've repeatedly heard that you need to pull the brake light fuse. I've never bothered to try it.

I have had it kick on even with the VDC off.

Nope, never had that problem. Sometimes I forget to turn it off after turning off and on the car and then it wont let me drift but as soon as i turn it off its play time! Just make sure you keep your foot on the gas when you quickly kick the clutch. What exactly is it doing?

Maybe I'm just tripping. It kind of feels like the car is correcting itself.

Hard to tell without being in the car, if you let go of the gas it will will try to straighten out or flick the other way but thats the only thing I can think of. Unless you have an automatic and are trying to pull the ebrake.

I have a 6spd :tup: lol. But, it just feels like after it brakes traction it kind of fights to stay sideways. Its really not that big of deal to me right now. I still have fun in it. I was just curious if anyone else was feeling the same thing.

Hey VDC, I agree with you on the steering angle issue. This car doesn't have nearly enough of it. The VLSD is rather finicky, as well. I wanted to ask you on how you've gotten the car to ebrake drift cause mine does not have nearly enough locking power even after retightening it. Yes, I do clutch in.
I mainly power over or clutch kick. Only power over when it's raining.

I've made my own inner tie rod spacers spacers that give more angle but at a cost of having less thread and also installed project mu ebrake pads...that help a bit more than factory but still not perfect.

btw a welded diff solves all lsd issues for drifting and adds float to the rear end.

Even with VDC OFF, part of the ABS called ABLS still applies braking to the faster spinning wheel when there is a discrepancy. You have to pull the ABS fuse to disable the feature.

Pulling the STOP LAMP fuse disables a non-traction issue where the car cuts throttle when the brakes are activated. This also disables your brake lights, and should not be done until you are off public roads.

When I use the ebrake its on tight low speed turns and I also use it with a feint move. First I swing the car away from the turn then towards the turn, then I yank the ebrake and counter steer. Works pretty well with me.

I really dont recommend just using spacers on these cars. I thought of doing that until I saw how short and stubby they tie rod threads were. You will be left with very little threads so it wasnt worth it to me. You might want to hit up George Marstanovic and see if he can make some of these for the 370z. Im sure he will if there is enough interest. Steering Angle Rack Spacers - Maverick Motorsports

Also if you are really serious about drifting there are adapters that George also makes for adding a second caliper in the rear. You can find it on the link above. You just need to buy a second caliper similar to the one you have and a hydro ebrake/ lines


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I made 6mm units and it leaves enough thread for drifting IMO. unless you drift with potholes. The issue is not so much the thread as it is the wheels wanting to turn more than the lower control arm lets you. I've shaved some of the lower control arms for more angle...it will be enough until an angle kit is made for the 370z. (I have a set of narrower wheels for the front to test)
Been developing this car with the help of 2 FD drivers.

URA, do you have any pictures of how you grinded the lower control arms? I'm still waiting for Voodoo13 to give more information on their drop knuckles, but I bet they will be crazy expensive.

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