Ask ALEX PFEIFFER Something!

[Felliph3]

About how much money do you make a year with drifting alone? I wonder!

[KINGPIN]

MkIII

1. Will thier be any suspension parts made for the MKIII supra?
2. Whats your favorite color? lol

this is my MKIII , all i did was put in D2 shocks and customized tie rods .. locked the diff , lol yes Tight budget but it works . have a clip and rate it if you like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A3N-6tPVmY

[AlexPfeiffer]

vnunovasco,
Drifting can be very expencive or you can do it on a budget. The main thing to think about is how much can you afford to spend an keep within that. Its not worth going into the poor house just to have some fun.

Felliph3,
Its really hard to get to the point that your getting payed for driving. I'm lucky enough that ive had a few jobs as a driver, but I havent had alot of them. I still spend way more going to and running at events then I do from being payed as a driver. I wish i could make a living driving cars. Thats why I have to build parts and cars for people. Everyone has bills.

KINGPIN,
I'll be honest, its kinda boring. Your driving is pretty good. Its not easy to drift the mkiii. Work on getting more angle. I know its hard cause the mkiii front doesnt allow you to get alot of angle.
So overall, you get a 67 score.

[CHRI S14]

ok alex i have a few more questions,

first, i know if your accelerating through a corner and you lift the accelerator the weight of the car will shift foreward, with the possibility of spinning or bringing the rear out.

but my question is, what about when your accelerating through a corner mid drift?
lets say your at full lock, and 3/4-full throttle, and sliding through the corner, and you lift... will the weight transfer the same, and spin the car? just something ive been thinking about.

also, ive heard from a few poeple, for drifting, you should setup your car for grip... and ive also heard the fastest way through a corner is 5-10% slip angle... what do you think about this stuff?

and finally, im running some battle version tension rods and toe rods, and id love to rock a sticker, have any i could get from yah?

thank you very much for your time
Chris

[Silverbullet]

Hey Alex, I been doing local drift events in the past couple years and I'm looking to get into some east coast competitions soon. I love it, i can't get enough of it. I am a college student studying Mechanical Engineering Technology with a minor in Motorsport Engineering. Now, when i graduate, i could go off getting some typical engineering job for say military contractors ($$), infact thats what most people do. I findthat to be rather borring and prefer to stick to the motorsport side. The biggest advantage with a Motorsport Engineering degree is that getting to be a NASCAR engineer would be easy and the pay off is good, but thats not my cup of tea.

I want to stay in the drift world. My only doubt is this seems some what limiting. I'm wondering if you had an idea of how many engineers some of the bigger drift teams (RSR, AEM, Falken, Hankook, Enjuku, etc) use when designing some of these drift cars. I know alot of these cars are very custom and are not just simple bolt on parts like companies would want you to think. How about growth of Formula D and drifting in general compared to some of the more lucrative motorsports?

Thanks for your time!

[soundline]

After taking two days to read all 830 posts in this thread I'd like to thank Alex for being so candid with all of us. It's nice to see that over the past couple years this has been going you've kept your sense of humor about the whole thing. Drifting is the only motor sport that I've liked every driver I've met including Tanner Foust, Ken Gushi, Hubert Young, Samuel Hubinette, and Stephan Papadakis. I look forward to putting you at the top of that list at the next Formula D in Monroe, WA.

As for me I'm getting discharged from the military after breaking my back taking care of business it's time to go back to what I really enjoyed before I got all hardcore, drifting. I tried to get into drifting back in 2005 but after blowing the K24 in my S13 daily driver I had to give it up. Now I'd like to come back and I'm looking for a new S13.

I know that you covered this a couple years ago and I would like to know if your answer has changed at all. If you were on a budget of $5k to set up a beginner drift car what would you suggest for suspension parts for an S13?

Thanks again bro!

[AlexPfeiffer]

ok alex i have a few more questions,

first, i know if your accelerating through a corner and you lift the accelerator the weight of the car will shift foreward, with the possibility of spinning or bringing the rear out.

but my question is, what about when your accelerating through a corner mid drift?
lets say your at full lock, and 3/4-full throttle, and sliding through the corner, and you lift... will the weight transfer the same, and spin the car? just something ive been thinking about.

also, ive heard from a few poeple, for drifting, you should setup your car for grip... and ive also heard the fastest way through a corner is 5-10% slip angle... what do you think about this stuff?

and finally, im running some battle version tension rods and toe rods, and id love to rock a sticker, have any i could get from yah?

thank you very much for your time
Chris

I ran out of stickers a while ago and still need to make more.

