With the build set to be so bespoke an
done-off, virtually every option was considered. Phil’s affection for German
metal is no secret but his heart and head seemed to keep coming back to the
same vehicle, a vehicle that James was wholeheartedly on board with.“We needed
something with a live rear axle, ”Phil iterated. “Something lightweight and
agile but with enough room to accommodate the mechanicals from the ASCAR. The
GT86 was a strong contender, but it wouldn’t have been particularly original.
Everyone is building the mat the moment and it would have ended up being
significantly more expensive to make it special enough to stand out. As a
business, our market isn’t just here in the UK. A large percentage of the parts
we sell are shipped out all around the world. So it was important to choose something
that would appeala cross the board. The AE86 just fitted the billon so many
levels.”
1587cc inline four-cylinder petrol engine
More importantly, it ticked all the
required boxes mechanically and logistically to receive the ASCAR components
and become a competitive car for 2014. The fact that Phil loves the ageing
Toyotas also helped sway the decision. “I’ve owned two of them. They’re great
road cars in stock form as well as being excellent on track. There’s something
special about them so from the beginning we wanted to be respectful and
sympathetic to the model. People may not have believed that at the start but
hopefully those people can see now how much care we’ve taken to visually retain
the essence and lines of the AE86.”
Wheels were always going to play a very important part
in this build, but in sticking to the aforementioned Kanagawa script, only RS
Watanabes were ever going to do.
From the off, can we just explain that this
project wasn’t simply a case of removing the shell of the silhouette ASCAR,
reworking the chassis for drift competition and then dropping over an
AE86-esque body. Not only would such a vehicle not abide by BDC regulations but
Driftworks wanted to build adrift car, not adapt an oval racer for their
desired use. Oh no. Phil and James would be using all of their technical acumen
to build something truly special.
At this point it’s important to introduce
you to Craig Taylor. Craig is the owner of Dyno Torque, the tuning specialist
next door to Driftworks. His expertise and skills with custom fabrication are
partly the reason Phi land James chose their unit in the first place; that and
the fact that Craig has long been a mate of theirs. He’s also the only man the
guys would entrust to build such an important project for them. While neither
Phil or James are afraid to get their hands dirty and clearly know more than
enough to build a competitive drift car, they also appreciate that an
individual like Craig, with his 20 years of experience building ground-breaking
custom bikes and cars, would be able to execute their plans more effectively
than they could. Craig and his team would also have far more time to spend on
the car, meaning it was more likely to be finished for the first round of the
2014 championship. In recent years Craigh as also found himself to be one of
the go-to men in the UK for LS V8 conversions. Maybe it’s because he owns an
1100bhpturbocharged LS3 V8 RX-7 (soon to be featured) or because he’s
shoehorned LS V8s into everything from RX-8s to BMW Z3s and TVRs… Either way,
with the ASCAR donor also being powered by an LS setup, he was going to be
right at home with this one.
The
back of AE86 Toyota Corolla Trueno
