Sideways-ability

[A1ex]

So I'm about to finish getting my first ever track car ready ( just in time right?)
I'm interested in perhaps going to a drift event during the months leading up to Christmas, during the cold weather.

How will the standard non-welded diff get on?

The car has a bit of power (328i) and I want to be able to corner at speed when summer comes back around!

[Olivera]

Unless it's wet you'll probably struggle to drift it, although with enough provocation (clutch kicks) it should be possible.

[PositronicRay]

A1ex said:

So I'm about to finish getting my first ever track car ready ( just in time right?)
I'm interested in perhaps going to a drift event during the months leading up to Christmas, during the cold weather.

How will the standard non-welded diff get on?

The car has a bit of power (328i) and I want to be able to corner at speed when summer comes back around!

May be buy a set of crappy used tyres

[RobM77]

With the standard diff, initiating oversteer won't be a problem, just use weight transfer on the way into a corner, and if it's wet then a stab of power will be enough when leaving a corner if you have the right balance in the car to start with. BMWs are a good car to play around with this and it was easy to do in my E36 328i and 325i. Maintaining that oversteer should be possible in the wet (a friend of mine regularly drifts really effectively on a wettened track in an open diffed MX5), but not really doable in the dry for long in a 328i if you want to maintain speed (the car being sideways will generate drag and slow the car down). A welded diff (or which I have no experience at all) from what I understand will make it easier still, but you're really then turning the car into a specialised machine for power oversteer.

If you want to use the car on track days for enjoyable high speed driving then I'd leave the diff as it is. You could possibly look into an aftermarket LSD (or a BMW one if it's an E36), which would make wet power oversteer more controllable and easier to hold for longer, but often LSDs can mess up a car's high speed handling, because by causing the rear wheels to resist turning at different speeds they can make the car reluctant to turn in. This can be dialled out with different suspension settings, but if I were you I'd get to know the standard car before making track biased mods for track use (e.g. ARBs, different springs and dampers etc - that's what most people start with).

My advice would be to have some fun at the drift event (guaranteed!) and then enjoy the standard car on a track before making selected mods later down the line to improve its track performance. Unless you plan to enter 'drifting' events regularly and that's all you want to do, I would leave the diff well alone for now.

HTH

[Olivera]

RobM77 said:

If you want to use the car on track days for enjoyable high speed driving then I'd leave the diff as it is. You could possibly look into an aftermarket LSD (or a BMW one if it's an E36), which would make wet power oversteer more controllable and easier to hold for longer, but often LSDs can mess up a car's high speed handling, because by causing the rear wheels to resist turning at different speeds they can make the car reluctant to turn in. This can be dialled out with different suspension settings, but if I were you I'd get to know the standard car before making track biased mods for track use (e.g. ARBs, different springs and dampers etc - that's what most people start with).

My own experience of a welded differential in various E36 is pretty positive.

Benefits
+ Better traction
+ More predictable handling (even more so than LSD)

Negatives
- Slightly more understeer on tight corners
- More oversteer in the wet
- Lots of wheel hopping on full lock when manoeuvring

Having driven a welded differential E36 on a dry trackday I'd say I prefer it versus an open or LSD.