The word awesome hardly does it justice!

Buy Sparking Drift Tyres today!

BUY NOW FROM RC GEEKS ON EBAY Fits 1/10 scale wheels with 25 or 26mm wheels 4 drift spec hard compound sparking tyres £9.99 including delivery

Sparking Drift Tyres can be bought from RC Geeks or you could save yourself the cash and make your own! Here’s a quick guide on how to make sparking drift tyres. Remember your safety goggles whenever doing anything with an drill!

• Requirements: A standard set of any RC drift tyres, the flints from normal lighters, an electric drill, a heatgub or super strong binding glue.
• 1 – First you will need to remove the flints from a number of lighters(Depends how much sparking you need). you can buy plastic lighters fairly cheap in bulk so stock up as you’re going to get through quite a lot.
• 2 – Depending on the flint size, select a drill bit to match and drill a hole in to the tyre face. You want to leave the flink sticking out by no more than 1mm.
• 3 – Either use your heat gun or some strong glue to stick the flint in the hole.
• 4 – Rinse and repeat for as many holes you want. More holes equals more sparks but unfortunately this can affect the cars drifting and cornering skills. This is the price you may have to pay for super sparks.

It’s as simple as that really. Thge flints won’t last for ages and will soon wear away but if you’re going night drifting or just showing off in a car park, it’s worth sacrificing a pair of tyres for.

Often referred to as Sparkling Drift Tyres, Sparking Drift Tyres and Spark Drift Tyres.

Features TA05 bulkheads, short reversible suspension arms, TRF416 uprights. 37Tfront and rear pulleys and 18T center pulley are driven by new-length drive belts. Belt tensioner is also equipped.

Adjustable battery holder enables attachment of Tamiya Ni-Cd, Ni-MH, LIPO and LF battery packs (battery packs can also be secured with glass tape). R/C units are placed centrally on the chassis for optimized balance.

A wide variety of TA-05 option parts can be equipped on this drift chassis.

Tamiya TA05VDF Features:

• 1/10 R/C assembly model kit.
• Front: Ball Diff., Rear: Spool Diff.
• Carbon chassis 2mm thick.
• Front and rear universal shafts.
• Aluminum hex hubs.
• TRF Dampers (Case: Fluorine Coated, Shaft coating: Normal)
• Short reversible suspension arms.
• Uprights feature 1050 ball bearing specifications.
• TA05 Front and rear bulkheads.
• Body, tires, wheels, motor, ESC, 2ch transmitter, not included.

Source: Tamiya

It’s a pretty cool looking body from Pro-Line. Comes unpainted but the curves and lines definately make us drool. Well done Pro-Line

Tansou [tansō] (n). 1. Single phase. 2. The individual judged drift qualifying session, speed run, to make the final top 16 before the finals.

You can find more detials on the Tansou body by visiting the Pro-Line website

Remote Control Drifting is taking off in a big way, in this article I show you step by step how to convert that old 1/10 touring car into a drifters dream machine. It’s very simple and generally only takes a couple of hours, using this practical guide I’ll have you sideways before you know it.
What exactly is drifting?

In a nut shell drifting is the art of changing the angle of attack of your car, while still maintaining full control, so in a typical drift driver X approaches the corner and turns in hard too early, this will bring the rear of the car around, Driver X will then turn back into the slide and keep the car going around the corner while maintaining as much angle and speed as possible, then he will over correct and throw the car into another slide right after the first one, with as little straight lining as possible.

Where do I start?
The first thing you need is a RC car, I’ll use two examples, both of which I’ve had personal experience with, the Tamiya TT01 and the Tamiya TA05. The first step to drifting is to break that traction, due to the power to weight ratio of RC Cars we need a little help, Drift Tires are all you need to get sideways, but there is a little more you can do if you want to compete. If you can’t find RC Drift tires you can use insulation tape, be sure to wrap it in the same direction that the wheel will be turning, a good trick is to lay it down and roll you RC Car over it, this is the right way, Taped tires tend to work best on surfaces that already have a little to no traction, i.e. an underground parking lot, but they don’t last long. Drift tires all have different tractions, more traction = bigger drifts, but this is useless if you need to compete on a tight track as the amount of torque used to break traction will also generate a lot of speed, in the end it’s down to personal preference.

