Update! Matt Powers Formula D LS7 Powered S14

Matt, all you need now is some baby blue and hot pink to add to your purple and lime green to totally encompass the feel of the 80s.

so if its mostly put together, how does it drive? getting excited yet?

The rought start on the dyno, is that due to the super light flywheel? Or was it more of a low rpm tuning issue?

Cool car (despite the LS7)!

Mike, is it me or will there be some serious toe out rear bump steer on compression?

Eric it looks like it would toe out but remember its a multilink with short and upwardly tilting upper arms so it actually toe's in slightly under compression due to the high amount of negative camber gain.

And that is why you are the suspension master. I can visualize, but I need it in front of me. You can 3D model that shit in your head!

If you read the last article, the car actually has no flywheel or its integrated into the clutch assembly with the ring gear bolting directly to the clutch cage. The whole thing is super low inertia and is so of jerky when starting out. The Holley system has good driveabitly.

Hello Mike. I am a big fan of your articles. The writings are always technically broken down and a pleasure to read.

I would like to give my humble opinion on the controversy and general uproar of Matt's V8, and V8's in Formula D. Let me start by stating I love all forms of motorsports. Since a child I have followed several disciplines. Drifting in the USA has become a form of drifting all its own. Formula D is doing an amazing job with their series, the live stream, and track choices along with multi-national expansion. The Abu Dhabi event reminded me of 2003 when D1 came to the house of drift and the rest is history.

The uproar in Matt's V8, and other V8 swaps in Formula D, is similar to the reaction you would get from fans of the die-hard old school american muscle era if they saw the cars they love and dream about swapped with japanese engines. Could you imagine how controversial that would be? My father would be pissed if I put a japanese motor into a Willies or a Ford Three window coupe. Moving along..

As for the particularly loud uproar with Matt's V8; a lot of fans saw his KA24DE-T as the last street styled/japanese styled car in Formula D. His car landed a spot in a magazine where fans drooled over it. Most fans wanted a car similar to his, a kitted S14 (any silvia), caged, coilovers, 2-way, hydraulic hand brake, and of course turbocharging the KA. Or, maybe the fans simply love the history associated with drifting and the use of turbocharged japanese engines considering most of the cars available to us in the USA never came with a turbo or a 1.5 way, and most magazine featured japanese cars have turbocharged engines. I personally am building up a KA-T simply because I have never owned a turbocharged vehicle and want to experience it even if it is a pain in the butt. That does not mean I am at all a V8er hater. Just want to build something I've never owned.

So, for the fan, it is quite simple. For years fans look to the magazines, and now the internet, to get their daily dosage of japanese styling and tuning of cars like the silvia, skyline, and many many more that we will most likely never have access to. When drifting started up in the USA it was the beginning of seeing USA magazine features tear up the drift courses. No more did magazine featured cars stay in their dormant trailer queen status and instead are now being beautifully abused on drift courses. It wasnt long before the on-track (drift tracks) performance, parts availability, and lower annual cost of a V8 engine program became an attractive option for pro teams.

It is obvious the V8 has performance advantages over turbocharged I4's, and I6's in drifting from what we have seen so far. Drifting is very unique with regards to the controversey. It is one of those disciplines that shares coverage with another industry, and thats the aftermarket japanese car tuning industry that Super Street, Modified, Import Tuner, and other magazines cover. People (fans) that read those magazines come to a Formula D event and suddenly all of those cars (similar makes and models) have a V8 instead of the turbocharged engine they dreamt about. So far Wrecked Magazine (online) seems to be the only publication seperating the coverage. Meaning they cover drifting, not japanese car tuning.

Personally I am very excited to see how everyone does in round 1 with all the new cars, drivers, and rule changes. That being said I wonder how Aasbo will do with his engine choice. We shall see.

Peace and Love everybody.

Matt: the car sounds so mean.. killer bud.

Matt: do your thing, have some fun, kick ass and don't worry about those JDM-hypster's comment. (this comes from a JDM-die hard fan...haha).

Oh mattycakes, when you bleed, i cry.

Excellent write up as usual. Those Earl pro-lite hoses are sweet! Where can I find them? There are a lot of those little things on this car that add up in a neat way. Those headers, hoses, etc are more unique than a lot of people think when looking at this build.

Why do you guys keep comparing drifting with V8 to the older years of drifting? Its fucking stupid. Thats like comparing old school skateboarding to the new school. It's called progression not engine setups.

@ kevinphan: Because there are a lot of people out there that do not understand why there are so many V8's in drifting these days :) and Mike said up at the top that they were surprised at the amount of controversy and uproar around Matt going V8.

Sure it makes sense to the guys actually drifting, but to most of the fans that are just that, Fans, it makes no sense. If the fans understood it maybe they would be more inclined to embrace it.

