Is A6 select-shift capable enough to handle track drift event?

[nate714]

I found a local track that hosts a drift night every other week. It's on a small portion of a low speed track, one car at a time, so please skip the "drifting is dangerous" comments, my only interest in drifting is in a safe track environment. I don't plan to hoon around the city or show off or burn through a hundred tires lol.

My question is, does anyone have experience or insight regarding drifting with a select-shift auto? I know not having the ability to clutch kick will make it harder to initiate and maintain drifts, but can it be done without grenading the transmission and engine?

I went last week and saw people drifting everything from stock BRZ/FRS to full blown drift cars. What peaked my interest was seeing a 2012 3.7 mustang drifting, I talked to him and it was mostly stock besides basic suspension mods.

 

[Douglas White]

It's all about the tires. For Drifting you want hard compound tires. Not soft, sticky rubber that's designed for maximum traction.

The Toyota and Subaru FRS use the same tires that come off a Prius. Hard as hell and Skinny for less rolling resistance to squeeze an extra MPG or two out of a gallon of fuel. They use those tires because it makes the cars easy to drift at speeds of 25-30mph all day long.

 

[Tuffnuts23]

Without a clutch you're going to have to initiate every drift by powering over. I got into drifting while I was stationed in Japan, and I can't really say that I've seen any car without a clutch pedal out sliding around. Watch this vid and see if its something you want to try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPQyQgyuNMI

 

[nate714]

Yeah, I would be buying another set of rear wheels/tires to waste through. I can't afford to waste nitto's that rapidly. They're easy enough to break loose but I don't think they'd hold drift on stock power levels, once they catch grip they stick pretty well.

 

[4VFTW]

select shift isn't worth the money Ford spent on that switch on the shifter imo

 

[MKMotorsport]

I bet it works better than one with a junked up/blown up MT-82

Without being able to take power away with the kick of a clutch and re-add it, it will likely be tough. This is simply from pure observation and I have no experience drifting other than "on accident".....



take some video if you do?

I'm sure you know of but watch some Vaughn Gittin Jr. videos, I'm pretty sure not a single of any of his drift cars has an auto. Most of his builds use a "dog-box" type 4 speed, same as used in asphalt roundy round cars (stock cars).

My favorite... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBLIjdMIIt8

 

[nate714]

Yeah I've been following Formula Drift for a year, I know I could never reach those levels, especially with an auto, but the track I'm looking at is Adams Motorsport Park in Riverside, it's an outdoor gokart track so I wouldn't be holding any crazy long drifts or rapid transitions. I have some really bad videos from a cell phone of a 3.7 mustang learning to drift at A.M.P. I might put up some highlights when I get a chance. I just put front and rear dashcams in my car so I'll have those videos available if I ever do step up and try running my own car at A.M.P. Plus I imagine my friends would grab some video with cell phones.

Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Justin Pawlak both use dog boxes in their mustangs, they also run big NT05's and Falken Azenis tires to maintain control with their 800-1000 HP mustangs lmao. I love watching Formula D but I have no delusions of being able to come anywhere near any competitive level, especially with an A6. Just curious if I can safely blast a couple corners sideways with the auto and cheap craigslist tires (not trying to shred my nittos).

I guess all I can do is watch as many videos as possible, like that 1 hr one tuffnuts mentioned earlier, I bookmarked it and plan to watch it at least twice before attempting anything.

 

[MKMotorsport]

Also I'm not sure on this, but your EPAS is going to hate you.. I can only assume all the aforementioned Mustang based late model cars have been converted to hydraulic/old school style steering, along with the 60 or so degrees of steering angle they mention to keep it going straight.

Hard tires are probably the right idea for a lower powered car, if you look at the R/C drift cars, they use PVC instead of rubber or foam tires for the same effect. Probably not the greatest example, but hey.... :lol:

 

[nate714]

You're right about that, they run hydraulic steering with way deeper steering angles. They're pretty much hydraulic everything, including those badass handbrakes that reach all the way to inches from the steering wheel.

JTP has also mentioned before that running a panhard bar with the live axle makes the car harder to control in drift. The regulations of Formula Drift prevented him and Vaughn from running watts links or IRS because the 14 model year cars have a panhard bar factory, so they could only run a better panhard; this year they're both running the new IRS based mustangs though.

 

[nate714]

I just grabbed some clips of the 3.7 mustang learning to drift last week and threw them together real quick.

https://youtu.be/RbtxsDUuOmo

Skip to 1:15 if you just want to see his best run followed by a better run by a more experienced drifter.