What next?
Okay so you taped your tires and played around a bit, not we need to get the car to be more predictable, all the standard racing setting apply, shocks, ride height and wheel angles are up to you, but if there is a must have it’s the rear differential, you need to lock it, this is also know as a spool diff, basically it means that both wheels must turn at the same time. The result is a car that will break and regain traction on command, the drifts will also be much easier to control, more throttle = more angle, less throttle = less angle.

TT01
The Tamiya TT01 uses a planetary gear setup for the rear diff, which is easy to convert (and convert back should you change your mind later) the two most command ways to lock this diff are 1. Open the Diff and fill it with glue from a glue gun, or 2. Take a small piece of fuel tubing ,cut it open along it’s length, and roll this around one of the planetary gears. Once done close the diff and check if it give the desired result before you put it back. The other option is to buy a hop-up spool diff.

TA05
The TA05 uses a ball diff at the back and the front, this is not as easy to modify, but it can be done. The way I modified mine was to use pop rivets. I opened the diff and removed the ball bearings and metal plates that the balls run along. I then drilled three small holes in the side, getting both halves of the diff. I then pop riveted them together and filed down the rivets. This worked, but be careful. 1. It’s not reversible and if you make a mistake the diff will be destroyed. 2. It doesn’t last long, eventually the forces that go through the diff will destroy this because it’s been weakened by holes. A Spool diff is available for the TA05 and this is the preferred options.

What about the front diff?
Now that we have a solid platform we can experiment with slightly different setups to find the one that suites us best, this varies from car to car, but the principle is the same. I personally love using a front one-way diff, or a center one-way diff for more control. The downside is that using brakes at any time is the same as using you e-brake (hand-brake) in a real car, the tail will slide around in a 180, while this can be useful to initiate a drift and transition to a second drift from the first it’s very easy to spin out, so most people prefer not to use the one-ways. Once again this is down to personal preference.

Why drifting is much better than racing.
Well I love both, but from the drifting side it takes a lot more skill and a lot less car, what I mean is that while racing takes skill, you can compensate with an awesome car, there is no way a TT01 will consistently win in a race against a carbon fibre racing machine. But with drifting you can, a TT01 can out perform any car out there, yes it will be difficult, but so much of drifting is down to driver skill that anything can happen. This being the case it’s also possible to get into drifting with very little financial backing (unlike racing)

I hope this article has given you some idea’s about drifting, please feel free to contact me if you have any suggestions or need any advice, advice is always free, like the rest of my site.

About the Author
Gregory Alexander was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He spent most of his younger days travelling the world, but eventually settled back home. He first got interested in Remote Control several years ago, since then it has grown into an obsession, now a successful RC Racer and Drifter he shares his knowledge with the world. More free articles and information can be found on his website : Free

PICK A STYLE
There are 2 main types of transmitter style to choose from:

• Wheel Transmitters – Also known as ‘pistol grip’ transmitters these are now the norm in most drift kits and are easier to get to grips with as a novice. The wheel is use to control the steering and the finger for acceleration/braking. Favoured in the U.S and with new, upcoming drivers.
• Stick Transmitters – A Simple dual stick control transmitter. Once the only type of tranny available these are slowly being replaced in popularity by the later wheel versions. Favoured by old skool drivers and RC plane pilots.

