Tougeznut

Hey all,

I've been away from drifting and a 350z for a little over four years now and I'm pretty excited to get back on the track this spring/summer. I previously drifted my stock '05 with catback exhaust and it seemed to do just fine, but the VLSD was pretty well useless after an hour or so. My current car is an '04 with: plenum spacer, motordyne Y pipe, Tanabe catback, JWT intake, and a COBB stage 2+ tune. I'm absolutely fine with the power the car makes, so I would like to change drivetrain and suspension components going forward. I don't particularly have a budget for new parts, but I would like to be smart and only get what makes sense and provides the best value. I have about 2 years track drifting experience, and about 2 years of "street" drifting prior to that. Street = giant empty parking lots in the middle of nowhere with no other vehicles in sight.

My goal is to have less understeer in low speed corners without causing it to be too easy to oversteer at higher speeds. I also want to be able to maintain 2nd-3rd gear drifts without straightening out.

I have read a lot on the benefits of front/rear sway bars, but several of my drift buddies who drift 240's are heavily pushing me towards coilovers (which I really don't want). Will sway bars help me with understeer, and provide a more drift-happy car? These are significantly cheaper than coils and I won't have to deal with alignment issues (right?).

I REALLY want a different diff because I hate how inconsistent the factory VLSD is. I haven't really found a site that sells exactly what I'm looking for, and I'm also not sure what I want. I was thinking a 1.5 way clutch type LSD? I know Z1 sells a Tomei 2 way at a decent price, but I'm not sure if a 2 way is too aggressive?

Lastly, I think a different final drive would be hugely beneficial for the extra acceleration it provides. Is 3.9 too extreme though?

Doggman9

I'm no expert but I will say this.. I got sway bars and they didn't change much. Then I got coilovers and they changed everything. I think a new LSD and coilovers would greatly improve the drift-ability of a Z more so than anything else. Tires and alignment are pretty important for drifting as well.

driftsucky

Based on your seat time, coilovers and diff are you best bet at this point. sway/strut tower boars reduce body roll so it makes the car slightly more predictable. However, you are (as you know) literally throwing the car sideways at speed. So, those won't do a whole hell of a lot by themselves. The coilovers will go a bit further in stiffening the chassis and making it more predictable.

As for the diff, is this a street car that you drift or a drift car that can be driven on the street? That really makes the difference in how aggressive you can get.

Tougeznut

Thanks for the replies.

This car is not a daily, but it does get driven around at least once a week on regular roads by myself and my wife. That's why I'm hesitant to do anything that will make driving in traffic or on the street more difficult. Such as coilovers lowering the car and making me scrape everything.

I appreciate the input about the sway bars. I was thinking they'd help reduce roll and allow smoother transitions, as well as making entries require less feint. I've never been able to enter a drift under braking, and I was hoping this would help with that. Maybe what I really need are stiffer springs to reduce roll... hmm.

Nackers

You don't have to lower your car all the way to receive benefits from better suspension. Just look at FD cars.

When I got my Z originally, it was stock with swaybars, test pipe, nismo 1.5GT, and a autopower bolt in. Messing with the sway bars I was able to brake drift too easy. The car stayed flatter and felt very predictable. However, when I did get Stance coilovers everything got better.

Then I got more power and better suspension setups (for me) along with better tires and started playing around without a sway bar. (For me) I really liked running only the rear sway bar.


But realize everything is a balance. Finding the right balance for your style will make you more comfortable. More comfort/trust, in my experience, makes better drivers.

OhioStyles

this is definately one of those questions that different ppl will give u different answers based on their experience. mine is similar to above: run stiffer rear swaybar setting but thats after coilovers. coils will most definitely benefit u the most fast. generally speaking, u want to increase weight transfer to the back and less to the front while still maintaining as much grip as u can in the front. wider fronts/negative camber up front/soft setting swaybar up front/more downforce up front... THERES A LOT OF WAYS TO ATTACK THIS. also, the vlsd is incredibly useless sometimes in our cars. have you tried the trans-x gear oil additive or anything like that. that kinda helped. u could always find an open diff and go welded too

Tougeznut

I started buying stuff . I have some new wheels on the way right now: Avid.1 AV-06 in bronze (18x8.5/9.5) that will be wearing Sumitomos and whatever used tires I can find for the extra rears before I head out to St. Louis next month. I'm going to feel her out for the first event and determine then what I need more: diff or coilovers. I think I've given up on sway bars for now, as coilovers just make more sense. I can't wait to get back on the track though. It's been so long and I miss all the sounds, smells, and emotions of a good drift day.

driftsucky

I would still say coils first. I've been drifting for roughly 3ish years with our stock vlsd (which is fairly useless). I'm going to weld it up here in a week or two, once our temps get a lil better. Once you get seat time, you'll know what you need. Be advised though, with a diff, you'll need to upgrade your bushings (or so I've read, and it makes sense). Check out some of the threads. Happy drifting man.