new to this

[RA!D]

hey wats up. im new to drifting so plz dont hate on me..lol.. well i was wonderin if a mazda miata would be a good car? its RWD and it looks light.... so what do u guys think? any feedback would be great...

[CrazyBadger]

dont use zzz's man its *Censored**Censored**Censored*. use the search button, theres plenty of info on miata's and some vids too

[Soldat]

hey wats up. im new to drifting so plz dont hate on me..lol.. well i was wonderin if a mazda miata would be a good car? its RWD and it looks light.... so what do u guys think? any feedback would be great...

For a first car, a good rule of thumb is "RWD, Manual Transmission and Cheap".

There's a good chance that while you're learning and practicing, you'll spend a lot of time running into curbs, walls, poles (of course it's always recommended that you practice at a sanctioned track/event and not on the street) so you want something that you're not going to be upset about if/when you back it into a wall at 50 mph and fold up the rear end. Of course, this is a good idea for any motorsport.

That being said, if you can find a good deal on a mechanically strong (if not pretty) Miata, I say go for it. 240SX/Silvia's have long been the recommended "starter car", but personal experience lately has shown that the rise in popularity of drifting has made a good stocker harder to find and more expensive while modified/custom examples are more commonplace.

[walperstyle]

It can be a good drift car. Dont get into drifting if you dont have about $10,000 on the side to pay for tires, and broken items.

...maybe i'm just cranky at seeing lots of written off 240's because people want to 'try it'. Smoke weed instead, its less harmfull to the community.

[~Johnny]

I know I'm new here and all but I would like to give my two cents on this issue.

You don't need $10,000 on the side to pay for tires and broken parts. You can go to your local tire store and score some used tires. Also, I good idea is to find people that collect scrap metal because they usually collect a lot of alloy wheels and throw away the tires. There is a place right across from my shop that does this and I see them throw away 100-200 tires a day. If you're serious about drifting, you can find tires, just gotta keep your eyes open. I pay anywhere from $5-$20 per tire and 1-2 sets will last me a drift session.

Unfortunately, Walperstyle is right about the broken parts however. While you don't need $10,000 sitting around, you do need to be prepared for it. I was out in a parking lot last night practicing some donuts and my car under steered and smacked a curb bending my rim and a tie rod end. While that wasn't a very expensive upgrade but still cost money.

[eomund240]

I know this may not be what you want to hear, but you should get a cheap reliable first car and worry about performance later. In this stage of your driving life, you need to get as much every day practice as you can. And believe me when I say, you don't want to race your daily driver.
My truck is my daily cause I've broken both my cars racing. One went into a wall at a drift day, I lunched the other one's motor. It's alway a good idea to have a vehicle you can drive if (and probably when) you break your drifter.