PICK A SIGNAL TYPE
AM systems are the least expensive of the 4 types. Widely available, “amplitude modulation” is cheap but doesn’t give you the clearest signal to and from your radio and chassis. There’s nothing below AM systems, so the only way to change setups is to upgrade. In RC surface applications, there’s basically 3 steps to upgrade from a current AM radio system (in order):

• FM Crystal-based system – An FM “frequency modulation” system gives you a better signal than AM, but still uses crystals to specify channels, so if you want an alternative channel, you’ll have to buy extra pairs of crystals (anywhere from $10-30 a pair). Like AM, FM systems transmit in either 27mHz or 75mHz, and are limited to 6 channels in 27mHz band and about 30 channels in 75mHz band. (Brands: JR Racing, Futaba, KO Propo, Airtronics) Many RTR kits come with an FM based system as standard.
• FM Synthesized – FM Synthesized systems give the same advantages as a regular FM system, with the added benefit of not using crystals. Also, you get all available channels for the particular band, i.e. if you buy a 75mHz synthesized system, you can choose any of the 30 available 75mHz channels to use. Selecting channels is done by manually setting the receiver (using a dial or pot) and then matching the transmitter (somewhere in settings). (Brands: JR Racing, Futaba, KO Propo, Airtronics)
• Digital Spread Spectrum – Digital Spread Spectrum (aka DSM) systems take the synthesized idea one step further. No more manual selection of channels – spread spectrum radio systems automatically select a free channel (frequency), so there’s no channel conflicts, and no crystals to deal with. They work on the 2.4gHz band, and select free/clear channels the same way as bluetooth technology. (Brands: Spektrum Futaba, Nomadio, Airtronics)

LOOK FOR SOME RADIO FEATURES
When you upgrade radios, you’ll no doubt run into another dilemma – all these extra features! But which ones do you need, which ones are just fluff, and which ones can be used for future ideas? Here’s a quicky list of only those features that you should look for or consider:

• D/R (Dual Rate): with the turn of a dial, you can set how far your steering wheels turn equally both left and right.
• Steering EPA (End-Point Adjustment): EPA lets you specify how far your steering servo will go when you turn, so that it won’t go too far (stressing your steering linkages and steering servo.) Similar to D/R, but you set left and right throw individually.
• Steering Curve (aka Steering Exponential): Changes the rate of steering from straight to full lock. A high curve makes the steering quicker initially, and a low curve makes steering less responsive until you reach full lock.
• Throttle Curve (aka Throttle Exponential): Same as steeringexpo, but for the throttle. Let’s you dial in how aggressive the throttle output will be, similar to the difference between easing onto the gas pedal or smashing it to the floor.
• 3rd Channel: Drift cars only need 2 channels to drive. The extra channel is for adding some tricks, i.e. flip-up headlights, opening doors, and whatever else you can rig up.
• Model Memory: If you have more than one vehicle, having multiple model memory means that you just need to get extra receivers for each extra vehicle, instead of complete radio systems for each vehicle.

GET THE FEEL FOR IT
The last but probably most important thing to look for in an upgraded radio system is the feel. Is the steering wheel tension too light or too heavy? How does the radio sit in your hand? Is it front-heavy? Are the controls and adjustments easy to find or do? Don’t just go by feature list when looking for a new radio setup. make sure that you’ll be comfortable using the radio, your going to be holding it for a long time!

Hopefully these tips will help you when it’s time to upgrade your radio setup.

Big thanks to RC Drift Club for this report.

Of exceptional note for the 4WD drift car is the new dual center slipper clutch which allows an individual balance of power to the rear and front axle possible. This allows the front and rear wheels to spin at different speeds (See the video below) allowing the driver to pull of some pretty exceptional rolling burn-off moves! This is an RC drifters dream come true!

Add the increased steering angle and you have a great chassis for counter steer drift style. The clutch allows easy setup for different surfaces.

The use of saddle pack-batteries and the centered motor position give an even balance to the chassis for better control.

Yokomo D-Max Special Specifications

• Shaft drive 4WD
• Viewer carbon upper and lower chassis decks
• Adjustable dual clutch
• Ackermann optimized for counter steer drifting
• Improved front knuckles
• Alu suspension arm mount
• Alu oil damper
• Alu special motor mount
• Alu upper arm tie-rod
• Length: 387mm
• Width: 198mm
• Wheelbase: 258mm
• Internal gear ratio: 2.35/1
• Weight (without body): 1420g

More pictures available on the Yokomo site here.

