Steering Geometry - The biggest part of this hobby is how the chassis itself is set up, or what the Ackermann, camber, and toe is. The first thing to look for is how much toe out you have. “Toe” is when the wheels turn outward or inward from the center of the chassis. “Toe in” is when the wheel is pointing inward from the center of the chassis.

This is an example of toe out. The front side of the wheel is pointed away from the chassis.

Start by setting the toe to be as straight as possible by adjusting the steering turnbuckle here. From there, you want to look as you turn the wheels to one side on how far your wheel will turn till it gets to full lock. The more angle, the better (on the inside wheel, the better to a point). When turning, the inside wheel will point you in the direction in which the car will counter steer towards. For example, if the rear of the car pushes out to the right when drifting, then the steering wheel counter steer towards the right, making the right front wheel the inside wheel. From this point, you want to check going from side to side, making small changes to the steering turnbuckle to get the front wheels to be as parallel as possible at angle, which is your Ackermann. The Ackermann is how the front wheels turn in parallel with one another.

These 2 photos are examples of slightly positive Ackermann. The front wheels turned very close to almost parallel to
one anothe each-other, when turning from side to side. By doing this, the toe might not be perfectly straight, but that’s OK since the drift car is never really driving straight forward.

The next thing you should check would be the front camber. Camber is the difference from the top of the wheel compared to the bottom of the wheel and at which degree of angle it sits at.

For example, this wheel is at -8° of camber.

Negative camber is when the top of the wheel leans inward towards the center of the chassis.
Positive camber is when the top of the wheel leans outward away from the chassis. To adjust front camber use the upper suspension arm. Some may or may not be adjustable until parts have been upgraded to an adjustable type arm. If the upper arm is multipiece, then you can change the camber by adding or removing spacers such as this here.

To set a basic camber angle it’s a good starting point to check the camber when the front heels are straightforward. Typically a good starting point would be
around -6° of camber. Most kits will vary from brand to brand.

For example, this one is a -8° camber. The best way to find your front camber angle is by checking to see if the inside wheel is sitting at 0° camber when the steering is turned to roughly 60° of steering angle. By doing this, it will give you a good steering grip during drift. The car will want to sit at this angle more comfortably.

From here you’ll want to recheck the toe of the front wheels since changing camber and toe will affect one another. Make sure the front wheel stays roughly as parallel as possible now that the camber has been set to desired liking.


Next would be the rear camber.
You can adjust this by the upper turnbuckle.

Setting the camber to -2 degrees is a good starting oint. Changing the camber setting of the rear wheels will determine how well the car can create traction which propels the car during drift. Rear toe tends to be fixed on a basic chassis and may need replacement upgraded parts to change the settings. Rear toe settings from the manufacturer are a good starting point so this will not need to be changed unless you want to do a deeper dive into tuning.

The best bit of advice I can give a new driver is to drive, drive, and drive some more. Nothing will beat seat time. It doesn’t matter how good your car is set up with the fancy parts you buy, you will not be good if you don’t drive.