It's not even that, I myself hate all these lame ass V8 swaps. But when I hear someone trying to compare today's drifting to the previous years it's ridiculous.

The sport itself progressed not because of engine setups but the standards got higher and higher as people got better and better. It wasn't cause they threw in a V8 that everyone got suddenly better or it was more fun to watch.

You just can't sit here and compare old and new. I may be on the wrong subject but whatever.

Fvck V8's

The sport has progressed and a lot of has to do with the development of the cars chassis and in particular engines. Its about 50 percent equipment and 50 percent driving.

I have been involved with both the old and new era of drifting professionaly and have seen it happen with my own eyes. Todays drivers would for sure not be able to do what they now do in a 4 year old car.

Weak V8. Boo.

That comment is not one born of logic, facts or data for this particular type of motorsport.

Drifting is ONLY about what people think of it. Its only a motorsport, because it involves cars. I think that running a V8 in a car that used to be a 4 cylinder is detrimental to what the import industry is all about.

I used to like drifting, but I have gotten bored with it. Haven't even bothered to attend any events the last couple years. Its going to turn into NASCAR soon. V8 powered tube frames, with stickers for lights, body's built on a template.

Moving all the cars to V8's, makes it even less interesting. Its a move that Formula Drift should not allow. It should be the engines that came in the cars, however, they are getting pushed around by the $ponsor$'s, to allow rear wheel drive versions, V8 versions of cars that never existed.

Do you like that argument better?

Its better but you are not up with the latest FD rules.

Ridiculous it may be to compare previous years of drifting to current drifting, kev.

One thing is for sure in my opinion, this V8 swap conversation is very relevant as it is the only beef I see regarding drifting and its fan base in the USA.

Earl's hoses are available through Summit Racing:
http://www.summitracing.com

@Dusty Duster:

I usually like to go to the local Industrial Liquidators (or similar) shop, since you get hands on help from a guy who knows the catalogue backwards and forwards, and you don't have to pay Summit's asinine $8+ "handling fee" (free shipping! LOL). You also can have them custom make lines for you, which saves a lot of grief trying to get assemble them. That, and if it's messed up or doesn't fit, it's simple to return.

Either way, that motor sounds awesome. The only way it'd sound better is with an 8-1 setup, and that'd be almost impossible to fab in one of these cars.

@Mike, you missed my point about tube frames. I know they are not allowing tube frame sections this year. However, what about next year? After all much easier and cheaper to have a tube frame vs a real frame. Lighter and safer. We can make the arguments, just the same as why you are supporting the LS engine in the Nissan body. The point of it was more along the lines of, make all the cars V8's, make them all built on the same chassis, same bodywork. Just slap the sponsor sticker and lights on the front.

No relevance to cars that the people watching have. A Toyota Camry in NASCAR shares how many parts with a Toyota Camry you can buy from the dealer? Some people may not care, but I do. I care that its a silhouette car that shares nothing with the actual car.

Drifting is headed this way, if they continue to allow swaps like the LS series engine into cars. If its the magic setup, maybe everyone will run it, after all whats the point of trying to make a KA, SR, 13B, 20B, EJ25 work, when you can just run the LS series engine.

If you read the 2011 rules which it seems like you have not, FD is greatly restricting modifications to the unibody. You cannot alter the structural parts of unibody from the most forward and and most rearward suspension pick up points. The exception is cutting the floor to install a fuel cell. FD's intent is to get away from being a silhouette series.

FD knows all about the mistakes Import drag racing made and they are proactively preventing excessive chassis modification and suspension modification. These rules changes have severely impacted my program and I am currently wracking my brain trying to restore the large about of performance lost due to the rules changes. I think these rules changes are for the better and support FD's decisions even though it sucks to be me right now.

Most current pro drift cars actually have a lot in common with extreme hot street versions of the cars or are a lot like what a enthusiast would build if they had the money. Most of the parts on our car for instance are "tuner" parts for the S chassis that are publicly available. A lot of what makes the car work is how they are deployed.

A Top FD car is about what an ALMS GT non tube frame spec car is like with the excpetion of its engine.

You don't understand, for a competition machine, I have no emotional attachment for any sort of engine in any car. My engineering goals are to get the most wins with the budget and resources I have available with the most efficiency to my customer and their sponsors. That is my prime objective.

At the current time with the current rules, the LS engine is one of the most logical choices. If I can save a customer several thousand dollars on an engine development program, I can spend more on suspension, moving weight around, etc.

I am not a Motorsports fan, I am a Motorsports engineer.

Matt finishes 2nd at Long Beach!

Matt did an amazing job driving at round 1. Costa and the guys truly have a winning combination. Congratulation to him and his team.

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