The trends seem to all start in California. One of these days a trend will start right here at Steel City Hobbies. But for now, here are a few tidbits on R/C Drifting.

Steel City Hobbies is a direct dealer of Yokomo products, leader of Drifting R/C in the USA.

About Drifting

Written by: howielong from automotivehelper.com forum - <<SCH: Our editor in NYC fixed the author's grammar for this article>>
Let’s start off with what "drifting" is. Well, the simple explanation would be losing traction on the rear tires, then pitching the car sideways around a turn and maintaining control of the car around the corner. But it is much more complicated than that.

Why, you might ask, would we "drift"? Well "drifting" is considered a huge sport in Japan and is now moving around the world to become a world class motor sport. It doesn't just look cool, it's even more fun doing it!

Cars you should use:
You are going to need a light car for sure. A stiff set-up (we'll get to that) and adjustable (will get to that also) car. Any good electric car can drift. Many people use Tamiya’s because of how inexpensive they are. I will list good cars to start off with.

Tamiya:
The Tamiya TL-01’s are great kits to start off with. They are pretty cheap for the newcomers to the hobby of "drifting". Here is a list of cars.
http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/rc/electric/110scale/tl01/58296.html
http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/rc/electric/110scale/tl01/58293.html
http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/rc/electric/110scale/tl01/58264.html
Those are just a few kits. There is also other Tamiya models such as the TT-01, TB-01, TB-02, TA03, and the TA04. The TT-01 is the least expensive while the TA04 is one of the higher end models and is designed more for racing.

Team Associated:
Team Associated makes one kit that could be used for drifting. That is the TC3. There are many different versions of this great kit. There is the racer kit, team kit, factory team kit, and the ready to run model. This includes everything you are going to need. The other models are just rollers.

Team Losi: <<SCH: Recommended by SCH>>
Team Losi makes one on-road kit for drifting called the XXX-S. There are many different types of models of this car too. There is the xxx-s graphite plus, and the xxx-s RTR. The RTR has all the things you need to start to drift with. The graphite model is just a roller.
http://www.teamlosi.com/

Hpi Racing:
Now Hpi Racing has some great kits. The Sport 2, Sprint, and the higher end Pro series. The Sprint is a RTR model. It even comes with a battery and wall charger. The Sport 2 is pretty much the same kit but it is more adjustable and it is just a roller. Same with the Pro series (They are just rollers.) Check the link for these cars.
http://www.hpiracing.com/index2.htm

Yokomo: <<SCH: Recommended by SCH>>
They have a car just for drifting, and many different bodies to chose from. More info in the link.
http://www.yokomousa.com/

Now that we have covered the basics we are going to talk about what you need to start to drift.

Types of tires:
Most drifters don’t use normal tires. They use PVC piping or electric tape. The tape method is the easiest to start off with. PVC will require more work to get the PVC over the wheels.

Electrical Tape:
Just like it says, we use electrical tape. That is the tape that is black. For the rear tires you should put the tape directly in the center of the tire and wrap the tire 4 or 5 times. For the front tires put the tape on the outside of the tire so that at least 1/4 of rubber is still exposed on the inside. Wrap the front tires 3 or 4 times. You also want to make sure that when you cut the tape off, the end of the tape is facing the rear of the car so it isn't ripped off when the car starts moving.

PVC Tires:
This is going to require more work to get it just right, but it will give an easier drift. Here is a link that shows what you are going to be doing. I will explain.
http://www2.ocn.ne.jp/~sw-pal/DRIFT/Technic/Tire/Drift-Tiya.html

Tools and supplies needed:
PVC pipe that’s 60mm in diameter
foam anti draught tape (4mm thick)
0.5mm Thick plastic card
hacksaw
Superglue
tape measure

