What you’re looking at here is Papadakis Racing’s entry for the upcoming Formula Drift season, which is sponsored by Rockstar Energy Drink and Nexen Tire, and produces about 1,000 nitrous-boosted hp. As you can tell, the competition car is based on a 2017 Toyota Corolla iM and- wait, Corolla and drifting – does that remind you of something?
If you guessed Initial D, you’re right on the money. The most winning team in Formula D history is well aware of this too, and to introduce its new drift machine, it created a live-action, shot-by-shot remake of the opening sequence to the cult-favourite Japanese anime series.
“We know we kept people guessing in the off-season as we built our 2017 car, and we couldn’t be happier to finally have a chance to show it off. Corolla is an iconic nameplate in drifting and we’re proud to bring it back to the championship,” said team owner Stephan Papadakis.
“So many of us who love drifting grew up watching Initial D and it was fantastic to take the car out into the mountains and pay tribute to drifting history,” said driver Fredric Aasbo, who is the 2015 Formula D world champion and the man who will pilot this machine.
For those interested in the technical bits, the Rockstar Energy Drink/Nexen Tire Toyota Corolla iM employs a 2AR 2.7 litre engine that runs on E85 bioethanol. With its BorgWarner EFR turbo, AEM Infinity 8 fuel injection, and some nitrous, the cute-but-deadly drift car serves up 1,000 hp (as mentioned earlier) and 1,152 Nm of torque.
All that power is sent to the rear wheels via a four-speed Gforce GSR four-speed dog box transmission, which required a lot of custom fabrication. This includes a new transmission and driveshaft tunnel for the car, while the rear end and axles are installed into the rear subframe. The car rides on Motegi Technomesh D wheels wrapped with Nexen N’fera SUR4 rubbers (245/50 front and 275/40 rear).
The drifting Corolla is set to make its racing debut at the Formula D opener at the end of the month in Long Beach, California. For those who would like to compared #RockstarD video to the Initial D original, you can do so frame-by-frame with the video posted below.
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One wonders why did they not just start out with a GT86 instead.
Somehow I still prefer the movie by Jay Chou(2005) where the AE86 looks more real/interesting compare to the animated video.
However, this new Corolla iM with 1,000 hp is an entirely different beast. The video is too short for me to comment but base on the looks & sound from the video, I think Rockstar Energy Drink & Nexen Tire have made a clever collaboration & investment with Toyota to promote their products & enhance the Corolla iM. I say good job to team owner Stephan Papadakis.
U have bad taste in movies.
Agree. Maybe bcos of mixing too much with U. Cheers…
Fix urself 1st b4 blame others. Cheers
People like what movie is their choice, not for you to decide and give comment la.
Fix your own Proton hutang of RM1.5bil plus upcoming RM1.8bil 1st la.
jay chou is a terrible actor though
When will this go on sale? Haven’t seen a RWD Corolla since the 80s.
The actual car only has FWD. Not even have 4WD version to mod into RWD. Another one of those custom built chassis with std body shell.
1000 hp corolla..wth..
Can anyone say my Proton can smoke this?
Please don’t smoke too much. It’s not good 4 your health anyway.
Why u reply own dupe?
Are U having problem identifying yourself ??
Not when u hijack my name…
Yup, your proton sure can smoke a Toyota or even a Honda. That is after debts of RM1.5bil soft loan and additional requested loan of RM1.8bil has been fully repaid.
Otherwise other people can smoke you kau2 with their deep2 pockets.
Rear wheel drive converted car
Put lah turbo in your mainstream cars. Otherwise no one is going to buy your underpowered Camry and Altis.
This Corolla Hatchback is looks better than the Civic Hatchback
Surely it will be smoke the Bugatti Veyron on the track with the 1000hp and better power to weight ratio
Hope UMW will bring the Corolla Hatchback into our market to compete with the VW Golf
agreed!! More models are better.
This very important for Toyota because in the C-segment for sedan category the Honda Civic was very dominent. Toyota has to grab this opportunity because Honda Malaysia was refuse to bring the Civic Hatchback into Malaysian market
problem is there’s no real life corolla thats close to it