I have a Kyosho Spider MKII set up to drift...
I have a hobby pro .18CX (3.0cc) bolted in it...
Other than not being able to keep TM17 belts in it I'd say it rocks. Drove it almost every day for 3 months and 2 gallons of fuel with only my belts tearing up cuz of the debris in the parking lots and streets...
If you DONT throttle the snot out of it, then it should be fine. I use an HPI Celica body that I cut the side windows out for air. I increased the carb needle settings to keep it cool and to produce more smoke effect. I have the exhaust exiting just behind the rear shock tower, but still under the body so it rolls out the back and off the tires for realism. I use ABS tires just like the E-Drifters. And I used some nitro fuel line for my shocks so it wont bottom out and give it gives it a nice tight feel.
I cant recommend the Spider since its too old to find parts for, I will soon hafta retire it for this reason... I am looking at an HPI RS4 for my next nitro drifter, I like the shaft drive setup, no more smoked belts!
Id say go with a shaft drive system car just for durability, and run the carb near-stalling rich , and dont use more throttle than it needs to keep a drift, even if it looks and sounds sweet, cuz thats how it got its bad reputation in the first place, lol. Once and a while is fine, just not every time, all the time.
Not trying to start anything, but good luck getting any more support for nitro drifting here, no disrespect to anyone intended, its just a fact. If you use the search and look for "nitro+drift" you will see all the negative comments about nitro's not working well enough (ie: blowing up ) to be worth it, but its not true. I do it, but I dont own a video camera or I would show you that it works and wont blow up if you do it right... I tell you, ya just cant beat the smoke and noise that a nitro drifters make, its just too sweet to miss out on!
Now to go make that nitro rock crawler that cant be done, I wonder if a custom made, oversized flywheel with some holes carved into it to resemble cooling fan blades would work... hehehe.