Perfect for bored drifters and wasting time at work.

No. 5 Drift Runners

Drift Runners is a fun little game that not only awards points for your drifting skills but also for hitting objects, clearing jumps and beating your computer opposition.

No. 4 Drift Legends

Test your drifting skills under timed pressure on a wide selection of tracks. Unforgiving game that punishes those with weak drift-fu. Good fun though!

No. 3 Mercedes Drift Game

Nice and simple freebie advertising game for Mercedes. Double use of the word drift here as your driving skills are rated by how much snow you splash up walls. (Snow drift geddit!)

No. 2 King of Drift

King of Drift has to be hands down one of the best Flash racing games ever made. Notable features include an array of beautifully rendered tracks, excellent driving physics, plenty of different game modes and difficulties, challenging computer opponents, upgradable cars, and nice faux 3D touches.

The game retains a very professional feel with nice, easy to navigate menu screens, no serious bugs, and a decent soundtrack. Race against the clock in time trials, earn points by performing drifts and tricks, or race against computer controlled cars in the race (career) mode.

No. 1 Online World Drifting Championships

Our pick of the bunch is this fantastic drifting game from Amnesia. Sponsored by Xbox this is the best drift game available on the web! With stunning graphics and realistic drifting this game is top notch fun. You can even set up a league and drift against your mates to see who is the ultimate drift world champion.

Included with the Nissan 350Z Hankook body are two pre-cut decal sheets that include stripes, window lines, headlights, grills, tail lights, official Nissan and Hankook logos and much more, providing your touring car with a realistically finished product. Each body comes with a molded nylon dual plane rear wing, as well as light buckets for the headlights and tail lights.

This body is clear so you can paint it in your favorite colours. It fits 200mm touring cars and can also be used on 190mm touring cars with the use of wide offset wheels. Overspray film is included, as well as vinyl window masks to make painting quick and simple. An instruction sheet is included for the decals, and the body has dimple marks for body post drill locations.

Got to admit this looks pretty cool!

If the sweet looking BMW 320 wasn’t enough for you then check out the new Mazda RX7 in a very agressive red and the new Nissan S15 Silvia in blue.

Team Magic have also just launched a new Drift Zone blog on their website! Hopefully this will be regularly updated with drift tips and advice. Thier fitst contribution is a how-to for equiping the H.A.R.D. LED light kit to your kit. Click here to visit the Team Magic Drift Zone area.

This is a no thrills drift car. It comes with no titanium or carbon fibre parts. In their place are high quality plastic parts which do their job and help keep the complete cost of the package down. This reinforced plastic can be found in every part of the car, making the E4D very light. For Team Magic fans who want a stronger car the E4D shares many features of the E4 series meaning their are plenty of upgrades already available.

The electrics in this car are all from TM’s own H.A.R.D stable, which generally means you’re getting good quality gear. Of particular interest is the dual mode ESC; The dual mode feature is ideal for novices looking to learn the basics of RC drifting. Once you tire of ‘easy mode’ a quick flick of the switch and your playing with the big boys! ‘Fierce Mode’ (as TM have dubbed it) unleashes the full power of the 19T motor making acceleration much more fun.

Team Magic E4D Features:

• Three Belt Tranmission
• Narrow chassis and low CG design
• Centralised battery and motor
• Rubber Belts
• Quick release front & rear ball diffs
• Fully upgradeable
• Mounted Drift Tyres
• H.A.R.D. Futaba Radio System
• H.A.R.D. JR Dual Mode ESC
• H.A.R.D. x3 Motor

Team Magic E4D Specifications:

• Scale: 1/10th
• Width: 186mm
• Length: 374mm
• Weight: 1480g
• Wheelbase: 257-259mm

Team Magic are reknowned for making some crap cars. However their G4 touring car is a complete gem of a RC vehicle so there is hope that this new drift car will be the bees knees. This version does very nicely as an entry level drift car but if you want more then look elsewhere.

Check out this video of the new car in action: