Hi guys.I’m an older FH4 gamer who, to put it bluntly, is mediocre at best in all aspects of FH4. With the new drift adventures playing its hand I am in a state of confusion as to what car selection to choose in A/B class. I don’t know a thing about tuning so I seem to be at a loss as what to pick and if tunes are available. I am currently using the AWD Sprite mk1 (A/B) but 3rd and 4th gear seems way too fast and struggle with tighter drift zones/circuits. I’m fairly comfortable with my RWD 240SX but any thoughts on alternatives would be great. It seems (A/B) AWD drift cars with available tunes are a little thin on the ground. I don’t mind looking into trying my hand at a custom build if there are any guidelines to follow, its just the cars I need to look out for which will give decent results. Any advice on what you pro drifters are using in A, B class be it AWD/RWD would be appreciated.
I have had a go a the drift adventure and just kept ditching the events that were AWD … I just cant be bothered with them
with RWD left I have a choice of a few cars
If your car has issues with gearing - adjust it!
typically most cars I tune for drifting end up with the gears packed tighter together … you don’t need top speed so why have a high 5th & 6th ?
as a rough example - I take car X and take it for a drift around the festival … it does OK in 3rd in the tighter sections but the jump to 4th seems to bog before it gets going again … on the fast sections 4th is pretty good…
rough and dirty change … keep 3rd … move 5th to the same ratio as 4th … then move 4th to be half way between 3rd and the new 5th.
what will happen is when you go from 3rd to 4th it will be much less likely to bog down as the ratios are closer together … and when you hit the faster sections you will be hopping up to 5th
I have made changes to the drift club cars like this too and they are much easier to work with
sometimes I adjust the final ratio too (generally a little towards acceleration - this will affect all gears) but it sounds like you are close to being happy … just 3rd /4th is too big a leap
3rd /4th /5th will depend a lot on how many gears you car has in the first place … I have a drift car with only 4 gears so I work with 2nd/3rd/4th instead
If you’re already comfortable with the 240, I’d suggest trying an AWD build on it (or on a similar car you’ve spent some time driving). For me with drifting, prior experience/comfort with the car is most important.
For tuning; I’ve been setting my awd drift diffs at 10% accel front, 90% rear, 0% decel on both, and about 70% for the front/rear balance. That seems to work really well for me in any build. The rest of the tuning I do like I do for any racing tune more or less, except softer ARBs/springs, and more camber.
For tires I think sport work best. It’s probably personal preference but I’ve been happy on sports at 28.5 psi.
ETA: if you’re looking for car recommendations, my favs in a/b class are my awd wide body Miata and my rwd prelude, fwiw
Oh and there’s a good reason v8 swaps are popular. That one with 415hp/torque works good, easy to stay on the power
A lot of the time, when I tune an awd drift car, my first gear will go up to 100 mph. 2nd to 110, 3rd to 120, 4th to 130 and so on
Tuning cars is a fickle matter, everyone has their own preference. For me, I rather adjust the final drive to my liking than mess with individual gears. I have build everything from D class to S2 class and even my D class cars can almost do 300K downhill on Needle Climb as RWD drifters. That being said, you just need to find a car you are comfortable with. You can get a lot of power out of an A or B class car but sacrifice on the tire selection if the tune is good enough, or you can put street tires on them for a bit more grip, but you will lose out on power because of how much of a jump in class points the car will receive. Also, the width of the tires and widebody kits can affect the class points on this as well.
For instance, someone mentioned the miata with the widebody kit. If you jump in that same miata, stock, and go to the conversions and look at the class before and after the widebody, you will see a jump in the points. This is because the wider stance adds to the performance value of the car because it will have better Aero, better grip, and usually better braking.
I have not gone into these yet just because, but if I did, I would build my car from the ground up starting with what I prefer as the basics for my drifting cars, but doesn’t define what they can do with other parts. This is basically racing everything but the engine. This is because there are varying factors in which will happen with the car.
Let’s take the 05 Miata as an example. I have built one of these as part of my 50K credit challenges. I believe this is an A class car, but I could be wrong as I have not looked at it in a little while. I will go over the basic parts and the price breakdown of the car.
05 Miata - 3000 - Auction house with 3K bid (can usually find these in the AH and are usually pretty simple to get)
Drift Springs - 2050 - Pretty self explanatory
Race Brakes - 1950 - Better braking and access to change the pressure and where the brakes are applied
Race Front/Rear Anti-Roll Bars - 1900 each - Allows you to change the settings and allows the car to have less body roll when cornering
Sport Roll Cage (Race preferred) - 1400 - Allows the car to stay more rigid, improving acceleration due to less body movement and helps the car while sliding by staying more stable
Race Weight Reduction - 2350 - Allows the car to be lighter which will help the car’s engine and help push the car at lower HP and Torque values
Race Clutch - 2250 - Helps the car shift and will lighten the car a little bit
Race Driveline - 2100 - Again, helps the car’s transmission and lighten’s the car a bit more
Race Differential - 2250 - Allows you to change how much power the car is getting in the values and change where the car’s power is going to for AWD
Race Transmission - 2400 - Allows full customization of the gears, and usually gives the car 6 gears to work with
3.2L I6 Engine - 10000 - Gives the Miata more power as the stock engine can be underwhelming for good drifting
Single Turbo - 1800 - Helps give the Miata more HP and Torque for a cheap value
Race Flywheel - 1800 - Lost weight while making it easier on the engine during high revolutions
Race Turbo - 5400 - Again, upgrading this will give the car a nice HP and Torque boost for the value
Race Camshaft - 3000 - Gives the car more RPM’s while providing more HP and Torque for the Miata
Race Intercooler - 2200 - Gives the car more cooling to the engine which will increase the performance. This will add weight, but the trade off is still better.
Sport Exhaust - 1350 - Increase breathing room for the car while also reducing it’s weight.
Track Width Front/Rear - 100 a piece - Sliding out the tires in the front and rear will give the car better handling
After all of this, the Miata will have 619 HP and 448 Torque. The added benefit of the car is it is lightweight and can do excellent while drifting. Other cars can follow some of this without the engine upgrades and the stock motor is more than adequate for drifting, meaning you’re left with 10000 extra for putting into performance mods than sacrificing it for the engine upgrade. AWD cars can also follow suit as well.
Once you find the car that you like, can get it outfitted to stay in a certain class, and enjoy driving it, it’s time to tune the sleeping beast. If you do not know how to tune, there are a few things you can do.
Option 1, learn to tune yourself. There are many guides and examples all over the internet to help out. I for one have a tuning calculator in the tuning section that makes it easier to actually balance the suspension of a vehicle which can be used in any type or driving. It is an old formula that has been put into a spreadsheet that allows easier modification of the Springs, Anti-Roll Bars, and Bump/Rebound settings. What it does not provide you with is the Tires, Gearing, Alignment, Aero, Braking, and Differential which is where most of the tuning is required anyways.
Option 2, find someone to teach you how to tune and walk you through how and why they tune something the way they do. This will help you get an idea of what works and why it is used in that way. Like how some people will use negative camber vs people who use positive camber. If you can learn to tune from someone, and like how the tune works and understand the different settings, then making your own tune on another car will just be that much easier.
Option 3, find a tune you can use and practice on it to master it. While this option is good, it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea because, as mentioned earlier, everyone tunes differently.
I hope this has helped you in some way or form and you can always message me or send me a party invite and if I am on, I will answer and you can ask me to your will and I will try to help out any way I can.
GT - Senistr