Ask Marty! Marty's tips and tricks.

[Andy C]

and why do people run 295 wide tires with -5 degrees of camber?

[Cash]

What's the best meal to eat before a drift event? Would you recommend carbs?

[Photonic]

How do toe and caster affect the handling characteristics of your car while drifting?

I do "believe" toe out in the front will give you quicker initiations and initial response at the expense of straight line stability and tire wear.

*edit* here you go. Just found this while double checking my thoughts. My Initial assumptions about caster seem to be flawed so I removed it.

http://www.ozebiz.com.au/racetech/theory/align.html

[Neejay]

How does one "practice" drifting outside of the drifting season?

And it seems like it will take even longer if events are spread out over months and you only get like 2-3 runs at them.

(assuming that street drifting is out of the picture)

[The Marty]

How do toe and caster affect the handling characteristics of your car while drifting?

Short and sweet, Caster affects your straight-line stability, and the speed at which the car straightens itself back out and easy of steering. With caster, you're either lengthening or shortening the wheelbase of your car. For drifting, I would want the most caster possible for more stability, but some like negative for wheel speed. Toe also affects straight-line stability and steering response. For drifting, unless you're on an oval, 0 toe upfront is what I like to run, and a little bit of positive toe in the rear for stability.

Of course this is all preference and there are lots of variables involved.

my car was tuned in the summer time... hopefully it will be running in a couple weeks or less.

That being said its now winter time and "should" be cold...

do I need to tune it again for winter time or can I just work with it myself...

I run safc II mild tune running about 12.5lbs 280ish hp. Just the basics...

I heard its stupid to run a turbo timer on a water cooled turbo. Is this true Marty the man???

More questions to come I just need you on these so far. Plus I have to go poop.

If you have the money, tune your car as much as you can, but since you're running a pretty mild setup and a MAF and not MAP, you should be fine. Since it is colder out, you might be able to lean out your car a little for more power, but you are fine right now where you stand.

I'm not a fan of TT's in general. If you let your car sit for like 30 secs or just drive slow right before you reach your destination, you'll be fine.

and why do people run 295 wide tires with -5 degrees of camber?

Style.

How does one "practice" drifting outside of the drifting season?

And it seems like it will take even longer if events are spread out over months and you only get like 2-3 runs at them.

(assuming that street drifting is out of the picture)

The season in ATL starts in February and goes until December. That's only 2 months off. That's better than NASCAR.

Drifting is car control. Plain and simple. Go to ANY motorsports event you can. Autocross, Rallycross, HPDE's, Karts, anything.

[Neejay]

The season in ATL starts in February and goes until December. That's only 2 months off. That's better than NASCAR.

Drifting is car control. Plain and simple. Go to ANY motorsports event you can. Autocross, Rallycross, HPDE's, Karts, anything.

What's the time frame in between them, on average?

[omgtofu]

do you agree more with formula d's point system or d1's point system? example: 1 and 2 tires off the track in FD is half score and 0 score. going off track but returning to the track without letting out of your drift and possibly even losing your rear bumper on the wall in D1 = more points.

[shawn shawn]

What's the time frame in between them, on average?

Last year it was maybe a month...

[The Marty]

What's the time frame in between them, on average?

If you're willing to travel I bet you could drift every other weekend from February to December. FL up to say VA and as west as TN. Say like a 6-8 hour radius from ATL.

do you agree more with formula d's point system or d1's point system? example: 1 and 2 tires off the track in FD is half score and 0 score. going off track but returning to the track without letting out of your drift and possibly even losing your rear bumper on the wall in D1 = more points.

1 Tire drop: Awesome and necessary in some cases

2 Tires (Tires on same side of car): You're off line and should get a zero

2 Tires (Both rears): That's a tough call

But to answer you're question, I'm in favor of the FD Style.

[v-empire]

marty, how does one do a smooth 360? thanks.