Among all the drivers in the professional drifting scene, few are more recognizable than Matt Powers. With his bright green and white Rocket Bunny S14, the always present (but never predictable) brightly colored sunglasses and backed by the insatiable antics of the “Matt-ley Crue,” Mr. Powers is certainly a bit of the proverbial rock star in the world of FD. But the thing about Matt that you might never guess if you don’t take the time to get to know him is that his real personality isn’t like that at all. Soft spoken and polite, Matt Powers is, for lack of a better description, a straight up cool ass dude.
Born and raised in San Diego, Matt spent most of his youth surfing and causing mischief around town with his buddies. Rarely found in the classroom, Matt would rather spend time perfecting his technique in the water than learn about the War of 1812 or how to find the square root of 3.
Matt (right) and his trusted spotter Tommy Roberts.
“When I turned 16, my dad gave me his car, which was a ’84 BMW 533i,” Matt recalls. “It was by far the fastest car of all my friends, and the most beat up too. After school on the way home, we would all mess around in our cars, and eventually I found out about drifting and started drifting on the streets in San Diego.” Shortly after being bit by the drifting bug, Matt decided to start taking it a bit more seriously. He built the car that he still drives, the token Zenki S14 (once turbo-KA-powered, now propelled by a Corvette motor) he is so known for by now.
“I started going to events and soon after, stopped street drifting entirely and only drove on the track because it’s a lot more fun (not to mention safer — and legal),” Matt says with a laugh. “I never really aspired or tried to be a pro drifter until I got my Formula D license in 2008 at the Red Bull event in Long Beach, then I figured I would just street drive my car to Round 1 in Long Beach and quit pro drifting. I ended up having so much fun at the first event that I continued to do Formula D just for fun while being in college at an extremely uncompetitive level and ended up somehow getting fourth place at Irwindale that year.”
Matt is great with his fans; here he signs a Nissan KA24 valve cover, a bit of homage to h
And the rest is history, or so they say. After his first season of Formula DRIFT in 2009, Matt has continued to get better and better. This year, Powers is sponsored by some big-name companies, and his trusty Nissan has a new heart transplant: a GM V-8. Although this is a highly contested debate, I only want to touch on the subject briefly.