Papadakis Racing takes a brand new stock front-wheel drive 2019 Toyota Corolla Hatchback and converts it to a 1,000 horsepower rear-wheel drive drift car.
So the car we built is a 2019 corolla hatchback you know dealing with a car that no one’s ever built before we had one of two pre-production cars that were here in the united states yeah i mean we took you know two of us took a brand new car tore it down it basically just the bare sheetmetal in about six hours the absolute dedication here at compensation we
Are a small team but somehow we all blend together and know how to work with each other how to help and be efficient with what we’re doing steff super goal through the years is trying to do and make everything in-house rather than outsourcing stuff just from things in the past so you can have control over every piece that is built for the car the roll cage the
Seat mount that the steering column the pedals handbrake all that type of stuff and steph was able to go and design all the billet suspension components far as fabrication goes there’s nothing easy about making a front-wheel drive car rear wheel drive and especially staying within the rulebook formula drift so to convert this front-wheel drive car to rear wheel
Drive we have to within our rules modify the rear subframe to accept a differential four axles to go through it stefan how to build and design all the rear suspension so the rear wheels can turn under its power we have to cut the middle of the car apart to put a tunnel forward the transmission in the driveshaft we build all the front suspension as well we have to
Run hydraulic steering racks we put a steering rack in the crossmember and make all our mounts for that predator gospel here and i just flew in from the tokyo auto salon to check out the progress on certain you build and i have to say i’m pretty excited going from this crow i am that we ran in 2017 to this the brand-new 2018 corolla currently being built by papa
Doc’s tracy some paper we should have an even more competitive car compared to last year needless to say i’m really excited if that was funding when you can work with your friends and john is one of my friends from the industry that we hadn’t worked together before and and having him come on the project and design the body panels for the car and then work with
Trd directly it’s another another little point of this whole project that makes it’s so fun for everybody i’m an automotive artist that design body kits liveries twinning concepts anything automotive related i can do stefan papa doc has had all the measurements done prior to us meetings and then from all those parameters we then design fender flares the front
And rear quarter panels and the side skirts our number-one focus here at ft areas has been nascar for several years now the formula drift thing is pretty exciting when we first learned that we were going to get it get involved with it because what we’re starters it’s something new it’s something different but also because it’s such an interesting concept and
Unlike any of the other racing series that we’ve ever had any exposure to you know there’s a competitive component to it obviously but there’s also a style component to it that’s just as important and the idea was we would create the the wide body kit that the race team needs to convert the street car into the race car and as of now it’s mid-february and we are
Designing and building this car and it’s gonna see the track for the first time in long beach in april that’s something that’s really exciting and i think we’re going to be really proud of the product that we produce frederik oz book it’s the wind this is kind of stuff that dreams are made of this doesn’t happen you don’t you know you don’t
Build something over the offseason and work out the kinks at the first race and it pays off for the weather i think it’s a win for me but it’s more a win for the team you know those guys have been working away charter leslie you have to shop all winter and here we are dumpling boarding pass bathroom thank you you you
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Corolla Hatchback Drift Car | Toyota Racing By Toyota USA
