The Thrills and Challenges of Drifting with the BRZ - A Learning Experience

As we embarked on our drifting journey with the BRZ, it was clear that this car had tremendous potential for performance and handling. However, our first attempt at drifting revealed some significant challenges, particularly when it came to power output. We realized that the 150 horsepower of the stock engine simply wasn't enough to keep up with the demands of a drift setup, especially with the large tire size.

Our initial test drive in the BRZ was a valuable experience, as we were able to get a feel for the car's handling and balance. The 240 model, which had around 350 horsepower, provided us with some insight into what a more powerful engine could do. Although we're not experienced drifters ourselves, we still managed to get some decent results, including drifting in figure eights. However, as soon as we tried to tackle the transition from one turn to another, the car would inevitably lose traction and spin out.

To understand the limitations of our stock BRZ, we took it for a test drive with a 285 tire on the rear, which proved to be too much for the engine's power output. We were unable to get the car to accelerate in second gear without bogging down, indicating that more power would be needed to achieve the desired performance. This led us to consider getting the car dynoed and tuned up, possibly with a more powerful all-motor setup.

One potential solution we discussed was installing a turbo kit on the BRZ, which could potentially increase its power output significantly. With a wider tire size or a combination of both, we believed that the car might be able to handle the demands of drifting. We even reached out to Taylor Ray for advice and guidance, who suggested getting the car set up properly in practice before attempting more advanced maneuvers.

Despite our initial setbacks, we were determined to learn from our mistakes and continue pushing the BRZ's limits. After a successful return drive with the car still running well, we realized that while power was an important factor, it wasn't the only consideration. We had also underestimated the importance of finesse and balance in drifting, particularly when navigating tight transitions.

Our experience has taught us that drifting is not just about raw power; it's also about understanding the nuances of handling and balance. As we look to continue our journey with the BRZ, we're eager to explore different setups and configurations to find the optimal balance between performance and control. With a turbo kit on the horizon, we're excited to see how this will impact our drifting experience and whether it will be enough to take us to the next level.

