Best Camber for Drifting?

[tashi]

my car is 350z, i kno it is not good for drift. but i really want to play a drift with my car. anyone knows what is the best camber for drift??? and any parts will i need to change???

thanks

[sdtouge]

350z's rock for drifting, there great cars, a little heavy but sick, not shure about the camber though.


actually, if you want a good drift car i will trade you my s13

[Wayne]

Originally posted by sdtouge
350z's rock for drifting, there great cars, a little heavy but sick, not shure about the camber though.


actually, if you want a good drift car i will trade you my s13

aha wow way to add insight to the mans post.

personally i dont knwo much about 350s since im to poor to even look at them, but just use general car knowledge as in relate it to mose other cars. i dont know much about suspnesion parts for 350s but ive heard of alot of people modifiying s14 parts to make them fit 350zs, i dont know if your hardcore enough to try that but if so get some rucas so you can adjust some camber, maybe get some tc rods, and toe links. coil overs and an lsd. if you dont have enough for all that just get some type of springs and struts and an lsd.

its hard to judge what a good camber is for your car since theirs variables like your driving style, power level, and tire size to name a few.

[GRiDRaceTech]

Tons of camber front and rear. My advice is to get adjustable bits everywhere and just start messing around with 'em. Try and find an alignment shop willing to sell you a lifetime alignment card and just take it back day after day until you find the right setting.

*Edit: I have no idea what Alex is talking about. None. *

[S13pwrdbySnail]

Originally posted by GRiDRaceTech
Try and find an alignment shop willing to sell you a lifetime alignment card

they have that? Where are you located, I would love to get my hands with one of those

[AlexPfeiffer]

You guys really look bad now cause the 350z has no ruca, no camber plates, and no tension rods.

Bad information is wrong. Dont post if you dont know what your talking about.

First off the 350z is a great car for drifting. There are alot of problems with the suspension design just because its not adjustable adn when you lower the car you get into alot of problems. You need to replace a few parts to get the right alignment specs but the parts that are on the market right now suck and are over priced for what they are.

For more steering angle, we do use the s14 tein inner tie rods and modify them to fit and work properly. Thats the best choice right now for that. Front camber can only be done with an aftermarket upper control arm.

For the rear, you can replace the camber links (they are lower by the way) but you will run out of adjustment at some point with the toe links and end up with way too much toe in. No one has a good toe link right now. The ones jic and stillen call toe links are not actually toe links but are the traction links. Even if you adjust them, it doesnt help the toe and camber settings get any better.

Trust me, i have spent many hours under 350z's setting them up for drift/race. I do have the rear camber links and they will be for sale shortly, at a much cheeper price then whats on the market now. And i will be comming out with the front upper arms (for camber adjustment) and a true rear adjustable toe arm with adjustable height (cause the spring is on it).

[AUSSIEDRIFTER]

dont go to much around -2dg neg would be enough, that might even be to much

[Wayne]

Originally posted by AlexPfeiffer
You guys really look bad now cause the 350z has no ruca, no camber plates, and no tension rods.

Bad information is wrong. Dont post if you dont know what your talking about.

dont mean to sound like a wise a$$, but who is this post directed towards ? if it was directed towards me i never suggested getting any of those parts. all i said was i hear of people modifiying s14 suspension parts to work with their 350zs. i did no sort of recomending them at all.

if this psot isnt directed towards me than im sorry brudda dotn mean to sound like a wise a$$, your still one of my favorite drifters internationally. good luck next season

wayne

[Orbitronio]

A typical drift set up is to have more -X camber at the front rather than on the rear. If you are doing a Feint or Braking drift, don't you think that you need a good grip on your front tires?

[ALI]

Originally posted by AlexPfeiffer
You guys really look bad now cause the 350z has no ruca, no camber plates, and no tension rods.

Bad information is wrong. Dont post if you dont know what your talking about.

First off the 350z is a great car for drifting. There are alot of problems with the suspension design just because its not adjustable adn when you lower the car you get into alot of problems. You need to replace a few parts to get the right alignment specs but the parts that are on the market right now suck and are over priced for what they are.

For more steering angle, we do use the s14 tein inner tie rods and modify them to fit and work properly. Thats the best choice right now for that. Front camber can only be done with an aftermarket upper control arm.

For the rear, you can replace the camber links (they are lower by the way) but you will run out of adjustment at some point with the toe links and end up with way too much toe in. No one has a good toe link right now. The ones jic and stillen call toe links are not actually toe links but are the traction links. Even if you adjust them, it doesnt help the toe and camber settings get any better.

Trust me, i have spent many hours under 350z's setting them up for drift/race. I do have the rear camber links and they will be for sale shortly, at a much cheeper price then whats on the market now. And i will be comming out with the front upper arms (for camber adjustment) and a true rear adjustable toe arm with adjustable height (cause the spring is on it).

First off everyone, Alex is a freaking saint for helping out the Z community with these parts. He is absolutely correct in that the 350Z is pretty difficult to get right. The one thing that I've done (for now) is adjust some of the camber out of the rear on the factory suspension. It's really frustrating because when you adjust the camber, you change the toe, and when you change the toe, you change the camber.... It took me and my mechanic almost three hours the last time getting it where I wanted it....actually, it still isn't where I want it, but it's better then the factory settings.

