E30 Zone

Took the beemer to an undisclosed car park saturday night and gave it a good thrashing. Car drove away unscathed which is more than i can say for the N/S rear tyre which was shredded down to the wire lol.

It goes really well but as soon as i loose traction at the back end i struggle to keep it under control. It was dry last night which i thought would give me more control due to the grip but sadly not.

Has anyone got some pointers they'd like to share with regarding drifting a 325?

I have a video which i'm waiting to be sent and a few pics

Weld your diff innit

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^What he said^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

^compared to getting an lsd?...

E30NutUK wrote:^compared to getting an lsd?...

welded diff is cheaper and more readily available

Drifting in car parks at relatively low speeds wont really happen with an open differential. To drift with an open diff, you have to be a hero, which requires space, and lots of it!!

Either go to a very quite track day or find a massive car park and go faster (which many wouldn't advise ). An LSD will help at the cost of quite a few pennies, but a welded diff would allow a lot of controlable sideways action!

What I try to do (in my rare moments of insanity), is, when your slowing down/preparing to take a corner, knock it down a gear (at the right sort of rev range) and floor it, to start spinning the back wheels before you even start to enter the corner. A slight flick in the direction you want to go and the back'll start sliding out. Contol the throttle and you can get some reasonable results! What a lot of people do is try floor it half way round the apex and end up spinning in 180's!

practice on a roundabout at 5.15pm in rushour traffic. Your botty will be twitching but youll make sure ya get it right
(disclaimer. I cannot be held responsible for the consequences of my advice, any accidents due to my advice are down to driver error and not my suggestion.)

a good clutch kick will send you into a nice drift if you didnt have the power which you do. unfortunately i only have a 316 AND its an auto, so not much drifting happens unless its wet or a gravel vcar park

DanThe wrote:Weld your diff innit

Innit..

All the cool kids do it

HI

I suggest weld the diff; however with an open diff you need alot more speed and through a combination of flicking the wheel left to right and a slight quick harsh brake to get the weight of the back to initiate the drift and then power on and work the steering!!! Alot easier done than writing it!!!

regards

Tej

gra325i wrote:

E30NutUK wrote:^compared to getting an lsd?...

welded diff is cheaper and more readily available

And dont forget the car will 'handle better' with a mig-diff

I was out last night after work and my mate came along to offer some advice. Went to a fairly large roundabout late at night and he had me stick to the inside lane of the roundabout, speed up to the point of understeer then accelerate to loose traction then the rear goes out slightly. I did this for a while to experience it then gradually got braver and got the rear end out right the way round.

After that we went to a large car park and i got it doing full circles with the back end out 35mph. Afterwards i had a huge smile on my face then had to go home as i've shredded my 2nd tyre in 2 night lmao. Good job i started collecting tyres 2 months ago. I got 4 more tyres to go through yet

The next night out i'll record it and post it here

I'm going to go down the LSD route as opposed to a welded differential as i want to use this car as my daily runner lol.

DanThe wrote:

gra325i wrote:

E30NutUK wrote:^compared to getting an lsd?...

welded diff is cheaper and more readily available

And dont forget the car will 'handle better' with a mig-diff

No grinding at low speed corners don't know why people buy LSD's at all. Stupid init

Nay wrote: What I try to do (in my rare moments of insanity), is, when your slowing down/preparing to take a corner, knock it down a gear (at the right sort of rev range) and floor it, to start spinning the back wheels before you even start to enter the corner. A slight flick in the direction you want to go and the back'll start sliding out. Contol the throttle and you can get some reasonable results! What a lot of people do is try floor it half way round the apex and end up spinning in 180's!

mine wont spin up before a corner.....

swap engines

You don't need an LSD to drift in my opinion...
Just need a damp or wet surface and you can have huge amounts of fun.

Drifting my old 316i the wet and the iS before it got it's LSD was great craic and when you get it right it's hugely satisfying.... just have to be careful on the exits of drifts with an open diff to avoid "tank-slappers"
Just wish I fitted a quicker rack earlier and it would have been even more fun!
Drifting with the LSD got abit boring at times then as firstly I had more grip and drifting in the wet was reduced to more playing with the car rather than having to concentrate as much as before unless I went much faster... which I'm not too keen on doing on a public road.
Still... in saying that, I'd hate to go back to an open diff all the same.


First get good at using the throttle and steering wheel to control the drifts mid corner to corner exit...
Then when conditions permit, gradually start the drift earlier in the corner using weight shifting from braking and feints to get the back light and intiating the slide.

On the slower corners, if you have a good handbrake it really helps too when your starting off as your entry speed doesn't have to be as high when just using the weight shift to start the drift.

I used find improving my drifting from just roundabouts etc was hard as you could never enter them properly to start a drift so just really ended up using the clutch to start drifts...

On very quite twisty roads in the wet was much better as you could use S-bends with good visibilty to make transitions much better and ultimately much better car control when going sideways.

Learing on a track is best though as plenty of space and your never looking over your shoulder.

And forget welded diffs!!!
Get an LSD or a worn one for peanuts and let Gareth rebuild it with 40% lock

Your doing good my mate learn to drift on a U turn and ill well ended up like this

Not his pice ill try get 1 but u gt the idea

6potpower wrote:Your doing good my mate learn to drift on a U turn and ill well ended up like this

Not his pice ill try get 1 but u gt the idea

Thats in America and its a FWD car!

It was an example of it being on its roof

I know someone who welded his diff and sheared the rear wheel off drifting.

Sheared rear wheel off?
Lying again?

e30316coupe wrote:practice on a roundabout at 5.15pm in rushour traffic. Your botty will be twitching but youll make sure ya get it right
(disclaimer. I cannot be held responsible for the consequences of my advice, any accidents due to my advice are down to driver error and not my suggestion.)

Hahaha, that sounds like a good idea!

i can see this all going horribly wrong

Watch out for potholes and sunk drain covers in the car parks hitting your outside wheel on one at speed could buckle you wheels or worse make you have a tumble

6potpower wrote:Sheared rear wheel off?
Lying again?

EH!!!!!

I had my first drift yesterday in the 316i. I corrected it as the back end stepped out.

a8dyc wrote:

6potpower wrote:Sheared rear wheel off?
Lying again?

EH!!!!!

I think he was say you must be talking sh1t because, how did your hero mate manage to shred though a tyre and a wheel while drifting with a welded diff?

I dont think he ment shreaded a wheel.

Sheared as in snaped off, cant she why a welded diff would do that though maybe snap a a drive shaft...

Best place to drift is lorry parks, normaly covered in oil so great fun when there wet.

Or just put 50psi in your back tyres.....

I did the skid pan at knockhill. Twin cam sierra no friction Tarmac and 100 psi in bald rear Tyres. In the p1ssing down rain. It was mint

i just dont get this drifting lark.... putting all that stress on the engine and drivetrain.. if i want to get my jollys i just go and do some enthusiastic driving(99% of the time) or a traffic light g.p or two... or three...

I am not a drifter but defos think it's a impressive skill. Does a standing start at the lights not put any stress on clutch drive train etc? Just playing devals advicat (spelling?)

I hope this thread doesnt end in............ Went drifting tonight and crashed my E30.. Be careful guys.

Mike

Or maybe went drifting got done for dangerous driving. Keep your eyes pealed

bald tires on steals win every time for me .

most lsd diffs ive had never worked properly and i just go for shear speed now.

shift lock is pretty good but you need your space on the exit .

welded is pretty funny . its either back end in or out .

i have been workin on my drifts since i got my cab, gettin better but still lots to learn!

tempted to weld up the diff