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Matt Powers 2012 Formula D ride Part 3

Mike Kojima posted on May 22, 2012 00:00

Matt Powers 2012 Formula D ride Part 3

By Mike Kojima

When we last left off, Matt's crew chief Costa Gialamas had just begun the heavy fabrication and had just about finished the cage. The team's funding had come in quite late from title sponsors and with a late start there were only six weeks to finish the car!

With a mad rush, there are a few minor skips where we could not come in in time to document every part of the process but we did our best so you can see most of what goes into the build of a top drift car.

Read Part One Here!

Read Part Two Here!

To make clearance for big tires, Costa cut away the sheetmetal in the wheelwell area to the limit of the Formula D rules. The trunk floor was also cut away and the frame rails trimmed back to the point where the rear suspension crossmemeber bolts to the chassis. We missed the pictures of the trunk floor cut outs but we have a few pics of the semi completed parts we will show a bit later.

Costa cut and roll formed this sheetmetal piece to make the new larger wheelwell. He bead rolled the part to give it some stiffness. With a larger wheelwell, the car can be run at a low ride height with plenty of wheel travel without bottoming in the wheelwell.

Costa tack welds the metal into the wheelwell then places the overfender in position to trim the outer edge to match the overfender.

Here are what the tack welds look like from the outside.

Once everything is trimmed into shape, Costa TIG welds the wheelwell inner panel in place. It gives the rest of the remaining sheetmetal structural strength once its been fully welded.

Pages: 1 of 6 Next Page

Posted in: Magazine, Tech, Features, Feature Vehicles, Motorsports, Drifting

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Comments

# 8695Beaters

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 8:06 AM

Opening up the transmission tunnel is very smart. I have small hands and I have problems working on my S13's underside. The radiator mounts are also very clever.

Hopefully Matt doesn't get screwed by using the M-brand radiator. A friend of mine had one of those in his Mustang and it started leaking after a year of just driving around on the street. Better keep a couple of spares in the truck Matt!

# Mike Kojima

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 9:41 AM

He has a lot of spares fortunately.

# JSWORKS

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 8:18 PM

Great article. Would have loved to see more pics of that rear structure build up as well as how the quarters and over fenders attach.

From the first pic it looks like they retain some of the original quarter and rear unibody (under the lights?) Are they going to just attach the removable quarters to the old stubby part of the quarter/unibody that remains?

When you replace front/rear structures like this are their strength tests/calculations that have to be preformed for safety (so you know it's strong in a crash) or is this just following proven methods that have worked in the past, hope for the best, etc.

# Mike Kojima

Wednesday, May 23, 2012 1:15 AM

Sorry about the rear pics, they got skipped in the rush to get the car running before long beach. The rear construction relies a lot on Costa's many years of experience, particularly in off road racing.

# Protodad

Wednesday, June 13, 2012 10:57 PM

I really enjoy the full race car builds and can appreciate the level of time, effort and thout that goes into them. I happen to see Matt drift this last weekend at Thunder on the Lot. I don't think it was his new car but I am looking forward to seeing this one hit the track as well.

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