A Preview of Matt Powers Formula D 2011 Rebuild

[2_Liter_Turbo]

Another great MotoIQ article: A Preview of Matt Powers Formula D 2011 Rebuild

It's a good read for anyone who is more into the performance and competition aspects of drifting.

A Preview of Matt Powers Formula D 2011 Rebuild

Cliff Notes:
- The KA24DE(T) is junked for an LS7
- The "Hella Flush/Slammed" look is junked for proper suspension geometry to be competitive on the professional level
- KW Clubsport Coilovers
- Hired on 3 support crew

[altalti]

Simply beautiful. It is quite a change but from a business standpoint a necesary one.

[PoorMans180SX]

It's always sad to see the death of a great car.

Formula D sucks.

Best of luck to Matt.

[Waffles]

Matt Powers is pretty much my inspiration to follow through with drifting, since he can go pro without a pro set up, and still do it in style.

[2_Liter_Turbo]

Originally Posted by PoorMans180SX

It's always sad to see the death of a great car.

Formula D sucks.

Best of luck to Matt.

What they hell are you talking about?!?! The car is going to be a million times better, lol. Proper suspension geometry, and a powerful and reliable motor over a ticking time bomb.

[simmode1]

Originally Posted by PoorMans180SX

It's always sad to see the death of a great car.

I agree. R.I.P. to Matt's old KA-T and wheel fitment.

But hey, you gotta up your game if you wanna compete. I love that Mike Kojima wrote this article. If Kojima's working on this car, whether we like the new direction or not, it's gonna be SUPER LEGIT.

Maybe rather than looking at it the death of his car, we should consider it the rebirth or evolution of it instead.

I like this part:

Originally Posted by Kojima-san

Now it’s time for the standard disclaimer, to avoid butt hurting people, there is nothing wrong with the look of hella flush or having your car tucking if you are into the aesthetic, nor is there anything wrong with drifting a turbo 4 cylinder or anything else for that matter for fun. There is nothing wrong with soul drifting or the roots of drifting; just don’t confuse this for top echelon professional competition. It does not work better, period.

[dRift_g0ddess]

"For 2011 Matt is abandoning fashion trends and upping his game to become more competitive"

:/ Lol..

[AGNT84]

Originally Posted by SnapS13

What they hell are you talking about?!?! The car is going to be a million times better, lol. Proper suspension geometry, and a powerful and reliable motor over a ticking time bomb.

+1 this should be a better car to handle and give him the edge to put up more competition. but im not a big fan of the ls7. sure its going to produce mass amounts of power but an rb,sr or ka-t is enough to drift.

But hey, you gotta up your game if you wanna compete. I love that Mike Kojima wrote this article. If Kojima's working on this car, whether we like the new direction or not, it's gonna be SUPER LEGIT.

Maybe rather than looking at it the death of his car, we should consider it the rebirth or evolution of it instead.

yeah im pretty sure they know what theyre doin

Anyway good luck to matt on the next season. cant wait to see how the car is goin to look and sound

[PoorMans180SX]

Edit: Never mind.

[Fries]

Congrats for doing whats needed to win. Haters gunna hate, but sadly it must be done to be competitive.

I will miss the beacon of hope for all us grassroots dudes. I don't personally give a shit about going pro, I'd rather be aesthetic and have fun.

[Z33dori]

atleast he was smart and got a LS7 w/ dry sump

but still

damn you Formula Nascar

[simmode1]

Originally Posted by Fries

I don't personally give a shit about going pro, I'd rather be aesthetic and have fun.

Word. A VQ35 powered S13 is more than enough to keep me happy.

But the one thing I did start salivating over this build that could be done on a street car like mine were the Driftworks Geomaster Knuckles:

I WANT!!!! I really don't care much about maximum steering angle for drifting, but I can only imagine that these are much lighter than stock S-Chassis uprights and maybe even the Z32 uprights while requiring less work to install. Aside from that, they lower the car by about an inch and a half while maintaining correct suspension geometry?! Now we don't have to completely rely on coilovers to get low...

How can we get these in the U.S.? Who's a distributor over here?

[PoorMans180SX]

Originally Posted by simmode1

Word. A VQ35 powered S13 is more than enough to keep me happy.

But the one thing I did start salivating over this build that could be done on a street car like mine were the Driftworks Geomaster Knuckles:

I WANT!!!! I really don't care much about maximum steering angle for drifting, but I can only imagine that these are much lighter than stock S-Chassis uprights and maybe even the Z32 uprights while requiring less work to install. Aside from that, they lower the car by about an inch and a half while maintaining correct suspension geometry?! Now we don't have to completely rely on coilovers to get low...

How can we get these in the U.S.? Who's a distributor over here?

Start reading:

http://zilvia.net/f/tech-talk/296725...on-thread.html

Driftworks can get them over here just fine. Call them up.

[simmode1]

I poked my head in that thread when it first started, but alot of that shit was Greek to me! I'll try again...

[DertyDan]

Originally Posted by SnapS13

What they hell are you talking about?!?! The car is going to be a million times better, lol. Proper suspension geometry, and a powerful and reliable motor over a ticking time bomb.

go be a nascar fan

[tricky_ab]

Originally Posted by PoorMans180SX

It's always sad to see the death of a great car.

Formula D sucks.

Best of luck to Matt.

Yeah, I agree...Though he's doing it to be competitive...Oh well...Best of luck this year!