The road ahead promises to be filled with challenges and opportunities for growth. As we navigate the world of drifting with the BRZ, we're constantly learning and adapting. Whether it's mastering the art of transition or pushing the limits of power output, every experience brings us closer to our goal of creating an unstoppable drifting machine. And as we look back on our first attempt at drifting, we can't help but feel a sense of excitement for what's to come – and the promise of a more powerful, better-balanced BRZ that will take us to new heights in the world of drifting.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up guys today we are at the freedom factory with the k-swapped frs here we are going to attempt to drift this thing today they recently just had clutch kickers so the main pad right here does have the barriers in the middle so we are probably going to try to follow the same line they were taking i've only tried to drift two other times in my life and i am by no means experienced so we are going to be taking things very slow the car just has a bone stock k series in it we don't even know if it's gonna have enough power to really drift we figured we'd just come out here kind of see what happens we have a lot more space to play compared to just in front of our shop doing donuts so this car does have pretty wide tires on the back um i think to really run this course properly we probably have to at least get into second gear to have some speed but we're gonna take it easy and just kind of feel it out i'll probably start in first gear if we could just get a solid drift like around one of these roads right here and just kind of take it easy and just like i said feel the car out i think we'll be happy with that luckily the guys that were out here for the event tore up the grass really bad so we don't have to worry about messing up the grass anymore than it already is but uh that's pretty much all i have to say we're gonna go ahead and get in the car throw a suit and helmet on and see if this thing will drift for us so it's completely untuned like i said we don't know what's gonna happen but we're gonna find out all right buddy give her hell give her our best shot here we're gonna only practice on the turns like i said we don't want to come in here and smash this thing into a barrier she's a pretty car and we don't need that front end messed up just yet and i'm very inexperienced but you know you got to start somewhere thankfully we got the freedom factory next door and we might as well take advantage of that try to get some drift practice in i got a dollar that he hits the grass but i guess we shall see i think he went for second gear i don't think it's got enough do you try to grab second now i tried to just uh i pulled the e-brake and then just tried to stab it again in first and she just bogged a little bit i don't think this thing's gonna have enough power for second gear but i can try to hit this in first and just doing laps and feel it out give her a shot yup see what she does we're gonna need a lot more power boys okay that was better not a whole lot of angle to it but i would say that was a drift first gear was like limiter the whole way maybe i can try to go a little slower you can see on that one he was really using the front brakes to try to hold it sideways and was locking up that inside tire i just don't think the car's got quite enough power with them big wheels i think that was second gear and yeah just not enough power yeah there's not enough power there in second gear nope i don't think she's got enough power the big grippy tires i think it's just not enough and you don't have a husband i tried second that last time yeah and if i stay in first it's gonna have to be like on limiter the whole way right you can't really run it slow enough if you like to do first gear i have to like foot break it really hard to slow it down so it's not just yeah driving that one you were locking up this front left when you were trying to foot break it to get it stayed out it was locking it up i can give it a couple more goes in first but i feel like we're not going to get anywhere unless we get a little more power yeah i think right now your friend's going to be over there on the concrete where it's a little more slick yeah i think i think these tires are just too grippy for what little power one's got yeah it's not even tuned i don't even know if this thing's making 150 or tired honestly it feels kind of slow when we drive it on the highway yeah it's just got the base map in it so yeah i can give it a couple more goes though yeah see if you can get it figured out i don't know i think it's just not enough power but no it definitely isn't yeah because i did drive the 240 at least and like i said i'm not experienced at all but the 240 made like 350 and i could actually get that thing to drift somewhat decent yeah so i can just tell you right now this does not have enough power unfortunately so if you need the turks or something um uh rookie do what everything's so hard yeah it's definitely a finesse it is up and that's i just i think it's really down it just doesn't have enough power for this much tire on it it's still good to practice like the figure eights and stuff though because like that transition is where you lose it and it just loops out yeah like that last one right here just was way too hot on that last transition i feel like i want to try the road one more time and i want to try coming at it from from this side from this way okay i think i think i'm more natural to the right okay so i'll just try it let's give that a shot no we lost our water pump belt or the serpentine belt big oof that was solid though i mean he seems a lot more comfortable going that direction than than we were over there but uh serpentine belt said no more fam i'm gonna need that guy to get home well we've flung the belt off there but we just got it on not sure why this thing's flinging belts started to damage it a little bit but that should be enough to get us home we did drive the car here so luckily we didn't break anything yeah at least yeah stop an hour drive hour drive home kind of ballsy just to drive it out and send it but he did all right we definitely need some more power though yeah i think it's i think it only makes probably like 150 to the tire right now and it's such a big tire and this i just don't think it's got enough no it has it needs so much more power it has a 285 on the back tried to hit it in second gear just bogged it right down not a chance so it'd probably be good for us to like throw this thing on the dyno get it tuned all motor if we want to even attempt to try to drift it with the all motor setup before we give it some forced induction or we're gonna have to go to a uh more narrow tire on the back there or a combination of the both get it tuned up narrow tire it might do okay but yeah a turbo will solve all of our problems i messaged taylor ray and he told me to try to get it set up good n a in practice but i just feel like we might need just a little bit more power i'm not trying to make a whole bunch of power but if it had like a solid 250 wheel i think that'd be a good starter platform but i don't know i'll talk to him a little more get some tips maybe we can link up with him and he can fill out the car and tell us what it might need this is all new to us guys we don't drift so we'll try another time well boys we made it back in the brz in one piece and she is still running great so that is a good sign but as you saw our first attempt drift in this thing did not go too well it was a little sad to be honest and i didn't even know if i wanted to post this video because it really did not do too much out at the freedom factory but i'd like to show you guys the process and i'm embarrassed to show you guys what the car attempted to do so we'd definitely probably squeeze some more power out of it if we tuned the all motor setup that's currently in there and at the end of the day i don't think that's going to be enough to get it to where we want it to be so you know i think we ought to pull the trigger on a turbo kit on this thing and then take it back out with some more power and a terpsky on there we'll have a lot more fun and some usable seat time i think to get this thing kind of dialed in and just have a blast with the car but other than that i hope you guys enjoyed