Drifting is to the motorsports world what ski ballet is to the alpine racing, with competitors judged on style and dynamic grace rather than purely objective measurements. As such, a drift car's appearance is integral to its success in competition. Koguchi has one of the less aggressively bedecked D1 cars on the circuit, although it still wears a full fiberglass body kit from Missile, Flared composite fenders from Wise Sports and a Koguchi Power vented hood. The interior of the car is mostly stock, with the addition of Bride racing seats, a Willans harness, and Nardi steering wheel. Greddy EGT, boost and water temp gauges help Koguchi monitor the engine health and coolant temps, kept low by a Racing Gear upgraded radiator.
Testament to his virtuosity of car control and long relationship with this S13, Koguchi was the only pro not to wreck at the Drift Showoff.
Toyota JZX100 ChaserMr. Yamamoto, on the other hand, has to wrestle a different kind of beast through the same tight corners: A very long, very heavy and very powerful Toyota JZX100 Chaser.
Imagine a car the size of an Avalon, except attractive, with rear-wheel drive and the 2.5-liter turbo 1JZ-GTE, stock. The Chaser is a longtime favorite among drifters, and so a profusion of parts exist to push the tank sideways and ensure it looks great doing it. Yamamoto performed the biggest no-brainer in engine swap-dom and tossed the 1JZ for the twin-turbo, Supra-sourced 3.0L 2JZ-GTE, which happens to bolt right in.
The 2JZ's stock bottom end can support staggering horsepower numbers, and was left stock. Yamamoto ported and polished the head himself and sandwiched a 1.6mm HKS headgasket, the only internal modifications performed.
Ditching the weight, complexity and horsepower limitations of the stock twin setup, a custom single-turbo setup using a one-off stainless manifold and a Garrett GT3040 turbo was installed. Trust provides a large wastegate with a divorced pipe; otherwise, exhaust flows through a one-off titanium exhaust fabricated by Garage S.
A massive, gorgeous Trust front-mount intercooler dominates visually and chills large parcels of the atmosphere. Like so many tuned cars from Japan, the Chaser uses an APEX'i Power FC to control combustion. Yamamoto upgraded to 550cc injectors from SARD; interestingly, U.S.-market Supras come with 550s stock. Yamamoto claims the Chaser's maximum power output is 560 hp, entirely believable and within spec for the turbo.
Much attention was paid to the cooling system, which sports a massive Rosou radiator to keep expensive things from happening, at least to the engine.
Keeping this big, heavy chassis from flexing is accomplished with a lot of investment of both time and money. A bolt-in Cusco roll cage does the basic job of stiffening, but according to Yamamoto, "1000" spot welds were introduced to the chassis, as were "2000" rivets. Wow. Given the tremendous loads placed on suspension mounting points, these were reinforced. Yamamoto uses Racing Gear coil-overs with custom Garage S Drift Edition specs and appropriately named LARGUS coilovers front and rear to delete the term "body roll" from the suspension's vocabulary. As the Chaser is sold to the public as a luxury sedan, soft stock bushings were replaced with units from TRD.
Stock brakes are nowhere near able to provide stopping power, given the available horsepower, so Yamamoto turned again to the Supra for its large four-piston front brake setup. Suitably massive 18x10.5-inch Gram Lights wear 265-mm wide Falken Azenis ST-115 rubber in the rear, with a 18x9.5 wheel and 255mm wide rubber in the front. Turning perfectly good rubber into puffy white clouds is accomplished with the help of an Exedy flywheel, triple plate clutch, and an Active Traction Service Deftforce limited-slip differential.