Harder on the Car?

[Capt.Moe]

What's harder on a car, Drifting or Drag racing?

What do you think and why?

Me, I think Drifting is harder on the tires. But Dragin' on the whole car. As you are redline and hard on it the whole way. With drifting you aren't as hard on the car.

Are you?

[fcdriver]

Depends on what you have done to the car. From the drifting I've seen it sounds like it would be harder on the car since the guys were bounching off the limiter quite offten and I watched a guy break a tie rod during a drift.
Drag racing is hard on the drivetrain too but unless you forget to shift and overrev then IMHO it's not as hard on the car and you aren't always in the high rpm's and you can give the car time to cool down between passes unlike in drifting were you need to keep the revs up to stay in the power band for a porlonged period of time.

[FDTT]

Drag racing is hard on the drivetrain. VERY hard. Kills diffs n launches, eats trannys, ect ect.

Drifting (if done well) is not to damaging to the car. The diff will go fairly quick, clutch takes a beating, generaly you dont need to redline the car (if you are then your in the wrong gear). I drift, and i have no problems in the FC.

[Capt.Moe]

Originally Posted by FDTT

Drag racing is hard on the drivetrain. VERY hard. Kills diffs n launches, eats trannys, ect ect.

Drifting (if done well) is not to damaging to the car. The diff will go fairly quick, clutch takes a beating, generaly you dont need to redline the car (if you are then your in the wrong gear). I drift, and i have no problems in the FC.

That's what I figured. But, you did miss one thing... TIres! The poor little rubber things that keep you moving and stuck to the pavement!Both sports are incredibly hard on tires. But Drifting more so then drag. Simply becuase Drag you have special tires.

[drftk1d]

well consider this:

drifting, the car is doing what its not designed to do: go sideways. that means unusual stress on the chassis and bushings, suspension and tires. its hard to say which is harder on the car, since there are so many factors.

[Capt.Moe]

But, what in your personal opinion is harder?

Yes, they are both really really hard on cars.

But why one more so then they other?

Chasis bushings and tires get eaten pretty good in Drag racing aswell.

Considering you can twisit chassis snap suspensions with launches and either way you are burning pure rubber.

[drftk1d]

you cant really say since any instance of each is so unique

i guess a fast (this is a key word) drag car would take more stress than drifting.

[mwolvin]

I would think that drag racing would be harder on the car than drifting, but I suppose it really depends on how bad you wreck when you royally screw up!

[FDTT]

High power drag cars are harder on everything than high powered drift cars.
In a drag car you are reaching 60 foot times of close to 1 second these days. That 0-60feet in less time than it takes some to blink. That means a 2000lb peice of metal being hurled forward at huge amount of force. I could figure out the exact math but thats annoying :P

With a high powered drift car and a good drive you can generaly faint drift or power over and just break the rear end loos. If the drift is prefromed properly the only noticable stress is on the diff and the tires. This is assuming that the driver is experanced and knows how to properly bring a car to a good angle. Clutch kicks and clutch lock are VERY hard on the drivetrain of the car. But the simple fact that the car is already moving at a good rate of speed takes alot of the stress off the car. And in both cases cars are equiped with roll cages so chassis twist is not usualy to bad.

If its jut average joe driving these cars to a drift event or drag event, then it is very hard to decide as there are ALOT of factors to put in. But traction compound+stockish drivetrain=deal every bushing, shaft, and artnny in the car :P