Anyone ever set up a G body for Drift?

[Dustin]

SPEED did a show on Rhys Millens GTO a while back, and while I'm not a fan of Imports and what they stand for, I do find this topic very interesting. G-Bodies def. are not designed for it, but who can resist changing it around a little bit,. If anyone runs across more info on it, post a link. I'm not gonna do it right now, but I am still intrigued.

what do you think imports stand for? because i've owned quite a few cars, and so far, the only thing they've stood for was inexpensive reliability, with some fun thrown in. and, that's what everyone wants when it comes to cars, right?

back on topic. if you want to drift, it's really not hard. find a good set of adjustable shocks, good stiff springs, and fat sway bars. then you have to have the power to break it loose. i'd say 300 in a heavy g body would do it. after that, it's all throttle control, and steering input.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Ummm.... All of the cars I mentioned were rear drive, not front, nabob_blaster. Many of the better Japanese cars are RWD. Most of the people who are not posers in the import crowd dislike FWD. Aside from the few in the Nissan community who prefer some iteration of the Sentra SE-R, pretty much all of them laugh at the Honda boys and their Civics, Integras and CRX's ( Notice I didn't say S2000's?). The 240SX, Z cars, Early 810 Maximas ( not to mention the 210,310, 410,510,610 and 710) are all RWD. The Toyota AE86 Corolla is RWD (and one of the best drift chassis), as are earlier Corollas and Coronas, Supras and Cressidas, as is the Lexus IS300, the GS series and the LS400. I could go on, but I have made my point. The better drifters can string together drifts left then right, with the rear tires spinning the whole time. By the way, my daily driver is a Nissan Frontier I bought new in 1998. I currently have 263k miles on it-95% of them driven hard as a delivery vehicle. I power shift every 1-2 shift at the redline, and the original engine leaks no oil and burns no oil ( I had the original trans rebuilt at 242k). The engine has never left the truck and all of the repairs have been done by me, of which there are very few. I am shopping for Sentra #3 right now ( 91-94 2 door 5 spd) to use for commuting to college and for the possibility of delivering pizza again. Oh, and for those of you who think they can't be made to go, try going to a test and tune night in Florida or California. We have FWD CRX's running mid 7's in the 1/8 at my local track. We have some rotary swapped Toyotas and Datsuns form the 70's and 80's that pull a foot of air under the front wheels off the line from a 1.3 liter ( roughly 80 ci) engine. Sorry about the rant, but I used to argue with people who thought similarly about domestics on the Nissan boards and I used to do the same argument there.

 

[nabob_blaster]

if you'll check back in some of the older super street rags a shop out of tokyo used to campain a fwd crx with rwd offset wheels (kinda cool looking) it was black yellow and red and I used to have a 240 with an sr20 det I bought in auto trader near atlanta 4 years ago couldn't never find parts at the parts store for the motor so I swapped it for a firebird bang went firebird went back to imports got all fast and furious now back to corn burners for speed (they're cheaper to build)

 

[Dustin]

if you'll check back in some of the older super street rags a shop out of tokyo used to campain a fwd crx with rwd offset wheels (kinda cool looking) it was black yellow and red and I used to have a 240 with an sr20 det I bought in auto trader near atlanta 4 years ago couldn't never find parts at the parts store for the motor so I swapped it for a firebird bang went firebird went back to imports got all fast and furious now back to corn burners for speed (they're cheaper to build)