the video and hopefully next time this thing's back out at the freedom factory we'll have a turb ski on there and we'll be making a little more power and we can actually get this thing to get the tires lit in second gear and get some more practice and go from there but on that note we'll see you guys later youwhat's up guys today we are at the freedom factory with the k-swapped frs here we are going to attempt to drift this thing today they recently just had clutch kickers so the main pad right here does have the barriers in the middle so we are probably going to try to follow the same line they were taking i've only tried to drift two other times in my life and i am by no means experienced so we are going to be taking things very slow the car just has a bone stock k series in it we don't even know if it's gonna have enough power to really drift we figured we'd just come out here kind of see what happens we have a lot more space to play compared to just in front of our shop doing donuts so this car does have pretty wide tires on the back um i think to really run this course properly we probably have to at least get into second gear to have some speed but we're gonna take it easy and just kind of feel it out i'll probably start in first gear if we could just get a solid drift like around one of these roads right here and just kind of take it easy and just like i said feel the car out i think we'll be happy with that luckily the guys that were out here for the event tore up the grass really bad so we don't have to worry about messing up the grass anymore than it already is but uh that's pretty much all i have to say we're gonna go ahead and get in the car throw a suit and helmet on and see if this thing will drift for us so it's completely untuned like i said we don't know what's gonna happen but we're gonna find out all right buddy give her hell give her our best shot here we're gonna only practice on the turns like i said we don't want to come in here and smash this thing into a barrier she's a pretty car and we don't need that front end messed up just yet and i'm very inexperienced but you know you got to start somewhere thankfully we got the freedom factory next door and we might as well take advantage of that try to get some drift practice in i got a dollar that he hits the grass but i guess we shall see i think he went for second gear i don't think it's got enough do you try to grab second now i tried to just uh i pulled the e-brake and then just tried to stab it again in first and she just bogged a little bit i don't think this thing's gonna have enough power for second gear but i can try to hit this in first and just doing laps and feel it out give her a shot yup see what she does we're gonna need a lot more power boys okay that was better not a whole lot of angle to it but i would say that was a drift first gear was like limiter the whole way maybe i can try to go a little slower you can see on that one he was really using the front brakes to try to hold it sideways and was locking up that inside tire i just don't think the car's got quite enough power with them big wheels i think that was second gear and yeah just not enough power yeah there's not enough power there in second gear nope i don't think she's got enough power the big grippy tires i think it's just not enough and you don't have a husband i tried second that last time yeah and if i stay in first it's gonna have to be like on limiter the whole way right you can't really run it slow enough if you like to do first gear i have to like foot break it really hard to slow it down so it's not just yeah driving that one you were locking up this front left when you were trying to foot break it to get it stayed out it was locking it up i can give it a couple more goes in first but i feel like we're not going to get anywhere unless we get a little more power yeah i think right now your friend's going to be over there on the concrete where it's a little more slick yeah i think i think these tires are just too grippy for what little power one's got yeah it's not even tuned i don't even know if this thing's making 150 or tired honestly it feels kind of slow when we drive it on the highway yeah it's just got the base map in it so yeah i can give it a couple more goes though yeah see if you can get it figured out i don't know i think it's just not enough power but no it definitely isn't yeah because i did drive the 240 at least and like i said i'm not experienced at all but the 240 made like 350 and i could actually get that thing to drift somewhat decent yeah so i can just tell you right now this does not have enough power unfortunately so if you need the turks or something um uh rookie do what everything's so hard yeah it's definitely a finesse it is up and that's i just i think it's really down it just doesn't have enough power for this much tire on it it's still good to practice like the figure eights and stuff though because like that transition is where you lose it and it just loops out yeah like that last one right here just was way too hot on that last transition i feel like i want to try the road one more time and i want to try coming at it from from this side from this way okay i think i think i'm more natural to the right okay so i'll just try it let's give that a shot no we lost our water pump belt or the serpentine belt big oof that was solid though i mean he seems a lot more comfortable going that direction than than we were over there but uh serpentine belt said no more fam i'm gonna need that guy to get home well we've flung the belt off there but we just got it on not sure why this thing's flinging belts started to damage it a little bit but that should be enough to get us home we did drive the car here so luckily we didn't break anything yeah at least yeah stop an hour drive hour drive home kind of ballsy just to drive it out and send it but he did all right we definitely need some more power though yeah i think it's i think it only makes probably like 150 to the tire right now and it's such a big tire and this i just don't think it's got enough no it has it needs so much more power it has a 285 on the back tried to hit it in second gear just bogged it right down not a chance so it'd probably be good for us to like throw this thing on the dyno get it tuned all motor if we want to even attempt to try to drift it with the all motor setup before we give it some forced induction or we're gonna have to go to a uh more narrow tire on the back there or a combination of the both get it tuned up narrow tire it might do okay but yeah a turbo will solve all of our problems i messaged taylor ray and he told me to try to get it set up good n a in practice but i just feel like we might need just a little bit more power i'm not trying to make a whole bunch of power but if it had like a solid 250 wheel i think that'd be a good starter platform but i don't know i'll talk to him a little more get some tips maybe we can link up with him and he can fill out the car and tell us what it might need this is all new to us guys we don't drift so we'll try another time well boys we made it back in the brz in one piece and she is still running great so that is a good sign but as you saw our first attempt drift in this thing did not go too well it was a little sad to be honest and i didn't even know if i wanted to post this video because it really did not do too much out at the freedom factory but i'd like to show you guys the process and i'm embarrassed to show you guys what the car attempted to do so we'd definitely probably squeeze some more power out of it if we tuned the all motor setup that's currently in there and at the end of the day i don't think that's going to be enough to get it to where we want it to be so you know i think we ought to pull the trigger on a turbo kit on this thing and then take it back out with some more power and a terpsky on there we'll have a lot more fun and some usable seat time i think to get this thing kind of dialed in and just have a blast with the car but other than that i hope you guys enjoyed the video and hopefully next time this thing's back out at the freedom factory we'll have a turb ski on there and we'll be making a little more power and we can actually get this thing to get the tires lit in second gear and get some more practice and go from there but on that note we'll see you guys later you\n"