my domestic drifter?

Ok, first off i wanna say hey everyone. Ive been reading posts here for quite some time but ive been a lil apprehensive to posting myself. I own a 1996 Cougar XR7 (3.8L) and im a big fan of InitialD. I always figured my car would be too heavy to drift but a few weeks ago i started practicing anyway. Thats all gone pretty well.

What i wanna know is how i can make my car a more competent drifter, i have to wait til im 18 to take out a loan for a new car (im looking at a mazda FC, or a 180sx or 280z), but until then i wanna get some time behind the wheel and make my current car a lil more fine tuned for this. So, any suggestions?

Thanks to everyone beforehand for responses. Oh yeah, can i join the Tofu Crew? :)

suspension ! good tires

Suspension tuning is easy, but you can't join the crew, we're full at the moment :D Just kidding, talk to Tom_S8

Well, the optimum thing to do would be to lower the car and get some sway bars. I would recommend going to a little stiffer spring than stock as well. Take out the back seats, move the battery to the trunk, that sort of thing.

if u want to make it eaiser to drift
just goto tire place, buy used tires for ur rear with like 20% or less tread on them
skinnier the best
and overinflate a few psi

swap out that V6 for the 302 HO V8, 1st of all. you need more torque, yes torque is good. the suspension part is gonna be easy cuz your XR7 has the Mustang rear, & parts are very available.

btw, how can you have a XR7 w/ V6 if the Cougars i know of had the 2.3L Turbo, like the SVO Mustangs & T-Bird T/C?

Originally posted by VTECseoul
swap out that V6 for the 302 HO V8, 1st of all. you need more torque, yes torque is good. the suspension part is gonna be easy cuz your XR7 has the Mustang rear, & parts are very available.

btw, how can you have a XR7 w/ V6 if the Cougars i know of had the 2.3L Turbo, like the SVO Mustangs & T-Bird T/C?

if he's getting a new car he can't afford to spend much money on the older one can he? :rolleyes:

80s/90s XR7s shipped with V6s, 302s, and 351s.

Why use a 302? If you're going for a whole new motor, build a 392 stroker...

Anyways, he wants to tune his suspension, not replace his engine!

he is getting a 180sx he needs to practise enough with engine swaps

Good point. Then again, the money it would take to put a new engine in that Cougar would just about buy a nice S13 180...

first off i wanna say thanks to everyone.

next, i worked out an agreement with a family member to buy my car. meaning that i should profit about 1500 plus 500 from taxes plus maybe a few more hundred from now until the summer ( i dont work THAT much and im a busboy at that). So i guess ill wait til i get my 180sx, you guys seem pretty set on the 180 which has me wondering whats wrong with the FC. I kinda want some power too because where I live nobodys even heard of drifting.

Anyway thats a lil update, oh yeah, i found out my grandpa did something like drifting when he lived in the mountains, i thought that was pretty cool, when i asked him to teach me he was like "hell no" unfortunately.

So thanks again, and to anybody that can help with my beater project after this post.

Well, if you want your Cougar to handle any better until you get a new car, go down to walmart and get a set of 16" steel wheels. They are quite cheap, and they look pretty good when they are polished and clear coated.

Get a set of good tires to put on them, and get some good stiff shocks. It won't cost all the much, and you can recover the cost of the tires and wheels when you sell the car, by charging a little more.

BTW, there is nothing wrong with the FC, but when buying a used rotary engine car, it's always good to be cautious. It is a little harder to find people to work on Rotaries, and it's more expensive too. Rotaries are also harder to drive, because you have to be a lot more cautious about keeping them in their power band, which is relatively high.

All RX7s are great cars, but they are more expensive to maintain, and require a bit of experience to drive well.

Main problem with the FC is that people destroy them. Taking care of a rotary is completely different than taking care of a piston engine. With most piston engines you can be somewhat of a slack on maintenance, and while the engine wont perform in top condition, it will still run. With a rotary, if you slack to much on maintenance, you'll kill the engine. Because of this, FCs in decent condition have become somewhat rare.

Driving style also has a lot to do with how well a RX-7 will perform and last. The powerband is pretty high, so when you're racing or drifting, you spend a lot of time around the right half of the tach. The thing is, where in a piston engine too much time up near redline can wear down and weaken the internals, spending time near redline in a rotary can actually help the engine.

It does take some getting used to... and you do have to spend more time on maintenance on a FC than a piston engine car. However, the power potential and handling is incredible.

Well said, that's mostly the message I was trying to get across.

I see a lot of talk about SUS and in drifting you need a stiff SUS..but one thing i didnt see is you really need an LSD!!!!!! I cant stress that enough..while you can drift with out one..it sucks ass!


Anyway I know a guy in hawaii that is drifting a Camaro so pretymcuh anything RWD can drift!

Yeah, im a lil sloppier than i want to be, i dunno if thats a technique or equipment failure, or both, for that matter. Eh im getting better.

And yeah, ive seen the old school camaroes, like 80s style, do it. So its all good.

GRAND PA DRIFTER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHA

no yea rotarys are a pain to take care of and if you stress them all the time they don't last meanwhile if you don't stress them they stay good for ages and the thing is they have the title of the fastest stopping production cars FD's do whereas i dunnno about FC's but they ish a fookin petrol burners o and you can't use synthetics you have to use normal oil or whatever cuz they burn it off very complicated and wierd that reminds me ............. WHY AM I CONSIDERING AN FD?

What I love are the rotary drivers constantly going on about how superior the rotary is :rolleyes:

Thank you very much, but I'll stick to my ineffiecient 6.6 liter Ford smallblock for powering my Rex :finger:

actually the cougar is a nice car for it, i naturally has a high negative camber and independant rear suspension, but here's a list of things that need to be done.

Addco front and rear 1 3/8" sway bars
Custom subframe connectors (a lot of shops can make these for a lil over $100)
Custom strut and shock tower braces for the front and rear
Swap to 3.73 gears and a traction lok (ford's term for an LSD)
and to end the basics a J-Mod (check www.tccoa.com for details on this one) my theory is that with this mod the automatic transmission will react fast enough to perform clutch kicks with just the shifter. Others with the mod already done have told me they have to stay off the pedal in corners when near a shift point or the hard shift will break traction instantly
Your biggest probly will be power, that 3.8 just doesnt have the balls. but with regular street tires you may be able to pull it off.

im currently half way through my list, should be done and ready for autoX'ing and some higher speed drifting by spring. Check out cougarnuts.com coolcats.net and tccoa.com for good info on your car