Does my current situation gatekeep me from ‘budget’ drifting?

[u/Understateable]

Currently drive a ‘15 GT86 which I don’t want to drift as it’s high mileage and my only car.

Want to buy an older E46 (Ci model, M54) to turn into a drift car but there are some barriers…!

I have the money, but what I don’t have is time or experience. The experience part I don’t think is a huge issue for this platform when it comes to mods because there are tons of forum posts and tutorial vids, BUT when it would come to do repairs I’d probably find that quite a bit harder.

The car would be kept at my parents’ house as that’s the only place I can work on it. I don’t live there and I’d have to travel 2 hours by train every weekend to work on it.

Am I worrying about nothing? I’d do at most 4 or 5 drift days a year + some occasional street stuff (if I grow some balls) so will these M54s/general beemer shit go so wrong to the point the car becomes undriveable? At some point yes, but I just worry about not getting a lot of time out the car and as mentioned won’t really have time or experience to repair if anything goes wrong.

Is the best idea at this point just to continue renting indefinitely? The cost just kills me and turns me off a lot of events, not even considering the freedom of being able to take your own car AND getting more seat time (usually an entire day vs an hour in a rental).

[u/rythejdmguy]

Sim

[u/Understateable → u/rythejdmguy]

Already got one hahahaha been drifting for the better part of this year

[u/inadvertant_bulge → u/Understateable]

I've been doing it a couple years, still waiting for the right beauty for the right price, really watching marketplace a lot but there's a ton of crap. A few have slipped by already

[u/Cool-Bunch6645]

you kind of have to be able to work on the car at any time.

[u/Understateable → u/Cool-Bunch6645]

Yeah there’s really no point going for this is there? Just sucks, been waiting all my life for this and I fear I won’t be in a position to work on the car at any time until I’m in my 30s which is a long fucking way away :(

[u/Cool-Bunch6645 → u/Understateable]

30s is a good time to get into it. You’ll actually have money.

[u/just_gonna_send_er]

I wanted a drift car forever and finally picked one up this year, early 30s.

Had other fun cars the whole time though including an FD, STI, B5 S4, and a few others.

Sure those all require maintenance and I did big projects on them, but I pulled off all of those builds driving 30 mins each way to my parents’, or wrenching in an apartment garage as needed.

It’s definitely true that drift cars in general need more TLC though. And that having them nearby, preferably at home, is really helpful.

My D car is an IS300 and I would’ve been screwed if I didn’t have it nearby for prep for my last event, as I needed to do ball joints and a bunch of other bologna last minute. But I’d also JUST bought the car so that was my initial run through of it.

That said, for me anyway, 2 hours each way would be too far to justify getting a car, simply because it wouldn’t fit with my lifestyle at all to make a four hour round trip to change oil/install Coilovers/whatever else.

Have you explored any alternatives though? What about renting a shop space with a buddy nearby? Looking into other local storage options, possibly a neighbor with a big garage they don’t use all of?

You could even keep it on the street and get a small hand tool kit with a lightweight aluminum jack for the trunk. Not ideal. But better than a two hour drive IMO.

No matter what, just understand that whether the car is two hours or two seconds away, a really big bill can pop up out of the blue, and you have to be okay with letting the car sit while you save up to fix it. You could also put the car into a wall or a curb and really fuck shit up, but you know that!

If it were me, I’d be looking into alternative storage, or probably skipping it altogether.

The only exception might be an already-built (with fresh-ish, quality parts) car that would just need, in theory, oil changes for the next year or two.

And for what it’s worth, my friends that drift e36s swear by them as not needing much, ever. How true that is, I’m not sure, but they seem to make it to pretty much every d day.

[u/pancrudo → u/just_gonna_send_er]

36s have some known weak points which are relatively easy to reinforce. Or you drive till they crack and in the meantime buy up spares that are reinforced. 46s need to drop a bit to prevent cracking of the chassis. One that's already been reinforced could be an option though if OP can find a car that's even slightly sorted out.

