Can a C5 Corvette Be a Good Drift Car?
With Minimal Modifications, This C5 Corvette Slides Around the Track With the Best of Them
YouTuber Taylor Ray’s regular drift car, a turbocharged Mazda Miata, is down for the count with a broken turbo. So he’s “forced” to take his C5 Corvette out to the drift track in the video above. And when he arrives at the event, the people at the gate ask, “Can you even drift this thing?”
Ray believes it’s possible to drift basically anything with rear wheel drive. So he goes out and immediately whips in his Corvette. This car is basically stock, save for an aftermarket steering wheel, a set of coilovers, and a set of nearly-used-up tires at the back. Of course, we all know that big American V8 muscle under the hood will roast tires with ease. And drifting only requires a good balance on the steering wheel and a cautious throttle pedal.
The first section of the vid shows Taylor drifting around the track solo. He doesn’t have a roll cage in the car, which is apparently required for the insanely unsafe-looking “tandem drifts” section. Tossing a few dozen cars at the track at once, even with roll cages, does not seem like a recipe for a safe event.
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After that, Taylor then takes a few runs at the banked oval of the Orlando Speed World track, just to roast the rest of his tires off. Swapping for a new set, he heads back to the skidpad track for a few more runs. But first, he takes a few moments to enjoy sitting in line with the windows up and air-conditioning on, since the rest of the competitors have ripped out their ACs.
In the end, it is definitely possible to go enjoy a drift day with your nearly-stock C5 Corvette. With more steering angle and a proper hydraulic handbrake, this Corvette could easily be a competitive drifter. Not only that, but you can comfortably drive the car to the track and back home when you’re done. And it’s got power in equal measure with reliability.
What do you think? Are you going to be taking your C5 drifting any time soon?
Via [Taylor Ray]
