im looking to get serious about drifting… i have been trying to buy a 240 but either dont get replies or i cannot afford a good one… i have 4000 and was wondering what would be a good car to start making into a drift machine… thanks a lot… any information would be greatly appriciated!
is this going to be your first car or do you have another daily driver?
Before you start getting flamed here? (and you will) I’d be a little less aggressive about “drifting”. People here don’t like it for some reason.
I would suggest you find an S13 (89-94) 240sx and start from there. I got mine for $4000 and it’s in good shape. You should be able to find one, just don’t rush in to it.
You should do your research, check this board for tips on what to look for when buying a 240sx (check the cars for sale section at the top). Make sure you bring any car you’re strongly considering to a local shop and get them to put it up on a hoist for you to check out any underbody problems since that’s where most people buying these cars find their surprises (this was my biggest problem, but I managed to get it repaired without any issues).
Another tip might be that auto->5spd swaps are easy as pie on these cars and you can pull it off in half a day if you know what you’re doing. You can also find good step-by-steps on the net for this to make it that much easier. Point being that you’ll be able to find auto s13’s a lot easier than a decent 5spd since the rest of us usually grab them before you can 
Where abouts are you located? If you’re in the area I’d go check out cars with you as long as I’m not busy with something to help you make the right choice.
it’s not a fact that we DON’T like drifting, it’s that we hate the attension, we hate all the noobs comming in saying they want to drift and they want a s13 or 240 for that matter. Most of us have owned 240’s since before the scene blew-up and at one point enjoyed low insurance rates. But as most civic owners will tell you, the more popular a car becomes, and the more attension it gets in the media…drfiting will do this…the higher insurance rates everyone will “enjoy”.
that being said, you can’t be too serious if you have 4000$ to spend on a s13. You’re talking 8000$+ just to get a STOCK s13 setup with the right suspension and gear.
good luck, and have fun…stay away from rust buckets
points taken lucky - and I appreciate you not ragging on this guy like I expected you to! (Not really sure why I even care, I have nothing to do with this board)
Belleriverrice, read luckys post carefully - he’s making excellent points as to why you may not get accepted here too easily, and also what you need to look out for when your expressing what you plan to do.
He is correct in stating that you’ll need $8000 for a car and a decent suspension setup - you can go the budget route and do it for a bit less however.
Either way, just keep in mind that these cars rust like crazy and a lot of the time rust in spots you cant generally see at a glance so take your time in choosing a car.
My suggestion would be that if you’ve just got the $4K to spend, spend it all on a decent car. Drive it for a few months, get used to it - beat on it, work out the kinks, etc.
Save up a few more thousand and then go to work on upgrading an reinforcing your major suspension components. There are people here who can help you do it for really cheap - Talk to Varun about coilovers (slipperysilvia) and bing (bing or http://www.bings.ca) about RUCAs, toe arms, t/c rods, etc.
I say learn how to drive a RWD car before you try drifting. Buy a cheap ass S13 for like $500, fix the major problems yourself and take it to the track everytime you get. Its cheap so you won’t feel bad after you smash it. Once you get good drifting, save up and buy a nice S14 and modify it slowly.
hey… thanks to u guys for lettin me know how u feel… when i said i have 4 g’s i meant to get me started… and i agree with everyone out there who does’nt want “noobs” buyin cars… wreckin them… and then u guys have to pay higher insurance rates… i have drivin mustangs and i just got rid of a crx… so i know enough about driving that im not gonna get in a 240… make it 2 blocks and crash… im not an idiot… but if it was’nt for guys like me the whole culture of drifting and imports in general would die… i appreciate you guys not “flaming” me and what not… thanks a lot… im just curious and wondering what i could do with what i have… down here in the windsor area there is’nt a whole lot for cars… but thanks again for the insight…
The “drift culture” as you put it is not staying up because civic and crx owners are buying rwd cars now. I would say listen to what the other members are saying on here. This is not a club whos goal is drifting this club is ment for the cars and anything that is to be done with them. The reason they are telling you not to go all crazy is because alot of people dump money into their cars before thinking only to realise that they didnt need half of it to do what they wanted to with their car. Do a search and you will find a few sticky posts of what to look for when buying a 240 and take the advice about 5spd swaps are not hard and not alot of $$ either. Just find a good chasis hopefully in the colour you want and start from there.
clutch type diff, coilovers, bucketseat.
thats it.
no bullshit, and you will love that setup… expect to pay $3000 for these three mods
but its all you need to get started.
thanks a lot guys… all i need now is a car so i can get started on my project
Awesome. See you in the ER.
