Good find.
I didn’t work with domestic makes much, so they weren’t something we actively sought out(and would know about).
The stuff we got were usually from Quaife or Cusco for the Japanese & occasionally Euro makes.
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P.S. You don’t really need an LSD(or a manual transmission, or RWD) to initiate a drift but if you want to sustain a long drift with smoking tires and all, like Formula D does, then you will need one.
Without it, a lot of smoke from the inner tire with not much forward/sideways motion happens.
Built and KA should never be used in the same sentence, IJS. About to rebuild the motor (LS6)in my 02 SS project car. 4th gen f-bodies are CRAZY fun to drift.
V8s or DI turbo diesels are the fastest way to drift.
Huge fan of this idea. What’s the next step to move it forward?
Need a space about the size of DMS’s back parking. Ideally with no posts, parking kerbs or other structures. Twice the width would be even better. If it already has a road/track laid out, and somewhat spinout friendly, it would be great.
As most asphalt isn’t adequate for abuse such as this, there are really only a few options. There are enough well-established autocross groups in the area, that they’ve likely sussed out any feasible options, and are already on their schedules long in advance. Getting a date could be tricky.
Mineral Wells Airport (may be too rough of a surface to really drift on), Lone Star Park (hilly parking lot could be tough, but is probably a good one to look into) & TMS Bus lot (good option) are the only three options that I’m actually aware of.
I’d expect that the location rental is going to run in the ballpark of $2-3k/day that would have to be split between the participants (on top of fuel, tires, etc).
Concrete is fine.
A street car(doesn’t have to be high HP) is also fine to start learning the basics on.
Getting more involved, and at higher speeds will start to require specialized equipment after a certain point.
The basics, and practice will get you there.
Dirt will be the easiest to learn on, but the dirt surface can get torn up pretty quick, particularly if you have aggressive tires.
Manual transmission is preferred, you can start to learn some of the basics with an automatic, or even a pickup truck but you’ll eventually need a manual transmission vehicle soon.
There’s D1/Formula D style drifting(exhibition competition), circuit racing(4 wheel drift) & rally (A.K.A. Scandinavian flick). You can don’t need very high speeds to do the first and last one, in the right environment.
You’ll need higher grip tires, and more horsepower when you want to get up to, and sustain higher speeds.
Otherwise stock car(in good working order), and street tires are fine to learn how to control the car(which is where you should want to start out anyway) before you bump up the speeds(which also when you’ll find out for yourself what mods you need to achieve your objectives).
P.S. A large warehouse with no posts except the perimeter wall can be a venue too, but the presence of the walls don’t make it the ideal environment to learn in.
Most concrete lots are going to be in places like DMS, not large open areas. I’d LOVE a sanction-able, inexpensive place to practice in my car, but don’t believe that such a unicorn exists. I’m not willing to risk the cops showing up because I’m “doing donuts” (cop joke) in some random lot. I’ll say that for a newbie (I’ll place myself in that class for actual drifting) a large runoff is not just a nice thing to have, but an absolute must.
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There is a place in south dallas at some abandoned wearhouse that people go to to practice drifting it pretty popular Iv heard a few people talk about it but don’t know the exact location. It’s pavement and they set up cones.
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Is there someone you know that you could reach out to? I’m going to an AutoX event Mar 2 and I’ll ask around about the lots they use and hopefully suss out costs. If we want to be grand, an idea to look at would be to get a membership at a track like MSR Cresson. Not sure the ends and outs but everything is negotiable.
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There was an initiative started by @JayJohnson600 a few months ago to get something going at Mineral Wells but there either wasn’t enough interested participants or we couldn’t get an insurance quote(or something).
Taking a trip down memory lane:
Full name for the torsen diff was Gleason Torsen
Think the mag Sport Compact Car did a series of tests w/ different diffs in a Z car.
Sport Compact Car and/or Racecar Engineering did a technical breakdown and explanation of how it works.
Back when F1 teams had far more leeway in creative engineering and design, Williams Honda(?)showed up w/ a torsen diff and some kind of CVT(?) trans. And of course the folks in FIA banned the set up.
Wikipedia has an interesting history and applications write up.
Good youtube explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEiSTzK-A2A
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Yup, interesting how it works.
I read about it long time ago before SCC wherein the application was for airport prime movers which were used to tow the airplanes. Never encountered one until 99-2000 with the Honda/Integra Type R trannies.
They were pretty quiet, and seamless. You wouldn’t know they were there until you applied power cornering and the car turned instead of pushing out.
Helical gear limited slip differential is one of the names it goes by.
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In the Good Old Days™, we called it a positrac no matter who made it.
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LOL
I was here for the changeover from “positrac” to “LSD”.
Kind of like the changeover from “350” to “5.7”…
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well, my 5.7 is 346ci so… 
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All: I’m working (albeit slowly) on a location. Won’t know much for a couple of months, but the idea isn’t dead. 
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Watching * google. 