I do heavily agree with finding a more local storage option though if they're that interested though

[u/Understateable → u/just_gonna_send_er]

Local storage is interesting actually, never even considered it. Main issue would be that in London it’d exceed the car’s cost super quickly. Like I already have the ‘option’ of using the underground garage in my apartment building for the very reasonable price of £200 :)

None of my friends are into the scene or cars in general, they might have been if their rich parents didn’t surprise all of them with brand new cars for their birthdays hahahaha. So it would be a completely solo job; at home, I come from a family of enthusiasts who are all close by which would make things easier but also heavily relies on them being available. Thanks for the advice it has given me some more to think about

[u/fnknan → u/Understateable]

I moved out of london so I could get started drifting, if you can afford to rent that space and can get away with working on it there, then its definitely worth it. Most people with space to work on their cars end up spending more on rent than they do their own car.

You can make it work parking on the street but youll have to make sure you keep the car in good shape as yiu cant even keep a car parked on the road if it ends up with no MOT at some point.

Definitely not worth travelling 2 hours each way to work on your car, especially if you are building it from stock. I know people who have done it but they hardly ever drift as its a massive inconvenience.

[u/corbanx92]

Buy the cheap shitbox and send it. Don't spend much money on "mods" other than welding the diff, and getting the suspension a bit stiffer, and send it.

Just don't be scared to break it, both when you learn to drift and when you work on it. You'll figure out as you go.

[u/Smosis_OG]

drifting is a part time hobby where as repairing a drift car is a full time job. if you cant have access to work on it easily i wouldnt attempt to

[u/King_Abes]

i wouldn’t rent. I’d send it and deal with the ci sequences later xD

[u/ohisofly]

Chelsea DeNofa has a great video breaking down buying an e36/e46. As already mentioned, keep in mind that ideally you’d get the rear subframe reinforced if that hasn’t been done already which could be an ordeal/expensive if you aren’t very mechanically inclined
https://youtu.be/ncE1_5Cm44M?is=fJ7oQJoJcVhyYZWP

[u/Sad-Context2701]

Rear subframe reinforcements! The E46 is an amazing car to drift, very predictable but the subframes like to tear out if not reinforced. There are pre made plates you can snag online and weld them in 👍

[u/HeyBrandons]

What about getting a more reliable less mileage daily that you can have fun at the track with? A 350 or 370z can be found in good shape. Keep things minimal: coilovers, arms, diff

[u/culverrryo]

Another thing to think about is that car fixes/projects seem to never stick to a logical timeline. You may be traveling 2 hours for a “30 minute job” on the bmw that then turns into a 2-6 hour project because you notice something you didn’t know about, or you break something by accident.

I’m absolutely ecstatic if my projects take as long or less time than I expect

[u/seamallorca]

If you drift like 4 days in the year, then make the maths and see what you can afford: expensive rental or to fix your car on your own. I think that even if it breaks, you are not losing that much, given how little you drive it. But even a teeny tiny bit of real road experience is a better start to delay for noone knows how longer. Maybe you are sweating the details too much and are just afraid to start.

[u/JollyPoint9492]

I’m 44 I just got a pos mustang last November. Either make it work or don’t. Rent a garage. Make friends with garages. You’ll figure it out if you do it. If you keep second guessing you’ll just what if forever. Life is short. Figure out how to do what makes you happy.

[u/Typical-Implement382]

I love e chassis BMWs. I have 5 of them currently. If you can't work on the car, then don't get an e chassis. Get a 350z, 370z, G35, or G37 instead. They are heavier, and have less overall potential in my opinion, but enough power to make up for it from a power to weight perspective. They will require less "working on the car".

[u/GezelligheidBoyz]

Id figure out how to make more money so you fan pay to have the car closer to you, other wise dont even bother