Motorbike engined car drifting

[Mattius]

Hi All,

I have owned for the past couple of years a caterham type 7 with a honda fireblade engine. Its producing about 140 BHP at the wheels (which doesn't sound alot) BUT the whole car only weighs in at about 450KG with me in it so the performance upto about 120mph (which i have it geared to run upto) is faster better than a lot of so called super cars. Anyway...to my question...by chance I went to a trackday that had a drift circuit and decided to give it a go. I fell in love with drifting straight away. However, I have no reference point for whether the car I have is any good at all or is so wrong for drifting that I will be banging my head against a wall trying to get it to drift in anything other than hooligan mode. So what are your thoughts on caterham style cars in drifting (they are RWD!!!!), and what about motorbike engined drift cars? Good, Bad...mental...I don't know and clue your opinions....

 

[HDi fun]

I should think that does bloody well go too! Nothing like light weight to make things lively.

My car is nearly 1000kg HEAVIER than that and gives a good account of itself in (road terms anyway) with 192bhp.

I think the kind of drift I'm likely to get in it is of the understeer type. You know, the 'trying-to-negotiate-a-downhill-180-degree-hairpin-with-a-fully-loaded supermarket-trolley' kind of terminal understeer type of heart stopping drift.

I wish I had something constructive to add, but, at this point at least, I'm stuck.

Cheers,

Rgds,

Paul

 

[aswearing]

right, caterhams are quite long so that will give more momentum when turning befor a drift allowing you to get your 'backend out'

rwd is driftings best friend i i don't think you should have much trouble, get some speed up, drop down to a low gear, turn either way, build up plenty of revs before dropping your clutch and keep your wheels spinning, as your car slides out, use opp. lock and vary the throttle to keep your car poised and balanced.

that might or might not help :?

i was drifting in a go kart which was immense fun, and it was so easy.

 

[Mattius]

Thank you for your replys

Many thanks for the reply. I suppose I would like to start to understand about setting the car up to give me the best chance for the car to mask my complete lack of talent. The car has adjustable suspension which i currently have set up for track racing. For drifiting should I look to stiffen or soften? I can't really play with this at the drift days I do at Barkston Heath so would need to pre setup ahead of time and don't want to loosen off it's the worse thing I could do etc..

 

[Pixel]

Bet the power to weight ratio is a nice high figure ^^

 

[obi_waynne]

Cars for drifting are purely subjective I've heard some guys say they like heavier cars as they hold a drift for longer and everything is slower and easier to maintain. If you enjoy it - keep doing it. See if you can blag a go in someone elses drift machine and compare it to yours.

 

[Pixel]

This thread makes me think of the Ariel Atom.

 

[slim1122]

mmmmmmmmm atom

 

[jarrus]

indeed the atom is a brilliant brilliant car,

I wouldn't like to try and drift it though