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Building race cars is hard, but Papadakis Racing makes it look easy. Fresh off a challenging battle at the 2022 Formula Drift Streets of Long Beach, the man behind the team name is now giving us an inside look at what it takes to put together a competitive drift car with the following 11-minute, 20-second video.
The car in question is Jhonnattan Castro's brand-new Toyota GR86 smoke machine, a vehicle that Papadakis Racing took from street-spec to track-ready in less than eight weeks. The whole process is summed up in Papadakis' characteristically succinct style, and includes footage of the build in progress, and some of the results at the Formula Drift event in Southern California.
The whole thing starts with a factory-fresh 2022 Toyota GR86, which is immediately stripped down to a bare shell. According to Papadakis, the team starts with a full factory road car rather than a bare chassis as the former includes a variety of small components needed for the build, while sourcing a bare chassis is also rather difficult.
Making all the go is the turbocharged 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder B58, the same BMW-sourced 'six stuffed under the hood of the fifth-generation Toyota GR Supra. Papadakis Racing also uses this engine to power two-time champion Fredric Aasbo's black-and-gold Formula Drift car, so it makes sense to stick with the platform with this new GR86 build. That said, swapping the factory naturally aspirated 2.4-liter flat-four in favor of a turbo inline-six does take some massaging, as Papadakis explains in-depth in the video.
The rear end is a quick-change unit from Winters with a spool-type differential, which makes it easy to swap in different gear ratios as needed.
For the full Formula Drift-spec roll cage, Papdakis Racing implemented CAD software for the design, plus tubing that's CNC-bent and laser-cut. Although the components of the cage were ready to install right from the get-go, the unibody construction of the vehicle made welding around the roof a little tricky, so to get around the issue, the Papadakis Racing team actually cut holes in the chassis to lower the half-built cage into the car, welded the tops of the cage, then lifted the cage and welded in support boxes over the holes.
Also of note is the exterior, with this Formula Drift Toyota GR86 aesthetically upgraded thanks to a Rocket Bunny body kit that includes some sizable fender flares riveted to the factory body.
Further details covered in the video include the dual rear brake calipers (two per side), the quick-change window for the nitrous bottle, the rear-mounted cooling system, and the 3D-printed turbo kit. Indeed, if you're into drift car engineering and the nerdy details that go along with it, this video is a great watch.
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