formula drift toyota corolla

Former Formula Drift car basically a steal at $46,100

Jeff Glucker

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To buy a ready-to-go race car is a tall task. A task that relies on you, as the buyer, having large bags of cash at your disposal. Well, for a good race car, at least. On the low end of real-deal racing machines, you’ll find the Mazda MX-5 Cup Car with a starting price of $68,000. A used Radical SR3 will cost about the same. Undercutting both of those cars is a racing machine we told you about back on February 19th; the Papadakis Racing-built 2017 Toyota Corolla iM Formula Drift car.

It just sold for $46,100.

Now, that’s a lot of cash for a used Corolla. But this Corolla finished second overall during the 2017 Formula Drift season. It was well driven by Fredric Aasbø. And it comes wearing its full assortment of racing gear, which includes the onboard fire suppression system, all of the electronics, the seats and harnesses, and, most importantly, the might mill under the hood.

Lift that hood, and you’ll find the 1,000 horsepower 2.7-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine. It makes use of nitrous as well, and it’s backed up by a beefy four-speed manual gearbox. The engine and transmission alone are likely worth the price of admission here, or at least close to it.

Word on the street is that a Pro2 team scooped this one up. Hopefully the driver of that team is prepared for the awesomeness they’re now ready to unleash. And a climb up to Pro might not be far behind.

About

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Hooniverse.com. He’s often seen getting passed as he hustles a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero up the 405 Freeway. IG: @HooniverseJeff

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4 responses to “Former Formula Drift car basically a steal at $46,100”

  1. crank_case Avatar
    crank_case

    Bargain, where else could you buy a car from any top level motorsport series that cheap. Not sure I’d have much fun in one of these all out drift cars, a lot of them seem pretty evil things designed for only going sideways at speeds where most of us don’t really have the skills/bravery to get to the zone where the car “works”, but you could say that about a lot of dedicated high level motorsport machines. Most of us are probably better off with a beat up 240SX/Volvo/BMW starting out.

    Reply
    1. Jeff Glucker Avatar
      Jeff Glucker

      The crazy thing about drift cars is how much grip they actually have… But the power and wide front steering angle allow for the on-track insanity.

      Reply
      1. crank_case Avatar
        crank_case

        Yep, absolutely. There’s a pretty amusing youtube clip of Tiff Needell formerly of the really old school Top Gear when it was a more serious motorweek style magazine show rather than the later “Three men being idiots” incarnation, on Fifth Gear (which is basically old Top Gear recomissioned for Channel 5 instead of the BBC). Tiff is an experienced BTCC driver and has been putting cars sideways in every car review way before it was cool and yet even he struggled to master a pro level drift car.

        These things are designed to initiate drifts at serious speed, rather than tentative low speed first attempts at getting the tail out. I get the feeling that unless you’re already comfortable entering a corner in a 4 wheel drift at 100mph, most of us would probably have a pretty miserable time in one. Still an awesome machine though.

        Reply
        1. outback_ute Avatar
          outback_ute

          Maybe some old racing drivers would find it easier, when tyres were sh!t and the cars moved around a lot as a matter of course.

          Agreed on the grip thing on pro drift cars too, many people think they set them up for low grip to make sliding easier, but the point is to be able to drift faster than the other guy so he doesn’t get points on the follow run.

          Reply