The wheels are 52 mm in diameter and 26 mm wide, but the width doesn’t matter.
The pipe I bought was labeled as 50 mm pipe but was actually 60 mm in diameter and the internal diameter was 56 mm. There is a 2 mm gap all around so that needs to be taken up with something. So I took some 0.5 mm plastic card and glued it into the center of the wheel to provide a decent place for the draught excluder foam tape (for sealing windows and doors).
The piece was 22 mm x 165 mm long to fit inside.
Then I glued 2 strips of 4 mm thick draught excluder tape all around in 165 mm lengths.
Now when you have done all that, cut the lengths of pipe to 24 mm or 26 mm wide and slide onto the rim. It’s an extremely tight fit, and will not slip at all as the tape is of a very rubber-like material.
That is one way, and here is another.
I believe there are various diameter sizes for pvc depending on what region you reside in. I found that here in the States, California in particular, Home Depot carries a 2" pvc pipe that fits right onto the bare rim without any additional materials or glue needed.
1. Buy any standard 26mm or 24mm sized wheels.
2. Make sure the wheels are totally bare.
3. Drive your butt to Home Depot or another Home Improvement store.
4. Ask for any 2" irrigation piping. At Home Depot, they carry 10 foot 2" pipes for $3.99
5. On the pipe, mark off lines according to the wheel size so that cutting will be easy.
6. With your favorite cutting tool, carefully cut each part of the pipe at the markings so that you will have plenty of sets for the future.
7. To mount the pvc to the wheel, just push the pvc around the rim, then step on it to force it over the wheel. It should be quite snug, however, at times the pvc may slip off just a bit but can easlily be pushed back to the right position using a little muscle power.
8. Enjoy

Types of motors:
You are going to need any motor with lots of torque. If you can afford it, get a brushless system. They have loads of torque, require little maintenance, and have great run times. Many people use the motors that come stock with most kits. Those are the silver ones.
Also the higher the number of turns the more torque the motor will have. An example would be: a 27T will have more torque then say a 9T. So drifters use 27T or something around there. Suspension set-ups:Hard. You want the back of the car to be very stiff so that there is very little suspension movement but not so hard that the car "skips" when it is pushed hard into a corner. That is it in the suspension department.

Bodies:
Yes the part I like. This is the part of the car that everyone sees. There are many true drift bodies.
AE86
Skyline series
APEX FD3S D1
180SX
There are more but these are the most common bodies.

Where to buy kits:
Steel City Hobbies (Of course!)

Types of batteries:
There are many different types of batteries you can use. The cheapest and oldest technology is NICD. Then there is the new modern NIMH. Nicd are the cheapest and offer the lowest punch in a batt. While Nimh offers the best punch, the draw back is that they cost more. You should use a batt between 1900Mah and 3300Mah. These are the most common. If you are thinking what do I use. Well I use 2 1900Mah nicd's and one 3000Mah nimh batt. The following links are some cheap nicd's and then what I think are some good Nimh batts.

Good cheap batteries:
I have the 3000Mah NiMH . <<SCH: 3300Mah are even better>>

Chargers:
There are two types: timer and peak chargers. Timer chargers are just what it says. You set a timer and it charges the batt for the set amount of time. The peak charger is the best. It fully charges the batt to the correct number the batt has. Say a batt is rated at 2400Mah. A timer charger might only get the batt up to 2300Mah, while a Peak charger will get the batt up to 2400Mah, and might even go above the number of Mah of the batt. The timer chargers are the cheapest while the peak can get more expensive.
Timer charger: Hobbico 900 AC/DC Auto-Charger
Cheap peak charger: DuraTrax Piranha DC Peak Charger NiCd/NiMH
The peak charger I use: DuraTrax IntelliPeak AC/DC Digital Pulse Charger
<<SCH: SCH is not a huge fan of some of DuraTrax products as we design most of our custom jobs for racing applications>>

Source for this page:
http://www.automotivehelper.com/topic223403.htm

R/C companies for more information:
Gorilla Maxx: http://www.gorillamaxx.com/
Rc Neon: http://www.rcneon.com/
Traxxas: http://www.traxxas.com
Hpi racing: http://www.hpiracing.com
Tamiya USA: http://www.tamiyausa.com

For more credible information:
R/C Drift website: - changed - No further information available.
R/C Drift Forum: - changed - No further information available.
RCCA board: http://www.radiocontrolzone.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=114
YokomoUSA

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