How To / GuideAs most of the post in here are about beginner set-ups, I figured I would take the time to list out most of the basic information I could think of. Below you will find various topics that should help anyone find the info they need. If you have any questions, feel free to ask below. Enjoy!
Where to start:
First of all, welcome to the drifting world! Throughout this post, please keep in mind that there are no right or wrong places to start. There are different options that lead to different outcomes but you came here because it looked fun, and that’s what it’s about. Most drifters enjoy helping others and do it for the love of the hobby. Many will have opinions based on their experience and be able to offer valuable insight into what they know. Take the time to read everyone’s opinions and you will see that you really can’t go wrong.
Questions to ask yourself before making any decisions:
1 – How much money do you have to spend?
2 – Do you have a local shop/track?
3- What is your short-term and long-term goals.
4 – Do you want to build your chassis or buy ready-to-run (RTR)
First: Determine how much you want/can spend on this hobby. While there are cheap ways to get started, either buying a knock-off or used car, you should expect to spend around $200-$300 USD for a quality, working car.
Second: See if you have a local shop or track around you. If so, I would highly recommend talking to the shop/locals before making any decisions. Shops may sometimes have slightly higher cost than stores online but with this additional cost, you receive a full shop of support if you should ever need help. Most shops will assist you in set-up and tuning if you ask nicely. *My recommendation is to buy from a shop if you have one*
Third: Try to figure out what you want to do and where you want to go with this hobby. The starting points for wanting to compete and just mess around can be dramatically different. Also, now is a good time to determine how much time you have to spend on this hobby. I’ll get more into that in the next step.
Fourth: Do you want to build a car from the ground up, or do just want to put in a battery and go? You should base this on the third step as they kind of go together. If you want to get the most, hands-on time, learning every small detail and mechanism of the chassis, you should build a kit. Building a kit will give you the knowledge needed to tune and upgrade properly but it also takes much more time to build and assemble all the parts as you will have to buy the electronics separately. If you just want to see how you like it, or just mess around in your driveway, a pre-built, RTR set would be most ideal. They come complete with everything you need (except a battery and charger) to hit the ground running. If you buy a quality RTR, the upgrade options will be the same as a kit but you are essentially reverse engineering to add these parts because you didn’t build it in the first place. Not to say that it can’t be done, it can just be confusing if you’re not entirely sure how everything works together.
Time to Purchase:
Once you’ve made your decisions, now it’s time to shop around. There are two major brands and types of chassis to consider. MST and Yokomo are the largest and most commonly used brands and offer similar chassis styles. Your main decision when it comes to type of chassis will be front motor or rear motor. A heated topic in the drift world but realistically, you should choose rear motor. Front motor offers a realistic scale performance but rear motor has been proven to be easier to tune and drift with. Some models offer AWD but you should avoid these as well. Pretty much everyone uses RWD and trying to convert an AWD chassis to RWD is a pain and can cost some serious money, as well as never really provide the same performance as a RWD chassis.
Chassis: - The actual car itself -
Like explained above, your two options are to build or buy ready to run (RTR). Here are links to where you can buy each chassis in each type of set-up. Some chassis do not come in RTR and you will need to build yourself.
MST RMX 2.0 Kit:
Falcon Hobby Supply
RCMart
A Main Hobbies
MRC Plaza
MST RMX 2.0 RTR:
Falcon Hobby Supply
RCMart
A Main Hobbies
MRC Plaza
MST FXX Kit:
Falcon Hobby Supply
RCMart
MST FXX RTR:
Falcon Hobby Supply
A Main Hobbies
Yokomo YD-2 Kit:
Falcon Hobby Supply
RCMart
A Main Hobbies
MRC Plaza
Banzai Hobby
3Racing Sakura D4 Kit:
RCMart
3Racing Sakura D4 ARTR: *comes with Gyro and Servo*
RCMart
Motor/Esc Combo: - The parts that turn the wheels/heart of the car -
There are many different types of motors and ESC available. Motors are classified by Turns (T) and Brushed or Brushless configuration. The lower the turns the faster the motor. *it’s much more indebt than that but for argument sake. Brushless motors are the standard in drift and should be considered from the start. Brushed motors are often much cheaper but wear out quickly. Fortunately, most RTR kits come with brushless systems already. If you’re going to take the time and build a kit, don’t waste your time on Brushed. Stick around the area of 13.5T – 10.5T as this is what most use. A 17.5T can be useable for messing around but is underpowered when drifting with most others. ESCs are generally classified by Amps (A).
120A ESC: 8.5T - 17.5T Motors
60A ESC: 13.5T - 17.5T Motors
You CAN use a 60A ESC for a 10.5T motor but you may lose performance at full throttle. A few sample combos to get started:
Hobbywing 13.5T Brushless Motor, Onisiki 60A ESC
Hobbywing 10.5T Brushless Motor with 60A ESC
Trackstar 13.5T Brushless Motor with 80A ESC
Hobbywing 10.5T Brushless Motor with 120A ESC
Yeah Racing 13T Brushed Motor with 60A ESC
Servo: - The part that steers the wheels –
The major points you should consider when looking at servos are the size and the motor type. Servos are usually either Low profile or Standard. Both do the same thing, equally as well, but some chassis require a Low profile to fit properly. Low Profile are generally lighter in weight but more expensive than Standard. Check the chassis requirements first but either should be fine. The two major motor types in Servos are like the actual motors, Brushless (coreless) and Geared. Brushless are generally more expensive but are smoother, lighter and make less noise. Geared are inexpensive, easier to fix and generally more rugged. Personally, I would make this one of the last decisions you make and just have it fit into the remaining part of your budget. Until a certain level of driving, most beginners won’t notice a large enough difference to add value to a more expensive servo. I could list all the servos but your best bet is to look through the site you want to use and find one.
Batteries/Chargers:
This is a whole other article itself so I’ll try to make it simple for now.
- If you are using a Brushless motor/esc system, only use a LiPo battery and balance charger.
-If you are using a brushed motor/esc system, you can use a NiMh and charger or LiPo battery with balance charger.
LiPo will provide more power and longer usage, as well as the ability to upgrade down the road. I won’t go into extreme detail now but a 5800mAh Lipo will run about 1.5 hours vs a 8-cell NiMh that may last 20mins.
Gyro: - Makes drifting easier –
The easiest way to describe what a gyro does it to say that it helps keep the car straight. It does so by sensing the angle and direction the car is moving and automatically steering the front wheels to correct. It sounds contradictive of what drifting is but just remember that the gyro will help you exit your drift.
Example: In a real car, when the rear end starts to slide out, the rule is to steer ‘into’ the slide. Meaning turn the wheels in the direction the tail is sliding. The natural friction will cause the front wheel s to gradually turn back to straight, throughout the slide, while the whole car straightens out in the process. The gyro simulates this friction that is missing in 1:10 scale.
MST LSD 3.0 RS Gyro
D-Like Real Dri Gyro
Yeah Racing Hackslider Drift Gryo
Onisiki Aluminum High Stability Gyro
I know this was probably too long but I hoped to be able to answer some questions and provide some insight as an introduction to drifting. I’m sure I missed some critical information so please feel free to message me/comment so that I can correct. I will also plan to make edits as I remember info but I spent too much time on this not to just post and see if everyone even accepts it.
*Mods- Please sticky if you desire.
*Disclaimer – I do not know everything about everything and this was not my intent. Everyone has their own opinions and I encourage those to express them.