Domestic setups?

[Appleseed]

I thought about posting this in the New B section, but I think I might get a better responce here form domestic drifters. I have a 95 chevy cop car. I won't make the tipical mistake of, "I want a huge motor with NOS, and a turbo and..." My focus will be suspension first. Let me explane what I've got. The Caprice has unequal double A arms in the front and 4 triangulated trailing arms (think of a I/\I arangment) attached to a solid axle in the rear. I've already rebuilt the front with new ball joints and tie rods. My future setup plans are; replace crappy rubber bushings with urithane (sp?) rebuilt kit, new trailing arms ( the stock ones are so flexable it's scary), Global West 550 lb/in front springs, stock 440 lb/in Impala rear springs, and stock 17x8.5 Impala wheels. The shocks I'll play with as I have a few in mind. What do you think of this setup? Since nobody make better front arms I'll box them in with steel plates when I install the bushings. Also, I'll be stuck with the automatic as I don't have $2,000-$3,000 for the 6 speed conversion yet. All coments and info are welcomed.

[Ghost of Duluth]

Well man, it sounds like you have it all together. That sounds like a nice set up. The Caprice is going to be an interesting car to slide. Since you are stuck in the auto I will give you this little piece of advice that you probably know. Alot of weight transfer and use the 1,2,3 instead of Drive. I'm sure you knew that but I thought I would give it to you. With the weight of that car and the combo of the auto trans you are going to have to use lower entry speeds to stay in the lower gears. Don't want to be shifting into OD in mid drift. With the lower speeds, weight transfer is going to be more critical. Rapid turning of the wheel will help you alot as will higher tire pressures.

Good luck and please let us all share in the building of your car. I would love to see a running photo set of the build up and the final slide.

Thanks.

[Appleseed]

Thanks

I thought I might have to get out my Nomex flame resistant suit!

Anyway, the sled is about 4200 lbs! but thats with a full 24 gallons in the tank, a spare, and random tools and junk. Bad news is that even with the rabid fan base that the Impala SS has, there is very little in the aftermarket to lighten it. In fact, the only think I could find was a fiberglass hood. Cool, but the sucker costs about $800. I know I could gut the thing but its my only ride. Besides the only options it has are A/C and power windows/locks. It dosn't even have carpet (nice for cleaning up after hauling drunk buddies around). Reading about the El camino from Texas was a HUGE pick me up. They have an automatic and drift real well. Their only advantage aside from driver skill, is about 1,000 lbs less weight. I've been reading online alot as my car is laid up and being fixed. Some *Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored**Censored* used the quarter panel as a break pedel. So I'll use some of the insurance money for goodies. I've been driving this car for about 5 years but havn't had to much experince with drifting, but I've been driving for 9 years and all of it with RWD so I know a few things. It tuff to be smooth on 225/75r15s. I can't wait for the low pro rubber.

[Parry]

2000 bucks to go to six speed?

Yowzers...are you sure? You should be able to swap-meet yourself a tranny for waaaaay less then that.

Cool project. You gonna rock the twice pipes on this thing, Marauder style?

[CrazyHawaiian]

Yeah sounds good. I drift a domestic with auto too, just gotta learn how to feint and you're good to go. There's also a bunch of mods you can do to that auto tranny to make it better for drifting, maybe try a search. As for the weight, you can lose it but probably not good for a daily driven street car (unconventional methods). I'd say forget about the overall weight for now and try get as close to 50/50 as possible. If I'm not mistaken the cop model came with a LT1? So you're good to go in the power dept. Only thing I think we left out is chassis strengthening. I'm not too familiar with your platform but I would look into ways of strengthening the chassis, subframe connectors, strut tower bars, etc. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

[Appleseed]

The LT1 puts ot 260 hp and 330 ft lbs, so I don't even need to mess with it. The tranny has about 11,000 on a fresh rebuild so I won't worry about that. I think a high stall converter might hurt me in this application. The nice thing about a 9C1 i.e. cop car is that 6 extra body mount bushings are used. Even the high zoot Impala dosn't get that! Also, hotchkis (sp?) makes a shock tower brace for the front. It triagulates between the shocks and firewall, but I might have a buddy weld up somthing similar. As for 1 2 3 shifting, I don't have a floor shifter but a B&M or Hurst would be much easier to install. After being dicked for a tranny core, I'm leary about "swap meet" trannies. A properly built T-56 6 speed goes for $800-1200. The killer is that these never came with sticks. You need to add a slave sylinders and firewall bracing, plus fab up a trans crossmember. there are kits but they are $1300.

[Ghost of Duluth]

I'd just stick a Megashifter or a slapstick style shifter in it. Then put a shift kit in itand roll that way. Actually, I think a set of Lightning Rods might be a better choice for Drifting. Single stalk for each gear, would make it alot easier to shift the gears I think.

[bmw325e30]

I was thinking the same thing as you were about the big american sedans for drift. It would be really cool to see how this turns out. Make sure you keep us up to date and throw some pics on as well! Good luck!

[Parry]

Originally posted by Ghost of Duluth
I'd just stick a Megashifter or a slapstick style shifter in it. Then put a shift kit in itand roll that way. Actually, I think a set of Lightning Rods might be a better choice for Drifting. Single stalk for each gear, would make it alot easier to shift the gears I think.

