The History of Drifting and The Future of Formula Drift

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“The V8s Are Coming!”

After witnessing the rise of the “NASCAR” tC with Tanner Foust at the wheel and his temporary retirement from Formula Drift, the hardcore, snobby, “I was into drifting before it became popular” crowd breathed a small sigh of relief.  The world was right again and V8 domination would end because Fredric Aasbo, Ross Petty, Matt Powers, and Matt Field were still holding on to their JDM type small displacement turbo charged four and six cylinder engines.

Matt Powers’ switch from a turbo KA24DE to a Chevy LS7 created a whirl of controversy on the web and a lot of seeming backlash from the traditionalist segment of his fan base.  However, Matt is doing better than ever with his new engine and is currently  third in points, a far cry from his 16th place last year.

That was, until the first shoe dropped in the 2010 off season with the announcement that Matt Powers, the KA-King, would be running an LS platform.  Suddenly, what started out as a chill running up the tight pants of drifting hipsters, soon became a full bore winter storm as Ross Petty, Matt Field, Aurimas “Odi” Bakchis, and even Ian Fournier in his four-door Nissan R32 Skyline made the jump to V8 power of some sort!  The hardcore then began to develop frostbite as they soon realized that forty-two percent of all drivers in the 2011 Formula Drift season were now running on V8 power of some sort.

Ross Petty switched to a stroked LS3 for this season abandoning his 2.4 liter SR20DET.

So, what caused this? Well, despite the tire rule, in which tires are sized for the weight class of cars, which should have discouraged the V8 and high horsepower, low weight cars, the V8s still made their presence known. Did the drivers think they could handle the power even though they had a smaller tire in some cases? Well, no. For most drivers that made the switch to a V8, it was to a domestic designed engine, so cost was the factor in this reality check. When comparing the cost in building a comparable RB26DET or even 2JZ-GTE engine, nearly half to three quarters of the cost was knocked out by solely using a domestic V8 that created the same power.

When Matt Powers disclosed he was going with a V8 in 2011, there was an up roar! So far, the only roar he’s been concerned with has been coming from his LS7 V8!

Add in that if a part breaks on a LS1 V8, for example, a driver or team could run down to their local Auto Zone, NAPA, or even GM dealer to source an engine part. RB26 parts, on the other hand, are kind of hard to source considering we never got that engine in the United States. There are some parts that will swap over from a VG, KA, QR, or even VQ, but more than likely you will be stuck with going to the dealer or special ordering things from Japan to source parts instead of heading to your local parts store.  I know that for a fact just because I’m from that world as a parts guy and working at a local garage and having to source parts myself.

LS# Simplicity or Turbo Rotary Complexity?	What do you have the budget for?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s gotten better, but domestic parts are still cheaper. Would you pay $200 for a NAPA Lifetime warranty starter for a Chevy or $4-500 for a NAPA Lifetime warranty starter for a Mazda? If you start doing the math and looking up the parts yourself, that ol’ push rod engine ain’t lookin’ too bad, now ain’t it? The V8 engine also has the perfect powerband for a drift car as a well tuned big displacement domestic engine makes enough power to easily spin the tires as low as 2500 rpm and well built examples can rev to 8000 rpm.

That’s a big fat, easy to drive powerband.  Clutch kicking to stay in drift usually isn’t needed here. Well built examples of domestic engines also have snappy, fast throttle response that leads to better throttle control of the car with that than deal with turbo lag.

V8’s are good for other reasons too; a smaller engine with a turbo system adds weight and complexity to the equation.  For example an LS is only 40 lbs more than an SR20DET, 60 lbs more than a 13B REW and much lighter than a KA24, 20B, RB26 or 2JZ once you consider all of the turbo stuff.  A turbo system means more parts to maintain and fail in competition.  In the rough and tumble world of drifting this means more parts that can be damaged like front mount intercoolers and charge pipes that can add precious repair time in a sport where the car has to be fixed in five minutes or be disqualified.

Dai Yoshihara’s S13 seems to be a V8 powered S chassis that even diehard fans still like.  Dai car is perhaps the first swapped S chassis to gain acceptance from almost all drift fans.

Pulling parts off a push rod engine isn’t too bad either, if a push rod is bent, valve spring is weak, or rocker arm is broken, the camshaft isn’t in the way, so no need to totally worry about having to time the cam of the engine again, unless the part broke because you screwed up said timing. Again, it’s mostly up to budgeting, but if you are limited to what you can spend for an entire year or even the build of the car, it’s easy to choose a domestic V8 engine.

Matt Fields switched to V8 power as well.