Setting up a XA6X Celica for drift

[MOOKIE]

i know that sound really ricey but i'm serious
i know there aren't alot of suspension part on the market so any help with other ppl have tried would be awesome.

i'm serious about doing this and i'd like of course to keep the cost down.

i've also got a RA65 for parts

thanks mookie

[hazkell]

first off mooks, forget the fact that its a comfortable road car, so take everything out of it, make it stiff, and make it steer from the rear with weldy/2way lsd etc. Just look at my car.... or this, very similar to yours!
http://toymods.net/forums/showthread.php?t=6312
I like that alot, very tuff!!!!!

[Intense]

Get the basics right:
1) Suspension
2) Diff

Unfortunatly ra65's suffer from horrible understeer and are not the most grippy cars in the world so you'll have to fix that. Get a set of custom springs (not kings or something crap like that) from a spring maker with a rather stiff spring rate around 7/5 front rear or more. The hard thing here is that the lower you go at the rear the more positive camber you get. I've read that 2.5" is the limit before you start getting really wack camber issues. There are ways around this but it requires custom fabrication.
Then you'll need some decent shocks because driving a car that bounces all over the place is pretty dam difficult. Some fresh bushes wouldn't go astray eithier, surely the 20 y/o rubber would be pretty messed up by now.
I'm pretty sure they have adjustable castor from the factory so dial that right up.
The diff is easy to sort out. 3 methods listed in order of cheap to expensive.
Weld it
Mini spool it
Ma61 diff (or entire IRS subframe if you want disks all round) and shim it up.

That's the basics sorted but even then it will still be a total bitch to get sideways in the dry. A 22re has enough power for 2nd gear but I'm not sure about 3rd because I've just never tried.
What I'd do next is totaly strip the interiour. This means rear seats, all interiour plastic trim from the dash back. Roof lining, noise deadening, a/c compressor, emmisions... basicly follow the rule if you dont need it, it can go.
The standard seats offer some level of lateral support but not nearly enough. An easy bolt in upgrade is to go and swap in some ma61 seats, or take out the spring at the bottom of the standard seat so your arse sinks lower down. Or go after market but you want to keep costs down so I'd forget about that.

A few other notes. A guy on Ebay is selling ra65 adjustable front camber tops.
S13/180sx/240sx front strut braces fit with just a minor re-drill.

I've also seriously contemplated doing what you want to do but decided against it in favour of something a little more different (s1 rx7 for drift ).
Theres a bloke on secretdrift whos built up an ra65 coupe with a 3sgte for drift and it looks pretty badarse so you could get some advice from him if neccesary.
An Ra65 isn't really suited to drift though. All the a6x celica's lack power or decent motors unless you have an 18rg import.
But even with that said I'd love to build up a crazy na ra65 fronted ra60 hatch as a dedicated drift car, and one day I will.

Anyway good luck, keep us updated on the progress

[sam-131]

my best mate has got a ra65 the problem we found is with the irs set up it's a mockarry first thing to do is get some hard springs and shock for the rear his got 8kg's but wanting to go harder

1.springs/shocks
2.lock the diff/lsd
3.exhaust
4.double the swaybars
5.????
6.Profit???

if all else fails 1jzerise it theres one kicking about in west melb spoke to the owner once it looks the goods 1j looks like it's ment to be there

[Intense]

wouldnt a 1jz totaly screw up the balance and give you even worse understeer.

[Wezelton]

PM me mookie, or add me to msn.. again i think ?

Wes.

[ViPeR_NiPPleX]

wouldnt a 1jz totaly screw up the balance and give you even worse understeer.

cured with right foot

[Wezelton]

Or a rather large set of testies! or boobs hahaha

[RWDboy]

I think alot of people forget that if you run harder and harder springs, then tighter anti-sway bars and then stronger shocks - all that ends up happening is you just use chassis-flex to act as the spring and suspension for the car.

Be sure to look at strengthening the chassis particularly as these cars are generally rust buckets Stitch welding is a good idea, sometimes some extra material to reinforce the suspension mounting points and sub frame.

IRS is semi-trailing arm so it's not all that great, would require a bit of custom work in order to really set them up for drift - but at the same time, it's quite a simple set up so it's not as expensive as some other IRS configurations.The lower you set up the suspension at the rear the more negative camber you get - sounds like a good thing but it isn't really.

The front is a bit trick, but I reckon fitting something more common in the drift scene (ie S13 suspension) shouldn't be too hard.

[Negative Boost]

Was searching through this thread on toymods and it seems that about 5-6 degrees of castor works best with some camber (-1 to -3) dialed in aswell, for an MA61 but should work well with the RA65 too.

Sam

[mrshin]

22R does NOT have enough power for ANYTHING... except maybe the occasional delivery Hilux.

Also, how is fitting S13 struts going to magically make it a wonderful drift car? A strut is pretty much a piece of pipe... it's the dampers+springs you put in there that do something, not the piece of pipe!

Another point: MA61 diff = not worth bothering. They're loose to begin with, all worn out, and cost too much to replace the clutches etc. in to be bothered with. Use something else...

You think RA65 is an understeering pig? try driving an MA61!

[Negative Boost]

Also, how is fitting S13 struts going to magically make it a wonderful drift car? A strut is pretty much a piece of pipe... it's the dampers+springs you put in there that do something, not the piece of pipe!

Its the kingpin angle and other mounting hardware that makes the difference but i think these guys are more focused on S13 camber tops and Strut braces.

Another point: MA61 diff = not worth bothering. They're loose to begin with, all worn out, and cost too much to replace the clutches etc. in to be bothered with. Use something else...

Yes, they're loose from factory but if you find one with good clutches (heck i have 3 sitting in my garage) you can tighten them up easily enough if you follow the manual. And what else would you use anyways? a $1000 Torsen from the USA? Thats not cheap

You think RA65 is an understeering pig? try driving an MA61!

Dont know about you but my MA61 handles perfectly, never had it understeer on me and i've pushed the envolope a fair few times with my car. Maybe you've just got to have the suspension setup right.

[Robbos_Toyotas]

id be buying a RA60 with a solid rear end personally..i think they are far better for drifting....

[ViPeR_NiPPleX]

You think RA65 is an understeering pig? try driving an MA61!

Bah, where's the love? My ma61 would both under and oversteer on command.

ra60 would make a really good cheap drifter i think, weld up the shocks and the diff.

[Intense]

ra60 is a much better choice. T series diff. lighter.

Put a nice little worked 18rg in an you'll have enough power