I'd go slapstick, easier to bump it then pick out which lever you want to pull when you're all kinds of crossed up, lol.

[Appleseed]

Also I was thinking about tires. The stock rubber for the 17 x 9s are BF Goodrich KDWs. They are about $170 a piece. I could use steel junkyard wheels off of any pickup with a 5 on 5 pattern. I know I can get 15 inchers and maybe 16s. Any thoughts on cheap rubber to learn on? I don't want to use the 225/75r15s that I have now. With that much sidewall it's just plane scary getting sideways. Know of any cheap rubber that has a shorter side that what I have? Or were to get them? Maybe a discount store. Again, thanks for all your thoughts and time.

[Appleseed]

Crap I keep thinking of things to ask. I was reading the stickies about driving when I remembered about e- brakes. I realize that on smaller cars its on the counsole (sp?). Most big cars like mine have a racheting lever on the kick panel next to the brakes. On movie stunt cars they remove the rachet to alow the driver to stab the pedal without having to reach down to release it. Yes I realize that this could be dangerous on a street car. I could fab up something so I can disable it only when I want to. Is this worth looking into, or am I wasting my time?

[93180sxredtop]

always remember that this is your daily driver and drifter wreck alot like me when my car goes down i always have the old girlfriends ride just something to think about

[johnny5]

I too would like too learn too drift my cop car. But it's a Ford not Chevy, same power, but what's available for shocks springs,bushings, rear end set ups,and brake upgrades and what is the best idea for a daily driver? I am not interested in competing at all in this car, I just want too maximize my driving skills in this beast. Help please?

[Appleseed]

Oooh, nothing like reviving a long dead thread. Beyond the regular things to fix like plugs, wires, and stuff. It's your suspension. Really, if you have and old squad car, you know that they were beat on. I'd replace the bushings. Nothing hi-tech, just a poly-graphite kit. You should be able to get the kit for under $150.00. I'd look in HotRod or Car Craft. They have a few companies that advertisein it. And replace your ball joints and tie-rods. If these things break, your fuct! Not just drifting, but on the highway too. If your mechanicly inclinded, you can rent a tool that'll press out the old ones. Just support the lower arm or use a spring compresser. You don't want that spring to launch at your eye! If you try the tie-rods, match them up in length as best you can, them get it to an allignment shop. I'd also Google for a Crown Vic forum. They might be able to answer more Q & A.

[johnny5]

I know a wee bit about cars, but don't know much about drift setups. Basically, I know that any engine upgrades for musatangs will work, but I haven't seen much in the way of suspension up grades. I can tell you that this car has forged not stamped control arms in the front and stiffer springs and shocks and larger sway bars than stock. What I was getting at is this: does anybody know if maybe some mustang coilovers and suspension gooodies can be adapted to the crown vic readily or will I be facing some lengthy fabrication? How stiff should springs be if i still plan on driving down the street? What rear end setup works best for drifting a solid axle car? I work in tool and die so fabricating some small brackets is not a problem, but I really want to do as little as possible.

this thread is heaven!!!!

i have a 89' Crown Vic with a 5.0 V-8 (not a cop car) automatic trans
i was wondering pretty much the same thing about suspension upgrades for these cars...i know i could make a ton of hp by using mustang parts but i havnt found anything good for the suspension...Do cop cars have better suspension than stock?...if yes then im going to the junkyard and find myself a cop car

also...about the e-brake i never use it to drift but it would be nice to be able to use it...if anyone knows how i can set it up for handbrake or without the release lever it would be greatly appreciated if you let me...us...know

[Appleseed]

If you can reinforce (SP?) the shock mounts, you could just bolt in street rod style coil overs in place of the stock shocks. I would use QA1 coilovers .They are by far the best for our type of cars. The bad thing is that just the shocks (4) are like $550.00! I don't want to think about what springs add to the cost!

Hey thanks for the input it helps a lot
ill have to look for the shocks but at least now i have an idea of what to do thanks!!

[twcfc3s]

yall go!!......



pd. mexicali represents......

hey man where do u go to drift?

i go to mex a lot maybe we can meet

[mikep]

You don't want or need coilovers on the front.
Go to a stock car site like Afco for springs.
http://www.secureperformanceorder.co...&CategoryID=17
Remember that the rear axle motion ratio in roll is derived from half the spring separation distance (center to center) divided by half of the rear track.
The front motion ratio (distance from bushings to spring center, divided by bushing to ball joint distance) must be squared to get the wheel rate. This is because if a spring is in the middle of the A-arm, for a .5 motion ratio, the spring is exerting half the force on the ground at the wheel, while the wheel moves twice as far as the spring. .5 squared = .25
So a 1,000 pound/inch spring mounted 8 inches out on a 16 inch arm moves 2 inches at the wheel at 500 pounds = 250 lb/in. wheel rate.

[mikep]

Nixon, is that your Volvo 122 behind the Crown Vic?

BTW, I typed a long reply about motion ratios and it disappeared.

sorry mikep but thats just a pic of a crown vic i found on the net

my car just looks exactly like that one, same color, year, etc.

i didnt meen to lead you on like that but i havnt been able to post my own pics yet...but soon you will see them