A Preview of Matt Powers Formula D 2011 Rebuild
By Mike Kojima
Our Friend Matt Powers has been rebuilding his S14 Nissan 240SX for the 2011 Formula D season. If you don't know Matt, he was one of the top seeded guys in the 2010 Formula D points standings without huge dollar backing and our favorite underdog. Matt is solidly backed by Need For Speed and Nitto Tires but his yearly budget is still a fraction of what some of the other top teams spend.
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| An exotic Chevy LS7 is fitted between the frame rails of the S14 at GTI Technical Inovations. |
Due to his underdog status and colorful persona, Matt is a big favorite with the fans. Matt has also been the poster child of the “Keeping it Real” soul camp of drifting. This group of fans prefers traditional drift cars using Japanese 4 cylinder engines or at least a swapped engine from the same manufacturer. With his Turbo Jim Wolf Technology KA24DE Matt was the second 4 cylinder in ranking only to Scion’s Ken Gushi in Formula D. Matt was also a fan of those who love the Hella Flush look as his car’s previous incarnation was slammed to the ground with low offset wheels.
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| What we like about the LS engine family is that its “crude and dated” OHV valvetrain allows for a very compact engine to be built. Look how physically small the engine is, it fits in there better than a VQ35. Not bad for a something packing 427 cubic inches. Look how low and far back the engine can be mounted with a dry sump system. |
For 2011 Matt is abandoning fashion trends and upping his game to become more competitive, adopting Hella Functional, hella essential for being competitive on a professional level. Matt’s upping his game and changing his hardware, causing a lot of angst among some of his fans from the styling and soul camps. The amount of BS we see posted on Facebook and Speedhunters is prompting us to write about his in process car build.
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| The Dailey Engineering drysump pump installs very cleanly on the LS. The LS7 has a semi dry sump from the factory but it was decided to invest in a full dry sump for reliability and engine mounting advantages. |
