Sneak Peek: The Engines of Formula Drift 2014
Khiem Dinh is an engineer for Honeywell Turbo Technologies at the time of this writing. All statements and opinions expressed by Khiem Dinh are solely those of Khiem Dinh and not reflective of Honeywell Turbo Technologies.
The V8s had a few years of dominance in Formula Drift until Daigo Saito showed up putting down well north of 900whp out of his 2JZ with a Garrett by Honeywell GTX4294R turbocharger and some nitrous on top. Last year, Mike Essa took his GTX3582R turbocharged BMW inline-6 engine out of the Z4 and placed it in an E46 chassis more suitable for drifting.
Following his 2013 championship winning season, Mike Essa is now running his own show out of Essa Autosport. There are more changes to the car than just the graphics; however, one new sponsor graphic to take note of is from Newegg. I use to buy digital cameras and electronics stuff from them back in the day, but now they sell all sorts of stuff including automotive stuff. Who knew?
The GTX3582R twin-scroll DOC Race setup carries over from last year (https://motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/ID/2997/Sneak-Peek-Mike-Essa-and-GSR-Autosports-E46-Build.aspx) to start the season. It’s making north of 700whp (which seems to be the minimum power level to be competitive), but there are plans in the works to move up to a GTX4088R to add moar powa! Notice there is no longer a radiator in the engine bay. A new CSF Radiator has been mounted in the rear improving the weight distribution.
2012 Champ Daigo Saito’s ride for the year.
It’s still rockin’ the GTX4294R and still making over 900whp on the inline-6 2JZ.