Anyway, when it comes to lifting off the throttle, yes it does shift the weight of the car. Like you said, a neutral car will rotate when you lift off the throttle. It does have a similar effect when your drifting if your car is setup neutral like you would for grip, when you lift mid drift, the car will loose weight on the rear wheels. Alot of times that means the car will add some angle and also take a wider line.

Its true that you do get the most grip out of the tires when they are slipping. How much % of slip depends on the tires your using.

[AlexPfeiffer]

Hey Alex, I been doing local drift events in the past couple years and I'm looking to get into some east coast competitions soon. I love it, i can't get enough of it. I am a college student studying Mechanical Engineering Technology with a minor in Motorsport Engineering. Now, when i graduate, i could go off getting some typical engineering job for say military contractors ($$), infact thats what most people do. I findthat to be rather borring and prefer to stick to the motorsport side. The biggest advantage with a Motorsport Engineering degree is that getting to be a NASCAR engineer would be easy and the pay off is good, but thats not my cup of tea.

I want to stay in the drift world. My only doubt is this seems some what limiting. I'm wondering if you had an idea of how many engineers some of the bigger drift teams (RSR, AEM, Falken, Hankook, Enjuku, etc) use when designing some of these drift cars. I know alot of these cars are very custom and are not just simple bolt on parts like companies would want you to think. How about growth of Formula D and drifting in general compared to some of the more lucrative motorsports?

Thanks for your time!

Unfortunatly there isnt much need for an engineer in drifting. Mainly because the way the rules are. For the suspension, your limited to what can be done. The rest of the car you can get away with the basics such as lowering the CG and moving the RC around a little.

Unlike other motorsports where you can develop new equipment by changing the design of things, drifting I hope will always prevent radical design changes to the original chassis and suspension design of the car being used. Thats just one thing that makes drifting so much fun. You dont need to spend tons of money in development just to compete.

In pro motorsports, the cars are never what they started life as. Everything is built by computer design now from tube frame chassis, carbon fiber chassis, suspension design and placement, bolts, bracing, body design, aero pannels. Nothing on a pro race car is OEM, but on a pro drift car alot of it still needs to be.

[k4rr]

Hey, I heard you had a 5 speed lex forsale? Can you tell me about it?

[AlexPfeiffer]

I sold it already.

[soundline]

Nothing on a pro race car is OEM, but on a pro drift car alot of it still needs to be.

In your personal opinion, do you think this helps or hurts pro drifting?

[AlexPfeiffer]

If pro drifting allowed the teams to build there car anyway they wanted to, then they would probably be building full tube chassis cars. At that point drifting would break away from its roots.

The way drifting was originated was for the manufactures like APEX, Greddy, and HKS to show off how good thier products where. All the aftermarket parts used where bolt ons and available to purchase at your local speed shop. Even thier roll cages where bolt in. Now adays everything is custom this and custom that. The days of beable to compete as a privateer are almost over with the amount of money it takes to compete now. There is a separation between "pro" and amature but there shouldnt be a separation as to the cars that you use.

I guess you could look at import drag racing. It was good when people could make thier street cars go fast but when it got to the point where the "pro" teams switched to tube chassis, front mounted motors, and single peice bodys it just wasnt as appealing anymore. Even though the cars where faster it wasnt as cool and they lost a fair amount of fan base.

[soundline]

That is exactly how I feel about it. Don't get me wrong, I like Rhys's solstice, but there is pretty much nothing in that car that I could just go buy. When I saw it in Monroe, WA it was just to done. I would like to see Formula D keep its grassroots spirit and allow the absolute best drivers out there to be the top regardless of who's funding them.

Now, another question for you regarding an S13 upgrade. I'm going to be doing this piece by piece and I'd like to know what order you would suggest, or if you would just suggest getting all of the parts and then putting them on at once. Here's the order I came up with: T/C Rods, RUCA's, coilovers, inner tie rods, outer tie rods, weld on FCA's, and rear toe control arms.

Thanks!

[AlexPfeiffer]

Best way to upgrade and S13 is to use it as a down payment on a 350z. LOL

Naw, just do all the suspension at once so your not having to redo your alignment everytime you change something. Its easy for me to say but it just depends on your budget. Most important in order would be coil overs, tension rods, tein s14 inner tie rods with s14 stock outters, RUCA's, rear toe links, rear traction links.

[soundline]

Excellent, that's the direction I'm going to go. I have a lifetime alignment deal from Firestone, so I can take it in whenever to get it done. I've used it on my current car about 6 times and they just make the settings whatever I want.

I'd like to get a Z, but that will be after I learn how to drive. Wrecking a 240>>>>> wrecking a 350.