To answer the original question in this post....don't worry about any of that just yet. Spend your time and money getting track time learning the car before you go changing things on it. When you get to a point where you can outdrive the car instead of the car outdriving you, then start your adjusting.


And Alex, you and I need to talk about those parts!!!

[Raziel]

Originally posted by Orbitronio
A typical drift set up is to have more -X camber at the front rather than on the rear. If you are doing a Feint or Braking drift, don't you think that you need a good grip on your front tires?

Yup for drifting you need grip in the front thats why people run negative camber in the front. You get more of the tire surface that way. People tend to forget that in drifting you need grip too even in the rear tires.

[CrazyHawaiian]

Maybe try a search next time. There is quite a bit of info on these forums, only a search button away. To the original poster, here's a thread dealing with camber that might help you understand why people run negative camber:

http://www.drifting.com/forums/showt...r&pagenumber=1

To answer the original question, there is no universal answer. The answer is to go drift and see how your tires wear. Then make changes, then go drifting again, and check the wear again. Repeat process until you find the alignment settings that work the best for you in your car. The goal is even tire wear which equates to a good contact patch.

[mk3mann]

negative camber is for lower torque cars that just cant kick the rear out like the higher Hp cars can....

negative camber just lets you have LESS of a contact patch....less friction...easier to kick out

running Hapri ( or stretching the tires) even makes the contact patch THINNER...and also stiffens the sidewalls for a even more responsive car....

these are things that you DONT want on a road race machine ( for grip racing)....only if you plan on sliding sideways do you need to do these things

but i bet you do, or you wouldnt be on the forum....

or you are like me and drift a supra turbo that doesnt need hapri or negative camber for functionality....just looks

[Ris4drift]

actualy captain infinite knowledge negative camber is to combat forces exerted while corenering which cause the suspension to let the wheel/tire roll over. and camber is to combat that. chris forsebergs 350z has insane camber. but i bet it has no power

like hapari its kinda style thing. but if your actually putting the suspension thru its paces negative camber is very good no matter what you have.


as to the 350z the car drifts insanely stock. you dont need to mod it. i got to drive hot-pants ali's car and it was sooooooo fun to drift. and its pretty darn stock.

[sccakid]

Originally posted by AlexPfeiffer


Bad information is wrong. Dont post if you dont know what your talking about.

Looks like this needs to be reiterated again. Everyone thinks they are a patron saint on the internet...
Sadly, this site is full of meatheads who have no clue about drifting, or anything about driving at all...

[AeBaSupLook]

Originally posted by sccakid
Sadly, this site is full of meatheads who have no clue about drifting, or anything about driving at all...

and sadly, it looks like your one of them.

[sccakid]

Alright, no need to get your panties in a twist.

To clarify, the reason I posted was in regards to this quote...

Originally posted by mk3mann
negative camber is for lower torque cars that just cant kick the rear out like the higher Hp cars can....

negative camber just lets you have LESS of a contact patch....less friction...easier to kick out

these are things that you DONT want on a road race machine ( for grip racing)....only if you plan on sliding sideways do you need to do these things

...which is misleading and incorrect. If you think that negative camber has no place in road racing, maybe you should go to the racetrack sometime and take a look at some of the cars there. Negative camber is used on road race cars to increase the contact patch under cornering force and preserve the tires by not having them roll over onto the sidewall. However, you will generally see more negative camber on drift-specific cars than you will on road racers. Certainly negative camber isn't used only "for low torque cars that just can't kick the rear out".

[dae]

its hipari isnt it not hapri

[TrendLineMotor]

The best set up is the one that works for you.

mk3mann is wrong, sccakid is right

[Divius Drifter]

-2 camber sounds about right, to need camber to increase contact area with the front wheels for grip so that when you are able to controll a drift the rear end will follow that of the front tyres.

Personally the best way to find out what suspension and camber set-up is best for you is a matter of getting the parts installed and then taking it out to a track and tune it untill you are satisfied with the handling characteristics that suit you best, like that of many drivers. every one has their prefered setting.

[Octagon]

I'll just re-iterate what Crazy Hawaiian, Divius Drifter, and Ris4Drft have all said - there is no one single setup for drifting, even with two of the same cars.

Setup is all about application. There is no one single tuning factor that will make a car "the perfect drift machine". Negative camber is most often added (and rarely more than a degree or two) to increase lateral grip. By increasing lateral grip, you can (theoretically) make your car change direction more quickly (good for feints) and recover more easily from very steep slip angles.

The catch is that to work with more lateral grip, you need to (at least in my experience) drive the car in deeper to break loose from the added grip. Your direction changes have to be more violent and your entry speeds have to be higher.

And then when you do this, you have to take into consideration the rest of your setup. How are your spring and damping rates? With more violent direction changes you get more violent weight transfer. If the car rolls and howls like a stuck pig when you throw it into a corner, then more grip is definitely not going to be the answer. And what about your toe? Caster? Are those optimized too?

And how will you change the camber? Move the spindle on the strut? Change the angle of the strut by moving where it mounts to the inner fender? Adjustable control arms? All of these things can throw off suspension geometry in hundreds of ways, actually worsening handling instead of improving it.

Man, I spent way too much time around Jim Bodnar. lol