Suspension Set Up for Drifting

Drifting Challenges Engineers to Make the Cars go Side Ways

May 10, 2009

For years race engineers have tuned their suspension to ensure their cars did not go sideways, then along came drifting...

Although it is not the fastest way to go through a corner, there is no doubt drifting sideways looks, and sounds, spectacular. But how do teams set up their cars to drift?

Even F1 Cars Drift

For most forms of auto racing, the fastest lap times will be achieved by having a neutral handling car, often with a slight tendency to toward under-steer. However, some race tracks have very tight radius corners that may require drifting the rear of the car around (sometimes referred to as rotating the car); even F1 cars do this occasionally.

In drifting, the cars do not have to complete a lap (or distance) in the least amount of time; drifting sideways with lots of tire smoke can win a drift competition. Getting the car sideways as quickly as possible in a controlled manor is required in drifting. Suspension set up (along with an experienced driver) can make drifting a car easier.

Although fitting harder tires on the rear with high pressures, will give the desired effect (make the car drift), special set up of the suspension is required to give drift control at higher speeds.

Maximize Front End Grip

To drift the rear of a car out, the front end grip must be better than that of the rear. To achieve this, an engineer will maximize the mechanical grip at the front. Allowing the front of the car to roll more (as lateral cornering forces increase) will promote more front end grip.

Increased roll at the front of a car can be easily achieved by fitting a softer front sway bar (anti-roll-bar) or removing the bar all together. However, there are a number of ways to increase the front end grip.

As with most performance car suspension adjustments, increasing the grip at one end of the car will create an imbalance of grip. In the case of drifting, the imbalance is what the driver will be looking for – the front end grips better than the rear, causing the rear to drift out. Therefore, an alternative to increasing the front end grip is to degradate the rear, this can be achieved by:

The suspension used by most drift teams offers considerable adjustment of the front and rear suspension. The system of choice is the fully adjustable MacPherson strut. Designed by Earle MacPherson, and used in cars such great handling cars as the early Lotus Elite (1957) the strut type of suspension is used in the vast majority of current street cars.

Fully Adjustable Struts

Modern struts, designed for competition use, have adjustable compression and rebound damping and also spring pre load adjustment. In addition, the location points on the chassis of the struts can be varied to change the caster and camber angles.

The adjustability of the MacPherson strut makes fine tuning of the suspension for drifting much easier. For instance, if the driver locks an inside front wheel on corner entry, the mechanics can increase the amount of spring pre load on that wheel; this effectively increases the amount of weight carried by that tire.

Toe In, Toe Out

In addition to the suspension adjustments mentioned, a drift car will have the front and rear toe set differently than a street car. For instance, the front wheels will be set with toe out (the leading edge of the tires sticks out further than that of the trailing edge). This adjustment will make the car turn quickly – something the driver will need to get the car into a corner as fast as possible.

At the rear of the car, the toe will also be set out; again, this will help to get the car into a drift.

Drifting has come a long way in a short time. Drifting competitions are held throughout the world and there are many web sites dedicated to the sport. For anyone interested in watching high speed, spectacular driving, drifting has a lot to offer.

Readers should be aware that altering their suspension in any way from that recommended by the vehicle manufacturer will obviously alter the handling characteristics of their car. The race teams in drift competitions have many technicians experienced in vehicle dynamics; therefore, readers must seek professional advice before attempting any adjustments.

The copyright of the article Suspension Set Up for Drifting in Auto Racing is owned by John Glimmerveen. Permission to republish Suspension Set Up for Drifting in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.