Locked.
I’mmmm gonna go ahead and unlock this one. Nothing wrong with wanting to get into drifting. Marc you can whisper me sweet nothings over MSN 
If you want to get into drifting, I’d second what Jesse said. If you can learn to drift a KA, you can certainly drift a higher powered car, and you wont be able to cheat as much with power oversteer as you can with a turbo car. The S13 is basically your best budget choice for a platform.
Get the mods Jesse suggested… and be prepared to spend a lot on tires. If you slam it on coilovers, camber wear is going to be a big issue even for daily driving; if you don’t have adjustable RUCAs then expect your (decently sticky) tires to last you no more than a season, for daily sporty driving. Not counting the ones you’ll roast when you go to the track to drift.
Don’t buy a rustbucket: some body rust is ok, just look out for rotten frames. You can pick up a half decent S13 with some body rust and a good enough frame for $2500. If it were me, my first mod would be coilovers, and an LSD (clutch type if you can afford it, or viscous from a 91+ if you cant). Them move on to the seats, tires and more suspension mods like subframe collars or bushings, anti sway bars, strut bars and control arms.
Don’t drift on the street… and if you do drift on the street, do NOT post about it here, or you’ll never live it down. Note that there are a lot of hypocrites onthis board
To be truthful you don’t need any mods to drift…
I say start 100% stock. Work your way up from there. You’ll learn exponentially faster once the mods start coming in.
This better be the last “Golly Gee whiz, i wanna be a doriftor too” thread. :x
Then sticky it, as
“I wanna be a drifter”
just wondering… what is drifting?
Naww, i’ll move it to Tech after it gets bigger.
Best first mod?
GET OUT ON THE TRACK/PARKING LOTS/AUTOX etc…
Seriously, get aquainted with speed first. Get as much seat-time as possible.
In addition, there are exercises you can do while driving on the highways and the streets that aren’t socially irresponsible, like threshold braking, toe and heeling, keeping your tire’s contact patch on the lane-seperator line for as long as you can (teaches you control, by looking ahead…don’t do this with a lot of cars around!) etc. There’s a lot more to do than to just groove to your stereo or space out on the way to work.
We had one “newbie” on the race track yesterday. It was his first time ever on the track, but he knew about theories such as the racing line etc. He went from newbie to “darn, he’s got some ability” by the end of the day. 1 day of serious track driving can teach you 150% more than what you can learn on the street, and contrary to what people believe, it’s the MOST SAFEST way to explore the limits of your car and your abilities.
Don’t focus so much on car prep… I have seen people with stock cars do much better than modified cars on the track. It’s too easy to over-compensate by over-modifying your car and hiding what sucks about your driving.
Good Luck! And don’t let this message board thread that will probably go on for pages and pages of rhetoric get to your head. Just go for it!
Dooowatchalike!
i bought my first S13 and got it road worthy for a total of $1150 last june (before the craze hit)… the only mod i did were D2 coilovers that i got for $900…
The car was track worthy, It could drift…
Buy a 91+ 240sx and get some used coilovers with a warranty or something and you’re good to go. You can get a nice car and the suspension for under 4 grand EASILY.
Dont listen to the cookie cutter crew ^^
Jover, that “newbie” had some damn guts. I drove behind him every now and then… and although he was still learning car control, he flew into some of those corners… he would curb and have 2 wheels go up in the air every now and then, but just kept going.
That kind of attitude is really motivating when you notice it… so long as you don’t overdo it and screw your car.