I've got yet another question for you wise G owners. Just out of curiousity, is there any significant damage that can occur from drifting?? (aside from the obvious tire wear, etc). I had an import meet tonight in FL and its absolutely pouring rain so a few of us decided to go to an abandoned parking lot and pull some drifts (cuz after all, rain is the closet thing we'll get to having snow or ice covered lots here). I turned the VDC off and got some real nice sideways action. The entire time though I could feel the LSD and power steering fighting back and I was worried about damage. One time in fact, my G got a great spin and the car stalled out (its an AT by the way), so I was a little worried about that. It did start back up though but with a couple cranks yet since then it seems to be OK. Any words of wisdom???

 

That's not only LSD fight back but VDC as well as it is always on to some degree. There was some talk about pulling fuses and turning it off for good, but ???

I don't think its really good..... I didn't know we had enough power to drift?

 

Thanks for the reply Wrah, and I agree its probably not a good thing to do often but its fun as hell. As far as the power issue is concerned: take a flat parking lot, add torential rain and some standing water, and you'll be very surprised at what the G35 Coupe can do .

 

I just went drifting at the track skid pad last weekend and it was a lot of fun. Other than grinding down the tires it didn't seem like a particularly bad condition to me.

 

You might have lost fuel for a while because of all the g's. Thats why your car cut out and it took a few cranks to get it back up and running. was your tank close to empty?

 

Unless you pull the 50 amp fuse for the VDC, your brakes go crazy trying to stabalize the car. You will encounter additional brake wear. Not real damage,l but you will be amazed at how differently the car handles when everything is really off. Whole new driving experience. Drift away!

 

you don't need power to drift, take the AE86 for example, light weight low power car can out drift cars with double the HP with the right driver.

 

No actually I had about half a tank, but it seemed like potential fuel loss to me anyway. Does the VDC have a means to "kill the car" under certain conditions? If the LSD gets to hot or whatever?

 

One of those orange cones can put a serious dent in a door panel.....

 

anyone have a pic of which fuse to pull? i hate that damn vdc. so annoying when trying to have real fun with the car.

 

It's not a 50AMP fuse. Just pop open the fuse panel next to the dead pedal. It's the one labeled ABS/Brake Lamp. Your slip light/ABS/check engine light will all come on when you start the car.

Or you could turn VDC off with the switch, then do three to four doughnuts in a row. Just keep fighting VDC until the SLIP light stays on. VDC will remain off until you restart he car.

 

Ahhhh OK I was wondering why my slip light was one for a long time last night! That make sense

 

Yeah. After that, did the VDC stop kicking in for good? VDC either realizes you are messing around so it lets you, or it figures you are dead by that point and no sense in continuing to fight slippage.

 

You know what, I assume it did. In the beginning when I was first running it was nearly impossible to pull a burn out and I was getting a ton of feedback when I'd try to drift or pull 360's. Towards the end though when the slip light was constantly lit, it was a lot easier.

 

Like BirdMan indicated: to turn off the VDC completely - spin out enough times and they'll turn off completely. The damage you have to consider: 1) Tires, 2) Clutch, 3) Driveshaft, 4) Body flex.

Regarding number 4..... if you drift your car enough, you can actually see some very minor 'flexing' dents under your C-pillar. Flexing the chasis too much will also give you some rattles and squeaks. Honestly, drifting is driting regardless of what you drive. I'd get a go-kart or a RWD beater for this sort of stuff if you do it often. In the rain it lessens the stress you put on the car.