LOOKING TO GET INTO DRIFTING?
This section is dedicated to all the people out there that like to watch and follow the motorsport of Drifting and would like to try there hand at the amateur league but don’t really know where to start in terms of what car to buy for the task at hand. Any car can be a Drift car the only thing in the way of turning your Honda Civic into a Drift car is budget and practicality and for this reason rear wheel drive (RWD) is a must when thinking of buying and building a Drift car on a budget but there are so many great RWD cars on the market of varying prices, some of the better suited drift cars can be more expensive the likes of the Nissan S13/14/15 Silvia, Nissan R32/33 Skylines and Toyota AE86, GT86, BRZ Corollas, to name just a few, but which is the best car for first time Drifters? I think I might have the answer for that question. The BMW 325i E36 and 325i/330i E46 Coupe.
The BMW is a staple of the Drifting Motorsport world up there with the great Japanese cars and being used on the pro grid. However the BMW is cheaper to buy repair and run than its Japanese rivals.
The BMW 325i E46 Coupe with its very reliable M52TUB25 from 1998 – 2000 has 168BHP and the M54B25 from 2001 – 2006 has 189BHP and have a lot of after market parts available for a reasonable price such as performance cold air intake systems, pod air filters, performance exhaust systems, turbo/supercharger kits. Horse power is not the most important thing needed to get you started but if you crave that little extra bang for your buck a simple engine management upgrade in the engine control unit could push the M54B25 engine over 200BHP without changing anything.
Now that you have the perfect car picked next thing to do is getting Drift ready, it is the same story when it comes to aftermarket track parts for the BMWs, there are any amount of suppliers making suspension parts for the E36/E46, The likes of lowering springs, coilovers, camber arms, strut braces, ect are easily got and for fairly cheap too. But for starting off before you race out to spend all this months rent on new parts there are many modifications you could do yourself by doing some research online you could save yourself thousands, the likes of modifying original hubs, placing washers in the steering rack, relocating shock mounting points, cutting parts off to make the car lighter and the list goes on. Wheels are also plentiful in supply so if you find a tyre you like then extra wheels can be picked up for cheap.
One of the most expensive safety upgrade part of the car would most likely be a roll cage. While a welded in roll cage can be a cheaper option i would have to recommend a bolt in cage for the simple reason that if the car is involved in a bad crash and is destroyed beyond repair the cage can be unbolted and transferred in to a new shell, and as of the Irish Drift Championship 2017 regulations a bolt in cage is allowed but needs to be FAI approved.
All rules and regulations for Irish Drift Championship can be found here http://www.idcnation.com/drivers/rules-regulations/
One of Downsides of buying the BMW 325i e46 Coupe I find is that it is heavier and not as powerful as a Nissan Silvia s14/15. Another issue with the 325i E46 Coupe is that BMW in their infinite wisdom decided to tac weld the rear sub-frame mounts into place and after years of driving the welds break and the mount tears out of the body of the car. To fix this issue the boot floor needs to be cut out to weld the mounts in right.
The advantage of buying a BMW 325i E36/E46 Coupe over the Japanese monsters is the price of the car and availability/price of second hand and new parts. A BMW 325i E46 Coupe in Ireland costs less than €3,000 for a good one where a Nissan Silvia S15 is €13,000. On top of this if something like a drive shaft breaks on the BMW, just simply drive to the nearest breakers yard and get another one where as the import cars if anything goes wrong then get your wallet ready.
Written by; Paul O’Brien, Dublin, Ireland
