Professional drifters are already cutting up brand new Toyota GR86s to build race cars, but we’re willing to bet that not many of them will be as well-built as this one from Papadakis Racing.
Stefan from the race car builder’s YouTube channel takes us through the build and preparation of turning a stock Toyota GR86 into a tail-happy drift car with bugs on the side windows.
In under 8 weeks, the team took a brand new GR86 and stipped it down to the bare essentials to prepare it for drifting. Rather than buying a body in white and building it up from scratch, they prefer to buy a whole car and remove what isn’t needed. It’s also not an option to buy a bare shell from Toyota.
Plenty of modifications had to be made under the hood in order to complete a never-before-done engine swap. The original Subaru-sourced flat-four was removed in favor of the B58 3.0-liter straight-six from the GR Supra, which was a tight fit due to two extra cylinders hanging off the front.
A custom CAD turbo manifold was created for the engine, which was 3D printed in a high nickel alloy metal called Inconel and then TIG welded together.
Read More: Japanese Tuner Drops GR Yaris Engine Into A Classic Toyota AE86
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The radiator was moved to the rear for some extra space, which Stefan says has a number of benefits, including better cooling, better weight distribution, and less chance of damage if there were to be a crash. It wasn’t going to do much in the front anyway, because the car will be sideways for 90 percent of the time it’s being driven.
Brakes are important on a race car too, and the GR86 has an extra caliper on the rear that is activated by the drift handle. You know, for drifting. One of the most trick modifications on the race car is the enlargement of the rear passenger quarter window opening to facilitate the installation of the nitrous bottle.
The rear differential was changed for a Winter’s quick-change unit, with gears that can be easily swapped out for different ratios. Finally, the car receives a Rocket Bunny body kit which gives the GR86 a more aggressive and exciting look.
Papadakis Racing does exceptional work, and it’s almost a shame to see the car head out onto the circuit to get beat on by both drivers, and if they aren’t paying attention, any obstacles.
