In exactly seven days from now, we'll be down at the streets of Long Beach for the first round of 2011 Formula Drift season. As the offseason comes to a close, Formula D drivers are hard at work finishing up their cars for the opener. One of those drivers is Matt Powers.
Our friends over at MotoIQ.com have been covering Matt's 2011 build in detail and we thought you guys might be interested to see how his car is progressing.
There's Matt hard at work at GTI in San Clemente. Finishing up a build can is often far more demanding than the racing itself.
A look at the LS7 all mounted up in the bay.
Although its being kept mostly stock, the LS7 has has a few upgrades thrown at it. Things like this ATI Super Damper.
Hinson stainless steel headers – designed specifically for S-chassis applications.
The FAST intake manifold will help the the already healthy LS7 breathe a little better.
A view of the fuel cell in the rear…
…along with the rear suspension along with the Winters quick change differential. Serious stuff.
The fellows over at Twins Turbo fabbed up this 4" exhaust underneath the car.
The carbon fiber dash mounted in the car with a Stack cluster and data logging unit.
Check out the switch panel. Deal with "it".
Earlier this week the car hit the dyno at Westech for tuning and a power check.
The results? 563 horsepower and 561 foot pounds of torque. That's tons of usable power and torque across the RPM range.
One week to go. See you at Long Beach Matt!
For a more detailed run down of the build, make sure you head over to MotoIQ.com. There's nobody better at the tech side of things than these guys!
-Mike Garrett
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
not stoked on the whole v8 thing, but thats always up for debate. but im what im REALLY not stoked about you raising your car, cmonnnnnn mayne... you had better be smashin at formula D this year. mucho wuv.
Deal with it...
u wanna give us i hint on the vinyl/colour scheme matt will b usin this year
dean
You would be stoked about him raising his car.... mayne!!!
Fail on that LS.
Another Nissan getting that lame swap.
Jesus fucking Christ Mike !!! Copy articles and paste it on here???
Folks, for a more-i-depth coverage check out:
http://www.motoiq.com/magazine_articles/articletype/articleview/articleid/1897/update-matt-powers-formula-d-ls7-powered-s14.aspx
Can nobody stay true to the roots of this scene?.......
f$#kn V8 swapd into every god damn thing..............
its disgusting in everyway possible.........
Whats worse than seeing an S chassis or FC/FD with an 8cyl?....
lol at all these americans complaining about the ls engine and grassroots drifting, your country hates imports. there are many reasons to change to a lsx, all of them good. this engine will last longer than sr, rb or ka they could have put in
LOL, so no Sex, Drugs, and Rock n Roll this time?
Good Job Matt. Go Kill em this year!
viva las powers!
its ticking all the 'right' boxes..
NA is Best! Cant wait to hear that thing on WOT!!!
I agree I love the LS engines but I love to be different and I love Matt's car. I hope this helps him tear up FD this year!
The beetle in the back looks more interesting.
(Clapping) Bravo! This car is win
matt, screw the guys who are complaining about the swap. i reckon go for a twin-turbo and a supercharger setup.
I demand more info on the bad ass silver bug on the background...
...seeing a good driver out of the pro scene because he wanted to keep it "roots".
I'm not a fan of V8 on Japanese chassis but if I was him I'd do the same thing rather than :
- staying KAT (or SR20) and staying behind the lead then getting throw out of the competition
- switching to a TC (ewww) or an american car (even more ewww)
Honestly WHO would voluntarily make decision that would make you the loser in a competition.
Seriously, Matt has a great potential and that potential was restrained because of his motor.
The horrible grammar used in these comments makes me want to cry.
v8 > i4/6 EVERY TIME
you guys are just hatin on GM (sponsor)
Idiotas
Right? Formula D should just make it mandatory to run a Chevy V8. Everyone's doing it anyway. On the other side of thing's it will be awesome and bring some good competition to these other guys using V8's, just leveling the playing field.
SHIT JUST GOT REAL
Great choice! I saw the video and the car sounds freakin brutal!! Love it!! In my opinion, saying this is a lame swap is acting like a 14 years old fast and furious fan. I believe you made the right choice. Fast, violent, reliable, cheap parts, easy to gain power,and awesome sounding engine. It is not about being trendy. It's about winning a championship. And since when is an engine swap supposed to be in a trend or not? It's just about winning, making things simple and having raw power for once.
A V8, a LS motor in particular, is often used in pro drifting because of the engine's light weight, thorough development as a racing platform, wide and tractable powerband and compact dimensions.
An LS is lighter than a KA24DE, only slightly heavier than a SR20DE and much lighter than 2JZ's, RB's and other six cylinder engines. It is much smaller and lighter than your typical Japanese DOHC V8 and V6 engine as well due to the compact nature of the OHV valvetrain.
quit bashing on his car for doing a swap.
its formula d, its really competetive so you gotta do these things to be able to keep up with the competion.
if one of you guys were in his shoes and stayed loyal to something llike a SR20 or 13B youd get destroyed so shut up.
