Keep in mind, the following is with very low grip tires. Results will probably be different if you are going to be using tires with more grip than abs pipe. I also drift on asphalt, and smooth concrete. I have no idea what it’s like to drift on carpet. I'm working on setup out of my own curiosity, but yes, I am always happy to help another RC’er.

I have found that setup on a drift car is surprisingly easy. Any 4wd road car is ready out of the box; just add tires. The biggest thing is adjusting how much steering you want, and how responsive you want it to be. At this point I would say that any adjustments besides these are for fine tuning. The car will be sliding sideways, so there isn’t much setup needed.

Driving a drift car is like trying to drive on ice. The breaks are your friend, because that is the only traction you are going to get. Use the breaks if you want to get through a tight corner. Full throttle is going to get you nowhere. Use the throttle to keep the car sideways, and if you are coming into a corner too tight, you can use the throttle to extend the cars’ reach. Your throttle trigger will be somewhere in the middle most of the time, trying to balance things out. A lot of people might think that steering a drift car requires more skill, but it’s honestly pretty easy. The tires have very little traction and the car has very little speed (compared to on-road with rubber tires), so if you jerk the wheel to the left for example, the front end will gradually steer in that direction versus torque rolling and cart wheeling off the track and out of sight.

I haven’t tried a brushless system in mine, so I don’t know what it would be like. It’s obviously powerful enough to use with abs tires. I think the problem is that when a brushless motor goes to neutral, it spins freely instead of acting like a break. This is very important for drifting. You should check and see if your brushless system has a setting that would work for drifting. Just about any brushed system will work. The electronics I am using in mine are the cheapest I own. The only bummer part is that I don’t have reverse.

The wheels that are on my car right now are the stock Losi dish wheels. I think they are discontinued though. Any on-road wheel will work, you don’t need anything special. The inside and outside bead, that you would normally glue a rubber tire to, are the only parts that touch the abs pipe. Try to get a wheel that is a touch too big. Then sand the edges down until it has a very snug fit. I use ca glue on the inside of the rim only. That’s it. The tires/pipe don’t last forever, so when they wear down, you just cut a slot in the tires with a hack saw, and they break/peel off pretty easily. Then glue another onto the same rim. (pictures in my above post).

What is the setup on your car now? What tires? It is hard for me to suggest changes without being there to drive the car myself. If it were me, I would rebuild both diffs, and tighten them evenly. Don’t have them too loose, but don’t tighten them all the way down. I have been drifting mine without locking either diff and it is working beautifully. I don’t see why the diffs would need to be locked, although this will be one of the things I try as I test setup more. I would imagine there are many ways to setup a drift car (more than any RC with grip).

Sorry for such a long post. I hope this helps. If I didn’t answer something, or you have more questions, feel free to ask. Most of what I know is self taught. Don’t be afraid to try things. If you are a crawler guy, you should know this. I want a crawler really badly. I’m getting the Losi crawler as soon as it’s out. The only thing I have left to save for is the battery.