[Touge Noob S13]

Am I the only one that thinks that Mike Kojima is taking the criticism much harder than Matt is?

[2_Liter_Turbo]

Originally Posted by DertyDan

go be a nascar fan

Lol, no thanks. I'll stick to my road racing, rally, and the occasional drifting...

[Karlitos]

Originally Posted by PoorMans180SX

It's always sad to see the death of a great car.

Formula D sucks.

Best of luck to Matt.

I was confused seeing that you started the roll center thread, i thought you wouldve liked this, but you edited.

Originally Posted by AGNT84

+1 this should be a better car to handle and give him the edge to put up more competition. but im not a big fan of the ls7. sure its going to produce mass amounts of power but an rb,sr or ka-t is enough to drift.

As stated in the read, yeah sr's rb's etc make enough for the enthusiast who goes drifting but for competition no way is it enough in terms of powerband and reliability.

But as Dori said, at least its LS7. Things a best and a lot better than LS1 and LS2. Pretty much only the charged LS9 and LSA are better.

I dont get why people get butthurt over the fact the the sport is improving for everyone. Including grassroots drivers. The hellaflush shouldnt be associated with the drifting scene since its not functional. People need to realize that if they had a better set up they can be better aswell. Like time attack cars, they dont do stance because it'd hurt their times, in drifting it hurts the predictability of the car. People need to try out road racing or autocrossing just to see that functionality does matter.

Anyways its great to see a good driver that will be able to be competitive now. Good Luck to matt this season.

[2_Liter_Turbo]

Originally Posted by Karlitos

As stated in the read, yeah sr's rb's etc make enough for the enthusiast who goes drifting but for competition no way is it enough in terms of powerband and reliability.

But as Dori said, at least its LS7. Things a best and a lot better than LS1 and LS2. Pretty much only the charged LS9 and LSA are better.

I dont get why people get butthurt over the fact the the sport is improving for everyone. Including grassroots drivers. The hellaflush shouldnt be associated with the drifting scene since its not functional. People need to realize that if they had a better set up they can be better aswell. Like time attack cars, they dont do stance because it'd hurt their times, in drifting it hurts the predictability of the car. People need to try out road racing or autocrossing just to see that functionality does matter.

Anyways its great to see a good driver that will be able to be competitive now. Good Luck to matt this season.

+1 with this!

[Matej]

Does anyone still care about this fellow ever since his car stopped looking like it used to? He may as well be any other drifter driver guy now.

[illvialuver]

Good job MATT. You know what I think about your car and your drifitng.

"It is better to burn out than fade away."

[Xplat]

What's upsetting is that he had so many shallow fans who only cared about the way his car looked.

[Z33dori]

Originally Posted by Matej

Does anyone still care about this fellow ever since his car stopped looking like it used to? He may as well be any other drifter driver guy now.

yes his car was at its peak when it was Green and slammed on 17 VSXX.....its only gone down from there...but thats what it takes to be Pro



ill stick to my Grass roots... keep it fun, keep it dope

Originally Posted by Xplat

What's upsetting is that he had so many shallow fans who only cared about the way his car looked.

yea all the ppl that hate him just b/c he doesnt have PBM coils anymore is astounding. Matt is real cool dude, i wish him the best. Im more looking forward to his future ASB car etc that he said he wants to build.

[Shadowhunter]

This looks like a great build, I'm not sure what people are getting so upset about? This is the essence of being a hotrodder,enthusiast,Car guy. stuffing a bigger motor in a small car that it's not supposed to fit in and making it ridiculous.

V8 this V8 that blah blah blah it's still an S14 with a different power plant, I used to be all about 4 bangers and death to V8's too.... when I was like 15. If it's sick and done right then who gives a fuck how many cylinders are under the hood? Yank The Ebrake, Torch the tires, blow some notes out of the exhaust and do it all with a shit eating grin on your face Matt!

[K_style]

Everyone is going for V8... Ross Petty just put LS1 in his Rasta S15 too..

[simmode1]

Originally Posted by Shadowhunter

If it's sick and done right then who gives a fuck how many cylinders are under the hood?

I get where you're coming from. But as a person who prefers GRIP racing to drifting, I wanna see one of these V8 swapped 240's on a roadcourse. I'm sure Matt and Daijiro's cars would do well with Mike Kojima supporting them, but I'm not so sure about most of the others...

[AnotherZenkiKid]

Originally Posted by Z33dori

ill stick to my Grass roots... keep it fun, keep it dope

hell yeah jc,
i liked matt's old set up =/

[Pure_JDM]

Is it not possible to like BOTH of his setups???!! Killin it, Matt.... Killin it!

[GSXRJJordan]

Matt's been one of my sponsored drivers for over a year now and I'm super proud of his dedication to improvement and desire to win! It's literally all he ever thinks about, LOVE IT.

Very proud to be a part of his team as well, taking care of all of his wiring/electronics needs with top quality stuff!

Originally Posted by Karlitos

...Pretty much only the charged LS9 and LSA are better.

I enjoyed the spirit of your post, but the supercharged/intercooled LS9 and LSA are almost 200lbs heavier than the LS7's that Matt and Conrad Grunewald are using. Conrad is actually selling last year's motor setup (LSA on 13psi, Fluidyne heat exchangers/Meziere billet water pump) and going N/A built hi-comp LS7.

Originally Posted by K_style

Everyone is going for V8... Ross Petty just put LS1 in his Rasta S15 too..

Ross and Frank would never touch a LS1!!!!

... they're using a LS3