I would have rather see the Ferrari 458 into the S Chassis
I don't get why everybody seems to hate on the V8 swaps. They're popular because most of the time the V8's are lighter and make more power and torque then the engines they replace. Sure, he could have gone SR20 or RB, but the SR can't match the LS7's power and torque stock vs stock, and the RB would have made the S14 too nose heavy.
Besides, why do you guys care? It's Matts car, and while he did a great job last year using an underpowered car, the LS7 is just a beast, which ties into his whole style.
Hopefully this gives Powers the chance to actually get some podiums this year.
Congrat Matt!
We have a similar project here in Hungary.
We've put an ls7 into a Mustang...:)
http://www.facebook.com/swcdrift#!/photo.php?fbid=201648826522433&set=a.185820024771980.38895.115332748487375&theater
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=115332748487375&aid=45089#!/photo.php?fbid=201002156587100&set=a.201002133253769.45089.115332748487375&theater
heters gonna hate....
does anyone have the balls to stay i-4 anymore????? Im probably a hypocrite because I love V8 swaps but still everyone, especially those with silvias are converting and its annoying, be unique throw a porsche boxer in there something drifters, ugh
Amazing to see how much this car has devoloped since the grassroots feature years ago
@ Mike hahn;
yeah, right. keep dreaming. No one in his/her right mind would do such thing. Think about it a little...
Henry (2)
Wow, you woke up on the wrong side?
Do you actually realize that a lot of people that go on that site are not english native?
Indeed it is hilarious to think that you can achieve comparable power of a V8 with a Turbo four or six, and still be just as reliable. Many times, great drivers have engine problems that pull them out of the running. Ross Petty is doing the LS swap for that reason: competitive, reliable, AND inexpensive.
Quit bitching about his LS swap. Its faster, more reliable, and probably even lowered the CG of his car. Not to mention it sounds better and will make him way more competitive. I guarantee 90 percent of you bitching about the LS swap have never driven an LS swapped car, And I'm willing to bet at least 85 percent of you are driving stock busted ass cars that probably aren't even rear wheel drive.
Sadface. I can admire the work put into the car, but it's lost it's character IMO.
You just don't need any V8 to win in drifting... The guys from D1, use, SR's RB's "2jZ'", and would rape any FD driver out there... Tha's because they can drive and they know how to fine tune a car...
Tell guys like Youchi Imamura, Kawabata, Orido, Taniguchi, Saite, Kuroi(RIP), Suenaga, if they need any V8...
And the V8 is lighter than some of the Jap engines as long as it is aluminum block, and those you can't that much more reliable power out of it... Like the LS7 for example
cant wait till u shut all this dumb cunts up arguing about the v8 still all i know is ur gonna do amazing this season no doubt no regrets
V8>KA simple as that...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV6gsmwN-oQ&feature=feedu
Motorfix KE70 specialist, going V8
Daigo Saito have a 180SX with an LS.
I don't know the regulations of D1GP but I bet they only allow japanese engines which is why Daigo Saito never used the Mustang he was supposed to use and why you don't see US V8 in the crowd.
Hell yea V8 muscle FTW!!!!
I don't understand why some of you are hatin' on that!
See ya at Long Beach Matt!!
Jeff,
Americans dont like imports???..lol, im guessing you have never been to the states, there are more Honda's,Toyota's,Nissan's,Subaru's,Kia's,dubs,audi's,bimmers, on the roads then anything else,everywhere, dumbass. and half of the import owners use it as a reliable daily and have a f'n beast of a muscle car stashed in the garage, sorry, imho that's where a v8 belongs,
Keiichi Tsuchiya and the roots of drifting are where a lot of drift enthusiasts hearts are here in the u.s.
at least bamf like forsberg got the Nissan Motorsports off road C.O.R.R. truck engine,go Chris!!
i'll enjoy seeing the rotary's and SR's and RB'S out drive this douche bag.
and JR. stomping him after!
Everyone is hating on the LS engine because it's not made in japan? There is not one motor coming out of japan that can match the horse power or weight of an stock LS7. It would cost more money to run an SR RB JZ 13B 20B FC a full season and still not have the same power or tq as an stock LS7. So why wasit money to make some JDM geek happy? And not get the performance require to win?
Weed and sinic get the point......
F a v8 swap....and all u fan boys.....
I hold my heart to the scene!!!!.....
NOT A F#$KIN S+@TTY DRIFT SERIES!!!!
I gotta go with the v8 here. Matt even said himself I believe that going with the v8 just makes more sense than to have to change a head gasket between each round. Its just more reliable power. And the japanese love v8s. Watch JRs youtube videos from his trip to japan when he let one of the drifters drive his mustang and how they exclaimed about the torque. I like japanese motors as much as the next guy but v8s in drifting make more sense. Its not necessarily the horsepower that breaks the tires loose but the torque.
can't wait to see/hear it in action!
.
one this is missing, however, and that's dishhhhh
hopefully he will break the top 10 because he is v8 now..no excuses or jus fall to the back of the pack like all the other sorry no talent v8s...