I'm just building my Rex for next season at the moment. last year I did my first drift session in it then blew the engine at Trax and have left it stashed away until now so I wouldn't trash it learning to drift. I did the British Drift Championships in a skyline this year. The Rex isn't up and running yet but hopefully will be soon. As I'm looking at all this stuff I thought I'd post a summary. I'll put more details into a project thread, and also add to this thread as well.
The main issues I can think of are:
Steering lock - this is a major problem with the Rex as standard. You need to buy tie rods which have spacers inside the steering rack part. This will give you more steering travel. You can just spacer the stock ones but it doesn't leave you with many threads holding the tie rod into the rack so isn't as safe as buying uprated ones. A rex with spacers has about as much lock as a standard nissan s13 (!!). You can add a little extra in but you start to hit the lower arms and/or the chassis leg. The URAS tie rods can be bought from RHDJapan but you get stung for import tax. If there's a group of people who are interested Gary from
www.rotaryart.uk.com may be able to get some made up specially?
Amount of wheel turns - There's loads of steering wheel turns lock to lock on the Rex. To fix it isn't that easy. You need to cut and shorten the steering arms on the hubs. It gets complicated though because you have to look at the ackerman angle (do a google) as well. If you just cut them then you will get less ackerman angle as you will change the ratio between the length of the steering rack and the length of the cars track (width between the wheels). So to keep the existing ackerman angle you could angle the cut arms in slightly to reduce the length between them. I havn't tackled this yet but I should be doing it within the next month or two so will stick it in a project thread.
From what I gather though there's no easy solution. Some of the big drift Rexs that have been imported over the last few years have come over on 16inch wheels around 225 to get over these lock issues. I'm going to run 17 inch 235 ish and hopefully can make it work.
Fast manual racks - I'd strongly advise NOT going for a manual fast rack as they make steering too hard for drifting. When you get the line right its fine because caster tends to bring your wheel around but if you get things wrong, which happens often!, its very tough to work the steering back. I had an electric pump which was great for track but still not strong enough for drifting. I've now got an oem one in the new car.
If someone was able to do a power steering fast rack then that would be awesome
Handbrake - Rex handbrakes are completely useless. You need to get a hydro handbrake in there, possibly with uprated rear calipers or at least with nice sticky pads. Not race ones as these take time to warm up.
Diff - For any serious drifting you need either a welded diff or preferably a 1.5 or 2 way ( 2 way is better ).
Big power Turbos - I had 550bhp in mine and I am now rebuilding it with around 400bhp. Rexs have big power figures simply because they have such high Revs, you have to be high up in the Revs to be using it. Drifting is more like small circuit track cars. You don't need big power, its much better to concentrate on response and (IMO) definately don't sacrifice low down torque for high end power.
Big power cars are really easy to drift as you just put your foot down (!). This isn't what I consider drifting though, drifting is more about weight shift of the car so you are much better learning these things in a lower power car where you are forced to use proper techniques. My first skid car was a 140bhp bmw (3 mths till it got smashed), I then got a 200 odd bhp s13 (lasted another 4mths till I broke it!) and then a 280bhp skyline (2mths until a reshell to a caged shell, and I still have it now) for the championships this season. I want more power now for next year but I'd still do the same thing if I was to do it again as its lessons you'll never learn in a powerful car. A stock power Rex is more than enough. Many people find the twin turbo setup a problem on change over, but M@r]{ is on stock twins and he doesn't seem to have any problem. You just need to stay up in the Revs. Personally I'd certainly go for a single turbo of around 300-350. Any more is not needed, but any less is kind of a waste if you're going to the trouble of upgrading a Rex from twins! Also , most importantly, see cooling below.
Suspension - Normal track suspension setups is ideal for drifting as well. Avoid having too much camber on the rear as this usually isn't advantageous for skidding because the car is on opposite lock most of the time. You need to put front camber bushes to get enough camber on the Rex. Polybushing all round is deffo recommended as for any car. I can go into the suspension side of things in a lot more detail if you want?
Bucket seats and harness - not essential but definately something to try and get as soon as possible. It makes a big difference and once you've got them you'll wonder how you managed without them
Cage - As per any circuit driving, well worthwhile.
Wheels and tyres - most people practice on old tyres found in tyre dumps as new ones are too expensive. Take beer to tyre shops
Bodykit - Drifting DOES smash cars up! no getting around the fact. Any kind of smoothed in body work is a definate no no! Bumpers and skirts should be cable tied so when you hit things it will just break the cable ties and not smash the body kit up as much.
Cooling - Rex stock cooling is very poor for any driving let along hard abuse. Pay lots of attention to upgrading this area. Better to pay for a race radiator and intercooler than just about anything else. Stock twins get the engine bay very hot compared to a single turbo. This is my primary reason for not running twins.
Complicated engine bay, rats nest etc.
Another reason for dumping the twins is all the crap in the engine bay that can go wrong. If there's anything to go wrong or wear out then drifting will probably make it happen! The more simple you can make it under the bonnet the better. This will make it easier to do quick fixes at drift days as well.
One more thing! On average at a small skid day I'll go through 6 tyres. On a track skid day I've gone through as many as 16 (Lydden Hill recently). A Rex can only fit a couple of spare tyres in the car. Basically if you're serious about it then you'll need a trailor or recovery truck as otherwise its a waste of time.