was it the mugen crx? and as far as parts for an sr20, they're everywhere, you just have to know what to ask for.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Parts for an SR20DET are easy to find, if you know what interchanges. For example, the ignitor chip off a Infiniti Q45 with a VH45DE DOHC V8 is the same. I think the water pump off either a B13/B14/B15 chassis Sentra/200sx with SR20DE or a Infiniti G20 is the same too. Many of the gaskets between the SR20DE and SR20DET are also the same. One of the few things that you can't easily interchange between the Silvia/180sx SR20 and the FWD SR20 is the NEO VVL head, which gives you a VTEC like variable valve lift system ( but unlike the Honda setup you can switch the intake and exhaust cam lobes independently). If you ever play with Nissans, you will find an almost Chevy like interchangeability of parts between different years and models. A late model KA24DE from a rear drive application in the 90's for example, will bolt to both the transmission and motor mount bosses of a 1968 PL510! The KA evolved from the L16 ( Which some say was copied from Mercedes Benz) that came out in the 1968 510. The 510 was the first car to come out of the marriage of the Prince motor car company and Datsun in 1966. Prince was mostly made up of engineers from the WWII Nakajima aircraft company and their engineering expertise helped Nissan to start making modern cars instead of just borrowing technologies from other companies ( like the Austin A40 based 310/410 that preceded the 510). The 510 is widely considered the first good Japanese car. It came with front disc brakes, SOHC engine, 4 wheel independent suspension, perfect 50/50 weight distribution, curb weight of 2,000-2200 lbs. The other major influence was Yutaka Katayama, a Japanese Christian who was an outcast in the Nissan system due to his religion, but blended in quite well in America where he was Datsun's head of US operations. He was a sporty car guy and understood the American market. The 510-based 240z was also in no small part his doing, and today he is considered the "Father of the Z". Oh, and the 510 dominated BMW, Alfa Romeo and anyone else who raced in the "Under 2 liter" class of SCCA Trans am racing for every year it was held.

 

[1980Gbody]

i can get my one wheel wonder monte to do it turning left lol it dont take much all i have in it right now is a 170 if im lucky hp 305 and i threw on my stock 14inch steel rims and tires and it seemed to kick the *ss end out pretty nice or when its wet its even easier

 

[nabob_blaster]

85 bro ham you have way too much time on your hands and I think you're right it was a mugen crx but hey who can forget the hachi well as for the g-body drift car it would actualy a fairly easy tack just needs a panhard bar even though it's a four bar it still has a lot of flex in the rear as for the transmission it not up to par with an auto and finding a late 70's early 80's clutch pedal set is harder than lowering gas prices it's gonna be a conversion and the bubba drift car was cool at first a monte would have worked better I think

 

[85t5mcss]

what do you think imports stand for?

I'm pro-America. I'd like to see as much money as possible stick with American companies, that's all. I know it can't happen 100%, but why should I turn my back on what made our country great? Of course these are my opinions and sure others will vary from mine. I didn't state anything about price or reliablilty.
Mechanical clutch setups are easy to find. Plenty of them being made now.

 

[nabob_blaster]

but s10 clutch assemblies are easy to come by and they're cheap at the yard especialy if you can find a 4.3 5spd doner

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Yeah, I am one of those rare oddities in Hot Rodding that loves his old Domestics but would rather push a Nissan than buy a new American car. To me, if I cannot get a minimum of 300k city miles out of a new basic car without an engine overhaul I feel like I have been ripped off. I love my G body, but for reliability and low operating costs I like the following: Mercedes Benz W124 Chassis 240D , 300TD, 300SEL or 300D, Nissan 4 cyl/5spd truck, 1987-1999 5speed Nissan Sentra, Ford F250 Super Duty with Powerstroke Diesel, or a Toyota 4 cyl/5spd truck.I'd also consider a VW with the TDI 4 cyl turbo diesel, but I don't know how reliable they are long term. By the way, my Nissan was built in Tennessee, not Japan. Many Japanese, Korean and German cars are built here instead of in their native countries. Honda builds the Accords it uses in it's home market in Ohio and ships them back to Japan. The last Camaro? Made in Canada. GTO? Australia. VW builds it's cars in Mexico for the North American market, not Wolfsburg. The thing of it is, it is very hard to tell what is a truly American car and what is foreign. GM builds the engines for the Equinox in China, and the V6 engine in one of it's cars is out sourced to Honda. GM's Duramax Diesels are designed by Japan's Isuzu ( Which GM owns a sizeable chunk of). The Ford Focus shares many parts with the Mazda 3 and even the Volvo S40. The Dodge Charger/Magnum/Chrysler 300 all sit on a previous generation Mercedes Benz S class chassis. Another problem is the UAW and the price paid for labor nowadays that makes doing business the old way very unprofitable for American companies. This is why quality is sacrificed in American cars as compared to similar foreign makes, and also why those companies when they do build cars here, stay out of the union system. I personally dislike unions and when I go shopping I look for the union label so I know what not to buy. The unions use their money to fund political candidates that are the polar opposite to my views so I am not going to buy from them. I am also in a low income situation and can't afford to fix something every other day like I would have to if I drove a GM J body or an S truck.Anyhow, that's what I think of the matter and why I don't care about a vehicle's nation of origin.