well, what should i say

[bmwsideways]

Hi there,

Im from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Previously driving 180SX and now BMW E36 318IS Coupe



Well, getting an only 140 bhp beemer to drift is nearly impossible hence turbocharging is my solution

Although the project goes well, i had a problem that still making me nuts which was the LSD

I hope that someone will give me an advise

Thank you

[Drift For Food]

I thought about getting a 318 hatchback a while back, but I wanted something new/nearly new. It seemed like a neat car, also quite light.

With only 140HP, it will be tough. Either, as you mentioned, look for more power, or focus on tuning the suspension more towards a neutral state.

All stock cars have understeer built into their suspension design. This is obviously for safety. However, for drifting, you have to fight against and overcome the understeer. This makes for a bit of work.

The good part is that you can tune this understeer out by changing the dynamics of the suspension. In basic terms, stiffer rear springs/softer front springs and stiffer rear swaybars/softer front swaybars. Along with this, you'd also control dampening to control the rate at which the weight shifts around. As well, you can change the alignment on your car to modify how the tires contact the road. All of these together can create a handling balance that is happy to drift, even on low power.

I'll make a small point. Drifting is only partially dependent on power. You will need a certain amount of power to keep the tires free and spinning. A lot of power is nice to have as you have free control of when you want to break traction. However, it's not absolutely needed and technique changes can compensate for power. Weight shift has a big part of drifting and the ability to start and maintain a drift. This can do a lot. However, you're still limited by the physical constraints of the car and basic laws of physics. A stock trimed car with 140HP can only do so much.

As well, if you're really worried about the low power, find a surface a little....slipperier. Find some gravel back roads or snow/ice if you got it. The surface requires a lot less power to break traction and it saves a ton on wear and tear on a car.

[JonnySlick]

A stock trimed car with 140HP can only do so much.

tell that to hachi drivers ....

[Drift For Food]

Lol, yeah I know. I also know that it's useful to be able to overcome the physical grip of your rear tires by pressing down the gas pedal. Notice I said useful and not needed. I still stand by the "can only do so much" comment. This is purely from a physics standpoint. A car with a specific amount of power and a specific physical design(weight balance, suspension settings, alignment, braking bias, etc.) will be capable of certain behaviors. Modifying these characteristics, power being one of them, will change the car's limits(for better or worse). A stock Corolla will drift very different from a highly modified Corolla. Driver inputs will vary, drift transitions into and out of will vary, drift angle will vary, how fast or how early or late one can initiate a drift will vary, and even how quick or slow the car can rotate will vary.

My first rwd drifter(started on fwd) was a POS '88 Ford Ranger 2wd with the tiniest engine Ford could find(a 2.0L Toyota engine) that put out a rated 70HP, probably only 50HP to the ground. Now I'm tossing around a +2 ton brick with 50HP. The thing couldn't do a clutch drop burnout in 1st on gravel(seriously), with bad tires. The thing would sputter and die down to a crawl and finish speeding up as if you took off like normal. Hillarious stuff. The only thing I had going was that the truck was actually slightly rear heavy. The thing could only drift on gravel and snow. Pavement? Haha...no. You could start one, but it wasn't going to go anywhere. It actually seemed "powerful enough" on snow, lol, had great fun drifting around parking lots looking for open spots, doing 180s from row to row. I barely was capable of drifting on gravel, usually with a good amount of feint/braking and/or shift lock or some fun stabbing actions with the throttle. It was a fun vehicle to beat on, and you pretty much needed to for drifting, although, things smooth out when you get better.

Power isn't needed, but it's useful. It's useful to actually be able to freely modulate rear tire speed and transitions between grip and drift at any moment. That's nice to have.

With only the "barely enough" amount of power, you're basically floored the whole time. You transition not by throttle but rather steering. Any quick breaking of traction is done forcefully, clutch kick, quick stabs at the throttle, e-brake, etc. It's a limiting factor, but it doesn't prevent you front drifting.

There's always things to get around this though. Technique primarily. Like with my truck, you find other ways of starting or maintaining a drift. As well, suspension balance will go a long way to making drifting easy. A car that's set up neutral will naturally be at its grip limit at both the front and rear while cornering. Only a small amount of throttle or braking will be needed to create oversteer and a drift. In stock for, the strong understeer prevents such things from happening easily. This requires us to be more forceful or heavier with our actions. We have to use a lot of throttle or very heavy braking to counteract the understeer. Suspension tuning plays a major role in drifting, not only how easy but in drift behavior too. There's some good tech articles on this forum discussion suspension tuning.

[JonnySlick]

^ uhhh ... yeah .... thanks .... and good luck with the CTS ...