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| Having a lot of steering angle is critical in drifting, especially if you do a lot of high angle driving like Walker Wilkerson getting inverted here. Walker uses Haraguchi 326Power knuckles to get more steering angle while maintaining proper steering geometry. Having a lot of angle makes it easier to recover without spinning out. |
Increased Steering Angle Mods
A lot of people also modify the steering for more angle. This gives you more countersteer and helps prevent you from spinning out. Typically this involves putting a spacer between the inner tie rod joint and the steering rack which gives a little more steering angle. This is an OK thing to do but be aware it might also slightly increase bump steer. For a lot of angle people do other things typically this involves shortening the steering arm on the knuckle.
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| Driftworks makes angle knuckles for the Nissan S chassis that preserve Ackerman angle and also lower your car 1″ without upsetting the geometry or losing travel. Matt Powers uses these. |
If you are lucky and drive a popular car like a Nissan S chassis, you can purchase some excellent knuckles on the market. We like the Hariguchi S chassis knuckle as it gives a lot more angle while preserving the critical steering geometry. If you modify your knuckle be aware about increasing bumpsteer and do your best to keep the steering pick up points on the same plane as stock. Try to keep the steering linkage swinging in the same arc as the lower control arm to minimize bumpsteer. Try to keep the stock amount of Ackerman in the geometry as well. We feel that parallel steering with little Ackerman makes the car hard to drive as it reduces self steering and makes the car less stable under drift. Be sure that any welding on your knuckle is done by a very qualified fabricator and reinforce any welded areas as they will be weaker than stock and a failure is very dangerous.
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| Dai Yoshihara uses Hariguchi knuckles that have low bumpsteer and good Ackerman while allowing good steering angle. |
